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by Philipina A. Marcelo
Yep, the world is round... indeed, it is! And it has stars all over it... that one kicked around by those oh, so lovely, lovely men as they ran and tried to outmaneuver one another in that most beautiful green field amidst
the roar of the incredible crowd around the field in the most sensational fashion... and passion! Football! The world is a football... my world is round - and it's football! :)Aaaah, I have been raring to write a sports blog for the LONGEST time now. I have so many materials about tennis and Roger Federer, and football and Lionel Messi, and FC Barcelona and Real Madrid CF... the list goes on and on - all in my head. Year after year, Grand Slam after Grand Slam, Season after Season in football leagues, my Facebook Wall is "littered" with so many tennis and football stuff... and how I wished I had the time to sit down and organize them on a blog. But the wish had never came to fruition... until now! I thought I was too passionate and "fanatic" to be writing objectively about tennis and football when Roger Federer, or Lionel Messi and FC Barcelona, or Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid CF for that matter, were involved. So, I've been letting my Facebook Wall as the venue for letting loose my passion for tennis and football, and write bits and pieces about them here. But that unbelievable UEFA Champions
League quater-final first leg tie between FC Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk FC at the fabulous Camp Nou yesterday, April 6, 2011, did it for me... and here I am "sports blogging"! Well... sort of! :)After that awesome World Cup Season last year, which had me staggering from lack of sleep to work for a couple of months, my addiction to football reached the critical level that, uh... well, I've been talking to Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernandez in my sleep! Dang! Xavi's voice is so sexy... in my sleep, that is. And Messi's is heartwarming as a lovable child's - yes, in my sleep, too! I know, this is quite alarming in its weirdness! :) It has gone so bad, that lately, I've been exchanging cusses with Daniel Alves (in a funny way) - yes, in my sleep, too! =) If anything, sleep has never been this exciting for me lately. So, nah, I'm not complaining. In fact, I'm kinda waiting for David Villa to grace my dreams with his presence as well! ;) When he does, I hope he'd bring Sergio Ramos with him so I could slap him for hurting Leo Messi in their El Clásico clash in November last year... or, Mesut Özil so I could try convincing him that he's better suited for Barcelona. But, hmmm... I wonder, would they need permission from José Mourinho and Pep Guardiola if they were to come together? Aaargh... even logistics in my dreams have become so complicated! :|
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UEFA Champions League is champion!
Honor Roll: The two Spanish La Liga giants, three-time winners FC Barcelona with Josep Guardiola at the helm, and nine-time winners Real Madrid CF with their master tactician, José Mourinho, who had guided Real to book a slot in the last 8 to revive their quest for the Champions League title for the first time since 2002; English Premier League's brightest superstars, led by the three-time winners Manchester United FC, and the hungry-for-the-title, Chelsea FC and the Tottenham Hotspur FC; FC Schalke of the going-strong German Bundesliga; the current Cup Holders, led to victory in the previous term by Mourinho himself, FC Internazionale Milano of the Italian Serie A; and first-time quarter-finalist FC Shakhtar Donetsk - the best of the Ukrainian Premier League.
With the biggest and the best sides in the European football all gaining a place in the last eight slots, the UEFA Champions League quarterfinal is exactly what it should be - the "Clash of the European Champions"!! And it's hot, hot, hot!!
