revisiting the UCL 2012 finals

When someone says “God gave the European champions league trophy to Chelsea fc” I wonder at the answer to reply them with.

As a Christian, I am aware that all things happen for good to them who love God and are called according to His purpose; I also am aware that it is not he who wills, nor runs, neither is it to the strong nor the skillful, but God picks one up and lowers another. Then also, time and chance happen to everyone.

Based on this argument I have nothing more to add as a reply.

However, using a deus ex machina as the resolution, the denouement of a well crafted play serves a very uncalled for topic in the glory that God has allowed man to feel.

You have to say there was something divine about the arrangement for Chelsea fc to win, but if we look at the road to the finals in Munich it is evident that there was a glory that was Chelsea and even though it had faded a little was resurging. No one would have thought of an aging side overcoming so many youthful teams better placed in the recent pedigree of football bookmakers. Look at  teams like Napoli, hot off the press with a mix of strength and skill over run, and Barcelona, the “most complete” team of the decade all beaten. Some will say it was anti-football, but no, it was a game of tactics. And Chelsea had perfected the style better.  That is why when the award for the best coach was handed to Vicente del Bosque I cringed. Yes, his lads had won the world cup and the European cup but it was all one style of play, no adaptation. In my opinion, he didn’t play against a side managed by Jose Mourinho and so fared well.  And why the mention of Mourinho? He is the one who ingrafted the pattern that Chelsea fc used to win the champions league coming from the back of a terrible domestic campaign. Managers had come and gone with the flick of a hand and there was a very big unsettling divide between the dropping of the experienced players in favour of the young ones. And in the end, it showed that in the running of things, it is experience that really mattered. Because it was a team made largely of “aging” players who had the nerve to steal the show against Napoli, take out Barcelona and in another penalty shootout drown out Bayern Munich in their own stadium. Of course, it had to be divine.