Is There Any Room for Mercy in Football?
By: Daryl | March 11th, 2009Think it’s fair to say that Bayern Munich gave Sporting CP an absolute kicking in the Champions League yesterday. 7-1 one on the night, which made it 12-1 on aggregate. To put it another way: a winning margin too big to count on your fingers. Ouch.
The discussion in the comments of our Deadblog yesterday raises the question: After a certain point, should the winning team be expected to calm down a bit and stop rubbing their opponents faces in the dirt?
There’s a definite argument for keeping the goals flowing in a league game. 10-0 really is better then 6-0 if your league uses goal difference as a decider, so there’s every reason to keep going.
But in a cup game? It doesn’t really matter whether Bayern win 7-1, 8-1 or 12-1 on aggregate. They’re still going through. They don’t go through any more with a 12-1 win, and they can’t take any of the goals with them to the quarter-finals. So maybe Bayern should have dialled it down a notch and not made Sporting look like complete fools.
On the other hand, at least Bayern were being honest by continuing to go for goal. I’d argue that playing keepaway or breaking out the showpony skills is actually more insulting to a beaten opposition than banging in a few more goals.
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Category: World Football
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Comments
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But I imagine that the massive scoreline will be a massive boost to the players going in to the next round. Same for Liverpool i suppose.
I loved it when Manchester United won 7-1 against Roma, amazing game, amazing goals … my favourite 90 minutes of football actually. But we only dominated the home game, losing the away leg 2-1.
For Bayern to tear Sporting apart both home and away is purely amazing. I didn’t see the game, just the highlights (was watching l’pool vs real) and it looked like sporting were their own worst enemies for many of the goals.
Posted from
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For me, it’s the last 16 of the Champions League, not some kids tournament, no need to make the professionals on Sporting feel any better about themselves.
Posted from
United States -
Admittedly, I didn’t watch either leg (watched the liverpool/chelsea matches), and after losing 5-0 at home it must have been an intimidating prospect for Sporting to go to the Alianz Areana, but they are a competent team of well paid professionals, if they are not willing to go out and try to gain back some dignity then they do not deserve to not be humiliated.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
I completely agree with you Ginge. They are well paid professionals, and will now be remembered as the record losers over two legs in the champions league.
Posted from
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Even if Bayern are already one foot into the quarter-finals in the first-leg, they still take it seriously. Bayern coach Juergen Klinsmann said it best after the match, “We wanted to show from the first second who was the boss and Sporting were soon under pressure as we played with a lot of enthusiasm and application.”
One thing also struck me after the matches from yesterday. Both Bayern and Liverpool have very similar form in the their respective domestic league (being inconsistent) but in Europe, it is a very different story altogether.
In fact, Bayern president and Der Kaiser himself Franz Beckbenbauer had likened his Bayern to Liverpool – http://football.uk.reuters.com/champleague/news/LB011957.php
Posted from
Singapore -
One also cannot rule out that Bayern Munich want to make up for lost time. They were in the UEFA Cup in the previous season.
Posted from
Singapore -
What mercy? Football is about scoring goals and that’s what happened – football.
Posted from
Latvia -
I agree with most of the sentiments. In fact, I would submit having a mercy rule activated is even more embarrassing for a team. Bayern gave a beating. It happens. Move on.
Posted from
Canada -
Doc Latin, Ginge and Drabik are all correct. This is the Champions League. You have to step up. So, if we had a “mercy rule”, you’d prevent young Thomas Muller, who might have never thought he would play in this game, and then score? Sporting Lisbon… well, they deserved it because they did not show up at all. I feel sorry for Moutinho cuz he’s the guy who looks so sullen but tries to do something after a Bayern barrage. Bayern did their job. Sporting did not. It’s a game, they all played by the rules.
Posted from
Australia -
The key is- Klose scored one of the final goals- etc. To keep top people in and risk injury just so they can prove how hot they are is disgraceful. Not a little kids game- huh? Sticking your tongue out at the other side to show how manly you are is definite 5 year old behavior. When they lose the Bundesliga I will laugh. Perhaps one day they will even be able to defeat San Marino- congrats!
