It’s a strange thing. Everybody complains that the integrity of the “so-called Champions League” is a wasting ozone being eaten away by the presence of so many non-champions, and everybody loves the idea that the fan-friendly, high-scoring, reasonably priced Bundesliga is secretly better than the not-particularly-any-of-those-things Premier League. So you might have expected some excitement over a Champions League match pitting the English league winners against the German league winners. It’s what the tournament is supposed to represent, after all, and it was a chance to work out all sorts of transitive business with greater-than symbols and non-algorithmic power rankings, as they say around the offices at Zurich.
But no one seemed to care about this one. Okay, I’m sure fans of the two teams were appropriately exercised for it, and matchday two in the group stage isn’t exactly the capitol of sex when it comes to getting everybody else’s attention. But that allowed, it seems pretty likely that if Man Utd had been playing Milan, the level of hype, online chatter, and neutral fan interest would have shot a long way past anything we saw today—even though Milan are non-champions and are thrashing around horribly in Serie A this year. In the buildup to this match, I didn’t see any commentary that pushed the champion-v.-champion theme as far as it went for Barcelona-Inter two weeks ago.
So what does that say? On the most obvious level, probably some pretty realistic stuff about where Wolfsburg—relatively surprising champions who had never played in the Champions League before this season—actually are in relation to Manchester United and how the top teams in the Bundesliga can realistically be expected to compete against the top teams from England. Affection for the Bundesliga aside, no one would seriously predict that a team whose leading scorer is Zvjezdan Misimović would march into Old Trafford and seize control by dint of their sheer Zvjezdan Misimović-ness. As competitive matchups go, this one seemed a tick above Chelsea-Nicosia, a tick below Bayern-Juventus, and not much more.
Somewhat more interestingly, then, I think the lack of interest in this game is a minor, local reflection of the fact that what we think is good in soccer and what we actually want to watch aren’t always the same thing. To leap to another example, almost everyone is opposed to the creation of a European superleague, me included, because of what it would do to old traditions and old meanings within the game. At the same time, I think it’s safe to say that confronted with the choice of Barcelona v. Arsenal or Stockport County v. Huddersfield Town, a huge subset of anti-superleague fans would choose the superleague game every time. Me irrevocably included.
What that means, I’m not really sure, except that it probably points to one reason football has such an overheated moral rhetoric compared to every other sport in the world. And it probably suggests one of the basic, weird features of the game’s evolution at this moment, which is that the administrators and owners who are conventionally depicted as bad guys (people who want football to be a business, people who only care about money) are in many cases pursuing their nefarious ends by trying to give fans what they would actually choose for themselves if it were available—only to be actively opposed by fans who have somewhat surprisingly (and maybe prudently) defined their own interest as something else.
Anyway, this is all light years too broad to be a real argument, since there are any number of constituencies and subgroups within words like “fans” and “we” and a lack of Twitter hum over a Champions League group match isn’t exactly definitive. Call it a hazy impression of what I think is a real paradox in contemporary football.
As for the match itself, it was good enough to deserve some exclamation points. It didn’t shatter any windows, but it had a sort of routine-drama tension that was still dramatic enough. Dzeko’s header was straight McGraw-Hill. Ryan Giggs is really coming along as a footballer. And Carrick’s winner was thrilling, even if he does carry himself more and more every week like an average-height guy who thinks he’s too tall and is ashamed of it.
Read More: Champions League, Manchester United
by Brian Phillips · September 30, 2009
But what if it had been Bayern Munich, rather than Wolfsburg? Hell, even Hamburg, or Stuttgart, or just about any other German club that could reasonably be considered one of the better ones. Wolfsburg is fighting the sense that no one cares about Wolfsburg, not even Bundesliga fans. I’d say even especially not Bundesliga fans- Wolfsburg are considered to be a ‘plastic’ club with no history and no support, funded entirely by Volkswagen as a marketing exercise. They have interesting players and can be exciting to watch, but no one loves Wolfsburg.
(For what it’s worth, if I hadn’t been at my office desk during all Champions League games, this would have been the one I’d have picked to watch. On purely footballing terms, the most interesting matchup of the day.)
Interesting post. I, of course, was tuned into the Bayern-Juve game and was thinking how long will the big clubs be content with playing small teams when they could be playing other big clubs on a week to week basis, what with the ever increasing ‘corporate take-overs’ and the resulting hording of all the best players by the few at the top.
But then part of the appeal of a Bayern-Juve encounter is its relative rarity. After a couple of seasons of a ‘superleague’, with one of them languishing at the foot of the table and half-empty stadium as the setting, people might think what’s the big deal with this match up.
Tremendous post.
I was simply stunned by the Milan match, seems Ronaldinho will go to a Brasilian club next season…
Thought it was a great game myself. Two teams that love to attack, both oozing the confidence of champions as you rightly point out and both with something to prove in the Champions League this year, for different reasons. (Pot 4, you say? We’ll show you!).
United had that extra bit of resilience and experience to pull through in the end but make no mistake about it – Wolfsburg are a good side.
Bayern v Juve on the other hand is an exciting game in name alone, I think. At this point in time anyway.
