"Because I was fed up"

News is coming up nowadays in Spain about the possible rivalries between the Spanish national team players as a result of the marathon clasicos that we witnessed recently within a period of 18 days. The talk is about bad relations between several Barça and Madrid players; between Villa and Arbeloa because of what happened in the Copa del Rey final; between Pique and Ramos; between Madrid players in general and Pedro and Busquets. The scene as it is now is not very pleasing. For it defines a very critical situation for Spanish national team coach Vicente del Bosque who is about to be handed back instead of a national team, the one he is used to, a bunch of ‘professional’ players full of hatred because of four games they played against each other during which the protagonist was the ‘Special One’ Jose Mourinho, Madrid’s coach.

Mourinho, whether he’s aware of it or not, has been successful at inflaming once more the Barcelona-Madrid rivalry that has always existed, but was gone for the past ten years when the Spanish national team had finally found their way to play as a team and started winning titles and celebrating them as one unit no matter whom the players were. Nevertheless, thanks to his actions, Mourinho has put things even worse than they were before. For through declarations in the press conferences that have nothing to do with football or any topic that might be related to it, he has been able to drive most of the Madrid based fans into one direction seeing nothing but a huge conspiracy theory against him and the club on the one hand, and a huge power behind Barcelona that helps them win titles.

Yes Barcelona qualified to the Champions League final at Wembley but I have to be honest, I have not even enjoyed Pedro’s goal as he scored it nor when the final whistle was blown when it was certain that yes Barcelona were in the final. What only made me have goose bumps was how all the crowd and the players celebrated Abidal’s comeback to the field.

The reason for why I could not enjoy Barcelona’s qualification was because I already knew that the same conspiracy theory will be repeated again and again to the point where it did not interest me whether Barcelona won against Madrid or not. I now have a feeling that with all its grandiose aura, Madrid has become an average team that focuses on the minute details in hope of making an excuse for all the errors it commits that would help it avoid the frustrations of the fans. As a result, all this inferiority shown against Barcelona was forgotten about while Florentino Perez and Jose Mourinho meet up to plan for the 2011/2012 season.

Thus, the clasico that once gave pleasure to the winning team’s fans has now turned into a stressful encounter where everyone waited for the result and not the show. And while they talk about Barcelona’s players acting skills, the likes of Alves, Busquets and Pedro, they fail to recognize what Madrid players themselves did to Barcelona players, the likes of Arbeloa, Marcelo, Pepe, Lass and Adebayor. It is just lamentable, thanks to Mourinho, how instead of enjoying the clasico games, Guardiola ended up saying in the press conference before the second leg game that “tomorrow everything ends”, referring to how relieved he was going to be that the games against Madrid would be finally over.

Mourinho’s conspiracy theory has eclipsed a great season done by the proven-to-be-better team FC Barcelona: Messi’s 52 goals this season, Valdes’ superb performance in both La Liga and the Champions League, Mascherano’s great performance as a central back, Afellay’s integration into the team.

We just want to be able to watch the matches and enjoy them whether our club wins or loses. It is surely going to be a great Champions League final and we all hope that at the end football will prosper; it is then that I will truly be able to enjoy Barcelona’s victory if they win or end up depressed if they lose. A feeling that was not present during the past four clasicos for it truly did not matter what the result was, I just wanted everything to be over because I was fed up.

(Rasmi)

"Mourniho finally figured how to beat Barcelona"

I cant find anything more insulting to throw on Mourinho. He just figured what a zillion coaches already know? That's beyond silliness if you ask me. Mourinho installed great determination in his squad. That's a plus. Another factor Mourinho adds to Real Madrid is that the players run out of any excuses. It is easy to put the blame on a coach when the team fails to perform, and players can smell such opportunity from far and abuse it to the extreme. This year it is not the case at Real Madrid. They have a proven and crowned coach who yielded success with each and every squad he coached. That fact installs confidence in the players mind, offers Mourinho a better opportunity to dictate his ideas, and most importantly put the players' backs to the wall. If the club fails, players carry responsibility as well. Needless to say he is a great motivator and he brings some of the little gains the team need in close encounters through his speeches and media shows.This was the case since day one and still the case now.

The only difference between the first clasico at Camp nou and the last CDR clasico is that in the first one - where Real Madrid were also the favorites in the eyes of the pundits- Mourinho tried to be innovative and this is not his thing. So he ended up with a game plan that not even a rookie coach would've considered. We know the outcome.

In the following clasico-s Mourinho went back to basics. And he did what he masters most, reactive tactics instead of innovative approach. He kept it simple, and applied a tactical approach that any rookie coach would've considered. He used the quality squad he has to stop Barcelona from scoring, keeping in mind that his offense enjoys enough quality to create scoring opportunities in return. Did he invent the wheel? No. He did it exactly as the majority of teams did against Barcelona, while having a better squad. Is that a bad thing? Absolutely not. Sometimes the most amazing tactic is the least complicated one. So he gets the credit for that. He played the way that gives him a better opportunity to win.

So forget about those hindsight tactical analysis fairy tales storyboards that tells you how Mourinho asked his assistant to sneeze in Malaga after measuring the direction of the wind for the coming months, and it ended up that Messi got the infection just before the clasico. I bet that if Mourinho is reading and listening to all the craziness about his supernatural plans he will be rolling on the floor all the time laughing sarcastically.

Football is not that complicated and players are not robots tied to a string. If you collect all the applied tactics schemes you end up with a barely 150 pages pocketbook. 


(Ramzi)

”Rooney sadly kills Messi with a headbutt in 83^th minute, as Barcelona wins UCL”.