Let’s forget, for the moment, the fact that Real Madrid and Barcelona had an absorbing 1-1 draw in their liga meeting on Saturday. Instead, let’s look inside the heads of two of the night’s protagonists: Barça midfielder Xavi Hernández and Real Madrid coach José Mourinho. “Everyone could see that Barça were the better team, that we totally dominated. Although that’s not so great given that it was them that gave us the ball and them that shut down at the back in their own stadium.” This was the verdict of Xavi after the game. He had a point in that Barcelona did dominate possession, during one phase enjoying 79 percent of it (according La Sexta television’s onslaught of statistics). … [Read more...] about Real Madrid, Barcelona, Orwell and the evil conspiracy
José Mourinho
Everything’s at stake in Real Madrid and Barcelona’s quadruple clásico
Eighteen days, four games and the spoils of almost an entire season to be fought over. Barcelona and Real Madrid usually play each other twice over the course of a season, in their home and away liga fixtures. But due to a combination of luck and their own good form, the biggest rivalry in European football, with all its sporting, cultural and political undercurrents, will be played out four times in just over two weeks, between April 16 and May 3. There’s so much at stake and yet each encounter is loaded with slightly different significance. Of the three titles that these four games – a league match, the King’s Cup final and a two-legged Champions League semifinal – represent, the league … [Read more...] about Everything’s at stake in Real Madrid and Barcelona’s quadruple clásico
Xabi Alonso
The coolest man in La Liga. Alonso was one of the first Spanish players to make an impact in England’s premiership, wowing Liverpool supporters for five seasons before arriving at Real Madrid as part of Florentino Pérez’s neo-galáctico project. Less flashy than the likes of Ronaldo or Özil, the man from Tolosa is nonetheless one of the first names José Mourinho puts on the teamsheet due to his tactical nous and passing range. Not only does Alonso pick up trophies like a kleptomaniac, he also knows how to wear a suit. … [Read more...] about Xabi Alonso
Mourinho’s latest outburst betrays signs of strain
A few weeks ago, Iberosphere put forward the theory that José Mourinho’s recent controversial outbursts had been due to a combination of genuine anger and calculated politicking. That may indeed be the case, but his latest verbal broadside, launched during a press conference on the eve of Real Madrid’s league game against Málaga on March 3, shows very little in the way of calculated pot-stirring, and a good deal in terms of thin-skinned delusion. In the last few weeks, the Real Madrid coach’s obsession has been the league calendar, and how it purportedly favours the likes of Barcelona and works against his team. “The calendar is set by people who know what they are doing,” Mourinho … [Read more...] about Mourinho’s latest outburst betrays signs of strain
What’s eating José Mourinho?
“I’m too old to receive messages through newspapers. These little messages don’t reach me. I make the team. The decisions are mine.” We’re used to hearing José Mourinho fire broadsides at his opponents. We’re less used to hear him do it at his own employers. But his above remarks, made on January 19, were clearly aimed at Real Madrid’s Sporting Director Jorge Valdano. Valdano sparked the Portuguese’s ire after a 1-1 draw with Almería when responding to a television journalist’s question about Madrid’s possible signing of a new “number 9” -or striker- in the coming days, something Mourinho has expressly requested of the club. “We had a number 9 on the bench,” said Valdano, in reference to … [Read more...] about What’s eating José Mourinho?
Barça thrashing reminds Mourinho of his Madrid challenge
Had John Cleese’s Basil Fawlty voice been applied to José Mourinho’s post-match press conference after his Real Madrid side was humbled 5-0 by reigning champion Barcelona at Camp Nou, it wouldn’t have sounded entirely out of place. “Humiliation?” asked Mourinho rhetorically. “Not a bit of it… just don’t mention the result.” It was the Portuguese schemer’s heaviest defeat in a glittering career that has made him the most valuable manager in the world by any measure. However straight a bat Mourinho plays when under the cosh, a five-goal thrashing at the stadium of Real’s archrival is not going to sit well with a man used to winning. Unfortunately for Mourinho, he has little time to lick … [Read more...] about Barça thrashing reminds Mourinho of his Madrid challenge
Pellegrini embraces Málaga’s long-term dream
In 1999, an Ecuadorian banking tycoon called Rodrigo Paz wanted to take the team he owned, Liga de Quito, to the next level and make it a major force in Latin American football. As well as spending heavily on players, he hired Manuel Pellegrini, a Chilean coach who had been successful in his home country and was starting to make a name for himself across South America. With the full backing and confidence of the club owner, the quietly spoken coach’s methods were effective and he won that year’s national championship in style, as well as taking the previously underperforming team on an impressive run in the Copa Libertadores continental tournament. Fast forward to 2010 and Pellegrini … [Read more...] about Pellegrini embraces Málaga’s long-term dream
Hércules’ Italian job on Barça restores Liga intrigue
While staff at the Spanish Economy Ministry have been telling anyone who will listen for the last few months that “Spain isn’t Greece”, over at the football federation, they’ve had a rather more tricky time of it trying to convince us that “Spain isn’t Scotland”. Scotland in this context means a country with only two teams that ever look remotely like winning the domestic league. And over the last few years, while Real Madrid and Barcelona may not resemble Celtic and Glasgow Rangers in any way on the pitch, each pair of teams seems to enjoy a similarly vice-like duopoly on the silverware. So it was refreshing to see league champion and European powerhouse Barcelona humbled 2-0 by newly … [Read more...] about Hércules’ Italian job on Barça restores Liga intrigue
It’s Real Mourinho vs. Spain FC as La Liga begins
Nobody can accuse Spain’s top teams of lacking stars. Real Madrid has Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Iker Casillas and now Mesut Özil and Sami Khedira. Barcelona, meanwhile, has eight players from Spain’s World Cup-winning squad, including Xavi Hernández, David Villa and Pedro Rodríguez. And yet, as the Spanish league season gets underway, the eye is drawn not to midfielder Andrés Iniesta, a football genius in an accountant’s body, or the stepovers and hair gel of Ronaldo, but rather the two sharply dressed men overseeing these players at the side of the pitch. This season, perhaps more than any other, is a battle between two managerial auteurs: Barcelona’s Pep Guardiola and Madrid’s José … [Read more...] about It’s Real Mourinho vs. Spain FC as La Liga begins
Mourinho: Madrid’s saviour, Barça’s anti-Christ?
Someone once said that in England football is war, in Italy it is chess, and in Spain it is theatre. José Mourinho has proved that he can battle it out in England by winning the league title twice with Chelsea. He has also just shown he can manoeuvre with the best of them in Italy by winning the Scudetto, the Coppa and the Champions League in the same season. So now he comes to Spain, set on continuing an extraordinary campaign of European conquest that began in earnest when he announced himself to the world by leading Porto to the Champions League title in 2004. But if, as anticipated, he becomes Real Madrid’s new coach, can he provide the kind of success and theatre the club … [Read more...] about Mourinho: Madrid’s saviour, Barça’s anti-Christ?