Nothing like a walk on my favourite beach in Sitges, to rediscover in some spontaneous beach football involving Catalans, other Spaniards and Latin Americans the game in its all its elemental joy, natural talent and skill.
That the Camp Nou is but a short train ride and quick metro hop away gives Sitges’s inhabitants the added privilege of living within the radius and aura of one of the greatest sporting clubs in the world, FC Barcelona , that commands a loyalty only wholly understood not just in terms of a love of football but what it can bring to one’s life experience in terms of solidarity and creativity.
I write these lines from Sitges not so far from that beach, hours away from one of the La Liga matches that demands close attention by football fans around the world. Tomorrow Barca plays away against Atletico de Madrid in what promises to be one of the most fascinating league encounters of this season’s football calender.
Something of the beach mentality has returned to FC Barcelona. After the let-down of the Guardiola days, the underlying gloom of the Tito Vilanova phase, and the sense of disorientation of the early Tata Martino days, the club has rediscovered a sense of identity and purpose. A sense of enjoyment is once again palpable among the players and their fans.
Not all is perfect. While the much missed Valdes is now back as first choice goalkeeper for all matches except those in the Spanish Cup, Barca has continuing problems in find a reliable defence with no one quite able to admit that Pujol is reaching the end of his career and what is left is not cohesive enough.
But Barca have found a rhythm and aggression to their attacking play that was evidently missing last season. While Xavi and Iniesta’s form has benefited from Martino’s rotation policy, the Argentine manager is spoilt for choice in terms of attacking option with Pedro, Alexis, and Cesc at the top of their game, and Messi and Neymar returning to form after recovering, respectively from injury and illness.
Tomorrow Barca faces the one team apart from Real Madrid, that poses a genuine rival challenge for The Spanish league championship but also the Champions. It is a team that under the management of Diego Simeone is firing on all cylinders thanks toan impressive backbone made up of Courtois, Godin, Koke,and Diego Costa, as solid in defence as it it conquering in attack. With the exception of Bayern Munich, no other European team has climbed such heights over the last two seasons.
Atletico will go into tomorrow’s match wanting to prove to the world that it has finally broken the duopoly that has dominated the Spanish La Liga for much too long. Barca knows this a match that requires the best it can give to prove that is still among, if not, the greatest and is in with a chance of winning three major trophies again this season.
