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by Philipina A. Marcelo
And so... they did it again! The Spanish La Liga season
Xavi, Barça's vice-captain,
lifting their season opener
silverware acquisition.opener victory goes to... Barça! The mighty reigning European Champions, FC Barcelona, crushed the visitors, Real Madrid CF, in the second leg of their Spanish Super Cup tie via a 3-2 victory at Camp Nou, 5-4 on aggregate. The Spanish football Titans' first-leg clash in Estadio de Santiago Bernabéu finished with a 2-2 draw last Sunday. Barça's game was looking a bit "off" their usual no-hole, hunt-in-a-pack on-the-pitch script while Los Blancos looked "in the zone". Nevertheless, the 2011 La Liga Champs had enough fire power to draw their away match. While the intensity was almost tangible, with a prayer, the "brawl" in Bernabéu remained all about football - and not much else. The El Clásico intensity continued, and the heat went fever-pitch, with the mightier than ever Catalans hosting the second leg, and this time, while brilliance shone from both sides, the intensity was such that many "saw red" - on the pitch! *sigh*
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An exchange of brilliant fire powers... one deadlier than the other
Football fans were treated to many pieces of delightful El Clásico brilliance... well, at least, as far as football was concerned.
The talented man who slotted the 2010 World Cup-winning goal for Spain,
Too good. Iniesta chipped the Blanco Numero Uno's ego. Andres Iniesta, was the first to come through with a sure-fire and, oh, so elegant touch - a great finish for a hard-fought through-ball from Barça's little genius, Lionel Messi. Iniesta sent the ball to the Madrid goal with a flick over Iker Casillas's head, burning some thread in the Blanco Numero Uno's net... and ego, 1-0. Refusing to be outshone, the visitors responded with gusto via a confused/confusing (literally) shot from Cristiano Ronaldo (or Sergio Ramos?) through a very nice Karim Benzema low cross from a Mesut Özil corner, sending the threads of Victor Valdes's gloves a-smokin' some, 1-1.
A few breaths before half-time, Messi caught Gerard Piqué's eyes... and Piqué's awesome back-heel pass, too. La Pulga took it
Two against one... and it was a Messi affair.through to the Los Blancos defense - full-throttle - with the desperately-trying-to-catch-up Ronaldo at his heel, followed by Sami Khedira and Sergio Ramos. A swerve, and he lost Ronaldo and everyone else... and then he kicked the ball over the sprawled Casillas with a fire-pointed shot that sent a burning sensation, I imagine, on Real's #1, 2-1! It was a fiery message. The Catalans are not surrendering Camp Nou - never! And Los Blancos didn't miss the heat radiated by the Messi kick in the air either. Muscles flexed, jaws tighthened... but they all went for half-time break.
The Spanish Titans returned on the pitch for the second-half action...
Benzema, RM's worthy Knight.eyes to victory. Real's Benzema broke the noisy silence with an exciting equalizer via deaf-focus in the midst of 20 men, all a-frenzy for the ball in the penalty area, following a corner kick from Kaká and a fiery header assist from Pepe. The effort resulted in a Benzema short-range shot that beat Valdes's reflexes - 2-2! Mercury went rising... the heat surged on!
The nervy score, and with only a few minutes left, would've been enough to send a weak man's knees wobbling. But those of the "debut boy"
Messi con Fàbregas, La Masia days all over again.Cesc Fàbregas's, who came on from the bench in the second half with about eight minutes remaining, and those of the hardened Brazilian defender Adriano's were as steady as rock. They set up the on-fire Messi for a beautiful, beautiful goal, where the little genius stretched to slip Adriano's cross through the outstretched Pepe, and then through the completely-beaten-by-a-quarter-second Casillas to find the back of the Los Blancos goal - BRILLIANT! 3-2... Camp Nou erupted - in frenzied appreciation... and so did Mourinho's ego - suffocating in the thick air of defeat!
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Somebody overdid it - and it was ugly!