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The side where my 'round heart' belongs
I have been following the UEFA Champions League this season, and I have been rooting for FC Barcelona, of course... part of it is because of the 23 yr-old Lionel Messi - the best football player in the world today. I just love him! Leo's brand of football is beautiful as it is skillful - genius. It is defined by speed, agility and a sharp sense for the goal. Sometimes, he seems like a computer-guided rocket when he
approaches the goal... once set on target and locked, all there is left to do is to kiss the target goodbye! However, unlike Cristiano Ronaldo, or "CR7" - Real Madrid's famed "complete player" because of his heavy artillery of talents as a footballer - Messi ties himself to his team as "just another finger" in that big hand that crawled the football field. When he is not striking to complete a beautifully orchestrated play, set up by either the suave Xavi Hernandez, the brilliant Andres Iniesta, or the fearless Dani Alves, Leo himself is dribbling ably and sharply passing the ball to the open teammate, as dictated by the playmaker. Therefore, he is always an integral part of every single goal in Barҫa's score card. As Pep Guardiola himself
said, "he can win us games in many varied ways." On the other hand, CR7 is widely criticized for "playing for himself", just because his tremendous speed, strength, and incredible dribbling and striking talents allow him to be a one-man demolition crew... that is, if his side is faced with a decidedly weaker side! He rarely passes the ball... when he does, it's only to direct a teammate to set up a goal for himself, or to get out of trouble! Therefore, if he makes a goal, it's his victory... if he doesn't, it's because his teammate didn't deliver! And since football is really a team sport - it is played and watched not because of one player but because of the whole team, in my book, Leo's great ability to gel his talents with those of his teammates for a truly engaging play makes him by far the better player between the two... and that makes FC Barcelona a more exciting side to watch in the field, too! Having said that, while I admire Leo, the bigger reason why I'm rooting for Barҫa is their hunt-in-a-pack style of play that I so love - awesome teamwork all the time! It's like, once they set foot on the field, their minds were connected via that crest on their chest, and that they could hear Pep Guardiola in their head as he guided them with his sharp mind and authoritative voice. It's
incredible how each one of them seems to have an extra-sensory feel for the ball... and for each other. Moving like fingers in the same hand as they ease the ball towards the goal, slipping through narrow cracks in the other side's wall of defense via their signature tiki-taka method of passing. They are very much "in the same wavelength" that pack-style communication seems so clear. It's mesmerizing how they pass the ball with just the right touch and speed, at exactly the right time, and to the right person, that they rarely lose the ball and that a play almost always ends up with an awesome goal. It's just beautiful to watch - absolutely addictive! :) This is the superb brand of football that they played against Shakhtar Donetsk yesterday, which they won, 5-1. ***
A quarterfinal sweetness at Camp Nou
The first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final tie between FC Barcelona and Shakhtar Donetsk FC at Camp Nou opened with Lionel Messi setting the pace of the match, and Shakhtar showing they've got what it took to keep up! The goalmaking started early with the brilliant Andres Iniesta banging the ball, World Cup style, into Shakhtar's goal within the first two minutes of the match, stunning Andriy Pyatov - Shakhtar's goalie. The goal-in-a-hurry sent an electric shock to Mircea Lucescu's men! The message was clear: if
the Pitmen were still getting into the rhythm, they'd better do it quick because Barҫa was on an attack and that they have no intention of conceding Camp Nou to the visitors. Accepting the challenge, the Pitmen regrouped quickly and tightened their defense right away... I have to say, they were a very good defensive team, too - if I understood anything about defense at all! And then, the Pitmen went for a counterattack aggressively, even showing willingness to pick up yellow cards if that's what it took to throw Barҫa's game to a disarray. But the Catalans weren't about to be derailed. If Dani Alves's obvious agression everytime the ball was in his posession didn't show that, I guess Xavi's silent menacing focus - all shown in his dark eyes and firmly pressed lips, Iniesta's fakes with quick back passes and steals that must've been really frustrating for the other side, and David Villa's greased, slippery moves as he forced himself through narrow cracks on the Pitmen's defense should've done the job. No, we are not even talking about Messi yet, who, sensing his teammates heightened intention to dominate the tie and the Pitmen's watchful eyes on
him, changed gear from striker to playmaker. Obviously, the Pitmen didn't expect that, so that when Iniesta made a long pass, everybody, including the goalie, was looking to bar the speeding Messi, and the marked #2 finisher - David Villa - from getting near the ball... and the path went wide open for the unmarked Dani Alves on the opposite wing. Iniesta, Messi and Villa seemed to understand one another, and Dani Alves seemed to pick up his teammates intentions from across the field, and went sprinting unchallenged through a path that intersected Iniesta's long pass. Andriy Pyatov saw Alves just in time and rushed towards the ball for a save, but Dani Alves, without any hesitation to rise to the occasion, broke the ball's flight and changed its course tangent to Pyatov's approach. He then followed it past Pyatov and pushed the ball to the net with a clinically clean, simple-as-ABC kick! 2-0! Sweet! :) Camp Nou errupted as they celebrated the simplest yet the awesomest of goals with Dani Alves! Another electric shock for the Pitmen. And so, the first half of the match saw Ukraine's best down by two goals.
