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The Hosts Have Advanced to the Final with the Help of the Shoulder
// UEFA cup
The rival of CSKA in the UEFA Cup revealed itself in one of the most dramatic games of the season. Dutch AZ Alkmaar allowed a fatal goal, thanks to which Sporting Clube de Portugal is now to host the Russians at their own Estádio José Alvalade in Lisbon on May 18. The goal was scored half a minute before the end of the added time when it looked like nothing could save the Portuguese.
The game in Alkmaar was quite different from the one in Moscow between CSKA and Parma, since here it seems that two teams equally deserved to make it to the final. It was unclear up to the last moment which one would take the upper-hand.
Alkmaar fulfilled its task quickly. The team had to overturn a 2-1 deficit after the the previous week's game in Lisbon. Kenneth Perez had three good chances to score. First time, Ricardo, Sporting keeper, resisted, the third attempt was marred by the crossbeam. In the interval between these two attempts Perez did score after a cross from Tarik Sektioui.
Now Sporting needed to respond, and the Portuguese got down to the work. The defense of Alkmaar, weakened by traumas of the main players, more or less restrained the attacks of Sporting. However, the luck was doomed to end soon: first, keeper Henk Timmer saved the team, then a header deflected wide. The hosts, after all, had to allow a goal. Sporting finally took their moment before interval. Liedson, Sporting forward, diverted an attempt into the net made by Anderson Polga.
Now the time for Alkmaar to attack came again. Their coach Co Adriaanse risked a lot adding two more forwards to the team already surfeited by strikers – Elkhattabi and Huysegems. It is the two substitutes who created the goal that saved Alkmaar in normal time. Elkhattabi managed to break free from Spoting’s defense, he did not shoot but gave the ball to Huysegems who rolled it into an empty net equalizing.
One could expect that the teams would have no energy left for added time after running on the pitch for an hour and a half. But they did. Sporting plunged into attacks as if they had not suffered the wasting struggle before, and had not lost their play-maker Fabio Rochemback. Alkmaar soon stopped panicking, though. Ricardo had to save after a free-kick sent by Ron Vlaar.
At the beginning of the second 15-minute instalment Rui Jorge, who could have easily cleared the ball, for some reason or other forwarded it behind the sideline. After the ball came from the right Jaliens hit it into the corner of the net. The stadium triumphed. They were sure that now Sporting was defeated.
The Portuguese did not feel like agreeing with this, keeping on going forward. All of the team. Including the goalkeeper. Ricardo appeared in the penalty area twice. The second time Sporting had its last chance. It was a corner kick. Sporting hit many corners on Thursday that usually did not pose any threat to the Dutch. But after this one – and the most important – the ball hit the Miguel Garcia’s shoulder and bounced right into the corner of the net.
The TV camera grasped terrible stills. Barry Van Galen, who played an excellent game, was smearing mud and tear on his face. Henk Timmer, who had nothing to reproach himself with, was sitting on the pitch with his head grasped by the hands. Meantime, Sporting coach José Peseiro, like his team, mafficked at the sideline having completely forgotten that the final whistle had not gone yet.
The game was over a minute later, after Alkmaar managed to attack one more time, and Timmer like Ricardo ran to the opposite penalty area. The raid was, naturally, in vain: wonders cannot last forever. Having won the game, Alkmaar lost the semi-final which Adriaanse compared to the loss of the great Dutch team against the Germans at the World Cup in 1974 and PSV Eidhoven’s futile victory over Milan. It was all the more bitter for him to realize that his team had let pass the rival that was no better than them.
Alexey Dospekhov
All the Article in Russian as of May 07, 2005
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