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Thanks for the Memories, Didier
Drogba leaves Chelsea for Shanghai
This week Didier Drogba made it official that he’s joining Shanghai Shenhua, where he’ll presumably finish out his remarkable playing career. He first announced his Chelsea departure the week after the team’s amazing Champions League Final victory in which he scored the winning PK. If he was going to leave Chelsea, it was understandably an ideal time to depart – going out on top as the hero (not only in the Final, but in several other crucial moments of the season).
If Chelsea hadn’t won the Champions League this year, perhaps Drogba would’ve pushed harder to strike a new deal with the club. But since they won, he’s moving on to a new challenge. I’m not sure what he finds appealing about Chinese soccer though. If he was going to leave Chelsea, I wish he’d chosen MLS.
Drogba has been one of my favorite Chelsea players, but it’s hard to be bitter about his departure. He seemed genuinely torn up about leaving. Plus, in today’s transfer happy world, he stayed at Stamford Bridge longer (2004-2012) than a lot of players do at any club.
Chelsea will seem a bit strange for me without Drogba because he was a major reason I became a Blues fan in the first place. He, along with Michael Essien and Michael Ballack, first really caught my eye during the 2006 World Cup. Since all three of them played for Chelsea at the time, I quickly became partial to the Blues.
Drogba is a Chelsea legend. It won’t be the same to tune in Saturdays and not see him in blue, muscling his way around the box, rifling shots from crazy angles. But it sure was fun while it lasted!
What are your favorite Drogba moments as a Chelsea player?
Chelsea’s Turn
It’s now or never for Blues veterans in their quest to be European Champions
When Chelsea overcame Barcelona to make it to the Champions League Final, I wrote that I was afraid the final itself might seem a bit anticlimactic after such an epic, heroic effort. I hope I’m wrong! Unfortunately, Chelsea squeezed in some pretty anticlimactic (and downright depressing) Premier League matches between the Champions League semifinal and tomorrow’s final. To defeat Bayern Munich in their home stadium will require another heroic effort. Chelsea can do it – Bayern isn’t as good as Barcelona. But the gutsy, smartly aggressive, unified Chelsea team will have to show up in Munich, not the lackadaisical squad that lost to Newcastle and Liverpool over the past couple weeks.
On the eve of the world’s biggest club competition final, most pundits are pegging Chelsea as the underdogs. The pundits are probably right. If the Blues can keep from conceding a goal in the first half hour, I like their chances. Offensively, Drogba and Lampard need to have a big game. I hope Torres gets to start up front with Drogba – I think they could create some good space together. Mata’s final-third passing must be sharp.
The area I’m most nervous about is defense. With Cahill and Luiz just now returning from hamstring injuries, I’m afraid they may not be up to speed enough to adequately fill in for the suspended Terry and Ivanovic. But then, who would’ve thought Jose Bosingwa (who replaced Cahill when he pulled his hamstring in the second leg against Barcelona) would be such a defensive rock against Barcelona? If Luiz gets the starting nod, he must play with absolute discipline, as he is susceptible to clumsy fouls in dangerous areas. I think Ashley Cole can hold off Arjen Robben on the right wing, but I’m not sure Chelsea has a defender that can consistently occupy Franck Ribery on the opposite wing. I’d also feel better if Terry was able to mark Mario Gomez in the middle.
If Chelsea weathers the early Bayern onslaught, I think we’ll be in for a great back-and-forth battle. Of course, I’d definitely trade back-and-forth for a comfortable two or three goal Chelsea lead for most of the match!
Chelsea making it to the Champions League Final feels like the club is living on borrowed time. It’s almost like a bonus – of the best kind – that the team barely deserves after their awful Premier League season. Yet they do deserve to be in the final because no other team clawed their way through the tournament like Chelsea did. The Champions League and Premier League were odd dual seasons for the Blues this year – with their Champions League performances reminding us what they’re capable of. Chelsea has the chance on Saturday to turn a most forgettable season into an unforgettable one. For Chelsea veterans like Drogba and Lampard, you can be certain they’re going to leave it all on the field to ensure the team doesn’t waste this very rare opportunity.
