Grant-Ferguson rivalry at center of Champions' final
No one has focused on the competition between the teams' rich foreign owners (who both happen to be Jewish), Chelesa owner Roman Abramovich and Manchester United's Malcolm Glazer. Nor do any particular rivalries exist between the teams' players either. For lack of anything more interesting, the spotlight has focused on these two unlikely opponents.
Grant idolized Ferguson long before he dared fantasize he would ever coach outside Petah Tikva. He attended a number of Ferguson's training courses before coming under the influence of the Scot's French nemesis, Arsene Wenger. Besides the soccer tactical know-how, Grant always took note of the little psychological tricks Ferguson would play. Judging by their exchanges in the last two weeks, it looks like Grant is trying to beat his mentor at his own game.
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Ferguson kept his promise to name Paul Scholes in his team forWednesday's Champions League final against Chelsea.
Scholes was part of an attacking lineup featuring Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo, while Chelsea included left back Ashley Cole after he recovered from the ankle injury he sustained in training Tuesday.
Michael Carrick and Owen Hargreaves will start alongside Scholes in midfield ahead of United's first-choice defense of Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic, Wes Brown and Patrice Evra.
The 33-year-old Scholes started only 22 of United's 38 Premier League matches this season but Ferguson had long said the veteran midfielder would start at Luzhniki Stadium.
The former England international had been suspended for United's 1999 final win over Bayern Munich after getting a yellow card shortly after coming on as a substitute in the semifinals against Juventus.
Cole recovered from the tackle by Claude Makelele that damaged his ankle,
while Michael Essien was named at right back instead of his specialist
midfield role.
The move allowed Chelsea manager Avram Grant to field both Michael Ballack and Frank Lampard in midfield ahead of the more defensive Makelele, who won the Champions League in 2002 with Real Madrid.
United goalkeeper Edwin Van der Sar has also won the trophy, as have Chelsea substitutes Nicolas Anelka, Andriy Shevchenko and Juliano Belletti, and United sub Ryan Giggs.
Florent Malouda and Joe Cole will support Didier Drogba in Chelsea's attack, while John Terry was named alongside Ricardo Carvalho in central defense after recovering from a partial dislocation of the elbow sustained in Chelsea's final Premier League game of the season.
United edged Chelsea to the Premier League title 10 days ago, but has won just two of its past 14 matches against the Blues.
On Sunday Grant accused referees of assisting United in its final match. Of course, Grant does not really believe in this claim but he knows that tonight's referees may have heard about his complaint and that maybe, just maybe, it might affect their judgment. Grant also spoke about his phone conversation with Ferguson earlier in the week in which Ferguson purportedly complimented Chelsea's offense but claimed that the title went to the team that most deserved it. "Ferguson's genius," Grant says, "is that he complains even when the referees ruled blatantly in favor of United. He'll never give the sense that United got what it deserved."
On Tuesday night the Scottish magician against sat at a press conference and answered the journalists polite questions. Polite? These questions sounded more like compliments. "Sir Alex, your choices throughout the season proved to be correct, but how will you make sure that remains the case tonight?" one person asked. Such question have nothing to do with being polite, but rather pure pandering.
Grant zingers miss the mark
Over the past week the two have been acting like teenagers. They shower each other with praises, but it's impossible to make out how much of it is real and how much is psychological warfare. How is one supposed to treat Ferguson's comment that Grant deserves a "10-year contract" at Chelsea? Does he truly believe Grant should be given permanency or is he jut trying to widen the split between Grant and Abramovich?
At Grant's press conference the journalists who up until a minute ago reverently asked Ferguson soft questions suddenly took out their knives. "What reason do you have for staying on at Chelsea?" a reporter sniffed. "Why don't you just take the cup and leave?" But Grant did not take the hook and responded courteously while sending a barb toward former Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho. "If this were a regular Chelsea season, then you and I would be on holiday," Grant said."I suggest you show a little more respect. I don't feel unwanted at Chelsea but, in any case, I won't discuss next season at this moment."
As the press conference trudged along, however, Grant lost his touch and it started to resemble a stand-up act with a good opening segment that quickly becomes tedious. Grant, who insisted on answering questions humorously, got very few laughs from his audience. Exacerbating the situation, he repeated the same phrases over and over. I guess it turns out English isn't an easy language after all.
After the deluge of semi-funny jokes ended, the question remained: Who will win the battle, Ferguson or Grant?
But if you take just one thing away from this article, then take this: Wednesday's match is the culmination of Avram Grant's career, spanning more than 22 years, while for Ferguson, it is the product of his last eight months of work. I wonder if anybody in Great Britain will find something amusing in that equation.
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