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Archive for February 22nd, 2012Crap Pitches Win MatchesI
 Is that a running track they seem to have buried underneath the San Siro? Or just the aftermath of the tractor based chariot racing? I’ve Got A Cunning Plan Yes. Like Baldrick in the First World War trenches manufacturing cappuccinos out of mud, guts and phlegm, top football strategists have devised sneaky new schemes to outdo crafty sides that actually like to play the ball and display any kind of skill. One of the real surprises of the recent round of Champions League games, aside from the presence of Apoel Nicosia (nicely done guys), was the thoroughly reprehensible quality of some of the pitches. Admittedly after Wembley’s initial turf wars, it ill behoves us to moan, but you know, they have sorted that one out and now people barely remember it and one would hope that sports professionals everywhere would have learnt the lessons from Wembley’s initial failure. So it was surprise to see the San Siro look like someone had been holding tractor races on it prior to Arsenal’s game there. Yet in some ways it made perfect sense. If Stoke can get around the threat of teams playing down the wings and increase the effectiveness of their tedious long throws by simply narrowing their pitch, then surely the reigning champs of Italy and playthings of Berlosconi AC Milan can get around the effectiveness of Arsenal’s ballplay through the simple expedient of making large chunks of their pitch fundamentally unplayable.  An artist's impression of the pitch quality at Sunderland Similarly at the Stadium of Light. In addition to physically oppressing Arsenal, why not also play the poor pitch card and prevent either side from playing anything that resembles real football? Obviously as an FA Cup round winning strategy it works, but it really does Sunderland a disservice. Given the FA has rules requiring Prem teams to have undersoil heating, you would have thought that they’d also have rules requiring a basic level of pitch quality. No wonder FIFA is looking into the viability of artificial pitches again.
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