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. 

Season Summary

It is a good moment to review the 2009/2010 season of our beloved Real Madrid (RM). (After all, soon we will be busy with the World Cup.) The season was characterized by the arrival of a "new" president (Florentino Pérez, "my uncle" in what follows), yet additional evidence that Spanish sport media are disgusting, the lack of trophies at the end of the season, and uncertainty about the future.

My uncle arrived to the presidency of RM aiming at a complete revolution, and signed important names such as Cristiano Ronaldo (ManUtd), Kaká (Milan), Benzema (Olympique Lyon), and Xavi Alonso (Liverpool). Other, less renowned, players such as Albiol, Arbeloa, Granero, and Garay signed as well. The chosen manager was Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, who had done a rather good job in Villareal, during 2004-2009. My uncle's objective was to win again some trophies while playing attractively. The main goal of the season was to play the final of the UCL (UEFA Champions League) at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (RM home, in case you are not aware).

The season was a failure if one looks only at the final results: embarrassing performance at the Copa del Rey, a defeat full of impotence against Olympique Lyon in the UCL, and a second place in La Liga (the Spanish championship), just behind our sworn enemy. Beyond these disappointing results, in my opinion the team managed to have an idea of how to play, something that is remarkable in the light of the game shown in previous seasons. Moreover, the team did excellent at home (only one, yet crucial and painful, defeat), and some records were broken. The defense was particularly solid, even if Pepe was not available during many games. This is probably the most notable achievement of Pellegrini's team. Unfortunately, midfield and attack lines weren't that regular: although Xabi Alonso had an acceptable performance during the season, the ones supposed to make the team play (Guti, Granero, and perhaps Gago) were rather disappointing. Substitutes for Xabi Alonso (Lass and Mahamadou Diarra) were quite irregular too. The notable news in the attack is that legendary captain Raúl was officially sent to the bench during most of the season, and thus the strikers of the team were Cristiano Ronaldo and my personal favorite, Gonzalo El Pipita Higuaín. This was an awesome season for Pipita (27 goals in 35 appearances in La Liga), despite of the fact that my uncle doesn't like him very much (he prefers shy and unenthusiastic Benzema instead). Pipita scored important goals, was able to overcome the pressure of a lot of bad press against him, and yet again showed that he is the most reliable striker of the team, with a fantastic future ahead (he's just 22).

My uncle of course wasn't very happy at the end of the season with these results. In spite of his previous promises, he has recently fired Pellegrini. I liked Pellegrini a lot: apart from a questionable line-ups at the beginning of the season, you could tell he had a clear idea of how to make the team play for victory. Also, he's a gentleman: during the season he never gave a controversial press conference, always showing decency and culture. Pellegrini's plans for the team were seriously affected as soon as Robben and Sneijder left the team during the preseason (to Bayern Munich and Inter FC, respectively). This occurred even if Pellegrini publicly declared both players were essential in his plans; my uncle didn't appreciate such declarations, and claimed that their transfers were financially crucial. Robben and Sneijder's performances with their new teams (as well as RM's lack of options in the wings) would prove Pellegrini right, at the end.

Another disappointment of the season was Kaká. He had both adaptation and physical problems; a mysterious injury affected him during a large part of the season. However, in the games in which he supposedly was in good shape, he made no difference in the attack of the team. Luckily, whenever Kaká wasn't available or was playing like crap, there was Van der Vaart to play in his position. Van der Vaart did great in some games, but he also had injury problems towards the end of the season.

The last part of the season was characterized by a disgusting media campaign against Pellegrini. While at some point it was hard to believe my uncle would dare to fire him, thus contradicting the opinion of many followers, the intensity of such a campaign eventually convinced us that Pellegrini was out. What a shame. Decent and modest Pellegrini was then replaced by controversial José Mourinho, who has been very successful in Portugal, England, and more recently Italy. My uncle claimed that a change of coach was necessary in order to bring more leadership into the team.

Mourinho's teams tend to be more effective than attractive; it is unclear how he will adapt to Spanish football. He is certainly a guy who enjoys controversy; he says he does so in order to protect his players from unnecessary pressure. I am afraid that RM will be more hated now that Mourinho is leading the team. Mourinho has said that he wants 3 or 4 defensive players. While this could make some sense (given the current weaknesses in the wing positions) the reliability of the defense during this season makes me doubt about this. RM might need to get rid of good players (such as Garay or Albiol), in favor of people Mourinho knows well, such as Inter's Maicon. Perhaps it is just Mourinho trying to impose his new authority above all. Let's see how it goes.

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.

Auf Wiedersehen Bernardo!

Recently I have decided not to bring my laptop to work. Apart from increasing my levels of concentration significantly, this has prevented me from reacting quickly to Internet-related events. So no email, no RSS reader, no chat, no sports news in the spare time. Today, when looking at the web after hours of no Internet, I was extremely surprised to know that Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster was fired by Sports Manager Pedrag Mijatovic. I think this decision surprised eveyone. In this post I will claim this was a very clever thing to do.

Real Madrid (RM) is, without a doubt, the most legendary football club. (It's perhaps the only thing I like from Spain, but that's an issue to be developed in another post.) Both players and coach are always under a great pressure: they're the best in the world and should win accordingly. Recent results have been quite disappointing, including a very unexpected elimination from the Copa del Rey. In addition to the bad game and subsequent bad results, serious injuries of key players such as Ruud van Nistelrooy and Mahamadou Diarra have complicated much the perspectives of RM. This is a really a problem because during the summer only Rafael van der Vaart was signed; obviously, some others should have been signed in order to cope with possible injuries and/or low performances.

