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Espanyol offer reminder of why we still watch – for an upset
This is why we watch. James “Buster” Douglas sending Mike Tyson to the canvas. Greece becoming champions of Europe. Joe Gaetjens and the United States getting the better of England at the 1950 World Cup finals. Pak Doo Ik and North Korea doing the same to Italy in 1966. Wrexham, bottom of the Football League, stunning Arsenal, the English champions, in the 1992 FA Cup. A horse, appropriately named Upset, at 100-1 beating Man O’War to the finish line in 1919.
Without upsets - or, more appropriately, the threat of upsets - sport would be like most Hollywood films: you may be entertained, but you know who’s going to get the girl and that James Bond is going to get away.
Those thoughts came to mind when watching the Barcelona derby on Saturday night. The game was at the Nou Camp, in front of the biggest crowd in club football, 98 per cent of them cheering for the home side. Barcelona had lost once in La Liga this season, and that was in August, when Lehman Brothers was still around. Espanyol had not won in the league since November 2, when George W. Bush was still leader of the free world. When they last won at the Nou Camp, Saddam Hussein was a dear friend of the West, ET was in the cinemas and Michael Jackson’s Thriller had yet to be released.
Barcelona had scored 3½ times as many league goals as Espanyol. Samuel Eto’o had struck 23, three more than Espanyol. Josep Guardiola, the Barcelona coach, was hailed as the next big thing. Until a few months ago Mauricio Pochettino, the Espanyol coach, was working in women’s football. Barcelona were top of the league and Espanyol bottom, with a mere 42 points separating them.
But there’s more. Yes, as the cliché goes, anything can happen in a derby. But the Barcelona derby is different. For a start, you have to wonder how a full-blooded Barcelonan can be anything but a Barcelona fan. It’s not just that they’re far better than Espanyol and always have been. It’s that marketing, culture, history and politics have stacked the deck in favour of Barcelona. In a city where Catalan identity is hammered home on every street sign and in every classroom and where kids grow up on stories of how the hallowed Nou Camp was the only place free of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, you have to wonder just why any Catalan would support a club whose name means “Spanish”.
Many do support Espanyol, but it’s fair to say few would have dared to dream what transpired at the Nou Camp on Saturday. The match was decidedly one-sided - Barcelona outshot Espanyol 20 to two - even after Seydou Keita, the Barcelona midfield player, was controversially sent off late in the first half.
However, Espanyol found themselves two goals up in the wake of an amazing four minutes shortly after half-time. The fact that the scorer of both goals was one Iván de la Peña only added to the surreal nature of events.
De la Peña is a footballing oxymoron, a player who looks as if he has come from the 1930s. He has technique and vision, but is about as quick and dynamic as a sofa. Which is why, despite the hype surrounding him as a youngster - at Barcelona, no less - he never lived up to his potential.
He turns 33 in May, had started 14 games in the past two seasons, and before Saturday, had not scored a league goal in more than four years. And yet it was De la Peña, the second smallest player on the pitch, at 5ft 7in, who headed in Nené’s cross five minutes into the second half and then seized upon a botched clearance by VÍctor Valdés, the goalkeeper, to deliver a sweet chip that flew in under the crossbar. Barcelona pulled a goal back, but the damage was done.
The amazing thing about upsets is that they don’t need to make a difference to have a lasting effect. Barcelona will probably win the league. And Espanyol will likely be relegated.
But the magic of what transpired lives on. It fuels the fire of possibility every time teams step on to the pitch. It serves to remind us that beneath the pay cheques, the hype, the talent and the reputations, it’s still 22 men chasing a ball. Which means anything can happen, even if it probably won’t. And that’s why we continue to watch.
And another thing . . .
Platini right to wade into Wada doping debate
After lobbying hard to ban Davide Possanzini and Daniele Mannini for 12 months after the Italian players turned up 25 minutes late to a postmatch doping test because they were in a Brescia team meeting, the World AntiDoping Agency (Wada) has a new case to sink its teeth into.
On February 7, after a game against Borussia Mönchengladbach, two Hoffenheim players, Andreas Ibertsberger and Christoph Janker, arrived at their postmatch test ten minutes late in similar circumstances. The German FA has opened an investigation and Wada will be watching. Having set a precedent, it can’t let this slide, even though, once again, a hefty punishment seems absurd. Michel Platini put it best two weeks ago. “Football has to find a way to fight back against Wada, who do as they please, when they please,” the Uefa president said.
Jumping to conclusions
Here’s a safe bet. Three English sides face three Italian teams in the Champions League first knockout round, beginning tomorrow. Should either league see all three of its clubs lose, the pundits will begin to draw overarching conclusions about the respective health of Serie A and the Barclays Premier League.
Folks, it’s only six games. Anybody with a smattering of rational thought knows that it’s not representative. If the English sides are knocked out it will not mean that Serie A is a stronger league. And if the Italian sides are eliminated, it won’t mean that the recovery evident in Serie A in the past few years - attendances up 15 per cent, unlike anywhere else in Europe - is meaningless.
