FOOTBALL: 2006 EL CLASICO II

Barcelona VS. Real Madrid

The overhyped, overpromoted and overemphasized El Clasico twice a year is sometimes irritating me. The focus and publicity it garnered has always overshadow the football match itself. This time around, we have a situation where Barcelona can afford to play 50% of their strength to concentrate on the coming week's Champions League match. A defeat won't destroy their La Liga crown capture hope much. A win will definitely end much hope for Real Madrid with that giant gap with the season coming to a very fast end. Barcelona need the best squad preparations for the Champions League as their chances are not very good with a goalless draw from the first leg.

However, pride is much for Barcelona to defeat Madrid because of the significance of the El Clasico victory itself since the rivalry from the historical backgrounds of both clubs. For more in depth details, please read the article below.

Probably the only other match worth watching this weekend is the one below. While I am busy with exam and final project presentation next week on the same day! That is too heavy for me! I need to hit the books and swallow as many pages as I can so hopefully they are imprinted in my memory cells somehow (Doraemon style) before they are digested and released! Hehe!

Fiorentina VS. AS Roma

Before I go,

HAPPY APRIL'S FOOL!

I have a cousin who was born on April's Fool! Imagine all the fooling she will get during her birthday! Gee.....! Have a nice football weekend fellas!

As for the predictions, I am a Real Madrid fan, so I want them to win super big. Realistically, Real Madrid always disappoint in big matches these days. No player in the squad I can have faith in but Robinho and Cicinho. The rest? They are busy resting in their comfortable benches on the pitch and enjoying the good pay too.

Real Phil Ball's article titled Blame the Benches

Phil was accompanying the excellent Drew Carey, an American writer, actor and comedian who was in Spain to film the week's build-up to this week's clásico in Barcelona.

Here's the portion from his article:

Drew Carey sat back and stretched out his legs. 'Man, this is the life. This is so comfortable. I cannot believe this. This is Business Class!'

I sat back and dreamed I was the young Raúl, about to go out there and make my home debut, against Atlético Madrid. But I couldn't move, sunk down into the leather, awaiting the smiling hostess and the complimentary drinks.

Drew launched into a rant: 'This is why they've gone down the tubes. It's obvious. This would never happen in the States. Doesn't matter how much you're earning in baseball or American football, you sit your ass down on a hard wooden bench. It's kinda symbolic.'

The point was a good one, as was the further suggestion that if he were the club president, the first thing he would do would be to restore the wooden benches and bring back some sort of authenticity to the whole scene. It seemed a fair point. How anybody could prepare for a game in such a pampered environment seemed hard to fathom.

Here is the historical article.

(Article taken from http://www.goal.com)

El Clásico: A Historical Perspective

Barcelona and Real Madrid have their bitter hatred of each other rooted in history and politics, but these days keeping the rivalry well fuelled is more about financial gain and publicity.

The two sides go head-to-head on April 1st at Camp Nou in a duel that has little to do with the Catalan giants’ current domination in the league.

The pre-match rhetoric has already begun in Spain's four daily sports newspapers, two of which support the Madrilenians and two that support the Catalans.

This year the Madrid-based hacks will have their work cut out when trying to criticise Barça as Frank Rijkaard’s team are proving to be head and shoulders above their arch-rivals and have already won 3-0 in El Bernabéu in the first meeting between the two sides earlier this term.

The build-up, the hype and the propaganda are what make this one of the most attractive fixtures in world football, but how much of the traditional rivalry still remains?

Barcelona supporters have always believed that Real Madrid symbolised General Franco's regime that ruled Spain from 1939 until 1975.

The team in all white came to represent the dictator himself and Catalans used the team's visits to vent their resentment for the oppression of the province.

Madrilenians in turn saw the Blaugrana as the figurehead of a separatist movement that represented the exact opposite of their own ideals.

The Franco years are littered with accusations of match rigging, bribery, and extreme partisanship as trouble raged both on and off the field when the two teams met.

