Champions League Final Underwhelms

It was by no means the prettiest of Champions League finals. And, in fact, it was another example of the overall decline of football during the past one to two years. Instead of the beautiful free-flowing football that we all adore, the match was played with a more defensive posture in mind.

Before the final of the Champions League, I had mentioned somewhere (might have been my podcast episode this week) that the CL final would be an interesting comparison to the World Cup final to see how the quality between the two differed. If anything, there wasn’t much difference really. The Italy versus France match was similar. The football uninspiring at times and the Italians the eventual victors.

The match between Milan and Liverpool, while by no means horrible, was punctuated by three moments of brilliance. No, they weren’t Inzaghi’s goals, but instead were three moves. Two of them were by Kaka and one by Xabi Alonso showing that a few moments of grace and art are more memorable than 89 minutes of tense, dour football.

If you saw the match, you’ll know what I mean.