I guess it’s more like the lies, myopia, and nonsense really taking a toll on what I love so much.
Six down and one more to go as far as Clásicos are concerned for the 2011 year.
After the Copa del Rey final, I got home and my daughter and my mini Schnauzer greeted me at the door like they always. Their reaction after Barcelona won the Super Cup- they greeted me at the door with hugs, kisses, barks, and licks- like always.
The animosity of both teams after these two most recent episodes took the rivalry to another path. The violence shown on some sporadic occasion was the main protagonist. The incessant cheating of those shysters wearing those Spiderman-looking uniforms was nauseating. The thuggish attitude of those men in white and their coach against the angels from Catalunya.
To me if Barca or Madrid win or lose or even go to the second division… I could care less from a personal standpoint. If either team win or lose has no impact on my life. Where I do draw the line is when the game is being tainted. There are lots of people in Spain currently questioning the unity of the national team right now, and my question is the following… how unified were they really in the first place if something like this is tearing them apart supposedly?
That’s all I heard- or that was what was given most importance to the media. I am not a journalism school graduate and never learned of the concept of “If it bleed, it leads”.
Prior to this Super Cup I spoke to him and he said to me, “Always remember that football always wins.”
That led me to think.
Real Madrid fans complained throughout the 570 minutes of play. Some complaints were just, some were based on footballistic entitlement, some were just completely off the wall.
But very few mention the real reasons why Barcelona won. Football brilliance. They had more brilliance in the Super Cup than Real Madrid.
How funny and ironic is it that people talk more about Mourinho’s antics than Lio Messi’s pass to Andrés Iniesta? How sad is it that people talk about Marcelo and Pepe and their play instead of the entire Real Madrid team’s play against Barca in this cup? People talk more about Dani Alves’ drama instead of the way he was able to defend against Cristiano Ronaldo?
Long gone from our memory banks are Mesut Özil’s goal and the pass from Karim Benzema or David Villa’s goal. Why aren’t people talking about that?
Is it just me or did we see some brilliant football being played? Did we not see the two best Clásicos we have seen in a while? As a collective whole we surely have some terrible long term memories. No one seems to remember how disappointed we all were after the first four. These two matches were just sheer demonstrations of strength vs. strength as well as how football should be played.
Barça’s tiki-taka vs. Madrid’s aerodynamic velocity. Breathtaking.
But in the end, we all tend to piss a good thing away. Messi’s second goal should have been repeated incessantly on newscasts. It should have led instead of Mourinho’s antics. There were other moments that have been upstaged because of nonsense. Ronaldo’s goal in the Copa del Rey final. Messi’s second goal against Madrid in the first leg of the Champions League semis, Afellay’s pass to Messi for his first in that match.
My dad was not a writer. My dad did not earn a high school degree, forget a college degree. He was a mechanic and what little he earned he earned from the sweat of his brow or the frostbite that claimed the tip of his finger.
Those are the things that have irked me, and I am part of the problem. I am the one that gives the importance.
I don’t say it as a soap-box pontificating demigod. I say this as I am part of the problem. I contributed to this in some way as well.
I have the nerve to tell you to be passionate and how important this game is to the overall balance of the world is rather hypocritical on my part. But I have to come out and say this… it’s only a game.
I am the one that bombards you with it instead of giving you Objectivity. I am the one that guides you down this path only to drop you and leave you abandoned.
Barcelona or Real Madrid winning the Super Cup was just part of the Roman circus that football has become. That same Roman festival now has us all as some sort of caesars all thanks to the power of anonymity. We all give the thumbs up or down to a player or a situation based on allegiance or what side of the bed we rolled out of. Yeah, powerful for most of us in front of a keyboard or holding a smartphone. It is a spectacle that allows us to leave the world of 20%-plus unemployment, government corruption, educational systems and governmental entities on the verge of collapse, and injustice and poverty running rampant.
Maybe the timing for the matches came at a time when the world was focused on more important issues. I mean how can the battle between some moron on Jersey Shore and Abercrombie & Fitch not have us worried? What about social unrest and economic instability?
If we as people put as much energy into our own world as we do in the weekly battle of our team winning or losing, man this world would be a much better place. Ok, it would be heading in a different direction than it is right now.