After watching today's second leg of the Copa Del Rey (The Spanish Club Football Cup) between Barcelona and Real Madrid come to an end in an exhilarating 2-2 tie, I came to a conclusion. Nothing else in sports right now that happens on a regular basis can compare to this. The World Cup and the Olympics are great but they are thrown out because they happen every 4 years and they are month-long occasions rather than singular events. The Super Bowl usually fails to live up to the 2-week hype generated by the North American media (last couple of years excluded) and the atmosphere doesn't come close to the atmosphere generated by the fans (soccer fans are the best out of any sport, that's not even a debate.) at the El Clasico. The Stanley Cup Finals, The NBA Finals and the World Series are all great in their own way but are often disappointing and because they all last at least 4 games, often one of these 4 (or more) will be boring and not fun to watch.
Barcelona vs Real Madrid. The match fixture makes one think of footballing excellence, a rivalry between two of the world's best football clubs that are polar opposites of each other. To make things even better, the rosters of the two sides are currently loaded with the best footballers from around the world. Everything about the two teams is completely different. One is the capital of Spain, the other the capital of Catalonia. A province of Spain that is very separatist and has wanted to break off and form its own country for a while now (think Quebec but with more separatism). One team's coach is Pep Guardiola, a former 11-year player of Barcelona who now leads his side with a quiet confidence. The other is Real Madrid's Manager, Jose Mourinho. The self-appointed "Special One" is the coach everyone else loves to hate, a man who could never make it as a player but is one of the best coaches in the game. He leads his side with an arrogant determinedness that rubs most the wrong way. This video of him celebrating Inter's Champions League semi-final win can tell you more about Jose than I ever could in words.
Both sides have, in my opinion the world's two best players serving as their stars. And in keeping with the rivalry they could not be less similar. Barcelona has Lionel Messi, the world's best footballer two years running (Messi won the Ballon d'Or in 2010 and 2011). A man who despite his small stature (5'6) can make anyone on the field look silly while chasing him (even more incredible is that Messi had to take growth pills as a youngster to keep him from becoming a midget). He makes passes and moves with the ball in ways that shouldn't be allowed and despite his success and hold on to the world's best footballer title, people still like him. This is surprising as success usually breeds jealousy and contempt by the general public (see Brady, Tom or James, LeBron) and yet Messi is still loved around the world. Maybe it is because of his size and the fact that he looks 14 that makes Lionel non-threatening to fans of the sport. Whatever the reason, the general public's opinion of him can not be any more different than to the one given to Real Madrid's star player, Cristiano Ronaldo. Ronaldo came to Madrid from Manchester United where he achieved great individual and team success with the English side.
However, the change of jersey did nothing to quell people's opinion that he is a fake, arrogant, dive-prone player that doesn't play the sport the right way. Why this is the consensus could be for a variety of reasons. Ronaldo's exploits into male modelling or that he seems to take a great length of time in styling his hair (anyone who is bothered by this makes no sense to me) could be some of them. I think the difference of public opinion between Messi and Ronaldo comes from how they seem as human beings off the pitch. Messi seems like the type of guy who would have no problem playing with you and your friends in a game of 4 on 4 pickup soccer on some horrible field while Ronaldo seems like he'd deny the offer due to fear of his Armani shirt getting dirty. Another reason why most guys don't like him is that Cristiano seems like the type of guy who you wouldn't want to be alone with your girlfriend for even a second let alone a minute. I'm not sure if Messi even has a girlfriend, he seems like he was sent to Earth for one reason. To play the game of soccer beautifully. Whether or not these assumptions are true or fair doesn't really matter because in the end they are made by most people. This stark contrast between the two stars makes the El Clasico even more interesting to watch.
The two team's styles of play are also as different as black and white. Madrid plays with a constant fire with its players constantly delivering physical play bordering on dirty (This is especially true when looking at Pepe. I don't think he even makes it seem like he's going for the ball anymore) while Barca's 10 outfield players play as if they are one constantly-moving force that never falters. Their style is simple enough in concept, "always be moving, make the simple plays, don't force anything" and yet in action no one other than the Spanish national side can even begin to match them. Watching Barcelona connect one, then two, then three passes in a calm and composed fashion even as the Real Madrid players pressure them with a manic pace is beautiful to watch.
Finally the thing that makes Real Madrid vs Barcelona the best singular sporting event at this time is the obvious dislike the two teams have for each other. In baseball the only rivalry that matters is the Red Sox and the Yankees. This match-up matters much more for the fans then the players who seem to feel no different when playing each other as they do with the rest of the league. In basketball and football, and to a lesser extent hockey, the rules have been altered to take some of the emotion out of the sports that makes it hard for two teams to truly hate each other (can anyone think of one example in the 4 major North American sports where teams do hate each other?). In El Clasico we see countrymen pitted against each other in borderline dirty tackles, shoving during and after the matches, large crowds of bodies arguing and pushing around the referee after each slightly questionable call. The dislike is obvious (Much more from the Real Madrid side due to their lack of success against Barcelona recently. They seem to play with a reckless abandon doing whatever they can to win) and is the final contributor that makes you unable to pull your eyes away.
There will be at least one more El Clasico this year (a league fixture). At least one more clash of two completely different teams that happen to double as arguably the best in the world. I know I'll be watching no matter what. After all it is the best singular sporting event at the moment. It may not be as time goes on and players change but for the time being it is. This is the one. El Clasico. Couldn't have said it better myself.
Follow me on twitter
@Luka_M91
Vancouver and Boston hate each other
ReplyDelete