The winning side would always crow and taunt the defeated, while the losers would claim that the matches were already decided before kick off and that they never stood a chance.

One famous incident, that is still likely to open old wounds when mentioned, is the Alfredo Di Stefano transfer saga in the 1950s.

The passing of time has led both sides to accuse the other of underhand dealings, with the Catalans still claiming that Madrid used their political influence to stop the Argentine star lining up alongside their hero Ladislao Kubala.

But the facts shed a very different light on proceedings.

Di Stefano was playing in Colombia for Millonarios, where the supporters adored him, while River Plate still held his registration.

During a tour of Spain, he was spotted by Barcelona who immediately contacted River and the Buenos Aires side agreed that he could join the Catalans if Millonarios agreed.

But the Colombians were furious that River had agreed to the deal and said that he would never leave their club.

Their anger reached boiling point when Barça persuaded the player to abandon the club during a trip to Venezuela and he publicly vowed never to return to Colombia.While Millonarios refused to discuss any transfer under the circumstances and Barça refused to return him, Real Madrid made an approach and offered a large sum of money to both River and the Colombians for his services.

The ensuing dogfight finally saw the intervention of the Spanish FA who ruled that both clubs could share the player with Madrid having him for the 1953/54 and 1955/56 seasons and Barça for the 1954/55 and 1956/57 campaigns.

But the sudden resignation of Barcelona president Marti Carreto caused chaos at the club and the interim administration cancelled the deal as they sought a new leader and Di Stefano was left to sign for Real.

He went on to help Madrid lift the first five European Cups ever played and become one of the world’s most revered players, playing alongside the infamous Ferenc Puskas.

It was a highly embarrassing episode for Barça who allowed such a talented player to join their bitter rivals without any help or interference from the government of the time.

After the end of Franco’s reign such confrontations have been rare, but six seasons ago Luis Figo, despite being a hero to the Barça faithful, changed all that when he switched allegiance in a move that reflected the Di Stefano saga.

After becoming an idol at Camp Nou, Figo demanded that the club award him with a pay rise matching that of the best players in the world or he may have to move elsewhere.

Rumours abounded that he had signed a pre-contract with Madrid and that if Real’s presidential candidate Florentino Perez won control of the club he would move to the Spanish capital.

Barcelona played Figo’s bluff and refused to meet his terms and in June 2000 he confirmed the rumours by honouring his agreement with the newly installed Real supremo and signing for the European Cup holders.

The Catalans were outraged and showed their incredulity when he returned to Camp Nou in the white of Madrid in October of the same year.

The build-up to the game had an extra edge and the Catalan press took full advantage. branding him a Judas and encouraging the club’s supporters to give their former hero a ‘special’ welcome back.

Missiles reigned down from the stands every time he ventured close to the touchline, while the crescendo of noise and the banners that questioned his morality, parentage and greed made the game a ferocious encounter. Barcelona won 2-0.

But Barcelona need to hate Madrid and Real need to hate them back if the worldwide interest in the historic encounter is to be maintained and the money is to keep on rolling in.

The interest, revenue and publicity that each action and word that is aimed in the other’s direction creates a real air of excitement as two of the biggest clubs in world football slug it out for supremacy.

The game itself is watched by millions not just in Spain, but all over the world, and the interest is fuelled by the public slanging matches and the redrawing of battle lines before every meeting.

With Franco gone, Catalunya is enjoying greater autonomy than Northern Ireland, Scotland or Corsica while the government now has the kind of power and financial control that some European governments will never have, and the painful memories of the dictatorship are slowly healing.

There are those that want Catalonia to be a separate country and there are those that would like it to fall back under Spanish control, but with neither likely to happen in the foreseeable future, the rivalry between the two factions is now fought on other fronts.

The directors, the players, the press and, more specifically, the supporters of both clubs, who need each other as much as Spanish football needs them, fight the fight and keep the flame of hatred burning.

So the hype to this clash is already reaching a crescendo and when both sides enter the field it will be a battle to let the world know who is the best, as much as to settle some historical scores.

Lucas Brown