So tomorrow will see the most anticipated match in football for a good few years. There are no stats to back this claim up, but it really just is the match to top all matches. Stevenage v Torquay for a place in League 1. It doesn’t get much bigger than this for the two clubs. This is Stevenage’s first year in the football league, and to get back-to-back promotions would be nothing short of phenomenal. The match is huge for all involved with the clubs and it will be viewed in my household with a nice cup of tea and bourbon biscuits, but joking aside, the Champions League final is almost upon us. If you’ve had a holiday on the moon this last week you’d be forgiven for not knowing; rarely has a match had such a big build up, and rightly so. Football experts are saying it’s the match that everyone wants to see, Manchester United v Barcelona, the two best clubs in the world. The experts made an error in their generalisations however, because the match I’d most want to see would be Derby County v Barcelona in the final, but I don’t think that will ever happen. I will happily settle for United v Barca, cause lets face it, United will put up more of a fight than the Rams.
United’s team looks like being Van Der Sar, Fabio, Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, Carrick, Park, Giggs, Valencia, Hernandez and Rooney. A team worthy of winning the Premier League without a doubt, but how many would get in Barcelona’s team? Three perhaps. Van Der Sar, Rooney and Evra. The retiring Edwin Van Der Sar has been simply incredible for United, and despite his age has been one of the world’s best in the last few years. Wayne Rooney is Wayne Rooney in the same sense that a spade is a spade and a book is a book; I’m not here to tell you why Rooney would get into any team in the world because hopefully you realise that already. Patrice Evra is a fantastic left back and I’m sure Barcelona would prefer him to Eric Abidal or Javier Mascherano, the two players fighting (not literally) to start at left back. Apart from those three United players though, I’m sure Pep Guardiola will be more than pleased with the players he’s got. Lionel Messi is quite useful on his day, and Xavi can pass a ball, a skill that many Derby players have somehow made look very hard in recent years.
Naturally, people are trying to compare Wayne Rooney and Lionel Messi. I think Terry Venables should receive some mention for his view though. When speaking about Rooney “…he’s tough, tougher than Messi maybe, as a fighter”. If someone could just inform Terry Venables that it’s football tomorrow and not boxing that would be good. If it was a straight up fight then Mr Venables would be spot on; Rooney is thick-set from a boxing background and Messi is very slight – Rooney would probably knock him out in the 3rd round. However, back to seriousness, Rooney’s toughness is obvious by simply looking at him, Messi’s toughness should not be discounted however. Every match the footballing genius plays in, he is floored by lesser players who cannot compete with him. Unlike his team-mates however, Messi gets straight up rather than rolling around and gets play underway immediately. He should be commended for that.
Javier Hernandez, or Chicharito as people prefer to call him, has been a great signing for United and surpassed all expectations in this, his debut season. He has been rewarded by a starting place for the final if I am to trust the people ‘in the know’. Gerard Pique and Andres Iniesta could probably have thought of 100 better questions to answer than “Who’s better, Rooney or Chicharito?”, a question asked to both yesterday. Rooney is clearly the better player; Pique got splinters sitting on the fence, Iniesta told the journalist straight. To Barcelona, it doesn’t matter who is better as they will have plans to deal with every player. It is just an example of many silly questions asked to players and managers. Lessons must have been learnt not to ask Sir Alex about Ryan Giggs however. Mr Ferguson didn’t react too well to a question about the not so goody-two-shoes, issuing a banning order for the offending journalist. The way Giggs performs tomorrow will tell you much about the man. I expect he will put Imogen firmly to the back of his mind and produce as he has done for the last 20 years, and if he doesn’t perform it will be down to Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets stopping him.
It would be rude for me to write a blog without giving you a tip for you to win money. I’m going for draw half time and Barcelona full time at 11/4. That means if you put £4 on, you will lose £4, cause I never win bets. So please, don’t listen to me. I’d love for my tip to be wrong on this occasion as I’ve had a soft spot for United all my life. They were my main team until I was 14, but then I realised that with me being a complete pessimist I couldn’t support a successful team. Also there is nothing quite like supporting your local team, no matter how dreadful they are. So I’ll be routing for Manchester United tomorrow, as I’m sure most of the nation will, apart from maybe the blue part of Manchester and red part of Merseyside. Can I blame them? I don’t know. Would I support Forest if they made it to a European final? Thankfully, I’ll never have to make that terrible decision. My mum and dad, avid Derby supporters, had to though back when Forest won their two trophies. My mum, a level headed woman who tries to see the best in everyone, expressed to me with a sense of shame and mischief that she was firmly in the anti- Forest camp. My dad with an equal amount of shame told me he wanted Forest to win, “for Cloughy” was his get-out clause.
So hopefully it’s a great final, with both Messi and Rooney on great form but United just edging it. Van Der Sar deserves a fantastic send off so him saving a winning penalty would also go down well. And as for the big match, well, I think I’d prefer Torquay to win that one. Chris Zebroski with the winner.
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