FOOTBALL VS THE ANTI-FOOTBALL

When jose mourinho was sent into the stands it was pretty much a statement of the obvious considering him and his real Madrid team had been reduced to a bunch of mere spectators on the night! Barcelona came into the bernabeu as the wounded. The wound in this case was pride. The king’s cup final defeat was definitely not easy on them and the mistakes were not to be repeated. But if mourinho’s theory of the pre match press conference being part of the match is to be believed then real Madrid were definitely better placed. Guardiola was clearly rattled and it got the better of him in the conference. The fact that he was with a team missing quite a few first choice players did not help. So considering these factors one would not have been surprised by a shock and awe early attacking burst by the two hundred million odd Euros of attacking talent in the Madrid squad. Unfortunately mr. mourinho was intent on parking the bus. At home! In the first leg of the semi final! Bizarre to say the least but if anyone knew how to stop Barcelona it was him. it was not to be however. One might remember that when mourinho’s inter beat Barcelona in last season’s semi final it was only in the second leg at the nou campthat he decided to park the bus. In the first leg at the san siro barca were beaten hands down three goals to one despite pedro scoring early. Inter’s three goals came in an excellent attacking and counter attacking display which included three strikers in the form of etoo, milito and pandev not to forgetWesley sneijder ( at the peak of his powers) pulling the strings in midfield and maicon marauding down the right flank. This year there was not one out and out striker in the starting line-up. Despite the presence of benzema, higuain and Emmanuel adebayor real Madrid started with cristiano ronaldo as a ‘striker’ if one may call it that with ozil and di maria for support. The other eight (yes eight!) players were given a primarily defensive role. Pepe and lassana diarra playing as defensive midfielders in front of the back four and the immense passing and creative talent of xabi Alonso wasted by also playing him as a midfield enforcer. Needless to say they did precious little in the first half and ozil was replaced by adebayor at half time. Not that this made much of a difference as the tactics didn’t change, just the personnel. Surely it should’ve been one of the holding midfielders and not ozil to be withdrawn halfway through. The second half contained the usual (in recent times) clasico suspects of controversies and marching orders before messi proved he is the best player in the world currently ( not  ronaldo who was off colour and fussy the entire time). Barcelona has a strong foot in the final now and coming back to ‘the special one’ himself- he might’ve proved he knows how to be a winner but in the context of the beautiful game he is fast becoming one of the biggest sinners! ( sepp blatter and his fifa cronies may soon have competition!)