Proper football
With LaLiga in stasis for, well who knows how long, this will be my last column for a while, so I wanted to use it to talk about a couple of contexts for the phrase in the title. The first occasion relates to when the term was used to criticise, and the second, in a much more enlightened and uplifting scenario.
When the draw for the first knockout phase of the Champions League came out, pairing holders Liverpool with Atlético Madrid, the general consensus, certainly back in the UK at least, was that the club some twentyodd points clear in the Premier
League would easily dispose of one struggling to maintain a European qualifying position in the Primera División. Anyone watching Simeone’s team over the years however, would have reserved judgement. I even cautioned a Liverpool fan who I work on podcasts with, that if his team fell behind early in the leg at the Wanda Metropolitano, they’d have lots of possession for the rest of the game, but may well end up with even more frustration. I take no particular pride that, given what transpired, it turned out to be astute advice.
As mentioned, any number of people with experience of Simeone’s team may well have offered similar counsel. For me Atléti defending a lead, often conjures up the image of a terrier with a bone. Once its teeth are locked on, prising those jaws open can be the devil’s own game, and it was a task beyond Liverpool’s incessant attacks in
Madrid. There was plenty of bravado talk from the Liverpool camp after the game, vowing to put things right in the second leg. Resolute in his tactics, the terrier just held on to his bone and waited.
Back on Merseyside, the expected attacking onslaught emerged, but with the well-drilled Atléti back line unwilling to bend the knee, and Jan Oblak prepared to illustrate why, to many, he is the best goalkeeper in Spain whenever required, scoring was still a difficult task. At full-time, for all their persistent attacking the Reds only had Wijnaldum’s header, just ahead of the break, to show for their efforts. Four minutes into extratime though, when Firmino scored, there were probably as many collective sighs of relief as there were cheers. OK, calm down, lads. We’re sorted, aren’t we. Well, not quite, guys.
Now with a goal required, Atlético emerged from their shell channelling the Ali ‘Rope-aDope’ knockout over George Foreman. With many of Liverpool’s energies spent battering at the Spanish defence, Atléti picked up on errors, took chances, and scored goals. Three minutes after they had fallen behind, Llorente seized on an error to fire home from distance. The visitors were back in front, and when he repeated the dose just ahead of the break, Liverpool’s prospects were suddenly plunged into decline. Morata’s coup de grace finished the job with a knockout punch.
Now, I’m a great admirer of Klopp, and think he’s done a sensational job at Anfield but, sometimes you get beaten, no matter how unused to it you are, and you need to take it on the chin. Saying that your opponents should play ‘proper football’ given the players they have, just sounded a little impolite, not to say unworthy of a manager usually full of grace and humility. Simeone had beaten Liverpool both home and away. They’d travelled to the home of the team destined to be champions of England and inflicted a home defeat on them for the first time in 42 games across all competitions. Of course, they needed an element of fortune at times, but Simeone has built his reputation on an ability to draw that sort of performance from his team. Far fewer people who watch LaLiga regularly would have been surprised, than those who only watch the Premier League. Atlético Madrid remain one of the top clubs in LaLiga and, taking into account that before last season, the previous six Champions League winners came from Spain – not to mention that in two of those finals Atléti were runners-up – perhaps LaLiga should be regarded as the home of ‘proper football’ anyway.
Moving on, El Gran Derbi is one of the biggest football matches in Spain. A little local disagreement in the Andalusian city requires Sevilla to graciously open its doors and allow the rest of the country to watch as bragging rights are established. As the saying goes; for such games, the whole of Seville stops, and the whole of Spain stops to watch. This season’s second such encounter was scheduled for 15 March, but fell foul to the postponement of fixtures. A mere inability to actually play a game can hardly be allowed to impinge on footballing rivalry however.
Óliver Torres of Sevilla and Betis goalkeeper Joel Robles should have been facing each other in a packed Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán Stadium, instead, they were sitting at home with their families observing the lockdown protocols. Participation denied them, they turned into spectators.
Betis forward Borja Iglesias and Sevilla’s Sergio Reguilón decided to play out the fixture on ‘FIFA’ from the comfort and safety of their sofas, as Torres, Robles and thousands of others – some reports put the figure at 60,000 – watched online. Doubtless to the chagrin of defender Reguilón, not only did Betis triumph, but ‘virtual’ Iglesias even got himself on the scoresheet. It’s unknown whether chants of ‘No me falles Real Betis. Yo nunca te he fallado’ echoed from the windows and balconies in the south of the city, but it wouldn’t have been the biggest surprise in the world if they had.
The idea seems to have generated any number of similar online encounters where fixtures are being played in virtual reality. Entranced not only by the players’ excited commentaries and amazingly accurate graphics, I tuned in to watch a goal fest of a game yesterday between Leganés and Athletic Club.
If you weren’t aware of this and are interested, drop onto Twitter and search #LaLigaSantanderChallengue. Even if it’s not real, the action, passion and skills shown at least take you somewhere towards proper football.
A lot of the games are probably already completed, but follow the threads and you can watch some of them anyway. Plus, with little sign of a return to real action soon, there’s bound to be similar games planned. I hope so, anyway!
The sad news of former Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz succumbing to the perils of Covid-19, and reports of multiple cases of players and officials across the country testing positive, hammer home the message to football in Spain that no-one is immune from this deadly contagion.
The only way to best it is to follow the government guidelines and protect each other.
At the moment, it’s difficult to imagine how football will look when the world emerges from these dreadful times and, quite rightly, the concerns of the game are but a peripheral issue when balanced against the health of the world.
We have to be positive though and believe that things will return to normal, hopefully sooner rather than later, and we can once again envelop ourselves in football with renewed appreciation for what we have. When that happens, I’ll be delighted to share my thoughts with all CBN readers again. Until then, please remember how important the health of you, your loved ones, and the general community is.
Follow the government advice. StaySafe and ¡Quédate en Casa! Catch you on the flip side. Hasta luego mis amigos.