Notes from a sporting week 28/04/08

Ballack demonstrates his class at the crucial moment:

Manchester United fans won’t appreciate it, but for the neutral football fan Chelsea’s 2-1 win at Stamford Bridge on Saturday, which draws them level at the top of the Premiership with United, is exactly what was wanted with two games to go. Had the northerners won it would have been all over bar the shouting as the six point lead plus better goal difference (+18 at the start of the day) would have made any west London comeback needing to be touched by God if they were to lift the trophy at the season’s end.

The architect of the win was German captain Michael Ballack, who scored the two goals and generally controlled the play from midfield in the absence of Frank Lampard. That he was demonstrates the progress made in his almost two seasons at Stamford Bridge since his transfer there in 2006.

Ballack arrived at the Bridge alongside Ukraine captain Andriy Shevchenko follwing the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Both had enjoyed successful tournaments, Ballack leading the host nation to a surprise third place, whilst Shevchenko had helped take Ukraine to the quarterfinals in their first ever World Cup. As such though both arrived on King’s Road desperately short of a proper pre-season and still suffering the aches and pains from their exertions in national team colours.

Worse than that though was that both were portrayed as Roman Abramovich signings, who were forced on then-manager Jose Mourinho against his will. The Portuguese made no secret of the fact that he wanted neither of them in his squad, with Ballack excluded from his 25 players for the 2006-07 Champions League.

Mourinho’s stance was given fuel because both had East European backgrounds. Ballack was born in Gorlitz in the old East Germany and admitted that one of the reason’s why he was moving to England was to improve his English, because having lived his early life behind the iron curtain Russian was his second language of choice. Thus when mischievous rumours went round that there was an Abramovich spy in the dressing room, Ballack and Shevchenko were quickly portrayed as the club owner’s pets.

Of course matters weren’t helped that neither made an explosive start to life in England thanks in no small part to their post-World Cup fatigue. By the end of the first season Ballack had all but been forgotten about, whilst the Shevchenko row appeared to feature a quick return to Milan for the Ukrainian, but he was still at the club when the team reported for pre-season training.

The turning point for Ballack came in September 2007 when the Abramovich-Mourinho spat reached its zenith and led to the ‘special one’ being shown the door in favour of Avram Grant. As well as being far closer to the owner, Grant also lacked the ties that Mourinho had enjoyed with certain players, most notably Lampard, John Terry and Didier Drogba and as such was less likely to look upon them with rose-tinted glasses, as the Portuguese did.

Little by little Ballack has worked his way back into the side and demonstrated to the British public, what should have been recognised when he first joined; that he is a fantastic player. Along with Shevchenko, Ballack suffered from the ‘Owen Hargreaves syndrome’ that is if you haven’t done it in England, then the local media don’t want to know. But having helped Germany to an unexpected second place at the 2002 World Cup and then their third place at home, not to mention being the heartbeat of the Bayer Leverkeusen team that reached the 2002 European Cup final, his quality should not have been in doubt and he would well be within his rights to feel aggrieved by the unfair press he received.

Since the turn of the year he has been in tremendous form for the Pensioners and appears to be back in health and displaying a far more relaxed demeanour. Moreover his East European background that once brought him suspicion is now bringing chants in his honour. As an ossi he was schooled in the days of the sports academy that drilled the youngsters in the need for technique and poise. As such the contrast to Lampard is there for all to see. He is happy to use his weaker left foot, is good in the air (as he showed for his first goal) and has a better level of movement across the midfield.

It has taken time, but finally Ballack’s worth is being felt in west London. Sadly it says a lot about the closed mind of most English football fans that he has had to work so hard to prove to them his undoubted ability. With two weeks to go and a Champions League semifinal second leg on Wednesday, there is now the very real possibility that Ballack will play a major role in whether those Chelsea fans will be celebrating some more come the season’s end.

Chambers presence takes undue prominence:

On a weekend of such importance for both codes of rugby in the UK, it was a pity that it was a reserve team rugby league match between Castleford Tigers and York City Knights that grabbed the headlines, when ordinarily the Super League fixture list and European Cup semifinals would be in the spotlight.

Of course the reason why most of the UK rugby league hacks and 3000 fans rolled up to north Yorkshire was the presence of one Dwain Chambers. Since announcing his decision to yet again defect from athletics, having tried his hand at American Football, there has been an air of anticipation about his taking to the field and finally this Sunday he took his first tentative steps in the 13-man code when he was brought on after 10 minutes.

Sadly there still remains an air of pantomime about the whole thing. When he was unveiled as a Castleford player the press conference was dominated by questions of how his legal bid to overturn the British Olympic Association’s lifetime ban would affect his playing future with Tigers and there still remains a big question about how seriously both parties are taking the whole thing and in this respect Chambers does himself no favours whenever he opens his mouth.

“It’s been a long time coming,” was one of his pre-match statements, though one can only wonder how ‘long time’ his desire to carry on will be if he does overturn the ban, which both he and the club announced they were confident of being successful.

The main aspect that has stuck in the craw since he returned to athletics is his amazing lack of humility. Had he taken his punishment and then got on with his job, few people would have had any complaints. Instead he has behaved like a spoiled brat and acted like athletics, a sport that he has sullied, owes him a living and his antics recently have done little to change that perception.

His career in rugby league has started well, having made one try-saving tackle, but now it might be time for him to find one sport and then stick to it and more importantly keep quiet about what he is doing, until he has something worth shouting about.
JI 28/04/08