Monthly Archives: May 2011
A Wembley Dream
Of all the chants resounding round the Barca section of Wembley last night, few proved as popular as ‘ Porque,Porque, Porque’. Why does Barca win was the question’s football’s agent provocateur Jose Mourinho asked, insinuating-as only he would-that the answer may lie in diving and deranged referees. Well Mourinho eat your hat. The answer, as Alex Ferguson recognised, was blowing in the sweet air of a team’s collective genius which made an opponent of the quality of Manchester United struggle to keep in the game for much of the …
Carta a Pep
28 de Mayo 2011 For the attention of Pep Guardiola, FC Barcelona Querido Pep, Te escribo como autor, cule (nacido en Madrid de padre escoces y madre Castellana), y Londinense para expresar mi profundo agradecimiento por la gran ilusión y alegría que tu y tus jugadores habeis inspirado en el Barca, profundizando en una gran tradición de humanidad y buen futbol. Anoche estuve en una cena en un hotel de la capital ingles organizada por la Penya del Londres al cual pertenezco. Había cules de toda la peninsula …
Thanks, Bob Dylan
As I read my newspaper over the breakfast table this morning, one news item more than any other today brought instant stirrings of nostalgia, faith , and mortality: Bob Dylan is 70. Thanks to Bob, I invested in my first guitar, wrote my first poem, busked as a student, turned socialist in my Christianity, romanced my first girl-friend and now wife, and kept believing in the benevolent artistic creativity of mankind, under God. His music drew from primitive roots, his words from the dramatic landscape of history and its mystical …
Wembley Bound
Less than a week to go before the Champions League final at Wembley, and my nerves are already on edge, tension rising. I am assured of a ticket, but I am also seriously contemplating asking for help from a neighbour who is a hypnotherapist. This is a match I’m reluctant to predict the outcome of. My heart sees a Barca victory, but my head throbs with the fear that Ferguson might just clinch it. The more I think of it though, the less does the last encounter in Rome strike …
Vicente Del Bosque: A Spaniard for all seasons
It was the poet Antonio Machado who many years ago, meditating on the events surrounding the Spanish Civil War, talked of the propensity of Spaniards to fight each other in word and deed. It was his country’s tragedy-this lack of a common narrative, of mutual respect- what he called the ‘two Spains’. I’ve been between Barcelona and Madrid in recent days, following the rivalry between the country’s two biggest clubs descend to one of its most aggressive and abusive periods in its history. In part both sides share some of …
El Beso y El Balcon
Al final de un mañana cuando la boda real había navegado en perfecto equilibrio entre la tradición y la modernidad, fue este el momento del símbolo definidor. A la 1.26 hora local, bajo la mira de miles allí congregados y millones más mirándoles alrededor del mundo, William y Kate se dieron el beso, desde un balcón de palacio pero con la espontaneadad de cualquier pareja de enamorados recién casados. Fue un ingles Wiliam Shakespeare que creo le escena de balcón tal vez mas romántica y tragicómica en la imaginación …
A Clasico without Mourinho
A technical hitch so this updated blog I wrote from Madrid has arrived somewhat belatedly. I watched the second leg of the Champions Leaguue semi-final tie in a bar in Mostoles, a sprawling satellite town south west of Madrid.I was not the only journalist here. A crew from Spanish TV had beaten me to it- and I could see why they had chosen this godForsaken neighbourhood, of all places, to find ‘atmosphere’. The bar has a reputation as a rather convivial lion´s den. It is shared by a local FC …
