Sweet and Sour

The Other Pep

After about two months of struggling to get into gear and falling behind further and further to Real Madrid in la Liga, Barcelona delivered one of the unstoppable performances that they were, until recently, turning on with the apparent ease of flipping a switch.

Having just played Valencia in the Copa del Rey, it was time to play them in la Liga at the Nou Camp, and after falling behind 0-1 in the ninth minute thanks to a fluke breakaway, they responded by scoring 5 unanswered goals before the final whistle blew.

Messi in particular was unstoppable, scoring four and serving up deft passes to Pedro, Alexis and Tello--though none of them converted on their opportunities. Alexis, for not scoring, was on fire. He cut back and forth with the ball and made Valencia's defense sweat bullets. I was skeptical about the little(r) man, but he is showing a work ethic that is beyond reproach right now.

You've got another thing coming...

Cesc and Alexis seemed to be the two players that had the most opportunities denied by Diego Alves. The Brazilian keeper for Valencia played a great game--which shows how on-fire Barça's offense was--in spite of allowing five to pass him to the net, the score could have been double that.

Cesc had a brilliant near goal bounce off the inside of the bar. The greatest goal that never was for him. As he was subbed out around the 75th minute for Thiago, Pep hugged him professionally and they exchanged a few words. Apparently Pep did not like what he heard from Cesc and he grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and threw him towards the bench.

It was the moment of the game for me.

Because Pep is the star at the center of their galaxy (not Messi or Xavi, as some might believe) to see him display moments of candor and honesty are some of the most exciting and worth-while events in a game. Though his philosophy is articulated as something that is nearly mystical in it's belief in "Barça" as a concept beyond a club, the physical manifestations of the game's pressure--the frustration, ecstacies and rage--those are the times when we get to see the actual stakes involved in the adherence to an ethos.

As the team and circumstances do not align with the just logic of a theory, the failure of the game in practice is as bitter as ashes.

Pep, when he is enraged, is scary. They are winning 3-1, 5-0, or whatever, but if the underlying logic is not executed correctly, then he is violently frustrated. This is because it's not all about winning. People always say "If you play beautifully and don't win, it's worthless." This is the motivation behind a large majority of football teams. They don't want to play pretty at the expense of winning. Totally understandable.

However, if you win and don't elevate the game to art then you might as well be playing rugby.

Athletes just want to win; poets want something more.


Josep Guardiola articulates his vision