Uefa Cup Final: Rangers 0-2 F.C. Zenit

The buildup to this match was unbelievable. I woke up around 11 A.M. and went immediately to my computer to see what the press had to say about what was being dubbed as "one of the biggest matches in Rangers' history." Indeed, despite Gers being the underdog every fan I had talked to before hand thought that it could be done. Look at what we had accomplished so far. We had triumphed over a Werder Bremen side that is a strong second in the Bundesliga and then, despite not playing the best football in the world, we saw ourselves through against Fiorentina. While we had struggled at times, I felt that with all of the domestic success we'd had this term we would surely be able to come up with one last miracle.

Since Fox Soccer Channel isn't available in our meager cable package here at Bates College I decided to watch the match with a friend of mine who happens to be a Zenit supporter, being a native of St. Petersburg. Before the match we had discussed a few things and while my unwavering pride for Rangers will never be tarnished, he seemed to know, just as I did, that our luck of making it through might not hold up against a Zenit side that had had no problem scoring five goals against heavy favorites Bayern Munich. With quality scorers the likes of Denisov and Tekke I knew that it would take more than a quality blanket defense to bring home the silver ware.

Before the match began, skipper Walter Smith promised something different in this Uefa final because I'm sure he sensed, as I did, that Gers would need to produce a significant attack in order to keep up with the spirited Russians. However, with what I was sure would be a 4-4-2 formation, or at least something a little out of the ordinary, Walter sided with his usual 4-5-1 which had won us matches but had failed to produce a significant number of goals. With Neil Alexander manning the net Smith sent out Sasa Papac, Carlos Cuellar, David Weir, and Kirk Broadfoot in the back. Steven Whittaker, and Steven Davis manning the flanks with Barry Ferguson, Brahmin Hemdani, and Kevin Thomson in the middle and Jean-Cladue Darcheville the lone striker.

I must say this formation frustrated me quite a bit. While I know that the back four have been very strong, I felt that Whittaker would have done better to have been in that four and a more attacking type of mid-fielder like Lee McCullough or even Nacho Novo could have been used to provide more space. While I also like the choice of Hemdani over Christian Dailly I felt that Walter was a bit more conservative with his starting XXI than he should have been.

With all of that said, the first fifteen or so minutes saw just what I had expected. Zenit's lone striker, Tekke was all over the play and Denisov and Faitzulin were pestering out defense constantly. While the wall didn't crack, I knew that this sort of defense would only work if there was an adequate counter-attack in between offensive sieges.

Above all Sasa Papc proved to be the hero in the first half. Not only did he hold his own against an incessant left wing attack he was able to possess the ball and move it up the pitch and start a few surges that were well needed to bring Ferguson, Davis and Darcheville into the play and also to give the rest of the defense a little rest. JCD himself did have a few bright spots, but his lack of quickness did prevent him from being very effective against a Zenit back line that proved to be much stronger than expected.

There was also the matter of officiating. While I had never seen a game officiated by Peter Frodjfeldt it was obvious from the beginning that he was letting many things go, something that I will get into a little later. The largest controversy of the first half proved to be what seemed to be an obvious handball committed by Kirk Broadfoot on an attempted cross by Andrei Arshavin. I don't know if it was the fact that Frodjfeldt was so far down the field on an attack that mounted very quickly or some other factor but I was very surprised, although relieved that it was waved off. There was one more instance where Zenit worried me in the first half, when Kevin Thomson committed a foul some 30 yards from Alexander's net, but Radek Sirl didn't challenge Alexander.

The first half was exactly what I expected--with Rangers playing a very tactical, backs-to-the-wall game which came close on many occasions to giving me a heart attack yet remained unscathed.

The second 45 minutes saw a much different game from the Bears. Who knows what Walter Smith said in the dressing room at halftime, but immediately the Gers started to play a much more upbeat, attacking form which saw Whittaker and Papac controlling the flanks and a ton of early pressure from JCD. This pressure did yield to two chances. First, JCD came into the box, only to loose the ball. However, a small chip seemed to come to another possible penalty--this time committed by Zenit. However, maybe to make up for his lack of a call in the first half Referee Frodjfelt failed to make a call, leading me to stand up, shout a ton of swears and insults about Sweden at the screen and throw a few objects across the room.

However, this was all we could muster--after Papac skied a free-kick over the cross bar I was sure that we would have to hope for another Fiorentia-esqe result and go to penalty kicks.

The breakthrough came in the 72nd minute, with Ivan Denisov catching a beautiful return pass from Arshavin and slotting it past Alexander. While my heart of a keeper felt for the young backstop I and he both knew that there was nothing he could have done to stop what was an ineviatable goal.

Then all hell broke loose on the Gers bench. Novo came on (77th minute)--but at the expense of Sasa Papac, a move that I could not understand. Novo, first of all, should have been substituted about 20 minutes earlier because I'm sure that he could have done something to jump start the offense before the first Zenit strike. Yet with limited play up his right flank he was not able to create the kind of chances that he had been able to in so many other occasions this campaign. Three minutes later it was Brahim Hemdani that exited to make way for Lee McCullough--another move that showed the obvious panic mounting in the heads of Smith and Ally McCoist. Yet Zenit sniffed out the panic and started to kick the ball around to just waste time. My head was in my hands, and while my friend was exclaiming things in Russian I could only wonder what could have been, because I knew that there was no return.

We did, however, have one last chance with Nacho promptly wasted by skying the ball over everything.

To add insult to injury Konstantin Zurianov added one more in stoppage time to send a few tears to my eyes. The dream was over.

So what did we learn from all of this, boys and girls. What I saw was a style of play that needs to change. While the 5-4-1 works in domestic matches against far more inferior opponents who can't stop JCD or Kris Boyd, the strategy just can't bring the riches home in Europe. We need to attack the net, we can't rely on a counter-attack and while we were aided by a Christian Vieri penalty miss we were thoroughly outplayed by a team that knew how to exploit our weaknesses.

While many fans (including myself) blame the Scottish FA for not moving this past weekend's fixture to a later date (Zenit had three full weeks to prepare for today's match) I don't think that having the time would have done anything. Yes, the boys were tired, but the strategy was still wrong, as it will always be.

So we move on. Despite the heartbreak that today presented we still have to remember that a domestic treble is still within our reach. I don't forsee Queen of the South giving us any trouble and with two games in hand to Celtic I think that the league is still possible as well.

I know that the amount that I wrote about this match was a little excessive but it was filled with such emotion and feeling that I just had to do it. I'm sure it won't happen again for a long time. Hopefully, while not broadcasted here, I will be able to comment on this coming weekend's match at Fir Park against Motherwell. We have three matches down and we have to win them all.

Until next time, FOLLOW FOLLOW!

Heartbreak.

Well it happened. After 18 breathless matches in the 2008 Uefa Cup, my heart has been broken at the hands of F.C. Zenit St. Petersburg. This is more of an emotional post so I can get some things written, but I'll add my actual analysis a little later.

As much as I don't want to admit it, I feel that this was going to come to us at some point. Throughout this entire competition we had played backs to the wall, bending but never breaking and it was just a matter of time until some team found a way to exploit our lack of offense and break through a back line that has been so strong but still vulnerable.

I'm trying to collect my thoughts at this point and soon I'll come up with something that will resemble an analysis of those 90 minutes. Until then...