El Clásico...Football Extravaganza

They are going to play each other 4 times in only 18 days. This straight forward information will not be enough to thrill you wait for those matches. But, you are a football fan and I am talking about Real Madrid playing Barcelona, then it can be something worth waiting for !

In football terms, El Clásico, planet’s most hyped club football game going to happen four times within a span of only eighteen days. Spain’s two most successful football clubs; Real Madrid and Barcelona battle out for glory and supremacy. The great rivalry does not limit to the borders of football; it’s the rivalry of nationalism, philosophy, culture etc. If you compare cities, Madrid and Barcelona are the biggest cities in Spain. If you compare football clubs, Real and Barca are the biggest, most successful and richest clubs in Spain; if not biggest, successful and richest in World football.  Then try to compare the fan base; they equally share huge fans across the globe. Real Madrid, representatives of Spanish nationalism or Castile region has a football philosophy different to Barcelona who represents the Catalan region of Iberian Peninsula. While Barcelona’s youth academy is known for producing football talents, Real Madrid always tend to purchase talents and assemble them to form Galacticos.

To know the fierceness of this rivalry you would have to turn your attentions back to El Clásico in 2002. Luis Figo, the former vice captain and fan favorite of Barcelona switched his allegiance to Real Madrid in 2000 after five successful years at Catalunya. When Figo appeared out of the tunnel at Camp Nou, Barcelona’s home ground, in the sacred white shirt of Real, culés called him Judas ! For them Camp Nou is a cathedral and they will not tolerate any act of betrayal. They threw bottles, cigarettes and whatever came to their hand to show their disgust; they even threw a rotten pig’s head aimed at once their beloved player !

Let me give you the fixtures in advance to plan your all other activities accordingly.

Real vs. Barca     16^th April 2011    Estadio Santiago Bernabéu         La Liga

Barca vs. Real     20^th April 2011    Estadio Mestalla, Valencia         Copa del Rey final

Real vs. Barca     27^th April 2011    Estadio Santiago Bernabéu         CL SF 1^st leg

Barca vs. Real     3^rd May 2011        Camp Nou, Barcelona                    CL SF 2^nd leg

In Spanish Primera División, Barca leads Real by 8 points with 7 games remaining. So the match at Bernabéu on 16th April has least priority out of four battles, at least for Barcelona. A Real win will not displace Barca from the La Liga summit. But in case Real wins this fixture, it will surely influence the outcome of other three remaining fixtures. Even though improbable in the current circumstances, a win for Real will restore the confidence to Real players and they will start to believe that all conquering ‘wonder in boots’ are not invincible. Also, that will provide the perfect revenge for the 5-0 trouncing Real experienced at Camp Nou back in November 2010.

At Mestalla, four days after the meeting at Bernabéu, Real will find out if the trophy cabinet at Madrid needs to be rearranged for Copa del Rey coming after a break of 18 years. Barca will be so eager to bring The King’s cup back to Camp Nou which they last won in 2009 while completing sextuple under Pep Guardiola.

Then there are two mouth watering Champions league matches await as José Mourinho prepare his ‘Men in white’ for the much coveted décima Copa de Europa for which he was hired. And for Barca too, this two legged matches are equally important. Last season, Barca was obsessed to play the Champions league final at Santiago Bernabéu and declare their dominance in front of Madrid fans. But the El traductor had other ideas as his Inter Milan side swept away Barca to take away Champions league while becoming the first Italian team to complete the Treble. In his post match conference, Pep Guardiola despondently admitted Barca fans that, ‘we owe you final place at Wembley next year’. Again the same nemesis, El traductor, is blocking Barca’s way in Semi finals. But this time Barca can’t afford to lose the battle as the team Mourinho managing is none other than Real Madrid.

