Arsenal 1 - 0 Dynamo: Another Late Lapse Sinks Kiev

By: Yevy | November 27th, 2008

If football matches lasted 85 minutes Dynamo would be riding an unbeaten Group G record into the knockout round of the Champions League. But after conceding a late equalizer to Arsenal in September, a sucker punch at the death to Porto, and now a highly dubious Nicklas Bendtner winner at the Emirates, the Kiev club can only reflect on what went missing in the closing moments of those encounters. On several occasions manager Yuri Semin has rued his side’s lack of experience on the European stage. Now his squad has to look no further than recent match tapes for lessons on what separates cup contenders from group filler at this level.

Dynamo did not play well enough to deserve a victory, and when Porto went ahead of Fenerbahce in Istanbul all three points were necessary to keep Ukraine’s Champions League hopes alive. But even with an injury-stricken squad and not a single viable substitute at Semin’s disposal, Dynamo matched Arsenal blow for blow. The hosts’ offense was stifled throughout the match, and only on set pieces did they look dangerous. Ismael Bangoura created the best chance of the first half but his sharp angle effort could only kiss the outside of the post. And it took a bit of stellar goalkeeping from wannabe Englishman Manuel Almunia to keep out Artem Milevskiy’s pointblank strike inside the final 10 minutes. Dynamo’s dreams of finally returning to the knockout round fully extinguished minutes later as Arsenal once again took advantage of the hapless referee.

I am generally not one to waste time discussing the performance of an official, but Alain Hamer has earned an exception. Mr. Hamer hails from Luxembourg, a country the size of my fist, and has had to take part in an “international exchange program” to be able to referee major European competitions. So the man has done a lot of work for a chance to ruin the beautiful game at the highest level. Mr. Hamer officiates a handful of matches a year in Belgium and France. You could say he is the substitute teacher of football referees. He was probably nervously paging through a brand new copy of Laws of the Game in the tunnel before kickoff. It would explain why he booked Milevskiy for getting bear hugged by Cesc Fabregas in the opening minutes. But Mr. Hamer clearly did not not make it to the chapter covering restarts. So when a drop ball was in order he improvised, and standing in between Aliyev and Fabregas, Mr. Hamer stuck the ball into Cesc’s midsection. The clever piggy that he is, Cesc took advantage of the ambiguity of the situation (is the ball live or is it a free kick?) and picked out Bendtner’s left arm from 40 meters away. Mr. Hamer would have been perfectly positioned to do his job if the sport in question was tennis, as he was at midfield looking nowhere in particular. The Luxem-bugger (is that a proper term?) capped his night by demonstratively standing in front of a Dynamo free kick and showing a straight red card to Oleksandr Aliyev as the midfielder tried to “clear” his line of sight.

Aliyev in particular will not want to be reminded of this match. Football is a game where reputation plays a huge role in officiating decisions, and the Dynamo playmaker will have to do a lot of work to shed the image he departed the pitch with. Wayne Rooney’s antics have made him a yellow card magnet whenever he leaves England, even though by all accounts Shrek has mellowed out a tad. William Gallas gets the benefit of a doubt from referees who see the great French defender of five years ago instead of an aging backline liability who plays opponents onsides and gets torched by the like of Bangoura. Now Aliyev will be stuck with the label of “that Ukrainian who played dead and shoved a ref” for years to come, or at least until he smashes in enough free kicks to make everyone ignore his transgressions.

As I go to drown my sorrows and stuff my face with turkey, I will leave you with these thoughts from Dynamo’s Andriy Nesmachniy, who missed the match through suspension:

I liked the way we played. We should have left London with points, but again, the last few minutes…

The teams that truly compete in the Champions League do so for 90+ minutes. We have not had many matches in the the UPL that are decided in the final moments. The drop in concentration is a disease we have to overcome.

Sasha (Aliyev) was in the wrong and deserved to be dismissed. He plays with a lot of emotion and that is something I understand. But you cannot touch an official, and we all know that. Overall I thought the referee was on the side of Arsenal. The hosts were playing rough from the start and the officials were letting it go. But Arsenal players were falling like sausages as soon as they were touched, and the referee instantly whistled for fouls. It’s clear no one likes us in Europe. Next time we will have to play well enough to not be in danger of the referee deciding the match.

London, Emirates Stadium

Referee: Alain Hamer (Luxembourg);
Assistant referees: Francis Crelo, Christian Holtgen (both from Luxembourg).

Arsenal (London): 1.Almunia, 4.Fàbregas - cap, 10.Gallas, 11.van Persie, 12.Vela (19.Wilshere, 77), 15.Denilson, 16.Ramsey (26.Bendtner, 69), 17.Song, 18.Silvestre, 20.Djourou, 22.Clichy.

Dynamo (Kyiv): 31.Bogush, 3.Betão, 4.Ghioane - cap, 5.Vukojević, 8.Aliyev,10.Bangoura, 11.Eremenko, 15.Diakhaté, 25.Milevskyy, 30.El Kaddouri, 32.Asatiani.

Goal: Bendtner (87).

Yellow cards: van Persie (31), Bendtner (87) - Milevskyy (17), Asatiani (39), Aliyev (50).

Red card: Aliyev (89).