AFTER COVENTRY, Stuttgart away and Preston Steve McClaren was beaming that his team had started to “win ugly.� Well, now we can lose ugly too.
Boro had two shots on target – an entire month’s quota – and won their first corner in the 89th minute. They opted to concede the initiative, play one up front (and not far up front), cower around their own box, scrap away unconvincingly in the middle, sit tight and hope for the best. It was a high-risk strategy that almost exploded in the bosses’ face.
The opening 45 minutes was as poor and negative a display as we have seen this season, and there have been a few. It was summed up on the half hour when Jimmy picked up the ball in the Stuttgart half and looked up to find himself surrounded by six white shirts and his team mates only barely visible on the horizon.
Possession was surrendered cheaply, marking was poor and the defending lacked conviction. Players repeatedly played team-mates into trouble and left gaping holes at the back. It was inevitable Stuttgart would score. The tactics seemed suicidal.
Yet Boro weathered the storm and in the second half changed it around and looked the likeliest to score. With two up front they suddenly looked a threat. Mendieta had a goalbound effort cleared off the line and Jimmy broke forward but the keeper was off his line quickly to block the shot.
Which begs the question, why not start like that? Because sitting back and inviting Stuttgart to give it their best shot and could so easily have gone horribly wrong.
Ljuboja (pronounced as Malcolm MacDonald does Lee Bowyer) put a free kick into the side netting, Southgate was a fraction of an inch away from conceding a penalty as he tried to clear up a mess of his own making, and but for last man Chris Riggott being two yards closer to goal Boro could have been down to ten men as Boateng charged back to haul down his man after losing possession.
Yet the only thing that counts is results. Boro have struggled to live with Nuneaton, Coventry, Preston and Stuttgart yet have marched on in the knockouts.
A month ago Steve McClaren looked to be on borrowed time. Yet Boro reached the last eight of the Carling Cup, are in the last eight of the FA cup and are in the last 16 of the UEFA Cup for the second year running. In historically terms this season already ranks up there as one of the best ever.
Just think what would be possible if Boro actually started to play well.
THE BOAT SINKS TO SCAPEGOAT STATUS
AS NOTORIOUS boo-boy Andy Warhol said, one day everyone will get their 15 minutes blame. Tonight was George Boateng’s turn.
Now I love the Boat. For me he has been consistently the most effective player for the past three seasons and the disastrous slumps in results when he has been out injured show exactly how poor Boro can be without him.
But tonight he was bloody awful. Not just off the pace but dangerously woeful. In the last quarter of an hour of the first half he missed tackles, stumbled over the ball, put passes behind team-mates and lost possession and conceded free-kicks in dangerous areas. I was embarrassed for him.
I can’t ever recall him having a bad game for Boro before. Ever. The boo-boys noticed quickly and he came in for concerted flak that no shield of past glories could deflect.
Luckily the team perked up in the second half so his rare ‘mare did not prove fatal and with attacking play sparking more positive noises from the crowd the barracking fizzled out and on the whistle Boro were celebrating another famous 1-0 defeat.
The last time such a result was met with similar jubilation was when Boro lost the second leg of the Coca Cola Cup semi-final to Stockport but squeezed through on aggregate. It belted down that night too.
ARE YOU BORO IN DISGUISE?
ONCE AGAIN the away fans were brilliant. Anyone who has traveled in Europe will know that heightened emotions, release from the social constraints and industrial quantities of alcohol make for a potent supporting brew and for a colourful addition to the atmosphere.
The Stuttgart supporters, maybe 600, certainly not the number we expected, played a blinder with their none stop bouncing and chanting and singing.
But it was weird to hear the away fans taunting us in perfect English. And especially when they are wearing your own colours.
Stuttgart’s away shirt is red with a white chest band and there were plenty wandering about outside. It was hard to separate home and away. Traditionally the Germans are the ones with the mullets but given current fashion trends that was a non-starter.
And you couldn’t even rely on the verbals to tell fans apart outside. “Your English is very good� you imagined the patronizing comment. “Thanks gadge, your’ is proper smart too.� the reply
The away fans started with a rousing chorus of “We love you Stuttgart We Do� and Boro joined in with their version but couldn’t match the volume.
Then soon after they did a Chelsea impression and started singing; “My Old Man Said Be a Stuttgart Fan and Don’t Dilly Dally On The Way.�
There was also a chant that sounded like "Mark Viduka"... did they have inside information on this week's terrace hate figures and were trying to wind us up?
And the ultimate condemnation came towards the end of the first half when they stood and pointed and chanted as colloquially as any chav: “You’re shite and you know you are�. And at that point it was hard to disagree.
Luckily Soccer AM doesn’t seem to have reached Germany yet so we didn’t have to endure that awful brainless ‘Eas-uh, eas-eh� chant.
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