To be precise, if there is any football Manager in the planet who knows how to stop Lionel Messi, or rather Barcelona, that seems to be José Mourinho, The Special One. It could be because he knows the Barcelona system very well due to his spell at Camp Nou under Late Sir Bobby Robson and Luis van Gaal. The true heir to Diego Maradona is yet to find the back of the net against a Mourinho team. Oh God, that list includes Chelsea, Inter Milan and now Real Madrid. Messi was kept silent by Mourinho during the 5-0 drubbing of Real at Camp Nou too. But that act alone against Messi was not enough to prevent Xavi, Pedro and Villa running riot against Real defense and smack five past one of the best goal keeper in the World, and Real Madrid Captain San Iker.

Even though ignored previously, may be purposefully overlooked, about upcoming four matches against each other, both Guardiola and Mourinho stayed away from publicly talking about El Clásicos.  But the time has come and you cannot hide the fact that rivalry is going to be renewed through this do or die series which comes as four installments. Eloquent about their midfield dominance, Barca is not going to experiment anything abnormal unless their injury crisis ask for so. But for Real Madrid and their shrewd Manager the story is different. Mourinho may try a similar counter attacking strategy deployed when he was in charge at Chelsea and Inter or a fresh strategy to stop Barcelona playing their normal Tiki-taka game. He may try those experiments either during two 45 minute sessions at Bernabéu during the first installment or even try experimenting at Mestalla if his initial strategies turn pointless. If any of the strategy works out against Barca, he is going to deploy the same with some fine tuning in Champions league semi finals to march past Barca again to achieve his dream rather than Real’s dream of décima Copa de Europa ! To become the first manager in the football history to win UEFA Champions league with three different teams. 

There could be individual battles in the turf which include great football names like Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, Xavi Hernández and Mesut Özil, David Villa and Sergio Ramos, Dani Alves and Marcelo. Near the touch line, Pep Guardiola will be occupied in an intellectual battle with José Mourinho. And in the stands, Sandro Rosell will watch the encounters alongside Florentino Pérez to the cheers and rants from both supporters.

Johan Cruyff, Barcelona legend claims that ‘Barcelona does not need to win all four games, they must only win two: the second and the fourth’. In the end of the war, there could be one winner or sometimes the spoils will be shared; who knows ?

15^th April, 2011
The day before Real vs. Barca match in La Liga

Memoirs Of A Fan…On The Cup That Counts

As Shahrukh Khan asks in one of the advertisement "Score kya hua hai ?" my childhood and youth were no different when there was a cricket match going on and one of the team was India. I am sure anyone of my age group would have asked this question at least once in their lifetime; may be in their mother tongue.

I was an young boy going to pre-school nursery during 1983 Prudential World cup. I do not remember seeing any fireworks or sweets distribution when Kapil's devils conquered the world. May be the lesser impact happened due to the lack of media; especially television was not a household item by that time in my area. And when I grew up I came to know about this historic achievement, mainly reading the books and sports journals. But, my mind was stuck to the description of an innings played by Indian Captain against Zimbabwe when defeat was staring at India. I would more than happily agree that Kapil Dev Nikhanj was the first cricket hero in my little mind.

Then came Reliance world cup in 1987 mostly hosted by none other than this religious cricketing nation. Meanwhile, I had already started playing cricket in the byroads of my home town and the courtyard in my own home, despite of my parents and elders who thought that my prime responsibility was studying and not to spare time for this mad game ! I was wondered, but being a 3rd standard boy I had to obey them. That didn’t stop me from peeping through the windows of my neighbor who owned a television in his home and may not welcome nuisance kids like us to watch cricket on his television. Well, I had not found adequate time to follow all matches having occupied with my studies. But, I used to get myself updated through news papers and the peeps through the window. By that time I strongly believed that Kapil Dev, my first hero, and my new hero of that time Mohammed Azharuddin would bring luck to India.  However, my nights were haunted by two Australians; Craig McDermott and David Boon. My legs would start to shiver whenever McDermott bowled against batsmen whom I loved. And I always felt that Boon is going to hit another fifty in this innings too ! My dreams were shattered when India lost to England and crashed out in the semifinal. Only consolation for me was the hat-trick by an Indian bowler Chetan Sharma against New Zealand; that was the first hat-trick in a World cup.