Obviously pepped up by Lucescu during half-time, the Pitmen came back with a stronger resolve to narrow their goal deficit. The fast-paced game continued, with the
electrified but undeterred Pitmen matching the Catalans - speed por blistering speed, kick por ferocious kick. Messi still sensing that the Pitmen marked him as the triggerman, used that to Barҫa's advantage by pulling the Shakhtar's defenders toward himself, cracking up the Shakhtar defense. In one of those many brilliant moments, he forced a breach on the Shakhtar defense by magneting the Pitmen defenders towards himself and David Villa, who seemed to understand Messi's intentions. That left the masterful Xavi Hernandez, backed by Andres Iniesta, to have an open field to set up a game for the unmarked Gerard Piqué, who guilely approahed and guided the ball to the goal with not as much as a thud! 3-0! Sweeter than sweet! :) Camp Nou joined Piqué and Xavi in their goal celebration - too beautiful!A few minutes after Piqué's goal, Iniesta was booked for the second leg of the tie with a yellow card. That shook Barҫa and the Camp Nou crowd momentarily, allowing a persistent Rakitskiy of the Ukraine side to slip the ball through the distracted Victor Valdes and into the goal, following a free kick. That narrowed the hosts's lead to just two goals! 3-1! There was hush, hush in Camp Nou....
Unperturbed, Lionel Messi went back to business quickly, resuming the upbeat tempo. Eyeing Seydou Keita who was positioning himself on the left wing for a possible assist, Messi picked up the ball while Camp Nou was still in a daze and
sprinted away in a blinding speed towards the center of the Shakhtar goal. The Pitmen, keen on protecting their newly found capacity to get closer to Barҫa's goal haul, snapped out of the dizzying rate at which things were unfolding and all sped to hunt Messi. And just before three Pitmen could catch him, he suavely directed the ball to the expecting Seydou Keita, a good eight to ten meters ahead and closer to the goal at the left wing. Keita took Messi's cue and brought the ball home from the left wing without a challenge because the Shakhtar goalie and the other defenders were poised to stop Messi from the center of the goal! 4-1! And so, they went back to their comfortable three-goal advantage in a snap - taking the momentum back from Shakhtar! Sweet, sweet, sweet! And the Camp Nou crowd's energy was renewed, the stadium shook in the Catalan fans' frenzied excitement.The next minutes were speed match between the two sides, each side testing the other's ability to keep up and to keep ball possession. Knowing that they had the speed and the feel for the goal that matched the Catalans', the Pitmen pushed harder! They knew that all they had to do was to make another goal, or to prevent Barҫa from making another one. With only a three-goal deficit, they knew it might not be impossible to turn that around to their favor in the second leg of the tie when they host Barҫa in the Donbass Arena, where they remain undefeated. All the reasons to hope fell to the Camp Nou
ground, however, when Dani Alves, with his usual menacing agression, slipped the ball through a two-man challenge and passed it with his eyes to Lionel Messi, who had Xavi Hernandez a few feet in front of him. The sharp Pitmen defenders anticipated the move, and so, they turned towards Messi behind them who rushed and looked like he was going to intercept the ball and make the shot. Alves, for all the ferocity in his bullish charge, cunningly controlled his pass that the ball slowed as it approached Messi, bringing it at a point close enough for Xavi to reach out, who was momentarily unmarked. Xavi wasted no time. As the Pitmen aimed at Messi, Xavi quickly but very smoothly reached for the ball and touched it gently towards the goal, with the goalie still waiting for the strike from Messi!! 5-1! Aaaaaah, sweet, sweet, so sweet!!! Of course, Pep Guardiola almost did a sommersault if he didn't have a bad back, and the Camp Nou crowd went on a mighty roar - and that's just about right! Woohoo!! ***
'El Clásico' in the offing?
Everyone, myself included, is of course wishing for an El Clásico at the UEFA Champions League. With the Catalans and the Meringues both in the QF, and on
colllision path, too, that wish is likely to come true. The day before the Barҫa-Shakhtar match, Real Madrid CF won the first leg of their own QF tie with Tottenham Hotspur at Estadio Santiago Bernabéu. The Merengues hammered the "limping" visitors, hauling 4 goals to nil, after striker Peter Crouch was booked early in the match with a red card. And so, with their 5-1 win over Ukraine's best, pundits say that Barҫa is sending a message to Real Madrid: "anything you can do, we can do better." Whether that is true or not, I'm not sure. But I know that Barҫa is playing absolutely hot football, they even made me write this entry in my blog - my first full-length entry on football. No other football club made me do this notwithstanding my passion for football! Woot-woot!***
Photo credit: All photos were grabbed from the UEFA website, Zimbio and the FC Barcelona website - thanks.
