La Liga Weekly

In a highly contested match filled with controversial decisions, the initial reactions from fans and media was to concentrate on the obvious themes left from the match played. Was it 5 or 7 penalty shouts, or was the likely answer one obvious one (the Pique handball and even that has to show intent and since he was turning away from it I can see why the ref didn’t call it) and one debatable one (the Abidal foul on Malouda-initial contact occurred outside the box and Malouda went down inside). You can slow down the action and disagree with me but I’m of the opinion that instant replay will often give you less information than at normal speed; in other words it can be very misleading to watch events happen in stop-motion, your brain will sometimes fill in information like intent or causality from an action that is happening in a thousandth of a second in real time.

So here are some final thoughts in no real order:

• If someone had made a statement like, “Wednesday will finally address the competitive balance once and for all between England and Spain!”, and Barcelona drew level on an injury time belter by Andres Iniesta after being held scoreless for 90 minutes without a proper shot on goal, would you honestly say that La Liga is any better or worse than the English league?
• Well if anyone bases that distinction on one game or a series of matches, then ignorance is bliss my friend. Stay on the island, talk to the coconut, but leave the real analysis to the professionals or at least people who watch more than 2 matches all year.
• Dominance is relative. Were Barcelona not clearly head and shoulders above the plucky English last week? What difference did a week make? Why were Barca held scoreless iin London? Throw that shoe on the other foot. Let’s take John Terry and Ricardo Carvalho out of the lineup. Start Michael Essien and Alex next to each other instead. Remove Anelka and play Frank Lampard on the wing. Play the game in a hostile environment at the Camp Nou and then play a third of the match without Ashley Cole because of a phantom red card. Only then the teams were even? Sounds like advantage Spain my friends.
• The idiot at 606 ranted again the other night, spewing the usual Little Britain nonsense about how Barcelona would finish 6th in England. They don’t defend in Spain. A bunch of ponces they are! Clearly a guy who doesn’t watch the likes Duscher or Marchena every week. There are hard men in Spain. The tackles come flying, but what you don’t see is wasted effort in Spain. They don’t run for runnings’ sake. Plus, if tackling were the only defensive skill you learned, then it’s no wonder England haven’t won a World Cup since the year of my birth. Holding possession is a defensive skill. If you don’t got the ball…I don’t gotta tackle you!
• What about competitive balance Spain are the European Champions, and worthy champions they are. The spine of that team is in Barcelona and they are in the finals. There is one English team left and one Spanish team. Looks pretty even to me at the top. It’s in the middle and at the bottom where Spain is clearly head and shoulders above England. Shall I mention the horrendous European record of Everton and Aston Villa? Ok, I won’t and say we did.
• Lionel Messi is over-hyped isn’t he? Well, he’s the best player in the world at the moment how can he be over-hyped? 36 goals in 48 matches Well, how come Chelsea were able to stifle him? Look, what makes Barcelona is that they are a team. They pass and run, looking for openings in the defense. If three men converge on Lionel Messi pinning him in the corner, then that opens up space for Iniesta to smack the deciding goal. Who made that pass by the way, the one who set up Iniesta on Wednesday? Lionel Messi. I could say enough said, but the kid plays hard every match, doesn’t fall to ground at the nearest touch and is the consumate team player. He even wants to play for Barcelona for the rest of his life imagine that? There is no bigger payday waiting for him. Plus, he’s already won a U-20 World Cup and he’s the #10 for Argentina. The best player in the World has to have performed at his best internationally. That other guy may not get his country qualified let alone win the damn thing.
• Plus, if Chelsea were that much better than Barca why didn’t they attack being a man down? They substituted Belletti for Drogba and sat on their lead. Not if you’re representing the best league in the World I think.