By Myles Palmer
______________________________
Borussia Dortmund 2 Arsenal 1
______________________________
Henry 18, Gilberto o.g. 38, Rosicky pen 62
____________________________________________________________
So predictable. So utterly predictable.
All day I thought Dortmund would win 2-1 and then Mitch phoned at 7.15 and said Pires was in for Kanu.
That cheered us both up. A somewhat radical selection, but the right call.
Maybe a miracle would happen.
Fat chance!
Dortmund had 61% possession and hit the post twice in 14 minutes before Arsenal got out of first gear.
Then they gave the Gunners a goal start and beat them comfortably.
Seaman had no chance with the own-goal, when Gilberto glanced Rosicky’s free-kick in off the post.
But Seaman bottled the 50-50 with the giant Koller, who was looking to bottle it himself.
Seaman’s starting position was poor.And his reaction was slow. He could have reached that ball to punch it away but kept both arms close to his body to protect his oft-broken ribs. Koller touched the ball past Seaman and jumped over him. It looked a clear penalty.But the replays showed no contact
Even Arsene won’t wanna watch this video. A stodgy game where Dortmund played as Dortmund always do – efficiently, not giving much away, stifling their opponents bit by bit,move by move, minute by minute.
Four consecutive defeats is Arsenal’s worst run since 1983.
Some British passion was needed – Keown, Dixon, Parlour, anybody with a bit of fire and nous.
BERGKAMP should have been there.But PSV beat Auxerre 3-0, so Arsenal and Dortmund are through.
Matchday 6 will be two dead games. Nothing else to say, really.
But I often wonder what ANR readers think of Thierry Henry.
I thought the golden boy let Arsene Wenger down badly tonight.
The manager always plays Henry and always pampers him and always talks him up and never takes him off. Henry had a nightmare for 18 minutes. Then he scored with a free-kick over the wall.It wasn’t a great free-kick like his Juventus effort last season, but it went in. And then he had a nightmare for the rest of a dull, stodgy game.
Henry has a shocking attitude and I’m constantly amazed by what he gets away with.
Laughing and joking in the tunnel with the Auxerre players, as if it’s a kickabout.
He lives on Planet Thierry and wants to stay at Arsenal for his whole career. Of course he does. Anywhere else, the manager, or the skipper,would throw him up against the dressing room door every week!
Henry should be made to watch his own videos – every cross into the keeper’s hands, every free-kick over the bar, every overhit corner, every sloppy pass, every walkabout with his hands on his hips.
Can Arsenal ever win the European Cup with Thierry Henry in the team?
DO YOU THINK THEY CAN? Well, do you ?
ON MONDAY MORNING I interviewed Mick McCarthy for Time Out at Simon & Schuster’s offices in Kingsway.
I had just read his World Cup diary. I had 45 minutes with him and he gave me what I wanted, some quotes with London angles.
The book has 70 pages about Roy Keane and I knew he could not really say any more about Keane than he does in the book. So I told him that, in my view, Roy Keane sent himself home from the World Cup.
And that while I was shocked by that,I was 50 times more shocked when, within two days, there was talk of Keane GOING BACK TO JAPAN!
That, to me, was surreal. I could not get over it at the time. And I still cannot get over it. I told Mick that he did the only thing he could have done.
He pointed out that nobody said that, mainly because it would not sell newspapers. He said that they sold more newspapers in Ireland that month than at any time in history.
I had not met Mick before. Steve Tongue of The Independent and Russell Kempson of The Times had shared the previous interview with him. Steve phoned in the evening to compare notes. He said that Mick is a bit wary of reporters he does not know.
I like McCarthy and I like his book. He took Ireland to 13th in the World and with Roy Keane in the team they would have beaten Spain, no problem.
Afterwards I walked along High Holborn to Tottenham Court Road and went into the refurbished Foyles, where they had sold out of The Professor paperback, but had eight copies on order. Then I strolled down Oxford Street and went into the bookstores. Signed nine copies of The Professor in Waterstone’s, eight in Borders and four in Books Etc.
By then it was 1.30 pm so I decided to take the rest of the day off.
NEELA’S PLAY at the Soho Theatre got a good review in The Independent today after a three-star review in The Guardian and a rave in The Times. So we are all really chuffed for her.
STEWART, where did you get to on Sunday? You said you were coming round!
When you do get here, remind me to play you the new Los Lobos album, their best since Kiko.
30th October 2002.