It’s a Great Time to be a Culé

*Note*  If you support Real Madrid, you may not want to read this.  Just saying.  Figured I should warn you in advance.

So just in case you’re not at all up to keeping up to date in the football (Association Football that is, aka “soccer”), these last three weeks have had as a protagonist the “classic” match-ups between Real Madrid and Barcelona, the biggest clubs in Spain, and probably one of the biggest sports rivalry on the planet.  Considering how big football is on every continent (with a slight exception of the countries of the USA and Canada), I wouldn’t be surprised if it were the biggest.  But moving on, these last three weeks, ending yesterday, featured not one but four of these match-ups.  One of the league match, held at the Santiago Bernabéu in Madrid, the second for the Copa del Rey final at the Mestalla in Valencia, and the final two for the Champions League semifinals in the respective stadiums of the two sides: first in Madrid at the Bernabéu, second in Barcelona at the Camp Nou.

 

The first match ended in a draw.  No one cried over it, as both goals were scored on penalties and since both teams were given a point, nothing changed in the tables.  Barcelona was still eight points ahead of the rival.  The second match ended with a win for Real Madrid (which I briefly mentioned in my “A ‘Spanish’ ‘National’ Team?” post) in overtime, but eh.  A bit upsetting since it would have been nice to have a shot at the treble again, but what’s done is done.  And the Champions League semifinals, two matches which will probably be forever steeped in controversy, ended with Barcelona moving on to the final in Wembley against Manchester United, who beat Schalke 04 this afternoon, thanks to two majestic goals by wunderkind Leo Messi in the first leg at the Bernabéu.  The match was steeped in controversy because of poor reffing and allegations of diving (on both sides of the pitch, let’s not deny facts), as well as a controversial red card shown to Madrid’s Pepe, whom Madrid fans defend as not actually touching Barcelona’s Dani Alves who came at him with raised studs (which is normally a red card no matter which way you slice it) to the calf.

I’m not here to deny that the players on my team dived.  We have some of the best: Alves and Busquets, now with the added bonus of Javier Mascherano from Liverpool and a deplorable performance by Pedro, little Pedro, who’s really so much better than that.  But to think that Madrid is a bastion of sportsmanship in this high-tension, high-stakes match where there is far more at play than just a shot at winning the Champions League is completely erroneous.  Madrid also has Cristiano Ronaldo and Ángel Di Maria in their lists, both of whom are notorious for their acting skills.  Among others.  And then…then there were the declarations made by Madrid’s coach José Mourinho (who ended up getting himself ejected for mouthing off to a ref during the second half) after the press conference, blaming Barcelona for, well, pretty much everything.  In defiance, he didn’t even show up to the pre-match press conference yesterday, sending his assistant coach Aitor Karanka instead, and then refused to show up at the stadium.  I personally think the man behaves like a spoiled child who isn’t getting what he wants.  And yesterday, Madrid was shown five yellow cards, all for tackles against Leo Messi, who had eleven fouls in total committed on him.  Then there was a goal repealed from Gonzalo Higuaín soon after the second half began, on grounds of a player committing a foul on another while the ball was in play (by another player).  The thing is, Madrid players (and fans) are using this as grounds that the match was rigged yet again, when during the match, no one protested the call.  There were no players rushing to the ref and hounding him about the legality of the goal.  No, that came afterwards, after Pedro scored in the 54th minute and Marcelo for Madrid shortly afterwards.  On aggregate, Barcelona was in the finals.  That was when everyone decided to complain.  Personally, I don’t think the ref should have blown his whistle, but he did, and Higuaín took the shot after the whistle blew, so there was no goal.  And they’re complaining about reffing when, in 180 minutes of play against Barcelona, they only had two shots at goal (both of which saw the back of the net).  So to be fair, sure, Barcelona probably did get help from the refs.  But, let’s say in a perfect world where the reffing is perfect, that still leaves the fact that there were only two shots by Madrid on goal in two whole matches.  And neither of those shots were made in Madrid.  Just putting that out there.

