Liverpool FC Forum

by **stmichael** » Thu May 03, 2007 3:30 pm

What a week indeed Rafa-Dodd! Or better said, what a month it has been, especially for us Liverpool's fans. So many things have been said about our club, about english clubs in Europe and how we were going to see an All English Final in Athens, between Chelski and Manure blah blah blah.

But this week, the jury has returned the verdict, and the wanna bes can continue their search for a European title.
Our experience of this past month has actually strengthened my belief that being success in Europe is something special, something that not every team can achieve. It's not something too difficult to conclude, right? I mean, just go on and ask Juve, Manure, Chelski, Lyon and even to a certain extent Barca, which I'll explain later. I believe there are several factors that always play a key in a european success.

The Manager

Some managers have what it takes to be a European champion, some don't. When we got Rafa, we knew that he had been successful in Europe, even though only in UEFA Cup. But the fact stays that he knew how to win against teams that belong to different leagues. It may come down to the fact that he used to spend a lot of time in England and Italy to study football of different leagues. Sir Bob was another one. The time he spent under Shankly and all european travel before he became manager really helped his managerial time so that he knew what to do. There are several others that I would put into these brackets, Capello (done it with Milan and Madrid, he could have done more with Madrid this time around, but too much politicking hurt him), Maurinho (done it with Porto but he was unlucky too meet the real European giant, LFC), Hitzfeld (done it twice with two different clubs, Dortmund and Bayern), Brian Clough (done it twice, what else can you say?). Some other managers, however, will continue cursing themselves for their lack of european success. Wenger, Ferguson, Lippi, Trappatoni belong to this group. You can argue that Ferguson and Lippi had won it before. But if you see how their teams used to command their own league so strongly, you should ask how come they haven't won more? So, what went wrong?

Tradition

Maybe it lays on the second factor, tradition. When Mourinho won it with Porto, he knew that winning it would make his club come full circle once again. But in Chelski, he has trouble in connecting the club to the previous success in Europe. Is tradition really that powerful? I would argue, yes. It is tradition that makes fans hungry for more, "We have to repeat the previous success". I remember asking my self after the first half in Istanbul: "Is this where it has to end? After working so hard to go back to the pinnacle of european football, do we have to go down this way?" I have also read some pieces by those who were Istanbul asking the same questions. It resulted in a defiant mood of trying to put things right, in singin You'll Never Walk Alone. Rafa also said something about we are being Liverpool that we can't go down that way. It's a tradition that made Gerrard believe that there was still something for us to take from that game, that made him produce such a perfect header. The same one that made Carra continue to to produce tackle after tackle even though he already had a cram. The same tradition that made Hamman continue to play without feeling any pain of a broken foot, that made smicer produced a great strike and an even greater celeberation.

Of couse, a tradition has to start somewhere. This is where I believed that Shankly plays a very important role for us. He helped instill the winning mentality that will result in a strong tradition. His speech after losing in the FA is a perfect example. He made us believe that we were (are) always destined to be a great club, the venues did not matter.
Reald Madrid was lucky to start the tradition when the competition was not so tough as they are now. That's why when there were chances to be at the top in Europe, they seized it without any problems. winning three with the last one being in 2003 in Glasgow. But Barca, who played some beautiful football during Cruyf and Rijkaard's era could only produce one for each. A small return for me, considering how wonderful and powerful their footballs were. Valencia failed twice in a final to a team with a better tradition in Europe, Madrid and Bayern.

Another perfect example of having tradition is AC Milan. They've won it several times during the 80's and 90's and also one in this millenium. Milan's supporters last night also showed how they believe that they do belong to the top of european football. But Inter Milan and Juventus always struggled to achieve it despite their domination in. Juventus won only once and failing twice during the Lippi era despite reaching the final three times, once against a team with another tradition in Europe, Ajax, once agains Dortmund managed by Hitzfeld. And Inter Milan? With Trappatoni and the german trio, Matthaeus, Klinsmann and Brehme plus Bergomi. Inter played great football, but only yield in one UEFA cup in europe. They managed to disrupt AC Milan domination in the league, but not in europe.

We are what we are

It puzzled me a lot to see how a lot of newspaper, local ones here, and also in England (read some through the Internet) seemed to take for granted that they will see a great English Final! What makes them think that Mancs would be able to do it? A better manc side had failed many times previously, mind you, they failed against the like of Galatasaray (no offense to Gala, just to highlight the fact that when it comes to europe, they were as special as any other clubs without european pedigree). What makes them feel that Chelski would be able to do it? A team that has no passion in their supporters would find it a struggle to go an extra mile to achieve success, that extra mile that could have pushed their team to get another goal in Stamford Bridge against us two weeks ago. We are what we are right now because we are blessed to have great managers in Shanks, Bob Paisley and Rafa. Their tactical nous helped us prevail in europe.

We are what we are right now because we have a tradition. A tradition understood well by every supporter (including Gerrard and Carra) that makes Anfield's european nights special. This tradition that made Rijkaard believe he needed to push for a win, resulted in our second goal in Nou Camp. The same tradition that have made Terry cry and Mourinho curse. It's the same tradition that turned a footballer like Djimi Traore into a european medal winner. It's the tradition that no money can buy.

by **Emerald Red** » Thu May 03, 2007 4:12 pm

Good post, Rafa.

I was listening to Thompson in the commentary studio at half time, and he was going on about "if we can just knick one" and this and that. I was obviously capitulating to the notion of any sort of comeback, and told him to f*ck off, then told my brother to turn it over! He didn't, and I was just watching on to see what further damage there was going to be. Thank God he didn't turn it over. I'd have missed something that I now will never forget for the rest of my days. Even when Smicer scored, it was like I was still expecting defeat for some reason. I think it was both shock and disbelief that the score was 3-2 in such a short space of time. I wasn't even thinking of getting another. All my brain was telling me was "ah, well, 3-2 is better than 3-0", and I said this to my brother. Then that penalty came and the rest is history!

by **Sabre** » Thu May 03, 2007 4:21 pm

Nice reads in this thread.

Rafa, of course we can do it, and this time can be really brilliant: Spanish champion? beaten. Chelsea the millionaires? beaten. Milan Ac? if beaten, nobody could say that we had an easy way to this cup, FFS!!!

by **red_guy** » Fri May 04, 2007 5:13 am

Good Post Rafa. Nice read. It reminds me of Istanbul 2005. Since i live in Southeast Asia and didn't have the luxury to go to IStanbul, i ended up watching the game at my Grandma's house with my brother and my cousins. When we're 3-0 down, i was so devastated....we all are. After beating olympiakos, leverkusen, Juventes and Cheatski..i just can't accept the fact that we were trailing by 3 goals against Milan and it looks like we're losing. I just stood there speechless...i just can't think at that time.And then my Grandma said to me..'don't worry, Liverpool will score 3 after this'. and i told her it's impossible ....but stil she she said..'you'll see.' And we scored 3 after that.I nearly cried when we won . Till this day, i just can't figure out how did she know that...i think i'm gonna ask my grandma , whats the scoreline in Athens.

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