I may be doing the lad an injustice here but I saw small parts of the Euro Cup final last night and Hargreaves looked no better than Robbie Savage!

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

Answers

i missed the game, whats his position?

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

I thought the kid was excellent - would absolutely love to have him here.
I do sort of understand the comparison with Savage DeB, but for one so young and inexperienced Hargreaves has a lot of skill to go with his agressiveness in midfield.
Savage is the original "heedless chicken" - runs around a lot, aggressive, but is devoid of talent.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

Hargreaves is just the kind of midfielder we need, its a pity but I felt he was told last night by Hittzveld, win it, close em down, don`t get too far forward and oh BTW just give it to Effinburger which he did to perfection, more movement in the kid than Finlandia

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

They were in teh last minute of extra time when I got home and flipped the tv on(so much for avoiding the result to watch the tape later). He did a pretty fancy move of trying to get around 2 defenders while holding onto the ball. He eventually lost the ball, but he made them work for it.

He's also made noise today about wanting to play in the PL. That should put him well out of our price range. :-(

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

Young Hargeaves is a Calgary lad, his dad is English. I must eat humble pie now. Big media attention in this city when he went off to Bayern on trial. Lots of us ex-pats (especially me) wrote him off as "local lad - quiet news day". I saw him play in the Final and frankly I was impressed. And yes, his face is plastered all over the Calgary Sun, Calgary Herald and all the local TV stations. Power to the lad. He done good.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

He was superb in the semi, but had to bow to the ego that is Effinburg when he was back.

Even if he looked average last night this was in the European Cup final. Bit unfair to compare with anyone inthe Premiership, the league that has supplied one finalist in the last ten years

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

Calgary Sun, Thursday, May 24, 2001 HARGREAVES IS A CHAMP! Calgarian's Bayern Munich club wins Champions Cup title By AP and CP

MILAN, Italy -- Bayern Munich won the Champions Cup 5-4 on penalties yesterday after the two teams had tied 1-1 after extra time in Europe's most prestigious club competition.

Calgary native Owen Hargreaves became the first Canadian ever to win soccer's most famous club trophy.

The 20-year-old Canadian, who earned $270,000 US in the victory, played the entire match but didn't take a penalty kick.

Hasan Salihamidzic, Alexander Zickler, Stefan Effenberg, Bixente Lizarazu and Thomas Linke all hit the target from the spot to give Bayern its fourth title but first for 25 years at the San Siro Stadium.

Gaizka Mendieta, John Carew, Ruben Baraja and Kily Gonzalez also scored from the spot but Oliver Kahn's save from Mauricio Pellegrino meant that Valencia, a 3-0 loser to Real Madrid in the final a year ago, is runner-up for the second season in a row.

Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld, who won the title with Borussia Dortmund four seasons ago, triumphed again with another Bundesliga club four days after leading Bayern to its third league title in a row.

The Champions Cup is the fourth for the storied German club, which won three straight in the 1970s, but lost to Manchester United two years ago after giving up two injury-time goals.

"The Champions league is always something unique for a club," said Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld. "It's not enough to be in the final, you have to win it."

He praised Hargreaves after the match.

"I'm happy for Owen ... he took upon himself a great responsibility coming off from the second (youth) team. He had nothing to lose and produced an impressive performance," Hitzfeld said. "He ran for kilometres and was of great help."

Hitzfeld said Hargreaves ended the match with an inflamed tendon. Hargreaves, substituting for injured midfielder Jens Jeremies, played aggressively to stifle Mendieta.

He also helped Effenberg in supporting Bayern's offence. Hargreaves made several beautiful passes, tried a long distance shot which went wide and showed poise throughout the game.

He is close to putting Canada behind when it comes to soccer. The midfielder will commit his international future to England when he takes part in his first competitive game for the under-21 side away to Greece next month. That makes him ineligible to ever play for Canada.

Hargreaves received rave reviews from English newspapers for his performance.

"Confident on the ball and busy off it, Hargreaves will have convinced Sven Goran Eriksson, watching on TV at England's Derbyshire Hotel, that he should be capped quickly for the senior team, and thus tied to England," the Independent wrote. The Times of London wrote: "The Bayern fans love his gusto and willingness to take a chance."

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

"....more movement in the kid than Finlandia".

Just love it - definitely line of the week, Buff.
I think I should save these and hold a 'Line of the Month' and 'Line of the Season' competition.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

That's also a bit unfair Macbeth: "Bit unfair to compare with anyone in the Premiership, the league that has supplied one finalist in the last ten years". In the previous decade (prior to Heysel and the European ban on English teams), English sides won the European Cup 7 times; Liverpool 4 times, Forest 2ce. and Aston Villa once, my stats. might be slightly out but I stand by my point.

IMHO the banning of English teams, after Heysel, was the start of the (slow?) slide in English football.

-- Anonymous, May 24, 2001

Hargreaves is quality, but I can't see him leaving a team who are the Champions of Europe.

Maybe it will be good for the English national team having more players playing abroad - that was one of the reasons for the Euro 2000 failings according to the media.

-- Anonymous, May 25, 2001