El Clásico

Real Madrid made the trek south to Barcelona and the Camp Nou to meet their rivals. The time since their 6-2 trouncing at the feet of Barça in May has not been unproductive: They spent hundreds of Millions of dollars to acquire superstar players that could help them avoid such a humiliation again. Pobrecitos.

Neither Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaka could save them from the defeat that came on Sunday. Though it was not the 6 point display of pyrotechnics that Barcelona unleashed on them in May, the 1-0 victory was enough to show the Madrillenos who is still running the show in Spain. It also returned Barça to the top of the league after they had fallen one point behind Madrid for a week.

To be fair, Real Madrid looked better than any other club that has played at the Camp Nou this season. They had a lot of solid opportunities and generally played Barça with the kind of parity of ability that is nearly non-existent among clubs that play the world champion team. Still, their shots flew wide or were deflected by Valdes (who made a brilliant save against a charging Ronaldo), or were sent astray at the feet of the ever-passionate Carles Puyol. Puyol was seriously on one; he played as intently as ever and came up with several win-saving plays. Likewise, Dani Alves was a true force on the pitch. He was, for me, the man of the match; playing with grit and guts on both sides of the field-seemingly everywhere. Alves showed his dedication to the club and game by leaving it all on the field. It was an inspirational performance.

The lone goal of the match came off of Alves' beautiful driving pass to Ibra, who had only recently been subbed in the game for Henry in the second half. Ibra, the club's own superstar acquisition of the summer, showed again why he has become the highest scorer for the team this year. His speed and ability are top-class, and it seemed to be a victory of management being played out: As Madrid's marquee trades could not get it together against Barça, the Blaugrana's ended up coming through to save the game for the 98,000 spectators at the Nou.

A few weeks back, during the 6-1 trouncing of Zaragoza, Ibra scored his greatest goal yet this season on a lightning swift free kick. As he did his victory stomp, he seemed to look to the owner's box in vindication as the club president barely restrained his glee next to his counterpart from Zaragoza. The moment was a diamond of athletic ego; the 60 million euro player validating his paycheck with the kind of performance that only he can produce. That display of platinum skill and ego came again on sunday when it mattered most for the team.

This was the most hard battled game of the season and it had been simmering since the summer time. No matter what comes of the rest of the season, it's alright now.

Good News and Bad News...

So,

Barça drew today with Athletic Bilbao. This drops the Catalans down to second place behind Real fucking Madrid.

However, Barça remain undefeated with three draws and eight victories. Real Madrid are up by one point in the standings.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the whole game--as the stream was down. I think my interrupted psychic support may have been some factor in the loss. This clearly marks me as an asshole.

The other good news (besides the team remaining undefeated) is that the draw came against Athletic Bilbao who represent Basque country. As people with some knowledge of the ethnic peculiarities of the peninsula will know, the Basques have a centuries old culture of resistance--and more recently one of fringe bombings and assasinations carried out by leftist mullet-donning separatists. As this heritage and circumstance distinguish them from the majority of the Spanish population, they are an outside region. Hence, Athletic Bilbao is an outside team.

Likewise, Barça, as the flagship of Catalan heritage and society in a country that persecuted them under Franco, are also an outside team (albeit one that has an enormous fanbase among the larger society). This is why their rivalry runs so deep with Real Madrid. Franco persecuted Catalonia and cheered for Real Madrid. Barça played in direct opposition to that dictatorship.

Perhaps there is an irony at work here; The way the marginalized lose ground against the dominant culture is through in-feuding with other marginalized people.

Or maybe I'm just blowing it all way out of proportion and losing context of the real issues at work (namely Pique's continued crappy performance). It's distinctly possible; I already told you I'm an asshole.

Voltron

5-nil over Cultural Leonesa.

The team was pretty unstoppable. Messi looked super focused. Everybody pulled their weight and got goals from a few different players, with only Bojan standing out clearly among the lucky and gifted squad.

He put the first one in off a sharp center from Jefrens, and then made a classic goal not long after. Sliced it just right through to the net's wall from a skinny angle to the left.

These kid's have talent.



There're not going to be any more club games until the 22nd, when the team start their three game week with Bilbao followed by Internazionale, and finally, Real Madrid.

In the meantime Brazil will be playing England, which should be culturally interesting. English Football is great to watch. Generally, I think the bar is higher there than in La Liga. Arsenal, man. That team is looking tough to beat right now.

And later on tomorrow, Spain and Argentina will be going at it. It should be a little weird to watch Messi play against his Barça team mates as he wears the colors of his country. Plus, with Mike Tyson recently being jailed for fighting at the airport, Maradona will be hatching some nefarious stunt to cement his place as the world's craziest sportsman.

A.T.T.I.C.

Today was a win for Barça over Mallorca. It showed the team with more cylinders firing off than at any time of the season so far, which has been consistently compromised by one handicap or another.

It is a world cup qualifying year so players end up getting shipped back to play with their countrymen for strange one-off games against Lichtenstein in the Ivory Coast. During one such game, Thierry Henry got an injury that kept him out of play since early in the season.

But today he was back on the squad, and though the side was already up by one (off of two goals by Pedro), it was Henry's header into the net that was the exhilarating moment of the match. Two months of play behind us, it was TiTi's first goal of the season. The superstar is already 32 and not the undeniable force that he used to be. In fact, he is looking to a career in the MLS playing for the Kansas City Chipotles, or whoever next year. This season has clearly been all about Ibra, Messi, and even Keita. Really, anyone but TiTi.

So when he leaped forward to smash the ball into the goal with his cleanly shaved dome, it was a reclamation of the place of importance, if not necessity, that he has held for the squad and the game itself as it is played in Europe. Thierry Henry, the leading scorer for the French national team, and the all time scorer of Arsenal showed he still had the hunger to get the goal.

It was not the most beautiful or poetic score that he has made. But, to be fair, it would be near impossible for anyone to duplicate the kind of subtle, yet decisive strike that he has made his trademark over a champion's career--himself, no exception. And as his teammates swarmed him before he could even stand up, their pride at his accomplishment made everyone thrill at the return of our champion.