On Sunday I watched three games on TV.
Three might have been too many, even for this football junkie, but it was OK because the first warmed me up for the second, and the third turned out to be the most compelling contest.
Arsenal’s game was a walkover, a 6-2 win over a patched-up Blackburn team who gave up at 4-2.
The Chelsea-Liverpool game was a war of attrition in which Drogba was the main man, making goals for Anelka (60) and Malouda (91).
The Sevilla -Real Madrid game was closer than the Arsenal game, and more open and fiery than the Chelsea game.
Without Cristiano Ronaldo and Lassana Diarra, two of their pivotal players, Real Madrid lacked bite, balance and pace in key areas.
Before the game Sevilla striker Luis Fabiano had talked about Kaka : “He didn’t text me this week, he must be worried !” Those two played together for Sao Paulo between 2001 and 2003.
Early on, Luis Fabiano scuffed a good chance, then hacked Casillas rather rudely, then Jan squealed as a big spider ran across the carpet. I put the spider in a upside-down glass on the coffee table, facing the TV, in case he wanted to see the game. When Jesus Navas headed in after 33, the spider didn’t react to the goal. He didn’t jump up to celebrate, so he obviously wasn’t a Sevilla supporter, or a Barcelona fan, so at half-time I put him out in the front garden.
Pepe headed in from Guti’s free-kick, and Casillas had to make seven good saves before Renato headed the winner in 66 from a Navas cross. Navas,23, is a wiry, nervy gypsy winger with acute travel-anxiety but he may get a call-up for the World Cup
So that was my Sunday: three games, one spider. The first match was an exhibition, the second scrappy with defences on top, and the third a game of three headers.
Sevilla are now level with Real Madrid on 15 points, below Barcelona on 18.
In last Friday’s Evening Standard, Didier Drogba talked about playing basketball as a kid in Africa. Having observed Drogba’s style for four years, I found that info very interesting.
He watched the NBA, where you see big men and very big men with wonderful footwork and deceptive bodywork. When Drogba rolled defenders to create positions for shots, I put that down to sheer strength and elastic movement. On ANR I always characterised him as a gladiator who fights and wins his duels. He takes you on and beats you and I thought it was 90% brute force and only 10% technique.
Now I’m not so sure. In theory, basketball is not a contact sport but in practice big men are competing fiercely for floorspace and airspace on a court that is far, far smaller than a football pitch.
Against Liverpool, in a very tight, scrappy game, the goalmaker was Drogba.
Lampard nicked the ball off Mascherano and then the move was Essien to Deco to Drogba to Anelka and 1-0.
In injury time, Drogba used his body to beat Carragher on the other flank after controlling a diagonal free-kick, and tiptoeing along the bye-line to set up Malouda at the near post for 2-0. If you compare his style with Anelka’s, Drogba is all body, while Anelka is all feet.
This was what Drogba said about making space in that piece by Simon Johnson :
“Basketball has helped me become the striker I am today. I used to play a lot when I was younger. When I was small I would play basketball in the afternoon after school, and in France, when I was 17, we played games of three against three.
“It helped my football because in basketball you have to be very smart and your movement with your feet must be very co-ordinated. In football you need to do the same, especially if you are a striker.
“In basketball the defenders play very tight to you and are always trying to get the ball off you and I had to hold them off with my body and use my strength. It is something that helps me in the Premier League where there is a lot of contact.
“When I am closely marked I have to find my own space to be able to shoot and it is something you have to do all the time on a basketball court.
“It really helped me to be able to create my space on a football pitch when I want to shoot, when I want to score, even when I jump for headers now it is easy because that is what I’d have to do to collect a pass sometimes or to put the ball through the hoop.”
The footwork in those space-making moves is applicable to football and those basketball techniques DO give him an edge.
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