Moral Consequences

If you were to ask fans to mention one thing about the recent “El Clasico” the probable answer would have to be related to Pepe and the stepping on Messi’s hand. The world media has focused their attention on this action. Almost everybody agree that Pepe should be sanctioned by his club and by the committee responsible for fair game. And I say almost everybody because, sadly, there are two organizations that disagree with this: precisely his club and the Spanish referee committee.

Florentino Perez (Real Madrid’s President) has decided to stay in the shadows in this matter and after seven days he hasn’t spoken to anybody outside the club to explain where the team stands in this matter. The reality is that they are ping-poing this subject across the leaders of the team with no one wanting to make a final call. Florentino delegates this to the manager, Mourinho, who has defended the player in public. As a coach he’s responsible for the physical and psychological state of his players; however, as a manager his obligation include dealing with controversies such as this and punish anti-competitive behaviour.

The referee committee says they would not act on the matter since there wasn’t anything written about it in the ref report of the game. Unlike England, where Ballotelli got a four game sanction for a very similar action, Spain has decided to turn a blind eye on the matter. Not even the pressure from all around the world has been enough to make the committee reconsider their positions.

I understand, but fully disagree with both parties. It all comes down to morals and previous decisions taken. Mourinho had an anti competitive behavior in August when he shamelessly poked Barcelona’s second coach, Tito Vilanova in the eye. Neither his club nor the referee committee acted diligently. His club showed full support for him, even showing a tifo that read “Mou, your finger guide us” in reference to the poking incident. The committee settled for an innocent punishment of two games suspension from the supercup tournament only. Meaning that he may never be affected by this decision.

How can they punish Pepe when they turned a blind eye on something as bad, or even worse, from his coach? Judging Pepe by strict standards would be like giving an assassin a death penalty while his assassin partner gets only a community service penalty. Again, I understand the reasoning behind this but it is pathetic to say the least.

Football has evolved from the contact game in the 60s, 70s, and 80s, to a gentlemen’s game. No longer you see in the main European leagues players like Andoni Goikoetxea who intensionally injured Maradona breaking his ankle in the middle of a game. You still get Carvalho tackling knees but the degree of violence is toned down. These players. Pepe, Marcelo (against Fabregas), and Carvalho are a step back to the time where football was warfare.

Take note Spain, the best league is not about having the best players only but having the best system that supports the game. TV rights favour the strong teams economically, which polarizes the league. Referee committees turn a blind eye on crucial matters instead of protecting players and setting example for troublemakers.

It all comes down to morals. Just like its economy, Spain’s morals in these matters are a joke to the rest of Europe, and the world.

Oh, and there is a game today too...

The Craziness Begins

Round 24 of La Liga was played this weekend and it seems as though we have entered bizarro world. The environment right now reminds me of the days after Barça defeated Madrid at Nou Camp 2-0 where somebody that didn’t have idea about the classification would have thought that Madrid had already won the title. Right now that is the atmosphere in Spain; but the only difference is that right now Madrid has arguments valid for being that way because they have been adding 3 points every weekend whereas Barça have given away a couple of them. This is the situation: 3 weeks ago Barça was 12 points away from Madrid; today they are only 7.

The Crap-o-meter is activated: this imaginary device symbolizes what Barcelona fans are about. If after losing against Numancia on the first round somebody would have said to us that today, February 22nd, we would be with an advantage of seven points we would have been more than happy. However, now everybody doubts of this team, of the coach and everything. This team has shown that in attitude alone it can win matches that are key for winning any championship. So what would put an end to all these fears and worries? Winning in France against Lyon and in Madrid against Atletico next weekend; right now starts the key part of the season. It is believed that La Liga is won in the last 10 rounds and that is, to certain extends, true. But Pep doesn’t want to wait until the last 10 rounds. The idea is to enter them with the at least 10 points of difference.

Injuries and Ref doesn’t help. Yesterday we lost Abidal for at least 2 months due to an injury. During the week we also lost Iniesta but in his case is nothing that bad and he will be out for only 15 days. In fact, I’m almost sure that he will be ready before and will play against Atletico the next weekend. Right now all we can do is pray that Injuries finally respect us a little bit. Until now there hasn’t been many but one can only hope that we don’t see them again. Since 2005 we have seen Edmilson, Messi, Xavi, Motta, Larsson, Eto’o, and Iniesta missing big chunks of the seasons. Let’s hope Abidal is the last one to suffer one of these big curses. Add to that the fact that we have incompetent referees nowadays that try to be the highlight of the game. One referee was even suspended for 3 rounds after he clearly benefited Madrid against Osasuna. Yesterday, the referee did something that you never do as a ref; he listened to the petitions of one team and shows a straight red card that was worth of only a yellow. He conditioned the game and in the end he made everything easy for Espanyol to win at Nou Camp after 27 years.