I was a full time sports man, may be a sports kid, hardly finding time for my studies when Benson & Hedges world cup came knocking in 1992. I was in any place in my home town where there was a football or cricket match happening. My parents were really fed up of my appetite for sports, specifically for football and the subsequent injuries. They even had tried to sway away my friends so that they will not come and invite me for playing. Finally I don't have to peep to my neighbor’s window. My home is blessed with an assembled black & white television. Glory time ! Another advantage was the time zone difference which helped us to watch some part of cricket matches before we leave to school. I was sure like any other Indian fan that Ajju Bhai and Sachin will bring the World cup back to India. I bet even though you are not a cricket fan, you might have heard about this short man with God status in India; Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar. We, Indians believe that he erases all our sins by hitting, pushing, gliding, glancing, and pulling the cricket ball to and out of the fence using his willow; few even believes that bat is his holy weapon. Anyways, I was in shatters again when India did not qualify for the semifinals. Apart from Ajju Bhai and Sachin, two players forcefully occupied my heart for various reasons.

Finally I had started loving one bowler in cricket which was widely considered as batsman’s game. My friends started teasing me for heaping praise on my beloved fast bowler. Unfortunately he belonged to our fierce rivals and his name was Wasim Akram. The way he steps in to bowl, the way he reads batsman’s mind, the way he bowls swinging yorkers, and the way he helped his team in difficult situations with bat and ball made me a fan of Wasim Bhai. How can my friends tolerate when I feel affection for a Pakistani; that too when they won the world cup for the first time and made a place in that elite winners list along with India. I was not happy that Pakistan won the cup; rather I was annoyed by Indian performances which lacked spirit.

Have look at that second man who conquered my heart, Martin Crowe. Initially I thought this fellow was hoodwink by giving new ball to a spinner for the first time in the history of ODI; Dipak Patel. When I read in Sportstar that he had his master plans already drafted before the start of World cup, I felt a respect for that small cricketing country, New Zealand and their magnificent Captain. He had his Christchurch and Auckland stadiums shaped for his pinch hitter opening batsman Mark Greatbatch and then keeps his team's run rate by leading the team from the front. Finally I started understanding tactics in cricket; thanks to the vision of Martin Crowe. But, their attempt fell short in semis when Inzamam Ul Haq declared his batting capabilities to the world. I am waiting for Team India to achieve Pakistan's team spirit, at the same time vision and trickeries of Martin Crowe.

Oh dear, I was enjoying my college life with beautiful girls, cinemas and bunking classes when Wills World cup happened in 1996. In spite of my passion for sports, I had successfully cleared my matriculation and all those off-class activities were always arranged in such a manner that sports had not taken the toll. Wow, we finally have a branded color television in our home and family members even started watching cricket matches. Television has taken the control of drawing rooms in most of the houses in Kerala. I was thinking this could be Team India’s year because we had Sachin Tendulkar achieving his peak, and had Ajju Bhai and Ajay Jadeja to control the middle order. Added to that is the presence of Anil Kumble to lead the bowling attack in the pitches of sub continent. Alas, our hopes are again crushed in the semifinal; this time by Srilanka. My goodness, till that time we were thinking Lanka was only a second string cricket team and suddenly they turned hot favorites. Even though a novice strategy, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana took full advantage of the fielding restrictions in the first 15 overs. Pace bowlers turned part time spinners and Captains turned nuts thinking how to cease the run flood. India against Srilanka in semifinal at Eden Gardens was no different. When Ajju Bhai won the toss and elected to bowl first everybody thought that’s a right decision because of Lanka’s first 15 over threat and chasing capability. I was wondered how you can think of batting second in a day and night match, in a spinning track like Eden Gardens ! Lankans swept away Indians en route to the final and conquered Australia to become the “real” Pearl of Indian Ocean. Had Azharuddin chose to bat first, I don’t know, but am sure fortune favors the brave. And there were two brave men stand aside; Arjuna Ranatunga, the Lankan Captain and Dav Whatmore, Lanka’s Australian coach.

