On the sidelines of yesterday’s Chelsea vs. Inter Milan match, Carlo Ancelotti looked like he was in the third hour of a four hour session on the fourth day of a physics conference. His face was dead. Expressionless. Emotionless. It was priceless. My sense is that Ancelotti would make a terrible mime.
The obvious angle here is that Ancelotti’s lack of emotion was passed on to his team. But Chelsea’s performance can hardly be said to have been emotionless. Chelsea certainly created chances on the night. There were a few calls that Chelsea fans will claim were clear penalties. Crazier assertions have been made. Penalties have been called for less.
So who is to blame? On paper, the team put out by Ancelotti is talented enough to beat any team in any league on any given European night. The team is full of “on the pitch” leaders. Ross Turnbull was hardly to blame for Eto’o’s clinical goal. So can we just chalk this loss up to the chips not falling right for Chelsea?
I suggest there’s no one really to blame. Teams don’t win every match. If anything, the Chelsea players didn’t do enough on the night to win. Period. But the performance was certainly not atrocious. You know what is atrocious? Politics.
Soccer is a great game because after (usually) ninety minutes, we know the winner. We might not agree with every decision, but at the end of the day, the score is the score and we move on to the next match. Beer will be consumed. Argument will ensue. But when all is said and done, there will be other topics to argue about next weekend. Someone will be caught having adulterous relations, drinking too much, stealing toilet seats, or sending around inappropriate pictures to strangers on a cellular device. And life will continue.
Political argument is like arguing over the Inter Milan v. Chelsea match for the next year. I doubt many of us could stomach that conversation. So who’s playing next?
