(B)Ending it like Beckham - gooooaal!

And with sadness, too.
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by FBC

"I want to go out on top.
It's the right time.  I believe it's the right time."



Yeah, PAM is busy with 'serious stuff' (her words, not mine), but we can't just let this important moment in the "ballin' world" pass us by without a word just because she is busy with 'important things' (once again, her words, not mine... not that I don't believe that what she does in her 'day job' is really important. :)  OK, I know, if I didn't get an 'honorable mention' in her next post here, it would be a miracle. Haha...). Therefore, yours truly just had to step up to the plate even without the Boss' request. I'm a good "lieutenant", y'see. :)     

Anyway, PAM had to grab the TV's remote control last night to up the volume when CNN's Don Riddell - PAM's fave sports news presenter - came on to report that the world-famous football and pop culture

Bend it, and bend it good - like Beckham!

 icon, David Beckham, is retiring from the ballin' world.  This means that next season, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) is going to have to rely on Zlatan Ibrahimovic to draw oohs and aahs from football fans around the world during their matches.  Of course, as to the possible reasons for the oohs and aahs that Ibra could be drawing from the crowd in Becks' absence... well, that remains to be seen.  While it will be fun to find out, I'm sure the world will understand if PSG's 'biggies' would decline to comment later regarding what other things Ibra is capable of on (and off) the pitch aside from making goals.  But I digress....

Going back to Becks, even PSG's current head coach, Carlo Ancelotti, had to grope for words to make a comment on the 38-year old Beck's impending retirement.  Are we sad about it?  Boy, do vampires suck blood?  Of course, they do!  So, of course, we are - sad!  In fact, I imagine PAM is just making an excuse about being busy with 'serious stuff' and all that to escape having to write about Beck's retirement.  The old girl is in denial, and I'm quite sure she's bent like Beckham - in sadness - right now.

Twenty years of 'bending it', garnering League Championship trophies in four countries (with Manchester United in England, with Real Madrid in Spain, with LA Galaxy in the US, 

Role Model: The 'Baller is a good family man.

and now, with PSG in France), a treble with his boyhood Club, Man United, and the first to earn 100 caps for England - the home of football - and serving as England's Three Lions Captain for six years, too, plus constantly in the Top 10 of biggest earners in the Sporting World.  Why, his face is almost equivalent to that round leather thing!  Only, no one dares kick it around - it's too beautiful of a metrosexual face!  And the owner of the face is also a certified nice guy apparently, and you may go ahead and ask Prince William if you'd like.  In fact, Becks is a role model for most sportsmen in that, in 1999, he married, and still is married to, a thin 'spicy woman' who doesn't smile with whom he has a picture perfect family.  I bet PAM is subscribed to a site where Beck's family pictures are posted regularly.  In fact, her iPad is full of Becks fam pics.  :)   

So, are we going to miss Becks bending it on the pitch?  Hell, yeah!  Good thing he has life outside football, and we'll be seeing him often enough - that's for sure.

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Hello, Pep!

Speaking of 'going out on top', here's one who knows the art involved in doing that.  He is one of the winningest coaches in the history of the 'beautiful game'.  He left the team he built, which was hailed by football fans and sports analysts alike as one of the best football squads ever put together, while the world was at their feet. 

See, when a door closes just because someone said 'goodbye', another door opens because someone is about to say 'hello'.  In this case it's 'hello again'.  Yes, Pep Guardiola will be  back next season.  Nope, not in Barcelona, but with Bayern Munich in Germany's

Munich bound... Pep is, and we're excited!

Bundesliga.  Of course, it would've been a perfect 'love story' if he was returning to Barcelona, but for as long as the beautiful (as PAM puts it frequently) 'Bald and Bearded One' returns to the ballin' world, especially now that there will be a deficit of talents, passion and good looks as the Becks say 'bye, bye' to us, Pep's return to the scene is most welcome!  The only problem is I'm not sure how PAM's sked in her day job would be 'messed up' by Pep's return.  I guess there's going to be some limit of time allotted to these 'serious stuffs' 'cause our old girl has been dedicating at least 18 hours of her time per day on her day job.  While Becks and Pep are all about passion and commitment to what they do, they dislike this sort of 'enslaving dedication'.  Variety - that's what Becks recommends, old girl!  Pep had to stay away from football for a year to recuperate from the enslaving dedication to FC Barcelona that made him 'sick' in the end.  It would be a good idea to bend it and listen to these midfielder's wisdom, old girl.  :) 

Anyway, yes, we are looking forward to seeing more of those Pep moves at the touchline, in his trademark suits, complete with deep worry lines on his forehead, and the coolness that he exudes during pre-match and post-match interviews.  Man, I thought we won't be seeing those in a while.  We're glad that he's back.  Of course, we're excited to see, too, how he'd deal with Mario Gomez and his shirtlessness-related antics.  Then again, Pep kept Dani Alves's penchant for drama under control back in his Camp Nou days, making the Brazilian defender actually really productive in the process, and his role vital in FC Barcelona's tremendous success under Pep's guidance.  So, nope, we're not worried about the impending Pep-Mario tandem.  In fact, we are looking forward to seeing it unfold among the Bavarian crowd.  So, bring it!               

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Video credit:  Thanks, YouTube, for the video link.

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4-0... dang!

So, was that the end of the 2013 UEFA Champions League for Barça?
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by PAM


4-0!  Ugh! 