Will Chelsea win their first ever European Cup on Saturday?
Chelsea’s Champions League Week
Blues wrap up EPL season with win, now focused on Champions League Final
Another Premier League season came to a rousing close on Sunday. Though I can’t stand either of the Manchester teams, I was glad to see Man City snatch the title from Man U at the last second. It was the lesser of two evils I suppose.
On the relegation side of things, I was disappointed to see Bolton go down instead of QPR. I don’t like QPR – too many thugs. I do like Bolton coach Owen Coyle though and never expected them to be relegated this season.
As for Chelsea, their 2-1 win over Blackburn on Sunday was devoid of any suspense since Chelsea had completely tanked against Liverpool the previous Wednesday (losing 4-1). It was quite a bizarre defeat on the heels of beating Liverpool just three days earlier in the FA Cup Final! It was such a frustrating loss, I couldn’t bear to blog about it until now.
I’m not sure how Chelsea was so bad in the Liverpool loss, particularly since it was their last chance to possibly salvage a top four finish and ensure Champions League play next season. I really wanted to see them have that insurance just in case things go poorly in the Champions League Final in Munich this Saturday. Now there is added pressure because if they don’t beat Bayern Munich in the Final, Chelsea will suffer a yearlong Champions League drought. Not cool.
Chelsea previewed their new kit Sunday against Blackburn (see below). I like the classy, simple design. I was iffy about the gold lettering/stripes at first, but I think it’s going to work.
Conspicuously missing from the club’s ad campaign for the new Adidas kit is Didier Drogba. I hope his absence doesn’t mean he already has a foot out the door. If he does, everyone is keeping their lips impressively sealed.
When Di Matteo put Drogba in the game in the second half against Blackburn, the moment, and the crowd’s reaction, had a farewell vibe to it. Drogba has always been one of my favorite Chelsea players. I really hope he has a huge Champions League Final that will help motivate him to stay with Chelsea a couple more seasons.
This week is all about Champions League Final prep for Chelsea. Cahill and Luiz apparently trained with the team today, so hopefully they’ll be fit by Saturday. With all of Chelsea’s injuries and suspensions, I’m not feeling particularly confident at the moment. I’ll have to remind myself for the rest of the week that they got past Barcelona, so anything’s possible on Saturday, right?
What do you think of the new Chelsea kit? Do you think Drogba will be at Chelsea next season? Feel free to weigh in below…
Good Times!
Chelsea beats Liverpool 2-1 in FA Cup Final
Liverpool looked like the Chelsea of a few months ago – which isn’t a compliment – in Saturday’s FA Cup Final. Chelsea wasn’t fantastic, but they were more than good enough to claim their seventh FA Cup title in club history.
Ramires (who scored first for Chelsea in the 10th minute) has poured it on in recent weeks. He seems to be hitting his stride right now – fantastic at open field runs with the ball, and much more efficient at finishing than he was earlier in the season. Chelsea was wise to secure Ramires in a long-term deal this year, as he looks likely to be a key player for the club in the next several seasons.
Drogba added the Blues’ second goal in the 51st minute. The guy is a clutch performer. Chelsea will need him to show up in a major way in the Champions League final. He just knows how to get the job done when a lot is at stake. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be in favor of resting him so much between matches as Di Matteo has preferred lately, however, the extra rest hasn’t seemed to rust Drogba at all. I’d really like to see Torres paired up front more with Drogba as opposed to this constant either/or situation. For the Munich Final, Torres could get plenty of crosses in to Drogba as well as free up some space for him by pulling defenders out of the middle where Drogba usually lurks.
Petr Cech has also improved over the past couple months. It’s easy to take Cech for granted because he’s been so consistently good for Chelsea for several years. This hasn’t been a strong season for Cech overall, but like a true pro, he has upped his game at crucial times for the club recently. His saves were huge in keeping Barcelona at bay in the Champions League semis, and Saturday’s point-blank deflection of Andy Carroll’s header late in the match preserved Chelsea’s lead and ultimately led to their fourth FA Cup title in six years.
