Category Archives: Blog
A dampener at Stamford Bridge
I had twittered my expectation of ballet in the mud. Well, it turned out less than that, this latest encounter between FC Barcelona and Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. It was for sure wet, damp and cold sitting with a group of Barca fans just to the right behind the goal at the visitor’s end-the kind of conditions that remind one that watching even the best team in the world live sometimes involves a large degree of masochism. Just a yard and a line of stewards separated us from the nearest home …
Alves and the Grudge match
Good chemistry in today’s Guardian newspaper between Sid Lowe one of the doyenes of Spanish football reporting, and Dani Alves, one of the most entertaining and talented players of La Liga . With the British media- including the Guardian’s own new story-focusing on Chelsea’s desire for revenge over the alleged injustice of that Iniesta goal at Stamford Bridge three years ago, the Alves interview provides some refreshing reminders of what football should be about. As Alves points out, that Iniesta goal, far from representing an enduring injustice, should be seen …
Messi & Ronaldo: A study in contrasts
Anyone yet to be convinced of the value of Lionel Messi to the world of football need to have gone no further than watching him react to the two goals he scored against Levante last night. The first had him picking him up the ball from inside the goal and running back to the centre of the pitch with an attitude of total selflessness and determination. Barca had been trailing, 0-1 down. They still needed to win to have any possibility of keeping open the race for La Liga. The second …
Why we need La Cantera
Easter weekend had been watching two local youth teams battling it out on the outskirts of a very typical English provincial town. I have deliberately resisted naming the teams or the town as I would not want their reputations unfairly tarnished. Suffice it to say that I was shocked by the poor quality of football played compared to similar level games I have seen played in villages and towns across Spain, and I blame this on poor coaching and facilities rather than the lack of any potential talent- although it …
When thugs meet poets
There is something sadly somewhat predictable about some English sports page headlines this morning focusing on Lampard’s apparent statement that Chelsea has “some unfinished business” to take care of when it meets FC Barcelona in two weeks time. In fact my recollection is that Lampard was interviewed by an English TV journalist after the match against Benfica last night who used the phrase in his question, prompting an even less literate response. But the phrase stands as a necessary myth capable of fuelling the base instinct each previously humiliated …
Ibra, Messi, and the art of bullfighting
As I savoured the memory of last night’s Barca Champions League victory over AC Milan this morning’s surf landed me by pure chance on the Italian club’s supporters’ website Forza Rosseneri. It was an old page, now slightly dated but which nonetheless gave one an insight into the shortcomings of a club that once claimed, not without justification, to be the best in Europe. Alongside flashing advertisements showing semi-naked models promising that more would be revealed, the club’s CEO Adriano Galliani paid tribute to club owner Silvio Berlusconi- “These 26 …
Guardiola, Bielsa, and Maradona
Two images stand out from from last night’s game between FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao whose final score failed to undermine Real Madrid’s increasingly unassailable leadership at the top of La Liga. The first has the two ‘misters’ Pep Guardiola and Marcelo Bielsa, like the philosophers of football that they are , directing their pupils as if the nature of existence itself was being defined there and then . It is a study in contrasts- Guardiola intense and ephemeral as an El Greco saint, Bielsa ‘El Loco’ , a cross …
Herrera, Guardiola, & the catenaccio
During his time as manager of FC Barcelona, Helenio Herrera made a name for himself for a number of reasons. I would like to name just two. The first was as a very good psychologist. He was disdainful of other managers who failed to engage with their players and to bring about a real change in their attitude to the game. Herrera claimed to be able to look into the heads and heart of each of his players, and to be able to turn this to the team’s best advantage. …
Football notes, courtesy of Unamumo
In his excellent sports column in Tuesday’s El Pais, the incisive Martin Girard draws on the latest book by Alfredo Relaño to remind us how the divergent histories of Real Madrid and FC Barcelona have forged the identity of both clubs. It a subject close to my heart and I expand on it at some length in my new book La Roja: A Journey through Spanish Football which is due out very soon . Relaño notes that Carlos Padros, the founder of Real Madrid, was abandoned by his club during the …
Clemente at the Camp Nou
In the Spring of 1984, one of the ugliest encounters in Spanish football history, the King’s Cup final between FC Barcelona and Athletic Bilbao was held at the Bernabeu. The clubs had, respectively, Cesar Menotti and Javier Clemente as managers. Barca still had Maradona as a star player. The season had been characterised by a growing debate between Menotti and Clemente about how football should be played. Menotti claimed to be an admirer of free creative football which he contrasted with the defensive ‘brutal’ play favoured by Clemente. Brutality had …
