A Coaching Error

COMPLACENCY in football leads to disaster. Taking chances is even worse. The true realisation of complacency was perfectly exhibited by the manner in which Manchester United from England conducted themselves against Spanish champions Barcelona in Wednesday night’s Champions League final in Rome.

The English champions were simply outclassed in all the facets of the game.
That all boils down to the uncharacteristic and rather reckless manner in which manager Sir Alex Ferguson presented his first 11 players in the first 45 minutes.
The seasoned world-renowned Scottish senior football citizen fielded a side that was no match to the Catalans of Pep Guardiola from the word go.
Barcelona’s players were all employed to look for an early breakthrough – and an eventual kill to seal one of the most important matches of the season.
That happened in the 10th minute already when striker Samuel Eto’o scored after almost showing United’s supposedly most solid defender, Nemanja Vidic, his number before he scored.
That goal carried them through into the second half until their most prized asset, Lionel Messi, finished off matters with an unbelievable header considering his height, to capture the 2009 Champions League title.
The scoreline in the end underlined the irrelevance of the substitutions that Sir Alex made after the break. It was too late to rescue the situation and it was a bitter loss for the millions of United fans across the globe, but taking nothing away from the 67-year old Scot, he has fought many great battles and sometimes one also loses.
Bottom line is: Barcelona had the best of ammunition on the night and were employed more strategically and just did a fantastic job of winning the match at all costs. They did that in spectacular style and millions surely watched in awe, how Messi and Co ran holes in Man United which never caught up in any way.
The win by Barca is possibly one of the biggest lessons that each coach from any division from any league in the world should have picked up and digested without any questions.
There is no recipe for getting good results if one does not put your best foot forward and with the Champions League final being the second and most prestigious football competition in the world after the World Cup? Sir Alex should have known better.
I will not go into the starting line-up of Man United now, but to put it bluntly, they did not match the tactical and shrewd planning of Guardiola.
The semi-final matches that will come up in our domestic Cell One NFA Cup tomorrow, should be different from the approach that was taken from possibly one of the biggest British football brain (Ferguson) on the coaching level.
The Man United 2-0 defeat to Barcelona should be taken as a complete miscalculation of capabilities of an opposing team in any given situation.
There is no point in justifying the complete agility, fluency and skill of Barca on the night, but there is reason to complain about how fateful a selection of a team before the first whistle could be.
A team is always best in the mind of any coach in the dressing room, but if combinations do not dish out what is expected from the eye on the bench or even the thousands in the stands and millions around the globe, then there is no win guaranteed.
Coaches Tollie van Wyk (Ramblers), Bobby Samaria (African Stars), Rolf Beiter and Lucky Kakuva (SKW) and Gilbert Rwasoka (Eleven Arrows) have the chance to prove the theory of fielding ineffective players right tomorrow. How? By choosing their strongest line-up. It’s easy as that.
This is the country’s most lucrative cup competition and there wont be time to experiment in anyway whatsoever. Even if these are just semi-finals.
Its crucial for coaches to make use of the best defence, employ the most creative and industrious midfielders and strikers who constantly torment the goalkeepers.
As my national media team captain Tommy Katamila always says: ‘Die keeper moet werk.’ But most importantly, players should bring their part and support each other.
To avoid complacency like Sir Alex did as one of the aspects that led to the team’s downfall, our four coaches need to field their best teams and consider the semi-finals not only as another step to get into the final – but as a FINAL.
corry@namibian.com.na