Category Archives: Blog
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 …
Football’s Agent Provocateur
This was a drama of violence and beauty, played on and off the pitch. The machine-gunned post-match allegations that scattered from the Mourinho’s mouth were not just the latest in an enduring campaign of assault on FC Barcelona’s integrity; it was a rallying call for hooligans. This is a man that from his days at Chelsea has dismissed every victory against him by Barca as the result of play acting and weak refereeing. But last night Mourinho’s surpassed himself by questioning Barca’s achievements under Pep Guardiola and implying that it’s …
Kate o Catherine
Según fuentes del Palacio de Buckingham, Kate Middleton ha tenido su primer desacuerdo con el Príncipe Charles, precisamente sobre el asunto de su nombre. A Charles, nunca le ha gustado los nombres diminutivos, ya que les parece de poca clase y populistas. Nunca le ha agradado el hecho de que su primera mujer fue universalmente reconocida como Lady Di– y no Diana- y lo de Kate le suena a presentadora del tiempo. En cambio Kate insiste que quiere llamarse Kate y no Catherine- rompiendo así con otro legado de la …
Classical encounters Round 2 (Part 2)
Five months is evidently a long-time in La Liga. Those of us who watched FC Barcelona’s 5-0 victory over Real Madrid last November could be forgiven for wondering last night at the Mestalla whether it had really just been an illusion. Let’s be blunt. The Barca that played the first half of the King’s Cup put on probably one of the worst exhibitions under Pep Guardiola’s governance since his infamous first league match as boss when they lost against Hercules. This was a team that seemed to have lost the …
Classicals encounters:Round 2 (Part One)
I went to bed with two competing chants ringing in my ear – one “Asi Asi gana el Madrid”,the other “Madrid, Madrid, Madrid.” From a radical Barca perspective, FC Barcelona was robbed of victory at the Bernabeu by two failed referee decisions: a refusal to give a penalty when Villa was taken down early on in the match, and his willingness to give one when Marcelo dived. From a radical Madridista perspective, the penalty scored by Ronaldo was not only justified (if unfairly lacking a red card) but just recompense …
I am against the culture of abuse
As FC Barcelona and Real Madrid limber up for the first of their serial four epic encounters, the usual abuse has began to fly across the netwaves between some fans. Does this hysteria really benefit anyone other than the pent-up hormonal levels of the main abusers? I think I am not alone among thousands of universal football lovers who, regardless of their particular loyalties, would like to see some mutual respect being shown by supporters of the two greatest clubs in the world. Ok there is a historical rivalry here but …
Tales of the Imagination
As Barca limbers up for its serial encounters with its arch rival, I thought it worth commenting on the rather worrying urban myth that has been fuelled in recent times by Real Madrid fanatics. Out of respect to both sporting institutions, and weary of falling foul of libel laws, I will have to phrase this as delicately as I can-but suffice it to say that the quite unsubstantiated and untrue suggestion is that Barca has only managed to have got to where it has got to-record results across three major …
