Instead of holding off for extra time, they went for the jugular. ‘The Pitbull’ Medel was sent off for a clumsy midfield tackle that earned him his second yellow. Then, with one of the few forays into the Chilean half, Venezuela were given another freekick. You can probably predict the rest. Poor goalkeeping, marking etc, ball drops to Venezuelan player and out of nowhere

No, I am not talking about Arsenal, but I very well could be. I live in Chile and since I’ve been here I have fallen in love with the way their national team play football. The keep the ball and the ground, pass it quickly and try to manoeuvre it to take high percentage shots on goal. Sound familiar? The similarity doesn’t end there. When it keeps to set pieces, well… Let’s just say we are rather familiar with set piece inabilities. As I have said before, Arsenal are like American cars, they just cannot handle corners…

So, for anyone who cares, it has been the Copa America for the past couple of weeks, and to be honest, the quality has not been amazing. The one highlight of the tournament has been Chile’s performance. The attack to the very end and they never stop playing their way even if they are a goal down. In fact, it is only after conceding a goal that they really kick it up a notch and really put it to their opposition, as was the case against Mexico and Uruguay in the group stage.

Then came the quarter finals. The day before, Chilean fans witnessed Argentina getting knocked on penalties to a defensively determined Uruguay, then, the day of the match against Venezuela, fans witnessed Brazil getting knocked out by Paraguay, again on penalties. This was huge for Chile, since Brazil are to Chile what Barca are to Arsenal. Only in national terms.

So there they were, Chile against Venezuela, now tournament favourites after the defeats of Argentina and Brazil. The game started well enough, lots of penetrating passes by the creative midfield of Chile. Players like Alexis Sanchez, Gary ‘The Pitbull’ Medel and Himinez were cutting open a very determined Venezuelan defence. Yet Venezuela held firm. This was pretty much the pattern of the first half, in fact by the fortieth minute, the possession was 60% in favour of Chile.

Then came a corner. Poor defending. Venezuela one, Chile zero… Sound familiar???

The second half came and Chile really got stuck in. The hit the upright with an amazing strike and the then the crossbar with another wonderful move, that really deserved a goal. Players would penetrate along the flanks, put the ball in the center for Suazo ‘Chupete’ to have a dig at and by inches they were denied again and again. By this time Venezuela had had one chance on goal and scored, while Chile had had many brilliant chances and had nothing to show for it.

Then came the equalizer, another piece of great build up play found Suazo with the ball in the box, who dummied the defender, made himself some space and then blasted an unstoppable shot over the keeper, that only just crept in under the cross bar. 1-1, and Chile were on their way with about 20 minutes to find the winner. The game had swung in Chile’s favour and Venezuela were now completely entrenched in their half.

Then it all fell apart. Instead of holding off for extra time, they went for the jugular. ‘The Pitbull’ Medel was sent off for a clumsy midfield tackle that earned him his second yellow. Then, with one of the few forays into the Chilean half, Venezuela were given another freekick. You can probably predict the rest. Poor goalkeeping, marking etc, ball drops to Venezuelan player and out of nowhere, and arguably undeservedly Birmingham City… whoops… Venezuela are up 2-1.

And that’s that. Amazing. I really could have read you the script for the Carling Cup Final.

What is more, asides from the profligate finishing, poor marking at set pieces, fast flowing attacking football, 4-3-3, etc etc, there are even more similarities. Both teams are built on the development of youth, obviously Arsenal, as a club, have an individual youth system, but in Chile’s case, they instituted various youth development schools around the nation.

This vision was arguably the result of one man, the former manager, Bielsa. Mostly loved by Chilean fans. He had this vision to learn, build and grow a team of technical, attacking and fast players. He got the sack last year. Now Chile have Borghi. At first there was fear that this would be a step backwards, but apart from a few minor tweaks, the team seems to have developed more of a ruthlessness. BUT, they still can’t handle set pieces.

To finish off, this can either show you that loyalty only goes so far, and even if your manager has built the foundations, if he hasn’t provided the roof, the trophies, he must move on so you can find someone who can. Alternatively, you can find a new employee, who may charge more, and still not provide you with that much desired roof, ultimately leaving you broke, with no roof and construction workers, players, without a sense of direction because you have taken them halfway up one path and decided to u-turn and head another completely different direction.

Either which way, stick with Wenger or not, the failure to overcome anti football is not just a failure that we feel as Arsenal fans, it has happened to Brazil against Paraguay (I think they had something like 15 shots on goal to Paraguay’s 0, and Paraguay had 18 fouls to Brazil’s 6) and Chile against Venezuela. The Copa America has been ruined, because you now have four anti football sides in the Semi finals. Ultimately it is anti football that is the enemy, and whoever can find a way to make Arsenal, Chile or any other team (apart from Barca) succeed in the face of the anti football monster (Man City, Stoke, Birmingham, Mourinho, Mancini etc) is the man who needs to become elevated to a position just below god. At least, that’s my opinion.

Victoria Concordia Crescit.

Mean Lean’s Response

Nice piece Mr H and yes it does resemble Arsenal.

It is very difficult to reach the correct balance between technical football and dominating opponents from set pieces. It is no surprise that the best footballing teams in the world all consist of short, technical ball players where as the less skilful and more anti football sides are packed with giants with broken noses or apparently like it up em.

It is frowned upon that we are a smallish team that have not included more large players in midfield in attacking areas. Yet more often than not these large teams lose to us hence the higher league positions than the likes of Stoke, Blackburn, Bolton etc etc. The key is to keep our strengths whilst dealing with weaker teams strengths.

While Barcelona’s superior technique would carve Stoke City apart time and time again you can be sure that a Rory Delap throw into the box would cause a massive problem for the Barcelona team to defend. If Stoke were able to get any of the ball to win a few corners then they would have a decent chance of testing Valdes in goal.

Arsene has to find the best of both worlds and the pressure is on to get that right now. Being efficient enough to deal with these teams who target us in this area as well as improving on our technical quality. Not a job for the armchair managers like myself that’s for sure.