Lyon vs Bayern – The day Lyon missed the plane. Badly.
By: Megame | April 23rd, 2010Dear fellow readers
Two years or so that I had been hiding at the back row of the OL Offside classroom, until a few of you (shame on you) noticed it and reported it to Mistress Inara. So I had to come forward, bow and pledge allegiance to the noble cause of the Olympique Lyonnais.
To impress and start with a bang I thought I would make a real nice article on Gonalons yellow boots; but then I couldn’t manage to search and get the size right. So I thought I’d be easy with myself for the first post and take a lighter topic to start with, like the first CL semi-final in Lyon’s history. So here we go, folks.
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I don’t know about you, but 3 days after the game I still have a sour taste in my mouth. A taste of disappointment, for the epic battle we were expecting didn’t take place; a taste of shame, for our heroes didn’t behave as such; and a taste of puzzlement, for I just didn’t recognise my team.
Let’s make it clear right away: Bayern’s victory suffers no debate, and they should be congratulated for a great football display. On OL’s side, all is not completely lost: Lyon are conscious to have missed their match, but will be pleased to have contained the red waves and to only concede one goal. That leaves them with non negligible chances to turn things around next week.
Caramba, the guy is getting taller by the minute!
It all started so well. The first minutes gave the tempo, with a lot of pace and energy from both sides. Bayern progressively taking hold of the ball, Lyon trying to stay cool and organised. That was quite a challenge, with both Robben and Ribery immediately signalling, with lightning fast dribbling, that they were here on a mission. Even defender Van Buyten , present in the OL box and kicking the first attempt at a goal, made no secret of their intentions.
Yet, for all these threatening moves, Bayern didn’t manage to be more dangerous than a Ribery shot, finally wide, and an Olic attempt, which he missed. Lyon’s defensive organisation was starting to be well in place, and, bar a couple of misjudgements from Hugo, – finally without consequences, but showing that even the most mature and cool-headed youngster can be affected by the importance of the game-, one could feel OL was regaining some control on the game. On several occasions they could bring the play to Bayern’s territory, creating decent chances: some Pjanic free kicks, a good shot from Ederson that would have been a nice goal without a deflection from a Bayern player.
But the game was soon to take an unexpected turn : a few minutes after Cris tackled him in a firm but correct way, which will have frustrated him, Ribery committed a late and high tackle on Lisandro, who seemed hurt. Having watched the scene Mr Rosetti immediately showed Frank a red, adding with this tender gesture the final touch to a dream week many of us would be envious of.
I can't believe how lucky I am, I must be dreaming
With Ribery gone, a whole new game was starting for les Lyonnais. Bayern’s offensive power would diminish, so Lyon would be able to use their numerical advantage and progress to the midfield. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be. Bayern continued as if it was Lyon who was missing one man; and Lyon didn’t get many more chances, except a typical Kimissile from 30 m, which Bayern keeper Butt (what an inspiring name!) managed to stop.
At half time, both teams had reasons to hope. Bayern, considering their impressive possession, had good reasons to hope they’d be able to break the gridlock; and Lyon, considering they had had the more shots on target, had reasons to believe that they’d be able to multiply them in the second half, as Bayern’s waves of attacks of the first half would eventually calm down, allowing them to regain control, shift the block higher and progress towards Butt’s cage. How wrong they were.
On the contrary, the little offensive intent from OL one could see in the first half simply vanished; a first shot on target from Pranjic sounded as a warning; with only one shot on target from Delgado in the second half Lyon progressively ceased to exist offensively. Bayern was therefore growing in confidence, players like Lahm started going outside their half; then came Robben with a 25m shot which Gonalons avoided and Muller’s head deflected into the net of a surprised Hugo Lloris. But the N°1 french keeper didn’t miss another Robben shot a few minutes later.
Then came the sequel, “Unexpected turn II : red is back”, when a cocktail of bad referee viewing position, inspired acting from Schweinsteiger, and pressure to balance the penalties count between both sides, sent Toulalan go check his text messages in the locker room.
There's a Hollywood guy over there who'd like to hire you for Karate Kid III
Midway through the second half, when Lyon usually ignites the second stage of the OL rocket, leading to these trademark high-octane last 15 minutes of the games, they realised there was no fuel left in the tank. From then on Lyon players must have been frequently looking at the clock, as the rest of the second half was going to be very long… In the meantime, Bayern, also a late gun salvo specialist, kept on pressing,; Van Gaal brought Gomez in to try and score the second goal that would have better secured the prospect of a trip to Madrid. It’s not by lack of trying, but this wasn’t to be. And, despite an 89th minute shot (wide) from Govou, the end came like a liberation to the OL squad.
So, what to take out of this game?
Like Barcelona, Lyon weren’t recognisable, like the shadows of themselves. One can’t help but think that the travel conditions played a role in the sub-par physical condition as well as the largely perfectible tactical and emotional preparation for the game. Bayern looked like themselves in a good day, remained organised so their much advertised defensive weaknesses didn’t show. And the absence from team captain Van Bommel didn’t seem too much of a blow.
