The Big Mac of football

I am old. I have seen plenty of football. I have suffered and I have celebrated. I have been overtly emotional (often too much) and learnt that being emotional is probably one of the worst things a human can be. 

And so in football: I have preferences, but I have seen it all, and I know that sometimes you win, sometimes you lose. But as important as winning or losing, is the question of how you win or how you lose. 

Just like in life. Arsenal are efficient, effective, get results: just like a Big Mac.

Don't mistake me. I recognise that Arsenal are a great team, and today they showed it. When Kai Havertz brought them ahead early on in the match through a splendid run down the left side, Arsenal pulled back and defended with discipline and tactical intelligence, cancelling Vitinha in midfield and the threatening runs of Karavashkelia. Despite possession, PSG, perhaps the best attacking side in the world right now, could not get through the tight defense, while Arsenal played on a possible corner kick.

I am a football fan, and I don't want football to turn into a contest of corner kicks, and I think that with Arsenal's quality they could and should have tried to score a "real" goal in the first half, when PSG were clearly confused as to what to do about Arsenal's defense.

I was happy for the the game of football more than for PSG when the Parisians managed to equalise by Ousemane Dembele on a penalty kick. 

Home-made food had finally scored against the Big Mac of football. 

At the score 1-1 Arsenal again started to attack more, but still seemed to go more for a corner-kick than they did for a goal...?

PSG fortunately won on penalty kicks, with Gabriel Magalhaes missing the last kick for Arsenal in an intense contest.

People may be annoyed at PSG; they have won their second title since last year's trashing of Inter Milan, but for the game of football it is surely better to have a team like PSG win, than a team who plays like Arsenal. 

Arsenal's 2006 CL final side were amazing, but lost to an even more amazing Barcelona side. This Arsenal side would have gone into history for winning, but nobody would remember how they played.

I am a romantic; even worse, I am emotional. I like the art of football: enjoying a great game between footballers with quality and who are not afraid to show it; just like enjoying a delicious home-made meal rather than a BigMac.

Arsenal are the BigMac of football. They excel at the only thing that counts in the today: efficiency, results, numbers and winning.

Fortunately they lost. 

PSG again in the final

It was virtually impossible that the second-leg match would be as good as the first leg between PSG and Bayern Munich, but it was still a good match. PSG were in my view the better team overall, highly organised, and having learnt from the mistakes of the first match, they closed down Olise and Kimmich in midfield, held back after Ousmane Dembele early goal on a counter-attack, and remained a deadly force on the counterattack, with Manuel Neuer being the saviour on many occasions for Bayern Munich. 

Many players are worth mentioning, but Kvisha Kvaraskhelia and Ousmane Dembele are perhaps two of the best players in the world right now; the former will surely be missed in the World Cup, but Dembele will hopefully shine in North America this summer (not because I support France - certainly not - but I just want to enjoy watching an artist shine in his trade). 

But Bayern Munich were not hapless. They created great chances that in the previous match would have given goals, and the well-deserved equalizer by Harry Kane in the last minute only came too late. What is a shame in the match was the referee Joao Pinheiro, who decided to oversee two clear handballs in core situations that could have given Bayern Munich an edge. The handball inside the area by the referee's namesake  Joao Neves was more a penalty kick than the bad penalty call against Alphonse Davies in the previous match. And Nuno Mendes should have been given a second yellow card for handball earlier as well.

The best team won, and it was a great match, but it is a pity that with all this VAR, a great contest it made controversial by a very very poor referee.

PSG are now in the second final in a row, and favourites to take their second title in a row, but anything can happen in a final. Arsenal are in the final after defeating Atletico Madrid in two matches that were frankly a bore, and Arsenal, despite their solid lead in the Premier League, are surely not as complete as PSG, but are not hapless; a goal on one of their signature free kicks and a solid defense (and a bit of luck), and they could take the title... 

Thank you from the bottom of my heart

Sometimes you get two teams with great players, both teams full of confidence that they are the best, they are on a roll in their leagues, and have offensive style based on their confidence. And suddenly they are playing an important match (let us say a semifinal) where they can display all their skills and style.

Then you get an extraordinary match, and that is what happened today in the CL first leg semifinal between PSG and Bayern Munich.

Do not mistake me; it was not perfect in the sense that there were mistakes (including by the referee when awarding a penalty kick for handball), poor defending, and the occasional technical mistake, but frankly these are parts of a match that had it all.

I was working, listening on the radio, but by the score 2-1 for PSG I shifted to the TV; Harry Kane had brought the visitors ahead 0-1 on a penalty kick, but shortly after Kvisha Kvarashkelia scored his first of two great goals where he showed his fantastic skills, and a bit later Joao Neves brought the Parisians ahead. The great Frenchman playing for the German side, Michael Olise, ran through the PSG central defense to make it 2-2 before Ousmane Dembele made it 3-2 on a handball call that in my view was not a penalty.

3-2 at halftime, the match had already been extraordinary (it could have been 5-5), but it was PSG who came out with a high and steady pressure on Bayern Munich’s shaky defense, with Kvarashkelia scoring his second and Ousmane Dembele making it 5-2 on a quick counterattack: it appeared at this point that the Germans were defeated, but truly, if we know anything it is that Bayern is never defeated.

