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Friday, March 12, 2010 | www.leedsstudent.org | Leeds Student
Sport
LS Sport COMMENT THE WEEK IN
NUMBERS
10 Medal target set by UK Sport for the forthcoming European Athletics Championships.
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The age of Raqibul Hassan, the Bangladesh batsman who has retired from international cricket, after not getting picked
PUNDIT WATCH
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Portsmouth troubling Joe Hart in the opening 10 minutes here. Decisive punditry from ITV’s Peter Drury, after Pompey take a shot on goal 12 seconds into the game against Birmingham.
Not so spectacular?
Q
ue sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be, the entire country seems to be going to Wembley. Semi-finals of the FA Cup are now routinely held at the new ground, along with the finals, and many are critical of the FA’s policy of not saving the stadium for the final. 14th April 1999 witnessed one of the greatest football matchers ever played, featuring the holders of the FA Cup Arsenal, against the Premier League leaders, Manchester United. The game was itself a replay, after the first game had finished goalless, but the second game saw a Dennis Bergkamp penalty saved in stoppage time by Peter Schmeichel, and then a Ryan Giggs winner in extra time. This moment, enshrined in Manchester United folklore, would not have been any more special if it had been held at Wembley, and maybe less special if it had not been at Villa Park. The decision has been made for the FA by the fact that they still
need to pay off the money spent to build the new 90,000 seater stadium. In order to pay off the £798 million it cost, the venue now holds anything, from American Football, music concerts to motor racing, in order to recoup as much money as possible. Notwithstanding this, the hosting of the semi-finals at the same venue has ruined the unique occasion which is an FA Cup final. Being able to play at Wembley should be a reward to the finalists, not given out to every team that wanders out, just so the FA can
earn more money. Some have counter argued that holding the semis in a 90,000 capacity stadium means that more fans can get tickets, and this is true. Yet I prefer the atmosphere in a more tightly packed stadium such as Villa Park, rather than a soulless mausoleum, where you can hear a pin drop. Meanwhile you have to share the occasion with the prawn sandwich-eating brigade, those individuals who miss the first ten minutes of each half, leave ten minutes before the end either to beat the traffic, or to nip back to
form in the Champions League of the former greats of European football that of this year’s remaining twelve teams only four have won the competition and from the others only Chelsea and Arsenal have made it to the final. Does this spell some brand new age for the upper echelons of European football or is it just the gap between those in European competition has got smaller? Over the last decade, of the five most successful teams, only Ajax have failed to win a Champions League title, while Manchester United and Barcelona have, because of their recent successes, gained membership to the exclusive club of successful European teams. So the latest decade has shown some change in the command of European football but perhaps it will be this year that power will truly shift. And maybe we will see a new team crowned kings of Europe. But let us not weep for these fallen giants; their loss is most certainly our gain. The European competition whilst diluted in the group stages is now more competitive in the knockout games. The Champions League is a much better competition as a result of the decline of these once great European teams. James Green
t doesn’t matter how much you think you know about sport, there’s always those times when a curve ball is thrown at you. Today I experienced a completely unwhackable pea-roller; in the form of a BBC Sport headline ‘Chester league results expunged’. You think you’ve got a grasp on life, and then a word like that slaps you in the face. I’m fairly sure Chester City fans will be waking up over the next week in utter horror of the expunging they’ve received this week. The confusion I felt when reading this headline was an experience I often had to endure in Canada’s Winter Olympics in February. Watching the skiing, there was the slalom, giant slalom, and, of course, the super giant slalom. I had to ask myself as I watched the nineteenth Austrian take to the slope: what is a slalom? For someone who has never skied before – and has no real desire to dislocate any ankle or shoulder of mine – skiing events aren’t really my forte. The snowboarding produced the same effect, with admiring comments of following fall lines, busting heelside turns and plentiful traversing by Scandinavian’s in
Fallen giants
W
ednesday night’s Champions League football saw the defeat of two of Europe’s greatest teams. AC Milan and Real Madrid crashed out in the last sixteen and it begs the question whether there has been some sort of revolution in European football, with the old powerhouses being overthrown by the new and upcoming clubs. Real Madrid are the most successful team in European Cup history, winning it nine times and Milan are second having won the tournament seven times. The third most successful team in European Cup history however is Liverpool, who failed to make it past the group stages of this year. Despite their rich history, and sickening transfer policy, Real Madrid have been knocked out in the second round of the Champions League six years in a row. Even when they spent fortunes to acquire Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Karim Benzema, glory on the highest stage has been elusive at the Bernabeu, while even with the wealth of experience on the A.C. Milan bench at Old Trafford (Seedorf, Beckham, Gattuso, Dida, Zambrotta and Inzaghi), they could not compete. At least Milan has made three finals in the last decade. In fact so poor is the current
their suite for a flute of champagne. Playing in an FA Cup final should be a pinnacle, that players across the country dream about, and having the previous round’s matches played there takes something away from the achievement of reaching the final, and Wembley. The first semi-final to be held at Wembley was in 1991 between Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal, and this happened again in 1993, 1994, 2000, they were held at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium in 2005, before moving back to Wembley in 2008. Their policy on this seems confused, inconsistent and influenced by lining their own pockets, rather than what the fans want. Players and managers came out against the FA’s decision before Everton played Manchester United last season, claiming that ‘It’s great to be in the semis but I'd prefer the match was away from Wembley.’ Josh Powling
Expunging the mind
I
space suits almost forcing me to turn over to the curlers. I felt the same confusion when a Swedish ice hockey player smacked the puck(?) onto the post of the goal. The following commentary of “Wow! Straight off the pole!” made me wonder if Sweden’s immigration laws have suddenly slackened this January. I was possibly in my most confused state, however, during the Olympic games in Beijing. Here, gymnastic, equestrian and windsailing events I barely knew existed suddenly beamed at me proudly out of the television. The diving, however, was the most baffling. With every twist and flip, an expert commentator would verbally ejaculate a stream of pikes, tariffs and towers; which all meant nothing to me. What we need when we view sport, especially these freakishly unorthodox ones, is a small banner at the bottom of the screen – like subtitles – deciphering whatever the commentator is spewing. Otherwise, come 2012, we’ll have a country reeling under terminology completely alien to us. How embarrassing that would be if we came across as a nation that can’t speak any other language than our own. Joe Short