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Weakness is Strength
Liverpool pulled off the greatest comeback in the history of club football, erasing a 3-0 halftime deficit and beating favorites AC Milan in penalties to win the Champion's League.
The sight defied belief, exhausted language, and redefined forever sporting joy. Milan had steamrolled their way to a three-goal halftime lead, with a strike from Paolo Maldini and two from Hernan Crespo. They'd blown Liverpool off the pitch, but surrendered their imperious-looking lead in only six second-half minutes, when goals from Steven Gerrard, little-used midfielder Vladimir Smicer, and Xabi Alonso raised them from death. Goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek killed off Milan in penalties, saving an incredible three spot-kicks.
This match saw the worst of Liverpool Football Club, and then the best. Their manager, Rafael Benitez, had perfectly marshaled their meager resources to get to the final, but his tactics here were almost treasonous. He inexplicably left his defensive midfielders-Dietmar Hammann and Igor Biscan-on the bench, exposing the soft underbelly of Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard, and bringing in the pathetic Harry Kewell to support forward Milan Baros. This allowed Milan's Kaka to the pitch untouched by tackles, and gave forward Andrei Shevchenko the space to hold the ball up, run like a wild horse and feed Crespo for two goals. Gerrard and Alonso could not have been more peripheral; Clarence Seedorf, of Milan, could not have played a better half. Defenders Jaap Stam and Alessandro Nesta were hardly troubled. Liverpool had no spacing, no possession, their passing was poor; they did everything they could to cede the match. Can a team be lucky to only be down three goals? Liverpool were.
Milan's first goal came with less than a minute gone, when a totally unmarked Maldini volleyed in a free-kick from Andrea Pirlo, after Kaka had been scythed down by an out-of-position Djimi Traore. Milan sought to capitalize on their early lead by squeezing Liverpool with pressure, and Liverpool obliged. Shorn of screening midfielders, the Scousers proffered two routes to their goal, one through longballs to Shevchenko, who exploited his speed, passing and magical first touch to set the table for Crespo, or else through Kaka, who played unmarked, running and passing unharassed. His pass to Crespo for Milan's third goal ran untouched for fifty yards. It was a disgrace. It invalidated Liverpool.
The seams in Milan's defense were there to be exploited, but Luis Garcia, Vladimir Smicer-who'd replaced Kewell-and Milan Baros weren't enough up to the task. But Benitez made the switch at halftime that changed the fortunes of Liverpool. He threw on Dietmar Hamman and pushed Gerrad up the pitch, to support his forwards. Now he had the numbers to harness Milan's own tactical miscalculation. Milan are famously impregnable defensively, but the excellence is based not only the class of their individuals, but on their caution. Midfielders Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo are masters at tracking back into their own area and making plays, but they were miles up the field and preening when Liverpool started their fightback. In the fifty-fourth minute, Steven Gerrard rose unmarked to head home a cross from John Arne Riise. A minute later, Smicer scored from outside the area, when no defenders closed him down. Five minutes later, Gerrard beat Gattuso into the box, and courageously dove. Dida saved the penalty but Xabi Alonso scored his own rebound. The impossible had occurred in less than six minutes.
Milan looked stunned, numb, dazed, zombified; zorched. And though they wrestled momentum back, they couldn't find a goal against Liverpool hero Jamie Carragher, who made almost a dozen game-saving interventions at the feet of Shevchenko. Dudek contributed, too; he dropped three balls in his own six box, but made a stupendous double-save on Shevchenko in extra time. Milan still found a way behind Liverpool's fullbacks, especially through substitute Serghinho, but they still couldn't score. They looked like Juventus and Chelsea had; they had come up against what can only be described as The Legacy of Liverpool. Winners of four European Cups, the Scousers had only to awaken the ghosts of their past, who carried them to victory.
The extra time was awesome to watch. Substitute John Dahl Thomasson missed a simple volley in the one hundredth minute, and showed why Crespo starts ahead of him. Kaka headed wide from a pass by Stam. Gerrard limped, Pirlo staggered, Carragher stopped Milan all by himself, and on one leg. And in penalties, Dudek achieved redemption for all his uncountable howlers, stopping Serginho, Andrea Pirlo and the mighty Shevchenko. He still may find himself replaced next season, along with half of his teammates, including Kewell, who ignominiously took himself out in the twentieth minute. But no one, not even a klutz like Dudek, can be begrudged his place in the pantheon when he stops three penalties in a European final. He is purged. He is redeemed. He cannot be touched by sportswriters.
Steven Gerrard fulfilled his destiny also, putting Liverpool back in the match by sheer force of will, though, for roughly seventy minutes, he was invisible, and couldn't hold the midfield against Milan, and proved, perhaps in spite of himself, that he's not a defensive player. Serginho beat him like a drum on the touchline in extra time, but Serginho lost, and Gerrard made the plays to win. Even in victory, most of Liverpool were outplayed. Sami Hyypia, Steve Finnan and Luis Garcia all were poor. Surely Milan have a better squad, top to bottom, and they know it. But Liverpool's limitations are also what make them strong: they suck at football, and so they don't play football, exactly; they merely defend their goal to the death, and find a way to score with hope-against-hope type-goals, such as those they scored today, or the ones against Chelsea, and Juventus. A three-goal disadvantage was impossible to surmount, any intelligent person knows that, but the Scousers aren't intelligent, they're fools, and so they can get simple in a fight. Grab an unexpected goal against Milan, who are nothing if not smart, and they start to sweat. In short, Milan fear they'll be humiliated. Liverpool are always, perpetually humiliated; they came in fifth in their own league, they're chronic underachievers. You can't take anything away from them because they don't possess anything. Their Champion's League goals have almost all been flukes; their defense is one guy against eleven. They have no fear; their wives will love them if they fail, they've proved it again and again. The same cannot be said of the wives of Milan. This is how ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things: they win against themselves. Liverpool are piteously weak, which makes them great. To paraphrase Harold Goddard, the weaker you are, the greater the victory.
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