Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Standing Ovation: Fernando Torres

Yesterday was the second leg of the semifinal match in the Champions League between Chelsea and Barcelona. With Chelsea captain John Terry receiving a red card at the 37th minute, which on a side note deserves its own party foul post. Chelsea was already losing 1-0 with 53 minutes left in the game, and now would need to finish the game man down against the best team in the world in their home stadium. Only to make the odds worse Barcelona ends up scoring 6 minutes later to give them a 2-0 lead. While once against Chelsea gets a dramatic goal at the end of the first half.

After consistent pressure, multiple yellow cards and even a missed penalty shot by only the greatest player of our generation (Messi) Fernando Torres subs in at the 80th minute…




If you know me you know that Fernando Torres was my first soccer man crush. 4 years ago during the 2008 Euro Cup Torres taught me to love soccer; he was the reason why I decided to choose Liverpool as my favorite team. For all the soccer fans, you also know that Torres forced his way out of Liverpool last season and found his way onto Chelsea. As much as I felt betrayed, I will never stop cheering for Torres, yet I have chosen to keep supporting Liverpool.


The last 3 years hasn’t been a fairytale for Torres, actually you could call it more of a nightmare. Between health problems, being ineffective during the World Cup while his teammates thrived, to getting very little playing team this season, and having fans call for him to lose his spot on the national team. Chelsea spent 50 million pounds in a transfer fee, yet chooses to have him sit on the bench most of the time. Fernando Torres was once the golden child of Spain, now most of Spain hopes he doesn’t see any playing time in this year’s Euro Cup, just four years after leading Spain to victory in the same event.


Which brings me back to today, Chelsea was holding on to a 2-2 aggregate with the tie breaker with having more away goals. Torres main focus coming in was to help the other 9 men on the field desperately defending against the constant offensive pressure. Then it happened, the ball was cleared and Torres broke creating yards of space between the closest defender. It was vintage Torres, nothing flashy, one move to avoid the oncoming goalie. Torres then went on to calmly slot in the game tying, series sealing goal.



After all he has been through, Torres just kept going and now may have scored a goal worth 50 million pounds.The 10 men at Camp Nou will be remembered for a long time by the Chelsea faithful. And for my fellow Fernando Torres fans I hope it is safe to say El Nino is back!

Photos courtesy of Sports Illustrated 


4 comments:

did you see that Torres hat trick, i think he's returning to form just in time for Champions league final and Euro Cup 2012!!

He sucked again in the first game v. Italy

Finally showing signs of returning to form! love this guy

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