I was attending my Polytechnic exams when 1999 World cup cricket arrived and was enthusiastically welcomed by our Polytechnic gang having divided our opinions for Azharuddin and Sachin. India made it a habit of making Sachin’s efforts futile unless Ajju Bhai or Jadeja stabilizes the innings. India was shell shocked when Sachin returned home for attending the funeral of his father. However, God returned to his most comfortable place and hit a century against Kenya which was dedicated to his departed father. But, this time India perished in a new hurdle called Super Six.

Slowly, my attentions started moving away from Sachin as well as Ajju Bhai. I felt an uncompromising addiction to a particular Indian player and a team other than India. To my surprise both were aggressive and too arrogant. Later, when Azharuddin made me an anti-cricket fan when he was involved in match fixing scandal, the man I started to worship both as a player and Captain restored my love for cricket. That was the Maharaja of Indian cricket, Sourav Chandidas Ganguly. I started watching matches for Sourav’s off drives and dancing steps. Soon he pulled me back to the greenery of cricket through his authority over the team and tactics to overcome fighting opponents. His Indian team made it a habit of grinding out results in style. Finally, Indian team spirit is reinstated. 

The team I started loving was Australia. I won’t say it was an eternal love, but, that was the respect for their professionalism and never say die attitude in the field. Can you think of an Indian victory like the Aussie did against South Africa when Steven Waugh led from the front with an unbeaten 120 runs ? I still remember the famous comment as Herschelle Gibbs ‘caught’, in fact dropped Steve Waugh’s catch, Waugh told him “friend, you had dropped the World cup”. That was the starting of Australian supremacy in World cricket.

2003. I am working for an Indian MNC in Mysore. Believe me; our room was not having television that time. Going back to olden days where we had only radio and news paper to get the news. No, we do have internet for anything and everything. Cool. Getting updates every time through internet, e-mails and mobile phones. Discussions in four way junctions and tea shops had given way to the chat rooms in internet and mail chains. It’s great going for Team India under Sourav, my Dada. Men in Blue reached the final in style and they play against defending champs, Australia; my other favorite. Who will support other teams when India plays in the final ? We hired a television for the final and sat down to cheer for Men in blue.

Again in shatters. Along with that defeat, I was shocked to realize that I couldn’t turn my attentions away from two Australians. They trespassed into my own heart territory only through their performances. Sorry friends, you have to admit the first fellow is ridiculously impolite, arrogant and outspoken. But, whenever his blade talks Australia reach the shore of victory. He keeps his best innings for titanic occasions against giant oppositions. After that innings of 140 runs which included 8 massive sixes I had reluctantly accepted the Aussie Captain, Ricky Ponting, Punter. And the second man, oh God, again I fell in love with a pace bowler. Forgive me, this time also a non-Indian but, luckily a non-Pakistani. He did not have the swing and all round capabilities of Wasim Bhai. Instead he was a machine. Ask him to bowl 100 deliveries and he could ball all 100 deliveries in the ‘corridor of uncertainty’. Glen Donald McGrath, The Pigeon.

World cup venue reached another continent in 2007; this time West Indies. I had decided to move on from Indian MNC in Mysore to another Indian MNC in Kochi. During this World cup too I was in Mysore.  But, somehow my principal focus was settling things at office and rented home at Mysore. Not sure because of my cold response to World cup, India couldn’t advance to the Super Eight stage. Again, look at the champions Australia; successfully marshaled by Ricky Ponting and Pigeon with Player of the series achievement.

Life goes on…so too my World. I am married and currently at Gurgaon working for an American MNC. I cut myself as an ardent Indian supporter reluctantly turned to acknowledge that Australia were a better team and Ricky Ponting a better achiever in the past. But now, along with 120 crore Indian minds, want to reaffirm the ultimate judgment. India, my home nation is on the brink of taking over cricket supremacy from Australia and Sachin Tendulkar to be heralded as the greatest ever cricketer to grace the Universe. For the moment, we do have the shrewd Captaincy of M S Dhoni who had earlier won the inaugural T20 World cup, and a humble opener from Delhi who decides the shift in the match if he is able to face 50 deliveries; Virender Sehwag ! Fortunately for them too, God himself has chosen this occasion to make our dreams come true in his own land, in front of his own followers. When he pads up on this Saturday at Wankhede stadium Indians along with M S Dhoni wishes only one thing. Let God decide the result of this match !!