Gabriele Marcotti
This is why we watch. James “Buster” Douglas sending Mike Tyson to the canvas. Greece becoming champions of Europe. Joe Gaetjens and the United States getting the better of England at the 1950 World Cup finals. Pak Doo Ik and North Korea doing the same to Italy in 1966. Wrexham, bottom of the Football League, stunning Arsenal, the English champions, in the 1992 FA Cup. A horse, appropriately named Upset, at 100-1 beating Man O’War to the finish line in 1919.
Without upsets - or, more appropriately, the threat of upsets - sport would be like most Hollywood films: you may be entertained, but you know who’s going to get the girl and that James Bond is going to get away.
Those thoughts came to mind when watching the Barcelona derby on Saturday night. The game was at the Nou Camp, in front of the biggest crowd in club football, 98 per cent of them cheering for the home side. Barcelona had lost once in La Liga this season, and that was in August, when Lehman Brothers was still around. Espanyol had not won in the league since November 2, when George W. Bush was still leader of the free world. When they last won at the Nou Camp, Saddam Hussein was a dear friend of the West, ET was in the cinemas and Michael Jackson’s Thriller had yet to be released.
Barcelona had scored 3½ times as many league goals as Espanyol. Samuel Eto’o had struck 23, three more than Espanyol. Josep Guardiola, the Barcelona coach, was hailed as the next big thing. Until a few months ago Mauricio Pochettino, the Espanyol coach, was working in women’s football. Barcelona were top of the league and Espanyol bottom, with a mere 42 points separating them.
But there’s more. Yes, as the cliché goes, anything can happen in a derby. But the Barcelona derby is different. For a start, you have to wonder how a full-blooded Barcelonan can be anything but a Barcelona fan. It’s not just that they’re far better than Espanyol and always have been. It’s that marketing, culture, history and politics have stacked the deck in favour of Barcelona. In a city where Catalan identity is hammered home on every street sign and in every classroom and where kids grow up on stories of how the hallowed Nou Camp was the only place free of Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, you have to wonder just why any Catalan would support a club whose name means “Spanish”.
Many do support Espanyol, but it’s fair to say few would have dared to dream what transpired at the Nou Camp on Saturday. The match was decidedly one-sided - Barcelona outshot Espanyol 20 to two - even after Seydou Keita, the Barcelona midfield player, was controversially sent off late in the first half.
However, Espanyol found themselves two goals up in the wake of an amazing four minutes shortly after half-time. The fact that the scorer of both goals was one Iván de la Peña only added to the surreal nature of events.
De la Peña is a footballing oxymoron, a player who looks as if he has come from the 1930s. He has technique and vision, but is about as quick and dynamic as a sofa. Which is why, despite the hype surrounding him as a youngster - at Barcelona, no less - he never lived up to his potential.
He turns 33 in May, had started 14 games in the past two seasons, and before Saturday, had not scored a league goal in more than four years. And yet it was De la Peña, the second smallest player on the pitch, at 5ft 7in, who headed in Nené’s cross five minutes into the second half and then seized upon a botched clearance by VÍctor Valdés, the goalkeeper, to deliver a sweet chip that flew in under the crossbar. Barcelona pulled a goal back, but the damage was done.
The amazing thing about upsets is that they don’t need to make a difference to have a lasting effect. Barcelona will probably win the league. And Espanyol will likely be relegated.
But the magic of what transpired lives on. It fuels the fire of possibility every time teams step on to the pitch. It serves to remind us that beneath the pay cheques, the hype, the talent and the reputations, it’s still 22 men chasing a ball. Which means anything can happen, even if it probably won’t. And that’s why we continue to watch.
And another thing . . .
Platini right to wade into Wada doping debate
After lobbying hard to ban Davide Possanzini and Daniele Mannini for 12 months after the Italian players turned up 25 minutes late to a postmatch doping test because they were in a Brescia team meeting, the World AntiDoping Agency (Wada) has a new case to sink its teeth into.
On February 7, after a game against Borussia Mönchengladbach, two Hoffenheim players, Andreas Ibertsberger and Christoph Janker, arrived at their postmatch test ten minutes late in similar circumstances. The German FA has opened an investigation and Wada will be watching. Having set a precedent, it can’t let this slide, even though, once again, a hefty punishment seems absurd. Michel Platini put it best two weeks ago. “Football has to find a way to fight back against Wada, who do as they please, when they please,” the Uefa president said.
Jumping to conclusions
Here’s a safe bet. Three English sides face three Italian teams in the Champions League first knockout round, beginning tomorrow. Should either league see all three of its clubs lose, the pundits will begin to draw overarching conclusions about the respective health of Serie A and the Barclays Premier League.
Folks, it’s only six games. Anybody with a smattering of rational thought knows that it’s not representative. If the English sides are knocked out it will not mean that Serie A is a stronger league. And if the Italian sides are eliminated, it won’t mean that the recovery evident in Serie A in the past few years - attendances up 15 per cent, unlike anywhere else in Europe - is meaningless.
Gabriele Marcotti