Eto’o has matured. We all remember that shameful episode at Villafranca in 2007 when he publicly criticized Rijkaard and Ronaldinho after a misunderstanding. That time everybody questioned his professionalism after he drop such a bomb to the media who just couldn’t be happier after getting that many controversies in such a short period of time. We all doubted that he would change or he would stay. However, Eto’o has finally grown up as a person and thinks before he talks. This year he’s been very prudent with the media and what he says. In the last couple of weeks there was a lot of talk about his future and many in the media believed that he would be leaving the team after this season. To add more wood to the fire he said in an interview that he knew his future already but would not say anything to anybody. The media, hungry for controversy, dedicated the whole week to comment on this and making up all these theories about where he was leaving etc. But yesterday Samu was very mature and revealed his plans so the speculations would stop. He also asked the media to please comment on things about the game and leave the rest (rumours) to the end of the season. A tip of my hat to you Samu

Rumour-mania 2009 II

Last month we started to get the first round of rumours which included the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo and Benzema. Now it is a little bit deeper and new names have shown up. Some rumours start to have some logic background while others are just pure speculations. So let’s look at the new media stories

Eto’o…only he knows. Samuel Eto’o will have to decide this coming summer whether he wants to stay in Nou Camp or not. His contract will expire in 2010 and Barcelona cannot afford to have the best striker in the world leave and not make a reasonable 30 million or more profit. There are those who think that Eto’o will likely score more than 30 goals this year just to leave to another team. Others think that he wants to stay in Barça. But only he knows; Barcelona has already tried to establish some contacts with his manager to set a contract extension deal but Samuel has strongly denied such possibility now due to the fact that he wants to be focused on the team only. This can only mean that he will negotiate a new contract but under his terms. His business card: 118 goals in 5 seasons so far. This season alone he’s scored 21 goals in 21 games.

Cristiano Again. Real Madrid is at the moment like that annoying kid who won’t stop crying until he gets what he wants. Every day there is a new “secret”, yet known, plan to finally bring the so called first, second and third best player of the world Cristiano Ronaldo. The last plan seems to be the one that finally will work. According to Spanish sports newspaper AS Real Madrid got a loan of 50 million euros approved by Santander Bank that will help them pay the high cost of Ronaldo which is expected to be around the 100 millions. Meanwhile, recently signed player Huntelaar is barely playing and hasn’t even scored. Not a good situation for a 20 million euro player. To add just a little more to the rumour party that is currently Real Madrid they just announce that if Florentino Perez is running for presidency again he will more likely bring Ancellotti as his coach for the team. This is not the best scenario for a team that needs to win La Liga and the UEFA Champions League…or are they passively surrendering?

The New Addition to Team Rumour. Recently a new name has been the talk of the month. This time is not Ronaldo or Benzema. Instead this is a new face which can engage Barça and Madrid in a never-ending battle once again. The man is a fantastic player worth 28 million euros and a place in any team in world. I’m talking of course about Frank Ribery. The Frenchman is said to be a bit unhappy at Munich and willing to change air in the near future. Barcelona and Madrid have expressed their desire to add this fantastic player to their line-up. For Barcelona, it would mean to add the final piece of the puzzle to their already fantastic attacking line. Ribery is a wing by nature that does wonders in both of them; at Nou Camp his place will be at the left wing. Madrid on the other hand wants to make an impact and forget about the present season. Recently on loan player Foubert seems to be more of the same low quality players that they have bought so it’s time to open the wallets again and bring some names and pretty game along.

One More Step

It wasn’t until Barcelona played against Sporting at “El Molinon” stadium when we saw what Pep’s team could do. Before that game Barcelona was being hammered by the media after losing their first game against Numancia and then tying 1-1 against Racing at their debut at home. Four months later Barça received the first victim of their assault to La lIga.

Sporting dictates the pace. It wasn’t because they dominated the game nor because they showed a menacing attitude; instead, Sporting showed very little in the first minutes of the game and Barça knew how they had to play. Barça won despite the fact that they didn’t bring the A-game throughout the game; instead, they understood what Sporting came to do and showed that they were not going to need to bring the A-game. When a team is as effective as Barcelona is at this moment even a somehow good performance can be devastating. It is a shame that small teams such as Sporting don’t go to Nou Camp wanting to play but instead trying not to lose by too many goals. If the end result is going to be a lost game anyways they should instead create more danger play face to face to Barcelona. Getafe did it and got a point. Hey that’s something.

