Defending, drama, confidence and Polaris
Credit to Aberdeen and Celtic for offering up a classic cup tie at Hampden on Saturday. You and I watch a lot of football, but we seldom get to enjoy two teams going at it from the first to last minute.
Aberdeen manager-elect, Jimmy Thelin, must have watched, wondering just how a team that can put in two hours football like that are sitting ninth in the Scottish Premiership. We’ll leave him to ponder that one.
The game came alive in the second minute, when Cameron Carter-Vickers was caught square-on to the play, when he should have shifted his body shape to follow Bojan Miovski. Joe Hart got a leg to the Macedonian’s shot but it wasn’t enough; Aberdeen had an early lead.
Central defender, Angus MacDonald, pondered on the ball, which was enough to encourage Kyogo to pounce and rob him of possession. Bearing in on goal, Kyogo’s first forward touch was poor, which allowed Gartenmann to get a leg in front of the striker and block his shot. However, Nicolas Kuhn was on hand to stroke the ball into an empty net.
James Forrest replaced Yang, who had struggled playing out of position on the left, on the hour mark. Within three minutes James had marked his territory with a drive inside and shot, before repeating the feat and scoring on the second attempt. Keeper Roos was unsighted and had little chance to make the stop.
On most occasions, that would be that, but Aberdeen had battled throughout and were not about to give up without a fight. A goalmouth scramble saw a Junior Hoilett beat Hart but not Carter-Vickers, who blocked on the line.
The game peaked as it entered the 90th minute. Hoilett, a 33-year-old Canadian international, created the best move of the afternoon. He pitched a cross between a deep Celtic defensive line and the goalkeeper, which dropped into the six-yard-box in front of goal for Sokler to attack. Brendan Rodgers will ask questions about the other two goals Celtic lost, but this one was a peach.
Aberdeen seemed to flag during the first period of extra time. Connor Barron picked up an injury five minutes before the break in extra time but Aberdeen interim manager, Peter Leven, decided to hold off making a change. As the first period entered added time, Alistair Johnston hit the bye-line and cut back for Matt O’Riley, who scored Celtic’s third and gave them a lead which most fans assumed would be decisive.
As play entered the second period of extra time, Aberdeen were without Barron and Miovski, their best two players, but they would not be denied. In the last minute of extra time, Brendan Rodgers hooked James Forrest to put on an additional central defender, Maik Nawrocki. Before the Pole settled, Aberdeen found space on the wing James Forrest had been working.
Celtic were playing five at the back, with Nawrocki to the right of the central defensive three, patrolling the box. It didn’t work. We had no pressure on the ball to stop the cross, and Nawrocki was caught in no man’s land, available only to block a low cross, when the ball went high. Aberdeen’s stand-in captain for the day, MacDonald, made amends for his mistake at the first Celtic goal to send the game to penalties.
Who knew Celtic had six good penalty takers? Idah, Palma, O’Riley, Bernardo, Johnston and Iwata all scored with ice-cool precision. Three kicks were missed, the first, after Aberdeen keeper went over on his ankle, causing a lengthy delay before his team-mate, Ryan Duncan, was able to take his attempt.
Coincidentally, we talked on Thursday about the effects of a penalty taker forced to delay taking his kick. It cost Manchester City’s Bernardo Silva against Real Madrid and proceeded Ryan Duncan’s kick against the post.
Joe Hart watched his former side against Real and saw their keeper, Ederson, score in the shoot-out. I expect his motivation to take Celtic’s fifth penalty came from watching Ederson on Wednesday, not from weeks of meticulous practice demonstrating he was one of our better penalty takers. Confidence is important in these situations, but not as important as practice.
The smile on Joe’s face after his miss was a coping mechanism. He needed to demonstrate he was still in control to himself as much as anyone else. He might not be a good penalty taker, but he’s an experienced professional.
14 penalties taken, 12 on target, the first 11 of which found the net. Joe got his arms to Killian Phillips attempt to put Celtic into the final.
Occasionally, you will see losing fans turn and leave the moment the losing kick is made. On Saturday, both sets of fans remained to congratulate their sides on a performance which drained the public as much as the players. This is Scottish football.
40 years ago there was a forward for Oldco who was known as ‘Polaris’, for his ability to dive like a nuclear submarine. I don’t know if there was an unspoken understanding between John MacDonald and match officials, but to his credit, MacDonald at least did his work in an era before VAR. How utterly stupid would you have to be to be faced with an open goal and crash to the ground, hoping for a penalty instead when VAR can review your act? You wonder what Silva has been told about how life in Scotland works.
Fabio was offered around by Wolves in January. It wasn’t just his £50k a week wages that turned off all but the most gulible, it wasn’t even his theatrics. Fabio ended up where he did because of his ability.