Kudos to Chelsea and Bayern Back in September I would have given a Chelsea-Bayern Champions League Final north of 100:1 odds. So congratulations to both teams. Some thoughts. It’s now become a trope to talk of Barca’s “carousel” and to laud Iniesta, Xavi and, of course, Messi. What is truly outstanding about Barca being able to keep possession for more than twice their opposition is that this requires high skill on the part of all ten outplayers. This is not to diminish the big 3, who are wonderful players, but to praise the whole team and Guardiola’s approach that they embody. As much as I’m happy to see someone beat them it’s very hard to work up any kind of dislike for them. They play football the way it should be played and as individuals most, if not all, seem admirable, including Guardiola. John Terry’s sending-off was a true headshaker. What he was thinking is hard to fathom. A completely unnecessary act. I’ve long been of the opinion that Zidane’s moment of madness was partly due to drugs. I wonder if that was the case here, too. Aterwards Terry went on incoherently about “being confused”. I’ve also been thinking some more about the balls they now use. While not an obvious factor in the semifinals I’ve seen some goals lately that show how strangely the balls behave: notable Meireles’ goal in the second leg vs Napoli and a goal by Tevez. The balls that were used in the 60s through 80s would never do that. One dead giveaway is that you never see anyone try to bend the ball with the outside of the foot. Hitting it with the inside of the foot imparts overspin whereas with the outside you get slice or underspin which makes the ball balloon over the bar. With the older balls no-one could hit the ball hard enough with the inside of the foot to beat the goalies but now they’re so light and bouncy that you can. While this undoubtedly contributes to more goals and more excitement – no-one used to come back from 2 goals or more down but it happens frequently now – it distorts individual scoring exploits. Like I’ve said before, Puskas would have scored at least once every game with these balls. Nevertheless, it’s still true that the EPL is the hardest league in which to score. Ronaldo and Messi ain,t scoring no 50 goals in the EPL. (Ronaldo’s best –a phenomenal year by EPL standards – saw him get 31. A final thought. Several sports have been transformed to a greater or lesser degree by technological change of which the ball is one example. Golf clubs and balls are far superior now. Ditto tennis. Some have been changed considerably by rule changes , e.g. basketball and ice hockey. Two sports that have hardly changed are baseball and cricket. The Don rules supreme.