Uefa Cup Final 2009 - Preview

On Wednesday 20th May 2009 we will witness the last ever final of the Uefa Cup as we know it. The successor to the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, which ran between 1955 and 1971, the Uefa cup was traditionally a competition for the runners up in a nation’s league however since merging with the Cup Winner’s Cup in 1999 it also invites the winners of certain domestic trophies to take part in the competition. In England these are the League and FA cup.

This year’s finalists Werder Bremen and Shakhtar Donetsk have not had an easy ride to the final and they have had to earn their plaudits as any finalist should.

Both sides have progressed via elimination from the group phase of the Champions League. Shakhtar faced Spurs, CSKA Moscow, Marseille and Dynamo Kyiv en-route and Werder took on the might of A.C. Milan, St. Etienne, Udinese and Hamburg.

Shakhtar have had a tendency to leave things late in the majority of their games in the competition this year, scoring only 2 of their 12 goals in the first half. Both coming against Marseille in the Quarter finals. Perhaps this is an indication of a good fitness routine being maintained throughout the Ukrainian winter break (December-March) and the freshness that comes with such a break.

Bremen on the other hand have had a disappointing season in the Bundesliga, currently sitting in 10th place and can only achieve a 7th place finish at best. This will leave them without any European football next season a situation that I’m sure they will do their best to counter. They have always been a very attacking side and this is very evident given their goal tally, 64 in the league and 15 in the Uefa Cup, however they have been blighted by their leaky defence letting in a bucketful of goals. Conceding over 2 goals in every tie in the competition this season.

Winning the trophy should help ensure that they enjoy the benefits of a European campaign. Shakhtar will not have this worry on their mind as they sit comfortably in second place in the Ukrainian Premier League and will enter the qualifying rounds for the Champions League and should at least guarantee them a place in the Group phase of the Europa League.

A more illustrious reason for both sides to go hammer and tong on Wednesday evening is that neither side has won the competition in their history. Bremen have won the Cup Winner’s Cup in 1992 but for Shakhtar this is their first appearance at the final of any competition at this level and a win would be a great achievement for them.

I think that despite Bremen’s attacking prowess, they are coming to the end of a long and arduous season, they have leaked goals and Shakhtar while nowhere near as potent up front as the Germans will be in their stride after the freshening winter break and their league form at the moment has been spotless. I will have to go for a 2-1 Shakhtar victory in normal time.

Everybody loves Johan (not Raymond)

You may find it surprising that for my first contribution to this blog, I will be writing about the retirement of a player. This was one of the stories this week which caught my eye, and no, it isn’t Jimmy Floyd Hasslebaink. It is another player who in his prime, was one of the foremost playmakers in Europe and won great renown in his native country and then in Germany. It is Johan Micoud.

Micoud isn’t a player whose name jumps off the page at you. That I can agree. However, for many the football connoisseur; Micoud was a luxury, a Ferrero Rocher player whose vision, technical skill and expertise from a dead-ball situation, meant he was always a danger to the opposition and player who always seemed to be a fans’ favourite. His career started with a very successful spell at Bordeaux, in which he helped them win the League, then on to a more difficult period at Parma. The best football of his career however was with Werder Bremen. He was the main man, the dogs bollocks, the creative force behind the team. His great influence was one of the main reasons behind their double success in 2004, the first in the teams’ history. His play earned him glowing reviews and interest from several top European clubs including Liverpool and Bayern Munich. They were probably deterred by the nineteen million pound asking fee.

For all his club success however, at international level he was stifled. This was down partly to the fact that his position was taken up by the best player in the last twenty years, Zinedine Zidane. It was also down to the madness that is Raymond Domenech. Micoud’s contempt for Domenech was apparent after being left out of a friendly against Slovakia. He called him ‘a blind man’ and said that ‘maybe I am not in the squad because my star sign is Leo, and there are too many in the French team.’

This would not be surprising considering Domenech is a grade A twat. He is a man whose management style is baffling, consulting the stars before selecting his team and insistence to play Pascal Chimbonda at any opportunity. Many might say, ‘he made a World Cup Final, surely that is enough?’ No it bloody well isn’t, especially considering their display in the European Championships. Totally shit is a phrase I would use. Austria played better football than France in that tournament. He did have a tough group, but his tactical naivety was apparent when he played two holding midfielders against the weakest team in the group, Romania; a team France should be beating with the players at their disposal. France should have been beaten but for a Mutu missed penalty. They were literally the most boring team I have seen ever at a major championship. They even wheeled out Claude Makelele for a few games. In the end, I don’t care. He can destroy French football if he wants. The French FA has kept him on as manager saying his, ‘results were not catastrophic’; they went on to lose against Austria, but kept him on anyway.

At 35, Micoud has retired after not being given a contract by Bordeaux after his return to the club from Bremen. It is sad to see a fine player and an honest professional retire, Raymond on the other hand, can piss off gladly. It would do French football the world of good.