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Wednesday, February 11, 2004
Taneo: Head game
By Paul J. Taneo
Free-for-all
ONE of the most exciting football games so far this year is Manchester United’s heart-stopping mind-boggling 4-3 nipping of relegation candidate Everton away at Goodison Park.
After first-half goals by Louis Saha in the ninth minute, Ruud van Nistelrooy (24th minute – his 100th goal for Man U) and Saha again (29th minute), it seemed things couldn’t get any worse for Everton. Strangely, it got better for the local team.
Everton manager Moyes made three half-time substitutions, with Wayne Rooney, Thomas Radzinski and Gary Naysmith taking over Steve Watson, Francis Jeffers and Alessandro Pistone – jazzing up Everton’s offense. And the head attack com-menced.
In a spectacular display of aggression spiced up by a dose of luck, Everton evened the score all on headers: the first two goals on corner kicks and the equalizer also a header from a free-kick situation.
Just four minutes from the start of the second half, David Unsworth notched Everton’s first point by heading in the deflection of Kevin Kilbane’s corner on United’s John O’Shea.
In the 65th minute, O’Shea again featured in Everton’s goal, heading in a high corner for an own goal as he tried to block out an Everton attacker.
Ten minutes later, the fear of God struck Sir Alex Ferguson and his Red Devils as Kilbane headed in Thomas Gravesen’s free-kick.
That could have been the near-perfect end to Everton’s game but a Dutch scoring terror by the name of Ruud van Nistelrooy spoiled the Goodison Park resurrection party with a goal-area incursion torpedoing in on Cristian Ronaldo’s cross from right wing, for his 101st goal.
Everton’s teen-wonder Wayne Rooney could have pulled another rabbit for 4-all in the waning seconds but his punt went wide on a rolling pass.
There are few things more exciting than an underdog getting back against great odds then falling short.
And the high value of a single goal is what makes football more exciting than basketball. A lone goal/point can make a whale of a difference.
One goal in football is worth about 30 points in basketball. The best basketball teams will find it extremely difficult to get back from 30 points down and if an attempt is made at a comeback, it will take a good part of at least two quarters.
But in football, a team a goal behind can use all of two 45-minute halves to equalize plus extra time. That goal can come in 80 minutes or the final eight seconds. Like Russian roulette, you never know when the big bang comes. And when it does, it changes a whole lot – cranium structure or the scoreboard.
That makes it worth one’s time slugging through 70 minutes of drudgery of near-goals and tedious defensive standoffs. The wait can tax the patience of a saint but it is noble.
The Everton-Man U spectacle is far from being boring. It is one of those rare high-scoring (by football standards) matches that make fans come back for more risking high-blood pressure and heart attacks.
(sports@sunstar.com.ph)
(February 11, 2004 issue)
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