Posted from
United States -
That definitely wasn’t a Bayern B team playing the match. I agree with the previous poster: they had nothing left to prove. They could have been nice and played Landon Donovan instead of Poldi, that would be enough mercy for Sporting, two goals less scored.
Posted from
United States -
They have plenty to prove in the league, though, Al. (Not that I want them to.) The Bundesliga is incredibly tight, Bayern are struggling, and they need this sort of confidence boost.
Posted from
United States -
If Sporting feel they are not up to the champions league level they shouldn’t participate from the beginning,end of story.
Posted from
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I’d like to point some things:
1. First and foremost: Bayern put Lell and Ottl into their starting line-up which is the equivalent to a “mercy rule” for the opponent in my opinion.
2. If there is one player in football, who could actually benefit from proving his “manhood” a little more then it’s Klose. He usually spends the whole season in the kitchen cooking for Luca Toni and now Toni doesn’t even like his meals any more and refuses half of them. It’s time for a bit of male-emancipation.
3. Donovan was either on a plane to or already in LA taking checking out his new watch.
4. Bayern basically used up any player available in their squad who wasn’t injured or rested. They have a small 21 man squad, Toni, Ribery, Kraft, Altintop were out injured and Rensing, Oddo and Demichelis were rested while Tim Borowski (as many Bayern fans will tell you) doesn’t deserve to play for Bayern and thus was also “rested”. Every other available player was on the pitch yesterday, whether you call it a B team or not.
5. Between four or five of Bayern’s seven goals were directly and indirectly scored by Sporting players, there was nothing Bayern could do about that.
6. I’m not a fan of this club, so as far as I’m concerned they don’t really need to win games. But if I channel all my empathy and put myself into Bayern’s current position, then they actually needed this. Klinsmann/Bayern were under big pressure ahead of the first leg against Sporting, the pressure slightly eased after the game, but following once again disappointing league and cup performances the pressure was even stronger. So the club actually needs to get some positive momentum going.
Posted from
Germany -
Nobody’s mentioned that whatever many thousand fans payed for a knockout Champions League match, which I suppose is a lot for some people. I don’t care if my team is already 5-0 up, I wouldn’t want to see them play eleven men behind the ball for ninety minutes because they’re already through.
Posted from
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football is about the fans. the fans come to watch football. bayern played football. sporting deserved what they got so i don’t see how bayern are to blame in this.
Posted from
Poland -
It would have been dishonest for Bayern to play anything less than their best…
Posted from
United States -
I think this topic has come up because Sporting is new to the CL and not a European powerhouse. No one really dislikes Sporting because they’re not so well known — so it’s easier to feel a bit sorry for them. If Bayern had done this to Inter or ManU, I don’t think we’d have felt as bad for the other team, and certainly some people would be overjoyed.
Though I do feel bad for Sporting, regardless of who they are, both teams have a responsibility to take their jobs seriously. ManU and Roma took their jobs seriously a few years ago, and Roma ended up on the wrong end of 7-1, but I don’t remember a mercy discussion around that result.
Bayern had stated that the game was a sellout and they didn’t want to cheat their fans of their money by sending out a complete B team. The XI was a mix of regulars (Klose, Schweinsteiger, Lahm, Van Bommel) and benchwarmers (Butt, Van Buyten). They did take out some of the first-teamers to sub in more benchwarmers — such as the young (excellent) Muller for Schweinsteiger. Landon Donovan has already returned to the U.S., so he couldn’t have played and I’m not sure he was registered for the CL, anyway.
Posted from
United States -
I feel for Sporting, I do … it sucks for their fans to see their team dismantled. But that’s the risk of the highest level of competition. Along with the glory comes the humiliation of losses like this. If I was on the losing end of this one, the only thing more humiliating than losing 12-1 would be to be rescued by a mercy rule. There are mercy rules in my Sunday indoor league, and at that level perhaps it makes some sense – not for the Champions League. I say good for Bayern (and the lucky Bayern fans that saw it), and hopefully Sporting will do better next time.
Posted from
United States
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