A Changing of the Guard

     To the closet soccer fan, Spain is where the real players are. Who can blame them? They are the reigning World Cup Champions and have two of the most prestigious clubs in the world right now. When Both Barcelona and Real Madrid made it to the Champions League semi finals, it looked as if there was a sure chance of an El Clasico final. Barcelona had two matches with the decaying corpse that was Chelsea and Madrid had Bayern Munich, a team that wasn't even winning their league. It was all in the bag. Or was it? 

     Chelsea came out in the first leg and shocked Barca with a quality goal from Didier Drogba and a clean sheet from Peter Cech. Some how the old legs held up in a truly grueling match. There was no way they would beat the Champs back in Camp Nou. In true Chelsea they quickly lost the lead dodged some bullets and somehow took the lead back back. With a 2-2 aggregate score in stoppage time, Fernando Torres went on one of the best runs in Chelsea history and stood alone with the keeper. In a microcosm that relinquished all his failures of the current EPL season, Torres brushed the ball past the keeper and into the open net. It was truly and absolute shocker. Though Barcelona was out out, there was still no chance that the Germans could take out Madrid right?

     Bayern Munich took the early lead in the semi's by earning a 1 goal aggregate in the first game. Just like Chelsea they had the challenge of beating one of Spain's best clubs on the road. Bayern were not able to beat Real Madrid in regular time. It was going to take a penalty shootout to separate the two clubs. Madrid never seemed to have the handle of the game in the shootout though as both Cristiano Ronaldo and Sergio Ramos missed crucial kicks. Bastian Schweinstiger eventually bashed home the winning goal and the German side was through. 

     It could be easy for the casual soccer fan to write off this final just because the "Big Name" teams are not in it, but there is far more to this match than the leisure eye may see. Both clubs have not great seasons in their respective leagues and this is the only way they can write off the 2011/12 campaign as a success. Also both clubs  have had recent heart break with the Champions League. Show John Terry's slip up to any Chelsea fan and I'm sure they will have knots in their stomach. Lastly, this could be one of the last chances for both clubs major players to win the silverware. Lampard, Terry, and Drogba are all near the ends of their careers for Chelsea. As for Munich, Robben, Ribery, and Gomez aren't getting any younger. 

     It is evident that both teams will have a lot of missing players for the Final. Managing the loses will be the keep part for both clubs. This will truly test the bench strength of the teams. In the end, I just feel that the old legs of Chelsea won't be able to go any farther. The Blues defense will be heavily depleted and that really plays into the hands of speedy Gomez and Robben. The German speed and power will be too much for Terry and company. As for the Chelsea attack, they have been proven to be unreliable. Fernando Torres goes on huge scoring droughts at times and Lampard never seems to come up big in key situations. Didier  Drogba will be the player to watch. He always seems to rise up for the big matches in his career and I expect him to do so once again. With all that, I still think the Bavarian colors will be hanging from the silverware for the first time since 2001 after a thrilling 3-2 match. 

Thanks for reading!