Another Frenchman, Dayot Upamecano made it 5-3 on a header and poor defending, and suddenly it was Bayern Munich who was pressuring a PSG side that pulled back but was still a deadly menace on counterattack. It was the Colombian Luis Diaz who made it 5-4 winning a thrilling 1 on 1 duel with Marquinhos.

The match could easily have had more goals, but you could also sense the tiredness in all these footballing heroes at the end of the match, which ended with a French 5-4 victory, and the most goals scored in a single semifinal match in the CL ever.

This was perhaps the best match we will see this decade (if not century), and surely the best match of the year.

Forget the World Cup.

Next week is the second leg in Munich, but considering what we saw today, anything can happen, and I just look forward to seeing these two great sides, whom I thank from the bottom of my footballing heart for today.

Technology to save the Ballon d'Or

The Ballon d'Or is considered the main individual award in football (as silly as it is to have an individual award in a team sport), even more important than the FIFA player of the year award (FIFA used to participate in the Ballon d'Or award, but created its own, something that powerful people always do if they cannot have it their way). Over the 2010s the award was largely a competition between two of the most gifted players of all time, Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. But as they have entered the winters of their careers the prize is now open for competition among many great (but not the greatest) players, and this year it was PSGs Ousmane Dembele who took the title that is decided among a vote from football journalists from all over the world.

In my personal and deeply subjective opinion, Ousmane Dembele is the correct winner in 2025; he has been on fire for PSGs Champions League and French champions, and has also become an important player in the French national team, finally showing the quality he was only able to show sometimes in FC Barcelona. He is a great player - but not one of the greatest, as were none of the other candidates to the title.

Of course, in a world of narcissists and sore losers nobody congratulates the winner but rather bitches that they should rather have won it, and invent conspiracy theories about the voting and the "objectivity of the voting journalists.

As if there was such a thing called "objectivity" when it comes to football...

So I have a proposal for everyone: why not let AI choose the best player in the world? We feed it all information of all players in the world for a year, and based on number of goals, passes, touches, minutes played; and partly on tournaments won and ranking of the teams played for and against, the AI could find a completely objective winner of the Ballon d'Or that you can not argue against!

Just as objective as VAR! 

The Club World Cup finalists

Unfortunately Fluminense were unable to defeat Chelsea to make it to the Club World Cup. The English side were better, but it is worth noting that the player who scored both splendid Chelsea goals in their 2-0 victory, Joao Pedro, scored them against the team that made him. The 23-year old striker, who scored his first Chelsea goals following his transfer from Brighton & Hove Albion, did not celebrate the goals against his childhood club.

He will be a player to watch next season as Chelsea try to get back to the top of the Premier League.

All this said, Chelsea will have a difficult time in the final where they will face an extraordinary Paris St. Germain side. The Parisians won a memorable Champions League final on June 1st, and in the semifinal against Real Madrid were as deadly: 4-0 against the Spanish giants with two goals by Fabian Ruiz, and Ousmane Dembele and Goncalo Ramos each scoring one. The victory could surely have been bigger, but in the heat and considering the final, Luis Enrique decided to let the foot of the speeder in the second half.

In the midst of this a thought to Kylian Mbappe: the great Frenchman last season changed from PSG to Real Madrid in order to win titles, but since he left PSG has won it all, and Real Madrid has won nothing....

PSG-Chelsea in the final. As everyone says, anything can happen in a final, but it appears likely that this "anything" is tipped heavily in favour of the great Parisians, who will be delighted to be officially crowned as the world's best team. 

Paris with Spine

After Barcelona defeated PSG in Paris last week I must admit that I thought that PSG would be out yet again against Barcelona in the Champions League.

How great it is to be wrong.

When Raphinha brought the home team ahead 1-0 after a great play by the only 16-year old Lamine Yamal, one thought that it was done. But PSG pressed on, and after half an hour Ronald Araujo received a red card in a situation that may have been controversial: Araujo brought down Bradley Barcola as he was running towards goal, and the referee assessed he was last man and sent him off.

No VAR or anything can make it clear whether it was in fact a clear red. In my personal opinion it was justified, but I also understand those who argue that it was not.

The fact was that it changed the match as Xavi took off Yamal and his team stood back as PSG did the only thing they could, which was to push forward, and five minutes before half-time Ousmane Dembele equalized against his old team in a good counter attack.

Although they were only 10 men, in my view Barcelona looked too passive against a PSG side that obviously pushed forward, but did not look awesome. In fact, when Vitinha scored a second for PSG on a good long-shot, Barcelona's defense looked passive as they should have known about the Portuguese good long-shot skill. Later, a penalty against Dembele (in my view a correct call as well) brought PSG ahead 1-3 by Mbappe, and as the match was nearing its end Barcelona appeared completely torn apart when Mbappe scored his second following an attack where only Ter Stegen looked decent.

1-4 for PSG and they are yet again in the semifinal they were last in in 2021. They do not look unbeatable but are probably slight favourites against Borussia Dortmund, who defeated Atletico Madrid 4-2 at home, and are in their first CL semifinals since 2013.