Drogba Goes the Way of Zidane

In today's Champion's League final, Chelsea and Manchester United went all the way through extra time tied, 1-1, and Man U. won on penalties, 6-5 (each team had 7 penalty attempts, after finishing the first five at 4-4). It was tense, mostly pretty slow, though often filled with drama, and ultimately unfulfilling to me.

The pain was lessened by recognition of the enormous effort all had to give to resolve this marathon stalemate. The conditions at Moscow's Luzhniki Stadium, which took out its artificial turf and planted (poorly) sod grass for this event, were rainy, soggy, and generally unacceptable. This contributed to the nature of the second half and extra time; that 75 minutes had no goals, and few good opportunities.

There were a lot of big-name players, and with their undoubted big egos, many of them probably thought the whole thing revolved about his own contributions: Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, who scored the Man U. goal but failed to convert his penalty shot at the end; Terry, the Blues' captain, who saved a sure goal with a header over the bar in extra time, and then had the game-winning penalty shot at his feet, but slipped and missed it wide; the Devils' Carlos Tevez, who probably should've been red-carded (ejected) at one point, and imposed his will on the game several times to create chances to score, but could not get a break; Lampard, who probably thought his goal was due to divine intervention (it was certainly lucky), but then watched his game-winner strike squarely off the crossbar, then got no opportunity in the deciding shootout (why not? one must ask). The deeper reality is that, most of the game, the flow revolved around Michael Essian, who had the task to control Ronaldo and did so, with the exception of one play.

In the big picture, though, it was about Didier Drogba, no doubt playing his last game for Chelsea, and his coach Avram Grant. There was a great shot at one point, during a stoppage in play, when Grant had a hold on Drogba's jersey, trying to tell him what he was supposed to do. Drogba had generally a bad game, though he almost knocked in a winner (the ball fell at his feet while walking forward, and he nailed one off the crossbar from 20 yards).

In the end, Drogba fell victim to the same result as Zidane in the 2006 World Cup final (historical note: France lost to Italy on penalties, after Zidane was red-carded for his famous head-butt on Materazzi). Drogba got a red card for a mini-slap to the face of Man U. defender Vidic in the midst of some multi-layered player argument. As with Zidane, Drogba reacted to something that was not captured on screen and not seen by the referee. As a result, Drogba (Zidane) was not around for the critical penalty kick showdown, when depth of quality penalty-takers is supremely important (Drogba/Zidane being one of the best).

After the World Cup, Zidane retired (and everyone knew it was the case coming into the game). Similarly, everyone expected this would be Drogba's last game for Chelsea, and his actions no doubt clinched it.

As for Grant, the conventional wisdom is that he had to win the trophy to save his job. I think he did enough to be offered to keep his job, but more likely the team will declare an intention to revamp pretty thoroughly in the offseason and he will move on, largely by his own choice.

Chelsea 2007-08 was not a great team by historical standards of great European football squads, but by Chelsea standards it was a classic Chelsea team: always tough, battling, falling just short. Just making it to the Champions League final was breaking new ground for the club (just as the two titles they won in 2005 and 2006 were the first in nearly 50 years), but somehow this one trophy that escaped will make the whole billion-dollar gamble by Roman Abramovich feel less than successful to him. And that's just his problem, if that's the way he takes it. We long-term fans will patiently endure whatever spasms occur (I heard a rumor Leonel Messi--the only rival to Ronaldo as Best In World--may be coming over from Argentina!) and remember fondly the efforts and huge contributions of those, such as Lampard and Drogba (even Shevchenko!), who may be forced by circumstances to move on.