I am not known to be the world’s best multi-tasker. First Person shooters are beyond me, as I lack the dexterity in my digits to walk, jump, and crawl around, while at the same time, aim and shoot at aliens and terrorists…or merely Alien Terrorists. You can ask my college roommates about my Halo credentials, where I’m pretty sure my PR was 10 kills on Valhalla. Depressing isn’t it? The act of trying to simultaneously eat food and watch TV leaves me feeling confused and helpless. Walking and talking…forget about it. I went to the hospital the last time I attempted to rub my stomach and pat the top of my head at the same time. You never heal from that.
But such challenges are the demands placed upon the European clubs who are currently competing in UEFA’s 2011 Champion’s League tournament. Along with the highest quality soccer one can find on this planet, the Champions League also yields unparalleled results in the art of multi-tasking. Take Manchester United, producing a less-than-enthusiastic 1-1 result against Liverpool in mid-October, then having to look forward to immediately (the next day) flying across mainland Europe to play a match against Otelul Gulati in the ominous shadows of the Transylvanian mountains. Or look at Intternazionale, playing Bologna on a Sunday in mid-September, only to find themselves at the edge of the European continent in Russia less than 24 hours later, to prepare for a match against CSKA.
It is a balancing act fit for few, as usually the elite teams are the only sides with the experience and maturity to handle these demands, while also producing winning results. The high level of difficulty in regards to success within the Champions League is definitely tied into the logistical challenges of travel and rest in short spaces of time, but more so, it transcends these issues and becomes completely a matter of mentality. For even when any Champions League fixture is played at home, following a home game in any team’s respective domestic leagues, there is still a tangible electricity of nerves and explosiveness to the game. The skill level and dedication of each club featured within Champions League, makes the glaring and cherished advantage of playing in front of your home fans and in your home stadium, almost obsolete. Obviously you have a bundle of sides with uncommonly hostile home environments, but for the majority, skill and determination can trump such an advantage. So even with all the domestic momentum and expenses in your corner, no result in the Liga de Campeones is at all guaranteed for any side.
There is no better example of the fractions that separate the teams from one another in this league, than the tie that AC Milan not too long ago salvaged at the expense of Barcelona, AT THE NOU CAMP. Yes, the Camp Nou. The Spanish Thunderdome of European football. The Italians walked out of those grounds, which have fostered the decayed corpses of far too many of Europe’s best sides, with a 2-2 draw, scoring in the 1st and 90th minutes of play. Not even Stephen Gaghan could write a soccer script like that. Every side approaches the execution of their game plan with an “assassin-like” level of focus; every side plays a group stage match as if it will be the last time they will ever breathe again. This intensified level of competition brings out the best of some clubs, big and small, and conversely, the worst in some clubs, both big and small.
It is most intriguing to note though, the way this Champions League rhythm if you will, affects the mentality of certain clubs. Some chug it like a blueberry Four Loko and play out of their minds, others, similarly to attempting to solve a Rubick's cube after getting pepper-sprayed, can never seem to figure it out. Something within the identities of certain teams responds to this implicit invisible electricity. An electricity which creeps into every stadium and pitch, transforming any ground into an agent of footballing history. Like Hogwarts and the wizardry/witchcraft of Harry Potter, Champions League football is less an institution, but more of an invisible universe that lay just beyond the average person’s perception of what these games appear to look or feel like. It is something both special and continuously unseen, as every season adds new chapters to both the dusted history books of Europe’s old guard, and the paperback pages of Europe’s fresher starlets.
This sensation has a tendency of leading to split personalities within clubs. The highs and endorphins being so unique and superior in regards to Champions League, that certain squads engage in retroactive schizophrenia, developing conflicting domestic identities and European identities. Inter Milan finds itself at the top of Group B, but in the bottom 6 of the Serie A table, a place where they haven’t found themselves in nearly 20 years. Schalke 04 displayed an uncanny knack for success in last year’s tournament, reaching the semi-finals against Man United, but enjoyed one of their most dismal domestic seasons in recent memory. Even Manchester City, a team that is experiencing great success at the top Premiership, is 3rd in Group A, in need of 3 points to keep their Champions League hopes alive. Arsenal is one of the best examples of this Dr. Jekyll-Mr. Hyde juxtaposition, as of late, enjoying most of their recent and noteworthy success in Europe’s Big Dance; with notable wins, one of those against Barcelona in the 2010 competition. Rangers and Celtic are the exact opposite, experiencing no obstacles in the path to domestic success, as either team has been the Scottish Premiership champion since the birth of the league in 1998, but on the Champions League stage, despite their skill, have progressed minimally.
This condition of schizophrenia is not entirely detrimental, as it allows teams the opportunity to reinvent themselves as far as their identity and capability go, as their season progresses. But the reasons for this development of multiple personalities lays encrypted in an invisible UEFACL code. What within the competition brings the best out of some teams, at the expense of their domestic campaigns? Or having the situation inverted, what is it within Champions League that brings the worst out of some teams, to the benefit of their domestic campaign? We many never know….but it doesn’t mean we cant try to understand or see it. So, like a Muggle searching for Platform 9 and ¾ at Kings Cross Station in London, I will continue to search for the nuances and reasons which contribute to these trends of Champions League schizophrenia, in hope to one day, not find a cure, but just some insight as to how and why the League’s participants undergo these radical fluctuations of identity and habit. All these questions and more are covered on today’s November 2nd broadcast at World Football Daily. JOIN US IN THE CHAMBER OF SECRETS.
Your friend and teammate,
Luke Van Patten
World Football Daily
