Schalke 04 loomed large in my childhood obsession with football.
Or, to be more accurate about it, they just loomed.
In 1969, the German side came to Dalymount Park to play Shamrock Rovers under lights in a European Cup-Winners Cup game, and as a Hoops nipper too young to actually go to the game, I had to be content with catching the highlights on an RTE programme which, if memory serves, was called ‘Sport In Action’.
Well, I watched it from my customary position on the edge of the sofa alright but, in truth, I didn’t see very much, although possibly more than the unfortunate crowd who were actually present in Dalyer got to witness on the night. What they would have called a pea-souper in London back in the day suffocated Phibsboro that evening. That made the result – a 2-1 win for Rovers – seem more like a rumour than a reality, as ghostly figures briefly materialised and then just as quickly disappeared in the gloom. Only the shouts of those immediately behind either goal alerted everyone else in the ground - not to mention those of us sitting baffled in our living rooms – to the always strong possibility that the Leecher had found the net again.
The fact that Schalke won the away leg 3-0 need not to detain us here, for obvious reasons, but the almost comical circumstances of the Dublin leg, coupled with what, at the time, seemed to me a most peculiar name for this German team, meant that they came to occupy a permanent place in my memory bank, if not my mind’s eye.
So, it wasn’t even an ABU instinct which had me hoping that Schalke would put on something of a show in Gelsenkirchen in the Champions League semi-final last night, even if it always seemed beyond the bounds that they would do unto Manchester United as they had done unto Inter.
In the event, however, I saw about as much of Schalke 04 last night as I had when they played that game in Dublin – deep breath – forty-two years ago.
Perhaps the realisation that they were only two steps from the final of the Champions League suddenly dawned because they played as if paralysed by a fear of failure. They looked from the very off like a team which had decided that they would try to cling on desperately to a scoreless draw and then just go out and give it their all in the second leg decider. Unfortunately for them, it now looks like the tie has been decided in the first leg.
But for goalkeeper Manuel Neuer – and how both Fergie and Wenger must have grimaced watching his inspired display – it would have been Schalke 05 or 06 even before the break. In the end, Ryan Giggs broke his resistance after a lethally incisive pass from Wayne Rooney and then the latter confirmed the visitors’ total dominance by sweeping in a second.
It was certainly an impressive United performance yet the true significance of it is difficult to assess in the light of the opposition’s near capitulation. Barring something singularly freakish happening at Old Trafford in the second leg, United are already as good as through to the final at Wembley. But be assured that what lies in wait there will be more tornado than fog on football’s meteorological scale.
Speaking of which, strap yourself in for tonight's bumpy ride.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/PhAX_sLizvk/post.aspx
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