Eto’o…21 goals and counting. When the Cameroonian scores the team wins; as simple as that; today he scored at minute 21 after a textbook counter attack lead by Iniesta. Then in minute 40 he scored again. And in the second half he almost scored twice. It’s been 2 seasons since we got somebody in Barcelona scoring 20+ goals. Coincidentally, the last 2 seasons were damned by injuries that did not help at all. Barcelona is walking straight to the title and Messi, Eto’o and Henry are leading the way. In all competitions they’ve scored 102 goals of which more than 60 have been by these 3 players. If injuries give Barcelona a break these team is going to break many more records including the most goals in la Liga in one season which currently stand at 107 goals by Real Madrid.

Top 10 Barça:

1- Messi (last week 1): today he didn’t score but created a lot of dangerous situation and combined well with Alves in the third goal.

2- Alves (last week 3): Amazing performance by Alves tonight. A beautiful goal that not many players can do. He still is my MVP of the year.

3- Eto’o (last week 5): he’s in love with the goal. When he scores Barça is heading to a victory. Don’t be surprise if he reaches the 30+ goal mark

4- Xavi (last week 2): a couple of places behind with respect to last week ranking not because he played bad or something like that but because the top 3 are just too good.

5- Iniesta (last week 4): Iniesta is just the kind of players that do their job and more. He created game and on top of that he’s very good on every one on one play.

6- Henry (last week 6): Can’t complain about anything he’s doing this season. He scores goals, he make passes on goals and is the reference of the team in the left wing.

7- Busquets (last week 10): today he did everything good. He creates game with very precise passes and he also recovers many balls during the game. He was called by the national team. Watch him become a key element of Barça in the future

8- Valdes (last week 8): Victor can be easily a top 5 player but he just doesn’t have too much work to do when the whole team plays good defence. Couldn’t do much in the goal today.

9- Puyol (last week NR): the captain debuts in this top 10 after coming from a minor injury. Didn’t have too much work today.

10- Bojan (last week NR): Bojan didn’t play tonight but he did play against Mallorca last Thursday. He’ll be a reference of this team in the future.

Half Time Show

We Reach the Equator.So the first half of La Liga is officially over and the roles of this league seem to be defined very well. Barcelona is as this very moment the team to beat. Statistically in the last 10 years the champions reach the title with an average of 70 points approximately. So this means that all Barcelona has to do is win their game at home and they’ll win the title. However, doing so is not easy task. Futbol is known as the beautiful game but I also consider it the cruellest at time. If Barça relaxes and think that they have done it all they will fail. Each half of La liga can be so opposite from the other that it is unbelievable. Remember last year Espanyol and how Ernesto Valverde had done such a good job on the first half of the season but soon enough they started to get in a negative dynamic to the point that even today that team doesn’t seem to react.

The Keys to Succeed. Guardiola is a man that likes to play the cards close to the chest. Understanding how Barcelona’s performance has been so great cannot be done 100% accurately because there are so many things that Guardiola does that are completely unknown to the public. From what is known one can gather that it is important to do proper pre-season. I remember back in august they were training really hard and as a result of that we see after 19 games a team that seems to have unlimited stamina. Thanks to that preparation which includes specific work outs, custom made diets for each player, tactical work and so on we see guys like Alves and Puyol playing almost every game and being at a top condition. Pep also introduced a new internal code of behaviour to the team that has been applied many times; prove of that is the fine that he set on the team for showing up 3 minutes late to train. Pep is a “futbol-addict’ and he has introduced a good method of managing a team that is giving, up until now, more than excellent results. When one analyses the situation of Real Madrid we can see how there was no connexion between the team, the coach and management. Thanks to that miscommunication they are 12 points behind.

Next Stop: Montjuic. Barcelona will be playing this Wednesday their town rivals. With Pochettino as their new coach there is a little bit of emotion because the white and blue team will want to make a good impression on the coach. On the other hand, there are a lot of chances that the players don’t get the coach’s message so they end up losing. Guardiola has a big advantage that is all players seem to adapt and play well with each other even if they don’t do so frequently. Except Alves,most players don’t play regularly with each other but this is barely noticeable when you see them playing. I expect Iniesta in the main team along with Alves; the rest of the team is an enigma. 5 games separate Barcelona from conquering a cup which they haven’t won in more than 10 years. The final stop is at Mestalla where the final will be played but before that the next stop is Montjuic