The lastest defeat of RM was last Sunday, against Sevilla FC. The score was 3-4 in RM's stadium (the Santiago Bernabeu). Even if the team was able to get a 3-3 tie until the 80', the chaos in defense and a terrible referee made getting a victory impossible. Apart from the crisis in results, the same day of the game the president of the club (Ramon Calderon, who's elected by the popular vote of all the shareholders of the club) was in great trouble to get next year's budget approved.

All in all, these are complicated times for RM, even if the position in the Spanish league is not that bad and the team is still alive in the UEFA Champions League. Tomorrow there's an irrelevant UCL game against Zenit, but the real thing to come is the derby, against Barcelona FC, next Sunday. They have been showing a fanstastic performance along the league, displaying moments of great quality in their game.

The beginning of the end for Schuster was right after the match against Sevilla, as he said that "there is no way of defeating Barcelona; we'll do our best, but it will be most likely not enough." Terrible words to say if you're the leader of a great team. What kind of courage will the players put on the field if the leader feels already defeated?

So, today Schuster was removed from his position, in a quick move that put former Sevilla and Tottenham Hotspur coach Juande Ramos on charge of the professional team. Ramos' main credentials include a very solid perfomance while in Sevilla FC and the Carling Cup he won with the Tottenham. We all wish the best for Juande and RM.

Now, I think it was a very smart move. First, in this way the president and the sport manager show they're acting concretely during the crisis. They have saved their heads, at least for the moment. Second, it would have been way worse to change coach after an hypothetical defeat against Barcelona. To me, it would have felt like Barcelona deciding the fate of RM, something that certainly sucks. Also, in case of such a defeat, the new coach would have a great excuse, so to speak: the pressure for everyone would be less in case Juande gets a bad result in his second match in charge of the team.

My good friend Andrés Aristizábal (who is perhaps the only computer scientist that has a weekly sports column in a national newspaper) disagrees with me in this issue. He's a loyal Barcelona supporter and during these days before the derby he wonders for how many goals Barcelona will defeat RM. He says that it would have been better to change coach after the match, and that a defeat will affect Juande negatively for the rest of the campaign. He says prudence would have been advisable in this case. Any opinions on this important topic?

Soccer and Summer

One of the downsides of the summer is that there are no official soccer competitions. Actually, the real problem is that the sport press doesn't stop during the summer. Soccer news in the summer can be extremely annoying, as every single year it's the same thing, with all kinds of rumors regarding big teams signing new players.

Those who know me know that I am a supporter of Real Madrid. I won't elaborate here on why this is; I will only say that it's the best team of the world. In fact, Real Madrid is perhaps the only thing I like about Spain. (Actually I don't know why I don't like Spain in general, never had a bad experience nor a Spanish friend. It must be the fact that in Spain, as a Colombian or Ecuadorian immigrant you might get a free beating.) Because of Real Madrid, part of my daily routine is to give a quick look (not so quick when there's some important game) to the main sport newspapers in Madrid: As and Marca. Since most people in Madrid are RM followers, these newspapers usually only publish news related to the team. One of the beautiful things about soccer is that when you decide to support a team, you're automatically deciding to hate your team's rival. In case you don't know, RM's all-time rival is FC Barcelona. This rivalry follows the traditional one between the two cities, and comprises many things, including politics. Because of this, sometimes I also read the Barcelona newspapers, Mundo Deportivo and Sport. I enjoy doing so when FCB loses in pathetic ways (which is frequent). They also start stupid rumors about RM and its players, which are also funny to read sometimes.

This summer sport newspapers in Madrid and Barcelona have been especially annoying, and this certainly deserves a post. The story of the summer in Madrid is Cristiano Ronaldo signing for RM. I am so fed up with the thing that everyday I wake up wishing the story is over. My position in this is clear: I don't want CR in Madrid. Granted, the guy is an outstanding player, but it's my impression that he's not psychologically strong enough to become the best soccer player in the world. And RM must have the best players in the world. Just take a look in the way he kicked the penalty in the UEFA Champions League final. He was scared. Think about real extraordinary players in soccer history (say Zidane): they would have kicked that penalty properly, with confidence. Ronaldo was lucky enough that John Kerry did much worse than him kicking his penalty. Otherwise, Cristiano would have been remembered as the idiot that gave Chelsea the trophy.

Now let's turn to the situation in Barcelona. They have a lot of problems: they want(ed) to get rid of good (yet problematic) players (Ronaldinho, Deco, Etoo), there's a new coach, the president of the club has little support. However, the story of the summer concerns Lionel Messi going to the Olympic games. The club doesn't want Lio to go to the games as they coincide with the preliminary qualification round for the UEFA Champions. However, FIFA regulations say that the club must allow Messi to play with his national team. The player seems to be too shy to make his position clear, which I really can't stand. It's some sort of endless situation in which both parts (the club and the Argentinian soccer association) are right. Things are really annoying because there are lawyers and courts taking part of the dispute. The latest news is that Messi went to China (based on a decision of some court), but today a higher court said that FC Barcelona wasn't obliged to let Messi participate. The Argentinian association replied saying that there's no way Messi is returning...

All in all, I hope these two stories to reach a final. I really don't care how the things evolve. Really. I look forward for the beginning of the new soccer year, which should be exciting.