Anyway, it really is a great time to be culé.  Beating the eternal rival is always an exhilarating experience.  Especially when Madrid fans complain about losing.  Especially when they complain about losing to a side who, according to them, in a sense, does the exact same thing they do.  So Barcelona players dive?  Awesome, yours do too.  At least our coach doesn’t humiliate an entire fanbase by whining like a child about conspiracies and how everyone’s out to get them.  I get it.  Mourinho’s hired for his mouth.  But all the occasions he mentioned in the press conference last week about refs favoring Barça?  The man’s had his fair share of being favored by refs too.  There are videos circulating of a wrongful ejection of a player from the opposing side when Mourinho brought his Porto side to win the Champions League in 2004, putting him on the world stage as a coach.  What’s hilarious to me is when he complains about Motta being sent off in last year’s semifinal match between Barcelona and Inter Milan at Camp Nou, when his side made it to the finals after beating Barcelona at the San Siro 3-1, and culés, as far as I can remember, didn’t pitch even half of a stink when Bojan scored a goal in the second leg which would have put Barcelona in the finals.  Awesome, complain about a match your side ended up winning.  Then again, we are speaking about a man who drew up a list of grievances against the reffing in a match against Sevilla back in December, which Madrid also won.  Go cry some more.

So it’s pretty obvious that I really cannot stand José Mourinho.  I can’t stand his ego, I can’t stand him.  He doesn’t win things for the team, he wins things for himself.  He doesn’t give a rat’s ass about your team.  And what I find amusing about the entire situation is that he is coaching for a club that had to take out bank loans to sign more than half of their players, who signed him precisely to beat Barcelona (and to win titles, but it seems like the only title Madrid will win is the King’s Cup, so I hope they enjoy it), and he can’t even do that when it really counts.  So when Madrid goes yet another season without winning the Spanish league or the Champions League, it’s always a good time to be a culé.  We’re on our way to winning our third consecutive league title, and hopefully another Champions League title, the second in three years.  We have a coach who lives and breathes the club he’s coaching, who grew up with the club, who helped lead the club to its first Champions League trophy, and who is a legend in Spanish, and Catalan, football.  Who speaks with tact and with honesty, with composure, and who never ceases to praise the rival and build them up.  Who refuses to take a match as won before the players even step onto the pitch.  I don’t even care, but I will say it.  Our coach is classier, hotter, and more awesome than yours.  End of.

So, controversies aside, I’m finally glad the three weeks full of craziness and hype are done.  Tensions run far too high with these matches and I’m grateful that, bar the Spanish Supercup in August, we don’t have to play Real Madrid again until next season.  I’m tired of Real Madrid, I’m tired of everything.  It is sad that football takes a back seat to rivalries, but that’s the way it is with this sport and with this rivalry.  Everyone loses his mind.  I’m glad it’s over.  Now I just hope that Madrid fans can cool down and move on.  When we lost to Inter Milan last year in semis, we created an entire encouragement campaign for the side, Remuntarem, We Will Overcome, and it hurt to be knocked out, to lose a competition we felt we had a chance in.  It even hurt when we lost the Copa del Rey in extra time.  What bothers me is when people cannot take a loss.  You don’t have to like it, but it makes it so much easier to get over it and move on than to keep criticizing the winner.  It bothers me.  I’ve learned to laugh at Barcelona’s losses, wait for the next match, and hope we win it.  I’m just tired of the butthurt fans, I’m tired of the butthurt coaches, hell, I’m tired of the butthurt players.  Maybe I can say this because my team came out the victor and we’re off to Wembley in London where our first Champions League trophy was won in 1992.  Maybe I can say this because I’m on the winning side and because I have moved on from our losses, both this season and in previous seasons (though I admittedly have little to compare to).  I guess what just makes me sad is that I have friends who support Madrid on the “victimism” side.  People who I honestly and truly like aside from their football leanings, who feel they have nothing better to do than post conspiracy theories and criticism of Barcelona.  I get it, it’s a rivalry.  There is no, and should be no, middle ground.  Whatever the other team does, you hate (since, you know, I’m typing up an entire entry on what I hate about Madrid, at least from these past three weeks…).  Maybe it’s because I don’t like holding grudges, maybe it’s because moving on and letting go has become fairly easy for me (though it works partly because I make it a point not to get too attached to things anyway).  But this “victimism” --which shows up wrong on my spell-check but is a word in Spanish and Catalan and would be a word that I would use, and since I don’t know what other word to use, this one works—, is childish.  It’s even obnoxious.  But I guess if it does feel better to vilify the opponent, in this case Barça, sure, go ahead, be my guest.

I’m on the winning side, so of course I can say all this.  But the stats certainly speak for themselves.  Just saying.