Then again yesterday I watched Fiorentina v Liverpool rather than, say, AZ Alkmaar v Standard Liege.
I was on the road today, and this the game I wish I could’ve seen.
On Tuesday there was another champion vs. champion match that went unnoticed–Rubin Kazan vs. Inter. During injury time the Russian commentator said something about it was a good result (1-1), but wished it could’ve been better, since Inter were only the “Italian champions and not the English champions or the Spanish champions.” I hope Mourinho hears that his team means nothing and his head explodes, and Sheva gets a hat-trick for Dinamo Kyiv.
Plus, Rubin will get their chance against Barca soon.
The promotion and relegation system is the bedrock of the English game. It’s one of the things that appeals especially to American fans, as being so different from our franchise based leagues over here. Yet, promotion and relegation is the biggest reason why most European leagues are so uncompetitive. Most people would say they would like a premier league open to more than four contenders, but nobody wants a closed off premier league, which is probably the only platform that would allow that to happen.
But think of it this way: (a) Barcelona-Arsenal as a possibility in the semis or the final of a great international tournament, or (b) the annual Barcelona-Arsenal fixture. It’s the former that generates the excitement, no? — in part because you don’t know whether it’s going to happen, and when it does happen you don’t know when it’s going to happen again.
Full disclosure: I say that as someone who thinks that interleague play in baseball has seriously compromised the identities of the leagues and has largely silenced generations of really interesting conversation about the ways in which they differ.
Some good things should be rare and unregularized. Just some.
Ryan Giggs is coming along as a footballer? What’s he been doing for the past 18 years then? Bloody hell, being the most decorated man in the history of English football isn’t enough?
I’m telling you, Melanie, once he gains some experience and learns the ropes of the Premier League, I think he could really be something.
I disagree Brian – Giggs lacks a first step. His chronic lack of pace will hinder him from winning the Champions League trophy twice
I admit he’s raw now. But he’s just oozing potential.
I apologize for my comment. For some reason (being as I am exiled in the place) I was dealing with a non English fan. Someone asked me other day why Giggs would ever be knighted and that must have still been on my brain.
Fortunately that wee tyke Scholes is just getting started as well, so there’s plenty of time for him to learn how to tackle.
As for the match itself, it was good enough to deserve some exclamation points. It didn’t shatter any windows, but it had a sort of routine-drama tension that was still dramatic enough. Dzeko’s header was straight McGraw-Hill. Ryan Giggs is really coming along as a footballer. And Carrick’s winner was thrilling, even if he does carry himself more and more every week like an average-height guy who thinks he’s too tall and is
But what if it had been Bayern Munich, rather than Wolfsburg? Hell, even Hamburg, or Stuttgart, or just about any other German club that could reasonably be considered one of the better ones. Wolfsburg is fighting the sense that no one cares about Wolfsburg, not even Bundesliga fans. I’d say even especially not Bundesliga fans- Wolfsburg
But no one seemed to care about this one. Okay, I’m sure fans of the two teams were appropriately exercised for it, and matchday two in the group stage isn’t exactly the capitol of sex when it comes to getting everybody else’s attention. But that allowed, it seems pretty likely that if Man Utd had been playing Milan, the level of hype, online chatter, and neutral fan interest would have shot a long way past anything we saw today—even though Milan are non-champions and are thrashing around horribly in Serie A this year. In the buildup to this match, I didn’t see any commentary that pushed the champion-v.-champion theme as far as it went for Barcelona-Inter two weeks ago.
. Interesting post. I, of course, was tuned into the Bayern-Juve game and was thinking how long will the big clubs be content with playing small teams when they could be playing other big clubs on a week to week basis, what with the ever increasing ‘corporate take-overs’ and the resulting hording of all the best players by the few at the top.
Anyway, this is all light years too broad to be a real argument, since there are any number of constituencies and subgroups within words like “fans” and “we” and a lack of Twitter hum over a Champions League group match isn’t exactly definitive. Call it a hazy impression of what I think is a real paradox in contemporary football.
Somewhat more interestingly, then, I think the lack of interest in this game is a minor, local reflection of the fact that what we think is good in soccer and what we actually want to watch aren’t always the same thing. To leap to another example, almost everyone is opposed to the creation of a European superleague, me included, because of what it would do to old traditions and old meanings within the game. At the same time, I think it’s safe to say that confronted with the choice of Barcelona v. Arsenal or Stockport County v. Huddersfield Town, a huge subset of anti-superleague fans would choose the superleague game every time. Me irrevocably included.
So what does that say? On the most obvious level, probably some pretty realistic stuff about where Wolfsburg—relatively surprising champions who had never played in the Champions League before this season—actually are in relation to Manchester United and how the top teams in the Bundesliga can realistically be expected to compete against the top teams from England. Affection for the Bundesliga aside, no one would seriously predict that a team whose leading scorer is Zvjezdan Misimović would march into Old Trafford and seize control by dint of their sheer Zvjezdan Misimović-ness. As competitive matchups go, this one seemed a tick above Chelsea-Nicosia, a tick below Bayern-Juventus, and not much more.