For me, I was a nursery boy when India won the Prudential World cup. Hence, I wish those magic moments to be recreated on 2^nd April. Again, let God decide the final judgment. J

1^st April, 2011
The day before World cup final, Ind vs. Sri Lanka in Mumbai

Trequartista. What Does It Really Mean ?

Welcome to our World of Football !!

Mere footballers are normal, but artists and entertainers are a different league; Trequartista. The classical Number 10.

The moment I thought about creating a blog for conversing with my friends all about football, I never expected naming the blog would be such a difficult task. A lot of names were put forward but rejected for various reasons by close associates who are not only ardent football followers, but also breathe it.  Then, we decided to have a unique name related to football, at the same time curious to others who live other basic stuffs.

I rolled back the time, almost like a back pass to goal keeper, in this case to my childhood. As a school boy, I started kicking football under the influence of a dazzling footballer who made me addicted to that spherical mass and its rectangular green turf where he could enthrall soccer followers to ecstasy. Very soon, irrespective of my other priorities, I started following football every day, night and dream. If Adidas was for dreaming about ‘all day’, mine was ‘all time’. And that diminutive figure to enthrall me was none other than El Pibe de Oro, The Golden Boy, Diego Armando Maradona; the God football fanatics venerate and carry Number 10 in his back instead of the cross.

I decided to pass the ball forward to my defender and thought about the next deity who fascinated me and made me cry for him and his homeland. I realized that even God fumble sometimes from 12 yards. Interestingly, he practices Buddhism and renowned for his football skills and exciting gaze; Il Divin Codino, The Divine Ponytail, Roberto Baggio.

Couple of steps forward and I sent the ball swiftly to my midfielder and I could perceive him, The Midfield General, graciously accepting the ball, twisting away from the opponents like an artist or was he a scientist who can judge the attributes like flight, spin and bounce of a football ? There stood Zizou, Zinedine Yazid Zidane. His first name Zinedine means ‘beauty of the religion’ in Arabic and for football world it meant ‘beauty of the game’.

Zizou threaded a nice through ball to the future and an exceptional player from the present latched on to that pass from nowhere and the defenders of this millennium looked clueless on how to stop his slaloming run. La Pulga Atómica, The Atomic Flea, Lionel Andres ‘Leo’ Messi.

I started visualizing glorious days of Diego Maradona, Roberto Baggio, and Zinedine Zidane and compared them with Lionel Messi’s mesmerizing accomplishments till today to find out an interesting similarity; their playing position. Trequartista !

Trequartista in Italian means ‘Three quarters’ indicating the player operating ¾^th up the field. In England they are known as ‘Playmaker’ and in Argentina ‘Enganche’. If you aren’t familiar with those words try shadow striker, deep lying forward, withdrawn striker etc.

Now, let’s see what Trequartista is capable of. In an ideal situation, Trequartista is an attacking midfielder with striker qualities proficient in setting up goal scoring opportunities for teammates, his prime responsibility, at the same time possesses an eye for goal to score himself. Being an artist in the football ground, Trequartista brings in an element of fantasy to the game through his defense splitting passes, creativity and controls the tempo of your team’s play.  Trequartista need not be an out and out striker but, he is the best player in your team and everybody tries to find his boots when your team has possession. Due to his higher technical ability and close ball control he drifts in to spaces offered by the opposition and operates in ‘the hole’ between defense and midfield of the opposition to create goal scoring opportunities. Hence these playmakers are different from centre forwards, strikers and wingers, thus forming an elite class; Trequartista.

