No I am not making a sagely prediction that Barcelona will receive support from the arbitrators in this weekend's match, but instead I am speaking of a match gone by. As shocking as this is, Mourinho's Madrid is involved in a scandal. Unlike those of the past, and those likely to arrive in the future, Madrid really has very little to do with the situation.
I am, of course, referring to the events that transpired in both matches of the Champion's League group D. A novel looking Madrid side managed to defeat a depleted Ajax team 3-0, but across the continent Lyon managed to defeat already-guaranteed-fourth-place Zagreb 7-1 after going into halftime 1-1.
Now I could bore you to death with a treatise examining the rhetorical power of a conspiracy theory, but suffice to say they can be a lot of fun to talk about. The machinations of group D are rife with off happenstance and as such has lead to a lot of those fun conspiracy theories. As things stood yesterday morning, a win by Lyon and a loss by Ajax would put the two level on points. Ajax went into the tie with a goal differential of +3 while Lyon trailed far behind with -4. So unless both Ajax and Zagreb imploded, the Dutch were heavy favorites to advance and grab that 25 million euro payout for making the knockout round. Even at halftime (for both games, remember that games are played simultaneously on the last matchday of the group stage) Ajax maintained a 5 goal lead in GD. Then that second half happened...
Before we get further into the discussion, its important that we all know what happened in Zagreb.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAq7PE6RVYM
Six unanswered points in a second half that looked like infantil B vs. Ronaldo and Company. Does it make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up? Should it? What about those two goals that should have counted for Ajax but were called as offsides? Don't worry, the game didn't matter for us so you can admit that those should have been tallied and not be immediately called a cule. Is Madrid the innocent patsy in this whole sordid affair? Let us dive even deeper into the agents of this match fixing conspiracy.
#1 Olympique Lyon
The French team had a lot to gain by pipping the Dutch side to the knockout round. 25 million is just the beginning, as that does not account for the increased visibility and prestige of making the next phase of the Champion's League tournament another year in a row. They managed to run the score up in the second half which was an impressive feat, but if they were involved in this conspiracy then its hard to imagine it was anything but off field actions, since it was in their obvious interest to try to beat Zagreb as thoroughly as possible.
#2 Ajax Amsterdam
Clearly as the losers they could have had no part in any scheming, other than being the victim of the aforementioned.
#3 Real Madrid
Surely just as innocent as Ajax. No one can blame them for wanting to win every single one of their Champion's League matches and without conceding a single goal to Ajax, Madrid was just along for the ride of any conspiracy.
#4 Dinamo Zagreb
Finally the plot thickens! Zagreb, and the Croatian league, don't excactly have sterling reputations. As recently as last year Zagreb was accused of match fixing. Watching the highlights, one is not overwhelmed with the fighting spirit of the Croatian club. Many of the goals that Lyon was able to score seemed more to do with lethargic defenses than pristine attacking play. Then of course there is the wink that could be seen in the highlights video above. As Ronaldo has long since taught us, a wink is not always a sign of foul play, but it does make you curious.
#5 That Ref
As I mentioned, and any good Madridista already knows, Ajax were denied two legitimate goals in the first half. Of course if the first one is allowed then the second chance might have never happened, but two denied goals is a big deal when you get knocked out by goal difference. Could the Portuguese sideline ref have been on the take? Conspiracy theorists would certainly have you believe so.
What the conspiracy theorists will not remind you of is the fact that the same assistant referee wrongly ruled a Madrid opportunity offsides in the second half, which doesn't sound like something you'd do if you were on the take. Furthermore, Zagreb was far from the strongest team in the group and that coupled with going a man down about being completely outside contention for anything at all- it was surprising they sent a team out at all. If you have one group of players fighting for their lives and the other side with morale buried seven feet below, then you are likely going to see a blow-out. UEFA has claimed that there were no perceived betting irregularities surrounding the match and that no further investigation will be conducted.
So the evidence laid out, what do you think? Is Madrid an (unwitting) partner in the biggest sham of the season? Should the conspiracy theorists just shut up already? Does UEFA really pull all the strings? Somehow I doubt they will be talking about this in Spain much longer, I have heard there is a big La Liga match this weekend... wonder who is playing?
Haha nice article Aaron. We crushed them as well so getting rocked by Lyon is no surprise for me. I feel terrible for Ajax, they should have gone through. But they seemed to relaxed in the second half as if they didn't know what was happening in the other match.
So who's up next. :)
I like to believe the conspiracy theory on that game (that I didn't see!). I guess I feel for Ajax fans :-) In any event, Madrid has nothing to do with all that, if anything the referee of our match but definitely not us. People from Lyon have been saying that Spain is making a fuss about all that to get back at Noah's statements about doping in Spanish sports. So you see: right when you think you've come up with perfectly valid arguments to dismiss the conspiracy theory, another one pops up! :-D
