Category Archives: Football
La Roja : no conspiracy, just insufficient self-belief
Let the Italians keep their conspiracies. I never believed Spain and Croatia would go into their Euro 2012 Group match having agreed to play for a draw. You would have to have turned Poland into Argentina run by a military junta and swapped Peru for Croatia to have made that one stick. If Spain from the outset seemed to lack their usual sparkle, and fluffed too many passes it was partly their own fault for coming out and thinking not of themselves as champions but of Russia, a team that …
Bad sportsmen
David Nalbandian, the Argentine tennis player, disqualified from the AEBOG championship at London’s Queen’s Club, joins a not unimpressive list of Argentine icons made legendary by their ‘unsportsmanlike behavior’- only they happen to be footballers. Back in 1966, Argentine captain Antonio Rattin was sent off in the England World quarter finals match against England for his alleged ‘violent tongue.’ Rattin did not leave gracefully but rather bid a defiant farewell, taking his time to leave the stadium, and wrinkling a British pennant before finally departing. Twenty years later Diego Maradona …
Del Bosque’s choices
To be or not to be?- or rather to have a centre-forward or not? Vicente Del Bosque knew he was taking a gamble when he decided to dispense with a recognised striker at the start of Spain’s opening Euro2012 game against Italy-but it was a calculated choice for this serene and wise man from Salamanca. The Italy he was facing- an ambitious 3-5-2 line-up- was not the defensive ‘lock down’ that most Spaniards have come to expect. It opened up the prospect of a fast-moving game, with Spain being pressurised inside its own …
Whither Spain in Euro2012
Let me make an admission from the outset. I am approaching this Eurochampionships with one hope only-that Spain will clinch the title. I hope that I am not tilting at windmills. As those of you who might have read my latest book on La Roja will realise I’ve watched a lot of Spanish football over the years, and researched into history, to get a sense of how a country has weathered its political storms and deeply-ingrained club rivalries to produce a coherent national squad capable of playing the most beautiful and …
Aguirre´s unfortunate intervention
Much as I admire the Madrid regional government´s president Espereranza Aguirre as a person, I cannot agree with her politically when it comes to football. It is I think unfortunate of her to suggest that Friday´s King´s Cup on Friday should be played behind closed doors if Athletic Bilbao and FC Barcelona fans whistle the Spanish national anthem. By so doing, she has stirred a hornest´s nest of enduring resentments, and fuelled antagonisms which only radical minorities stand to gain from. To Barca supporters Aguirre´s politics brings echoes of the …
This blog is for my Chelsea friend
A persistent and enduring commentator on my blogs-a childhood friend who is a Real Madrid and Chelsea fan-has emailed me complaining about my silence on the outcome of this year’s Champions’s League final. Rather than be accused –as he has accused me-of self-censorship and Barca bias (others who might know me less but who read my blogs less selectively will notice I am actually quite objective about whoever I write about, be it MI6 or Pep Guardiola), I am jotting this blog down for his benefit and those of any …
Barca & Pep: Egos at play
Changes of managers at big clubs are never quite what they seem, for reasons that range from journalistic laziness or collusion to personalities and complex contractual issues- although in the end, as the great Spanish philosopher Ortega y Gasset once said, we are defined by who we are and our circumstances. The departure of Pep Guardiola from FC Barcelona, once put down to a simple question of work life balance , and placed in a context of solidarity and sacrifice, seems likely to have involved more complex, less chivalrous issues …
Messi is not a Racist
So, that admirable totem of journalistic objectivity and fairness The Sun has run with a story suggesting Lionel Messi is a racist. The only problem is that it has got its facts hopelessly mixed up, courtesy of its main and only source Everton’s Royston Drenthe’s apparent ignorance of colloquial Argentine. Drenthe-on loan to Everton from Real Madrid-is reportedly unhappy that while playing in La Liga two seasons ago Messi allegedly said Hola Negro to him . Messi is reportedly somewhat perplexed, not to say pissed off that this should be turned into …
Is Tito really the right man for the job ?
I can’t recall a Barca victory having such a bitter-sweet taste about it as last night’s crushing defeat of Rayo Vallecano. It was good to see Barca scoring goals, with Messi breaking his own drought, as well as watching substitute goalkeeper Pinto make some dramatic saves-but Pujol showed himself a true captain when he urged Alves and Thiago Alcantara to desist in their celebratory Brazilian dance . Sure this was a match that Barca needed to win if only to lift some of its shattered morale after losing the La …
Pep Guardiola’s catharsis
We will probably never know for certain when exactly was the moment when Pep Guardiola decided to quit as manager of FC Barcelona. But the Guardiola who spoke to the media after Barca’s defeat by Chelsea on Tuesday was I think no longer committed to another season. Some commentators suggested he was exhausted. To me, Guardiola looked liberated. Much has been said of Guardiola as a person who , both as player and manager, had always chosen his next move on his own terms. And yet circumstances I think combined …