I hardly remember the footballing zenith of Argentina’s golden boy, 1986 World cup triumph, because I was not fortunate enough to watch that moment of victory live on television. At a later stage, sports journals and clips from You Tube helped me in visualizing ‘Hand of God’, ‘Goal of the Century’ and Argentina marching past West Germany in the final at Estadio Azteca. In Italia 90, Maradona was deliberately fouled by opponents as they did not allow him or Argentina to play their natural free flowing football. Moreover, tactically and practically Argentina was fragile restricting themselves to a defensive unit, a system new to themselves as well as supporters. How incredible that Argentina managed to reach the final in spite of not taking the most out of little genius who was tortured like an animal at times; not in streets, but on the field. No need to emphasize, Barrilete Cosmico, Cosmic Kite was the greatest enganche Argentine football ever gave birth to, if not World football.

Rose Bowl stadium in Pasadena. The arena where God blasted the ball into heaven thereby Italy missing the World cup, in spite of his solo efforts to guide a nation to the finals of FIFA world cup. Italy was not a bookmaker’s choice before the tournament started and things did not go well when they lost the initial match. Might be after listening to the prayers from that great nation, God decided to play the role of Trequartista to the utmost perfection. Luckily for Italy, God incarnated in the no. 10 jersey of the Azzuri and etched Baggio on his back. His dribbling was exquisite, free kicks were special, and he effortlessly infiltrated through opposition defense. Forget about the penalty miss, his pains throughout the 120 minutes which made him exhausted, and the sight of tearful Baggio in despair; would you dare to miss those thrilling runs from down the midfield or the elegance at which he deceived defenders ? Well, I won’t, at any cost, because very seldom God appears in the Azzuri jersey. May be the offers from Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo were far superior to the ones from Rome and Milan !

Watching football becomes festival to eyes when footballers are merged with attributes of artists and scientists. The result was awesome; Zidane in French national jersey, again Zidane in Juventus jersey and yet again Zidane in Los Blancos jersey. Zizou was the master in pulling the strings from Trequartista position in all the teams he played for. Offer him football and a little space in the upper half of the field; he takes the spectators to a heavenly atmosphere where his team members float like angels or compelled to float into positions where Zidane want them to be. And the opponent defensive midfielders and backline gets the tormenting like a hellish life. At Stade de France against Brazil in 1998 World cup final, Zidane’s headers decided the tie while the artist in him controlled the game all the way through. At Hampden Park against Bayer Leverkusen in 2002 Champions league final, his classic volley decided the tie. This time the scientist in Zidane was spot on reading the flight, speed and spin of the football as it ballooned and dropped in the air.

I read about La Masia, Barcelona’s youth academy, producing lots of young talents. When they adopted an Argentine and brought him up with Catalan football philosophy, nobody would have dreamed about the renaissance of a savior. In fact he was; Messiah reborn; Trequartista redefined ! Carefully observe any game that Barcelona opts for ‘Tridente’ – three pronged attack. Most of the time Lionel Messi is tightly marked by multiple players and he tend to drop deep to receive the ball. He then dashes off within no time, abruptly drops his speed and come to halt without losing the balance, and pulls away his markers along with him thus creating acres of spaces for his teammates. And his understanding associates rarely miss those goal scoring opportunities. Sometimes it’s not easy to track Little Messiah even if you are man marking him because he swaps positions with his strike partners and runs into channels where he can offer either through balls or delightful chips over the defense. True heir to Maradona, as declared by Maradona himself, is almost accurate in case of Messi. To make that reference complete, Messi has to match what Maradona has done with Argentina…‘World cup triumph’. As of now, other accomplishments are matched including the position; Trequartista or Enganche.

Trequartista, the position that is home to many football geniuses, is not a complete list unless the honorable mentioning of Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti, Juan Román Riquelme, and Wesley Sneijder. The list continues…..

Here we go…..welcome to our blog TREQUARTISTA. Let’s have fruitful discussions, information sharing, and sometimes heated but, healthy arguments. There is gonna be a single religion bringing us together to make bridges across nations, languages and borders…..and we belong to that religion called FOOTBALL.

Introduction blog for ‘TREQUARTISTA’