Chelsea’s FA Cup triumph is a nice consolation of sorts for what has been a stinky Premier League season for the club. It’s also another important confidence booster ahead of the Champions League Final on May 19. Can’t wait for that one!
Who do you think were Chelsea’s key performers in the FA Cup win over Liverpool?
Not Good Enough
Newcastle dashes Chelsea’s Champions League hopes for next season
It’s been such a great month for Chelsea that it almost seems ungrateful to complain about their 2-0 loss to Newcastle Wednesday. But I was pretty mad about it after watching the game last night.
Winning has a way of spoiling fans. We very quickly come to expect it every single match, even though winning every time is rarely realistic. It’s been a dismal season for the Blues overall, which is why this great run under Di Matteo has been so fun. No one saw it coming. And it just kept going and going before it apparently peaked with the Blues’ gutsy elimination of Barcelona from the Champions League.
The fact that defeating Barcelona was so fun made Wednesday’s loss to Newcastle all the more jarring. Against Newcastle, Chelsea resembled the Villas-Boas era Blues: some decent and sometimes fancy possession with absolutely nothing to show for it. To be fair to Chelsea, they were scored on by two of the awesomest goals of the entire Premier League season (both by Senegalese striker Papiss Cisse). But it was still upsetting that the team that shut down Barcelona for 180 minutes got beat twice by the same guy (and couldn’t muster any goals themselves)!
Losing to Newcastle is depressing because the match was Chelsea’s last hope for insuring a Champions League spot for next season. There’s still a sliver of hope of course – they’ll qualify for the next UCL season if they win this season’s UCL final against Bayern on May 19. But that’s just the thing – I’m not feeling confident that Chelsea will able to beat Bayern in Munich. I’m afraid the Barcelona semifinal was the high point of Chelsea’s season. I hope I’m wrong. I don’t know about other Blues fans, but my heart is set on the Champions League title. Yes, the FA Cup Final is Saturday and it would be great to win it, but for me it’s all about the Champions League Final.
Who do you think will win Saturday’s FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Liverpool?
Bravo Blues!
Chelsea defeats Napoli 4-1, advancing to Champions League quarterfinals
Wednesday’s second leg round of 16 clash with Napoli at Stamford Bridge was hands down Chelsea’s biggest win of the season. It was a crackling night of classic and dramatic Champions League action that saw Chelsea overcome a 3-1 aggregate deficit by netting four goals. The game was thrillingly suspenseful for 120 minutes, having been forced into extra time since the aggregate score was 4-4 at the end of regulation. In the 104th minute, Ivanovic scored the winning goal for Chelsea in the kind of triumphant moment reminiscent of the Blues’ better days from the past several years. It was the kind of moment that makes soccer fans swoon, the kind that have been unfortunately few and far between for Chelsea supporters this season.
Particularly gratifying in this match were the unified heart and fighting spirit the team demonstrated throughout. It was the kind of will to win that has been oddly absent for much of this campaign. The fact that three of Chelsea’s four goals were scored by Chelsea’s “old guard” (Drogba, Terry, and Lampard respectively) was also quite gratifying. Their goals and leadership were emphatic parries to critics’ jabs this season that Chelsea would be better off without these “geezers”. What is remarkable about this rampant critical ageism is the double standard demonstrated by the rave reviews heaped on Manchester United’s own geezers Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. Wednesday night’s performance proved that Drogba, Terry, and Lampard are not done yet!
The victory over Napoli keeps hope alive that perhaps something magical can be salvaged from this otherwise dreary season for the Blues. Today’s Champions League draw determined that Chelsea will now travel to Benfica for the first quarterfinal leg on March 27th. Here’s hoping that Chelsea’s recent recovery blossoms into a resurgence that will propel them all the way to the final in Munich!
How will Chelsea fare against Benfica in the quarterfinals?
