I had high hopes for Legia actually
advancing in the Europa League yesterday, however Ajax was better by
those 4 goals in both matches. This could all easily be blamed on bad
form, lack of proper coordination, too many rotations in the squad,
very poor accuracy, or the absence of Miroslav Radović. Naturally,
the last on the list is now seen by many as a traitor, sellout, or
even the main reason behind our below par performance, however I
believe he's far from being a traitorous sellout who left when the
team needed him most. We've won and lost titles and cups without him,
and we'll continue to do the same whether he's kicking the ball in
China, or the United Arab Emirates. The Europa League is behind us,
and now we can focus on winning the championship and the Polish cup.
You can't really blame the horrible
result against Ajax on one thing. That would be not only too easy,
but also wrong. Henning Berg had his reasons for rotating the squad
as much as he did every other match, since it seemed to work in the
first half of the season. Of course, then we had Radović and Duda on
the field, Kucharczyk who was in great form, Vrdoljak who foresaw
passes and intercepted with precision, and everything else which just
seemed to click. “You win some, you lose some” as Lemmy used to
sing on “Ace of Spades”. As great as the second half of the first
match against Ajax was (albeit the accuracy), the second leg just
looked chaotic. Especially when you're losing at home 0-2 after just
13 minutes. Which takes you back to the Champions League qualifiers
in the 2013/14 season against Steaua Bucharest, where after 9 minutes
we were down 0-2. Perhaps it's more in the mental sphere, rather than
the physical elements of the sack kickers. As mentioned earlier,
there are also those who wish to also put the blame on Radović for
not sticking with the team during the “most important moment of his
career” or something like that.
Radović is 31 this year and has been
in Legia since the beginning of the 2006/07 season. During that time
he's won 2 Championships, 4 Polish cups and one Supercup. He played
in 228 league matches scoring 53 goals (other sources 54). He played in 36 Polish cup matches
scoring 7 goals, 16 League cup matches scoring 2 goals, and 'most important' of all, he's played in 46
European cup matches scoring 15 goals (the record in Legia not taking
into account Intertoto matches prior to 1994 when UEFA actually took
it under its wings). During the last few seasons he's become the
offensive leader that Legia always needs, and right before the first
leg against Ajax, rumors began to spread that a team from the Chinese
2nd league is offering big money for the player. Of
course, Radović signed a new contract with Legia a few months
earlier (18th of November) guaranteeing a no buyout clause
for him (previously it was half a million euros). Surely, he could have stayed in Legia until the end of time and a day, but apparently he
wishes to provide as much as he can for his family while he can
(because you can't give me the 'it's going to be a sports challenge'
argument here since it's the 2nd Chinese league). I would
just like to remind all those naysayers that a major idol and legend
in Legia also left when he was 31 years old – Deyna.
It wasn't right before the “most
important moment of his career”, however if a legend like that had
the right to leave Legia, then what's wrong with an icon-but-not-legend player like Radović leaving? He did say that he wish he could play in Legia forever, but
how many players have spewed even more absurd statements? I wish the
guy the best, and hope he comes back soon, because it's always easy
to point fingers, but it somehow seems difficult to look at things
from a different angle.
The loss of Radović is not only a huge
blow to the team, but also the whole league, since not too many
players could pass, shoot, or dribble the ball like him (although the
majority of his dribbles were basically the same). Henning Berg is
probably the most distraught of all, since the majority of his plans
for Legia's style in the second part of the season have been wiped
clean. There are no two Rados, unless you take into account
his sons, but they've still got some growing to do. Luckily, all we
have to do is focus on the league and the Polish cup now, which
shouldn't be much of a problem with the super squad which coach Berg
has available.
P.S. The big crowd which came out to support Legia from across the stadium was great. Perfect atmosphere to a poorly played match. Major thanks to the organizers.
