Bringing Back the Prestige

A Prestige-less Prestigious Cup. The King’s cup is a tournament that in the last decade, thanks to poor management, has lost its prestige. Back in the day winning this cup was a success for any club. Winning this cup was a success at the end of the season and something to be proud about. Real Madrid, Atletico, Barcelona, would offer amazing games that still today are remembered as classics. For instance, every Barcelona fan remembers the amazing encounters with Atletico de Madrid. For a Barcelona fan it used to be a proud to say “we have won this cup most time that anybody”. Nevertheless, poor management and more games to the seasons have made this wonderful price not so wonderful for big teams that used to bring emotion and passion to win this cup. Even though it sounds good that in this cup average teams and even second division team have a good shot at the same time they don’t have that big of a price either. Things like having the eliminatory games at 10pm during a working day it’s not very clever. The fact that the champion does not go to face another champions in the so-called “champions league” doesn’t help at all. Think about it from a Real Madrid or Valencia point of view; why would they risk their “A” team in a competition that doesn’t offer that big of a price? Some changes have to be made in order to bring this cup back.

Barcelona VS Espanyol round 2. Just like back in the days, Barcelona defeated Atletico de Madrid and even though the final result makes it look as though it was easy it wasn’t. After 8 years they have to face one of their main rivals in this cup, Espanyol. The emotion is there, these 2 teams know each other very well and there is a saying in futbol that in a classic game anything can happen. Fortunately Espanyol learned their lesson and this time they are selling tickets only to Barcelona fan who are recognized members of the club. This way, they can avoid having those despicable fans known as Boixos Nois” who ruin every game they go with their nonsensical violence. Having these scumbags removed for the stadium will allow Espanyol and Barça to show an excellence display of futbol, rivalry and passion.

Stop the Ruthless Aggression. Futbol is a physical game; a game where sometimes a “technical” foul is needed to stop a team from scoring. However, it’s getting ridiculous how Messi is taking all these attacks throughout every game. In the Barcelona VS Madrid game right of the bat Sergio Ramos fouled very hard the Barcelona player. In less than 3 minutes he received 2 very hard fouls and none where penalized with something more than stopping the game for a couple of seconds. Johan Cruyff was right when he said that Messi was the cause of all these “attacks”. It is true that he exposes himself too much during the games to the point that he makes his defenders lose control; however, referees are there to maintain the order. If a players is so ruthlessly fouled in the first couple of minutes he needs to show the yellow card so the other team knows that their plan of using fouls to stop a player will not be tolerated. Yesterday, Atletico’s defender Perea fouled Messi really badly just as soon as he entered the pitch. He saw the yellow but deserved a red. Pandiani was no angel as well last weekend. Lets see how it goes against Deportivo.