Football and Life

It is intriguing to see how some people insist on seeing football as an abstraction of life. This is a two-way illusion: people are tempted to explain facts of life by means of football events, but also to exploit the random nature of football to find strange justifications for their own beliefs. I had already commented on the relation between football and justice. The recent four matches between Barcelona F.C. and Real Madrid, along with the fact that Barcelona has an amazing team, have only exacerbated this illusion to the most annoying levels. The matches were in fact considered by many as the utmost incarnation of the legendary battle of good vs evil; the overall victory of Barcelona was then recognized as the perpetuation of the noble ideals that only the good endeavors can bring.

This is of course an artificial argument, but an argument that serves many purposes. It endows defeats with some sort of dignity, gives a legendary flavor to victories, and, most importantly, it enriches media and nurtures the business. The extreme positions adopted by both sides appear as a reasonable price to pay; they are just an anecdote of the battle. 

The side effect of the good vs. evil approach to football is pretty obvious: what happens on the pitch somehow becomes irrelevant to all. What it counts is what occurs before and after the match. Truly amazing.  As an example, consider Mourinho's admitted "plan" for the first UCL game. It appears that he intended to "frustrate" Barcelona during the first 70 minutes by populating the midfield with aggressive Pepe, who would cut every attack at any costs. Then, by the end of the game, with a tired and confused Barcelona, he would include an offensive player to try to win 1-0, thus getting some advantage for the second game. A ridiculous strategy, especially if you consider that it was the most convenient one for Barcelona. Then, after the Pepe vs Alves situation and Messi's first goal, the master plan failed. What did Mourinho do? Well, nothing. For instance, he could have well changed the team, to avoid any more away goals. Of course, conspiracy theories are more attractive to argue than coward tactics. Mourinho knows it, he went that way, and most seem to ignore his stupid original plan. 

The victories of Barcelona are also useful to hide the fact that his players are regular football players, not the well behaved boys they wanted us to believe they are. Here I think of the acting lessons by Pedro, Busquets, Mascherano, Alves. As economy, football is cyclic process, and Barcelona fans seem to be using this positive period to install the idea that their way of doing things is the morally correct one. They want us to believe that they excel now as a consequence of some core values only them can embrace. It is a rather pretentious way of presenting what it appears to be the conjunction of a number of positive circumstances: several extremely good players at the same time, repeated failures in the past that justify hiring a young coach, a political context that seems in accordance with the rest. Would Guardiola be as successful (and pretentious) as he is now, with different players, in a different team? Most likely not. Would Messi be able to have a long career? I seriously doubt so. Would brand new Xavis and Iniestas appear magically when the original ones are not available? Hardly, even if they claim to be the factory of the "good" football.  Granted: for the moment, they seem to have all the ingredients to have a historic football team. But please: do not push your luck. 

Football and justice

As many other things in life, football obeys a series of dualities: apart from the obvious winning-losing aspect, the most notable duality is that every team, no matter its size or origin, has a rival counterpart, a sworn enemy in the field. As a result, you don't only enjoy when your team wins, but also learn to feel relieved when your main adversary loses. Apart from this indisputable duality, there is the very important fact that the football follows no logic. As such, it defies any predictions or anticipated analysis. Much of the beauty in football can be traced back to that simple principle.

The lack of reasonable explanation in events related to football is closely related to justice. Justice is absent from most aspects of life, let alone football. In spite of this, justice at large is a common ideal that is perceived as a feasible one by most of us. In fact, one often hears frustrated football followers complaining about results not being fair. I could bet many lines have been written with the experiences of great teams that never won, or with the lives of extraordinary players who never saw glory. If "justice" or "logic" were part of football then rich teams would win every cup, and talented players would make no mistakes, injuries wouldn't be such a big deal, and everything would be terribly boring. The lack of logic (and therefore of justice) not only makes the whole sport interesting, it's what inspires "weak" teams to overcome their deficiencies and dream of victory. In some sense, perhaps contradictorily, the lack of logic is what equates the two teams in the field.

All of the above is partially due to Barcelona failing to get to the finals of the UEFA Champions League. As a Real Madrid follower, this makes me happy. A very good friend of mine is a Barcelona follower, and he always appeals to the "justice" argument in discussion. We discuss about football quite often; he's quite an expert and, unlike me, remembers many things. It is easy to imagine him now, saying things like "Don't you think it's unfair Barcelona losing against ultradefensive Inter?" I always reply with the same answer, essentially what I just wrote about football and justice. Most of the times he accepts my argument reluctantly. My friend and I have an agreement of not making fun of the other about the failures of our teams. This agreement has lasted for years now, so I am gonna enjoy silently this moment. He's been extremely noble to make his part, even if he has had plenty of opportunities of making fun of the recent and repeated failures of Real Madrid. This post is dedicated to him; I am confident the post does not break our agreement.