I understand - intensity, intensity... and the Real Madrid and FC Barcelona players are such high achievers, none of them would like to hear about defeat. But, that doesn't warrant giving in to the "dirty
Bad boy Pepe, doing his thing.tackle demon", which Pepe (of course!), and more so Marcelo, once again did. *sigh* Marcelo was exceptionally terrible this time. First, he sneaked a kick at Lionel Messi's side while pretending to reach the ball with a high jump. It sent Messi to the ground, feeling the pain... and Messi is one player who keeps going even when hurt and bleeding. But the terrible Marcelo got away with it, and so did Mourinho with his unsportsmanlike gesture at Lionel Messi, so unbecoming of the manager of one of the best sides on the planet, after Messi exchanged heated words with Marcelo. *sigh* Second, at 3-2 with Barcelona in the lead, smelling the strong scent of defeat, with just a couple more minutes to full-time, the Brazilian defender brought down Cesc Fàbregas with an unnecessarily forceful leg hack. I gotta admit, I darted to my feet - from shock - when I saw it! It was too reckless, irresponsible, terrible!! *fuming mad here* Marcelo was immediately shown a
Marcelo, in one of his rare moments
when he's kicking the ball instead of
Barça players. straight red card while Cesc went down writhing in pain. Like very good friends (and I gathered, they really are, too), the whole Barça squad came to Cesc... and a brawl erupted - of course! *sigh*
It was dizzying and confusing minutes, swimming through a flood of Blaugrana and Blancos shirts as stretched tempers snapped and exploding in a mass brawl! Soon Mesut Özil and David Villa, who have both been substituted and were sitting on their team's respective benches, were being pulled away from a puddle of Blaugrana and Blanco shirts - red cards being shown to both of them. Huh?? Aren't they two of the nicest guys in the football universe? What happened? *sigh*
Tsk, tsk... but both sides were playing good football out there! Ugh, Marcelo! Why do you have to ruin it all?? Why can't you abandon the Mourinho dirty football tactic?! What a disappointment.... and very, very frustrating, too! *sigh*
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And he did "it" again... he who is "special"
In the middle of all that frustrating and disappointing pushing and
Mourinho, sore loser.pulling and yelling at the touchline, the camera caught a (seemingly deranged) man in black, sneaking to pull the ears/poke the eye of an unsuspecting Barça staff, who happened to be Barça's assistant coach, Tito Vilanova! And then the man walked away swiftly like a thief, and with an evil grin on his face, too (imagine???), when Vilanova turned to push him. The man in black was José Mourinho... yes, Real Madrid's "special coach" no less! sigh* The Real Madrid bench saw the pushing, and naturally, they thought Mourinho was being attacked without provocation... and a whole new trouble began! sigh* The Real Madrid Portuguese boss is crawling very low on cheap dirt now... extremely cheap - to the lowest pit of out-of-control insanity! *sigh, sigh, sigh*
And what did Mourinho have to say in his presscon after the match? Well,
Guardiola, cool victor.some deranged sour graping comments - complete rubbish not worthy of printing, of course! Good thing Pep Guardiola kept his cool - as most of the time - and had nothing but good things to say about his Blaugrana men, "They made an enormous effort. They showed what they are like: eternal, legendary, unrepeatable and honest, people who like to train and play football... Honestly, looking at how they responded, it is a privilege and an honour to be their manager." When asked about how things turned ugly towards the end of the tie, he said, "We came to a situation at the end that we have taken badly. The pictures speak for themselves. They think we are always diving, and we think the opposite. I have model players, both on the pitch and in press conferences. We shall just carry on playing football and we shall be as quiet as we can. We are a team that wants to play football as well as possible."
Congratulations, Pep! CONGRATULATIONS, Barça!
As for Real Madrid, well, I hope that the Real Madrid leadership would
So, uhm... hey, Mou, does this hurt? :)see what a disgrace Mourinho is to their Club. The Blancos have shown that they can have tremendous quality on the pitch, too - worthy opponents to the incredible Barça. The way most of them play, when they are playing honest football (say, in the Spanish National Team, for instance), make them great ambassadors of Spanish football as well... and of the beautiful game that is football, as a whole. Therefore, they deserve a better and more honorable manager - seriously!
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Photo and video credits: Photos were grabbed from the Zimbio website - thanks! And thanks, YouTube, for the video links.
