Dubai Cup: Be ashamed, be very ashamed

By: Sam | January 10th, 2007

I don’t think the majority of you will have heard of the Mohamed bin Rashid International Football Championship, aka Dubai Cup. What it consists of is a small international friendly tournament involving four clubs from different countries. This year in the United Arab Emirates, Bayern Munich, Lazio, Benfica as well as our own Marseille. Notice the countries represented by the quartet, this was concieved to give the tournament a World Cup feel.

Marseille met Lazio in the semi-final on Monday, and got a 3-1 defeat handed down to them by the Romans. Not a bad game by the Frenchmen, but moreso a great game played by the Italians.

The other semi-final saw Benfica over Bayern on penalties. Which meant the Germans would square off against the good guys to decide third and fourth places. This 3-day long tournament being, of course, just in the sake of friendship and providing the clubs with the traditional “tired legs” excuse for this week’s set of matches, the two sides went into the game in good spirits. Willy Sagnol, the French captain of Franz Beckenbauer’s team, and Daniel Van Buyten, a former olympien were one of the fellows looking forward to the match.

OM came out kicking, and went 2-0 up before the clock struck half an hour, on very decent goals by Samir Nasri, the young talented winger, and Djibril Cissé, who, good gracious, seems to have found his spot on his new team. A few minutes later, Van Buyten pulled one back on a free kick. That was the score at the half. Mickaël Pagis, another prolific striker, gave Marseille the two goal lead three minutes into the second frame. And for over half an hour after that, everything was A-ok.

Then, ugh.

Cédric Carrasso, magnificent in the early going of the season, and who has dwindled significantly ever since, hit a new height in blunderdom. Here it is, tracker-style.
85 minutes: Roy Makaay’s less-than-decent shot finds net after being slowed down considerably thanks to the inside of Carrasso’s pants.
87 minutes: Roy Makaay’s pass-shot that your nephew could have stopped, heading straight for Carrasso’s gloves, manages to elude them and tie the score.
92 minutes: Not at fault this time, Carrasso had his front four to blame when Makaay danced through and easily set up Görlitz for the unthinkable winner.

I am dejected, not because OM finished last, because the competition was very respectable and Albert Emon’s side played with a young crew. You might have guessed I am furious at Fabien Barthez’s heir’s silly and embarrassing mistakes, that cost Marseille a match that could have upped their reputation around Europe.

In the final, Benfica got lucky again and beat Lazio, on penalties once again.