I gotta admit, that 'killed' me a little bit.  I'm kinda dead right now... oh, boy!  'Cause since when did Barça - "Pep Guardiola's Barça", that is - got so effectively annihilated like that?  So, okay, they are no longer Guardiola's Barça 'cause they are now Tito Vilanova's Barça... and yet, it was Pep who assembled the core of the present Barça.  They no longer play as fiercely as they did under Pep's heavily dramatic direction, but the brilliance is still there.  Tito is as cool as Pep is as passionate.  I guess a team like Barça tends to operate more effectively under a heavily passionate shepherd?  Maybe....

But, 4-0 in the semi-final of UEFA Champions League?  Really??  4-0??  Wow!  What's worse was that Lionel Messi was in Barça's starting XI in the Allianz Arena... what the heck

The unfamiliar look of defeat... 4-0. Aw, man! 

(Credit:  John Sibley/Action Images)

happened???  Aw, excuse my language... it's just hard, hard, HARD!  It's hard to accept that stunningly comprehensive defeat, the kind of defeat that Barça usually hand down to their hopeless and helpless opponents... including the Bavarians - in the past.  But, 4-0?  Man, totally heartbreaking! 

Don't get me wrong, I am not trying to diminish the brilliance of Bayern Munich.  Boy, they were good!  If I weren't a Barça fan, I'd definitely root for them... there was no weakness in their artillery... the frontline was brisk, daring and accurate, their midfield strong, sharp and fast, and their defense was a brickwall - in the Great Wall of China fashion, too!  In fact, I've always believed that they should have won the Champions League last year.  Well, just because Barça's game got 'hijacked' by the ultra-heavy double-wall defense of Chelsea FC last year.     

Speaking of defense... I hate to say this, but Barça's defense sucked!  If it was true that FC Barcelona have lost their 'aura', it's only because their defense is 'light weight'.  Man, when will the Barça 'back' going to get the major overhaul and thorough reinforcement that it needs?  By 'overhaul', I'm not referring to Gerard Piqué's change of hairstyle/headstyle.  :)  Then again, the Catalans maybe undergoing 'a phase'... several of them started a family lately.  So, there's hope.   

But, yeah, there's that return leg to Camp Nou... the Catalans have a chance to assert their supremacy there.  With the Catalan crowd blowing on their sail, they might just find their second wind... after all, that ball is round, it could roll whichever way one kicks it to, and the wind could aid.  Besides, miracles do happen, ya know. 

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The Lessons of Allianz Arena

I usually liken football, and it's dramas, with life... and, a-hem, it's dramas! :)  From the result of the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final tie between Bayern Munich and FC Barcelona, it is obvious that even the most formidable of a team could fade in the shadow of defeat, if it's weakness was not remedied, reinforced and

Thomas Mueller, drawing 'first blood'.  Whew!

(Credit:  Getty Images)

constantly rejuvenated, and if it wouldn't pay close attention to what is out there issuing challenge - new challenge - against it. 

In the case of Barça, time and again, it had been pointed out that their defense is weak.  Of course, Pep Guardiola always argued then that that wouldn't be a problem if they had a strong frontline and midfield, which would effectively bring the ball at play on their opponent's half of the field.  It worked then... because their style almost always confined the competition in their opponent's half of the field - it was Pep's trade secret.  However, these days, many teams have already figured that out... when Pep left Camp Nou, he knew that his secret was out.  It was up to the new guys in the Coaching Staff to figure out a way to contain the new challenge that presses Barça to move back farther and farther to their backline... exposing their weak defense.  Every Barça fan knew that it was only a matter of time before a brilliant (and even a not-so-brilliant) coach would figure out how to dissolve the highly 'soluble' Catalan defense.  These days, many in the Champions League circle seemed to have figured it out, and they are out to try their formula to dissolve the Catalan defense.  Jupp Heynckes took a shot, and Barça fell with a black eye and swollen lip.  Dang!    

An organization or Institution - even the most accomplished -  could fall in the same bitter defeat, when it fails to do something on its weaknesses... most of all, if it failed to see, or admit, its weaknesses because of pride, selfishness... and defiance of authority.  A weakness cannot be repaired and turned to a strength unless it is recognized, acknowledged and figured out.  And, if 'winning' is an objective, that first step has to be taken - humbly, responsibly, selflessly.

Barça had Leo Messi - probably the best football player the world has ever seen - and yet, they were reduced to a shameful remnant of a glorious show of brilliance by 

Individual brilliance is good... but winning also 

requires teamwork, selflessness and humility.

(Credit: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images Europe)  

their opponent, Bayern Munich, in a total demolition, 4-0.  Of course, football is a team sport, and therefore, every single player's contribution counts, and that winning should not depend on one player alone - even if he was the best player in the world.  That's where the Bavarians excelled over Vilanova's Barça... all sections in their line-up was well-oiled, well-calibrated, and well aware of the danger that their counterparts in Barça posed.  Therefore, each section linked up nicely, working together, pressing, especially the scattered Barça defense to a mere flimsy resistance, putting Messi's brilliance to almost irrelevance... if that was at all possible!    

4-0... in real life, one should be bothered by it.  It should compel any responsible leader and concerned members of any organization or Institution to step aside and lift that pride on which they stood in defiance... and see how much damage such pride had caused the very foundation of their organization... and then do something about the damage. 

In football tie, there is a return leg - for  a second chance.  In real life, there might not always be a second chance.

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