Is Puel to blame?
I can’t help but feel the players let Puel down, as what he expected from them was to play like against Real, pressing Bayern high and hard, blocking the wings to avoid them developing their game and feeding Robben and Ribéry; and the instructions were to try and score at least once. That’s why he had sent Gomis warming up, to help Lisandro try and keep the ball more at the front; so he was about to substitute Bafe for Pjanic, when Toulalan started collecting yellows like daisies on Mother’s day. As a result, defence becoming the priority, Puel sent Makoun instead of Gomis in the midfield, and Gonalons slipped backwards to fill in for Toulalan.
But what the players did was NOT what Puel wanted. He never instructed them to leave 70m between Lisandro and the last defender. He never instructed them to hide in their 30 m. And with his famous never say die mentality, it’s obvious he would have hoped for more fighting spirit, too. And more ball retention. And therefore a better passing. And… And…
At this point of my ramblings, whatever consideration you guys may have had for me as a potentially OK poster is long gone, so I might as well go on and share my utterly subjective and profoundly autocratic views on the players performance.
Bayern:
What a performance from Robben! The best player on the pitch without a doubt. His right wing buddy Lahm also had a great game, combining with him to become a real threat without exposing his side. Demichelis managed to neutralise Lisandro, Van Buiten kicked off Bayern’s artillery campaign and, a few mistakes aside, put in a decent performance; Pranjic had a good game, if all Lyon players could only pass half that well…Schweinsteiger progressively found his marks and ran a marathon, and we could see how right Luke from the Bayern Offside was to warn us about Contento’s attacking potential. Olic did try hard but his game will be summarised by the golden opportunity he missed.As for Ribery, he had a very promising start, but I guess his nerves betrayed him. The substitutes had mixed performances: good for Tym… no, Tmush.., I mean Olic’s replacement ; lacklustre for Gomez, and ,in the end, a short but promising appearance from Altintop.
Lyon:
What can I say… More than individual performances, the collective shortcomings are the main factor for this disappointing display. Be it physically (unusual lack of endurance, the frantic defensive effort of the first half costing dear in the second half), technically (passing seemed a daunting task for Lyon players, and a breeze for Bayern), tactically (lack of lucidity, inability to isolate Robben from his midfield, loss of cohesion, position way too low) , or mentally (Lack of fighting spirit, lack of commitment, lack of self confidence ).
Still, with regards to the team composition next week we should examine individual performance:
Pjanic, with hardly any impact on the game; Ederson, a nice shot but that’s about it;
Lloris, with several hesitations in the first half compensated by stopping Robben’s and Pranjic’s shots afterwards; Réveillère, who suffered a bit in the first half but got better in the second; Kallström ran like crazy but was technically poor; Makoun missed a few passes then decided he would be better off running after the ball for the rest of the game; Lisandro tried hard to do what he could without the ball, but he was slower than usual; and he was well taken care of by fellow compatriot Demichelis and by a Bayern backline that had quite a bit of time free for that,; Delgado worked hard both offensively and defensively but didn’t dare much. Toulalan was well in the game, probably too much. On Robben’s interception he acted as a midfielder and not as the last defender, with an unexcusable foul. The second yellow wasn’t deserved, though. Govou brought some animation and danger on his wing. Bastos tried to do something, but with little effect overall, and earned himself a booking.
Cissokho did have a few useless crosses nobody could exploit (as giving ball away seemed to be the name of the game for Lyon players) but he should get credit for a remarkable and clean defensive performance against Robben, where others would have fetched 15 yellow cards; and Robben’s goal occurred when Aly wasn’t in charge of covering him.. Cris has been solid and reassuring throughout, but couldn’t find energy for his usual forays into the opponents half. Gonalons was pretty effective in midfield, a bit less so as central defender. But why, o why, did he shy away from Robben’s shot (apart from the 200 km/h, that is)? We would all be cheering about the great 0-0 Lyon brought back from Munich..;
The referee
This usually well regarded referee has a particular style : lenient on minor fouls, harsh on major ones. Hugo Lloris will remember how he got sent off with Les Bleus against Serbia, with a penalty on top. And Benitez had already noticed in 2008 that, with Rosetti at the whistle, home teams have a very clear advantage.
The public
The public started off in style with an impressive and colourful animation just before the game started. With such an massive support the Bayern players had a 12th, 13th and 14th man on the pitch. And Mr Rossetti had a huge pressure on his soulders to make the “right” calls, too. With a nice 3000 or so Lyon supporters, however loud they have been it was never going to be easy in front of 66.000 others, and it hasn’t been. Let’s hope for the opposite next week…
And believe it or not, that’s THE END of this summary ! (the rest of my post should be available soon, the first 20 volumes are under the press as I write these lines)
Sincere congratulations to the 3 people who will have read this far, and I still hope to read your views on this game!
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