I happened to catch an international football roundup on the domestic sports channel, CCTV5, this evening. For some unfathomable reason* they were showing a Real Madrid v. Barcelona match from 4 years ago. I wasn't complaining, though. It was awe-inspiring stuff. There have been many "all-star" teams in recent years, particularly at Real, but the lineup they had that year was really something else again: Raul, Ronaldo and Michael Owen playing up front at the same time; Zidane, Beckham and Roberto Carlos in their pomp; and Luis Figo itching to get on from the bench! Ridiculous! Perhaps a somewhat excessively attacking formation to field against a team as good as Barca, but it seemed to pay off, sort of: it was 4-2 (to Real) after 27-and-a-half minutes!
Of course, this being CCTV5 - and in a bar, without even the "benefit" of a Chinese commentary - it was pretty much impossible to follow what was going on. The original score and match-clock was obscured by the superimposed channel ident; huge tracts of play (anything without goals, injuries, or sendings off, I presume) were omitted completely; the date of the match (well, not the actual date, only the season in which it took place) was displayed only very briefly at the beginning of each passage of highlights; and these rather choppy excerpts from the stupendous 2004/2005 game merged without a break into highlights of two (or more?) further games between the two Spanish giants - from later seasons whose dates I didn't quite catch. The sports coverage in this country is just so far below dismal.......
* OK, I take it back. Real are playing at the Camp Nou this Saturday - a reasonable enough excuse to recap some of the best moments from the last few encounters between the two teams. I just wish the chaps down at CCTV could have done it in a slightly more coherent way.
8 comments:
Ah - the Galacticos. What is most amazing about it is that it didn't work...
And I have always hated Real. I consider myself a Barca man through and through.
This season is pretty good for my teams so far - Villa, Barca, & Inter. OK, so Rangers are slipping a bit, but we are still number 1 in anti-Catholicism!
Well, it worked in that game.
I've never been a great believer in the 'all-star' approach, though. Great teams need a balance of personalities, skills, and styles of player. That's what Cloughie was brilliant at in the Nottingham Forest glory days - most of his boys were better-than-average journeymen, but they gelled into something wonderful.
I've always been more of a Barca man too. No affection for Rangers or Inter, though.
Nice to see Villa doing so well under O'Neill. I remember their great side of the early '80s better than you, I suppose. And they were my dad's team, way back. I can't really see them nicking a top four spot, alas.
Unfortunately, barring a Gooner implosion, I think number 5 is the best we can hope for.
Clough could do that at Forest, because of the time. You also look at the great Liverpool teams, and they were hardly packed with huge names - they were great teams, though. Manure tended to be the team signing all the flashy individuals, and getting nowhere.
Times have changed, my friend, and we have been left behind.
Gooners are on the way up again - though looking weak this year. Scouse Scum implosion more possible, I think. I would love to see the Villa nick No. 4 spot from someone.
I think Liverpool are pretty solid this year - they will be challenging for the title until pretty close to the end.
The hope is the Arse. There is so much dressing room discontent, and I don't think they have the balls to scrap for points if necessary. They don't like it up 'em, Captain Mainwaring!
And their defence was just dismal in the European game this week. Or was it last month?? Watching highlights on CCTV5 again - impossible to tell!
If it was this week's game, you have to remember they already qualified, and were playing a team with only three starters.
OK, I didn't know they qualified already, and was wondering about the lineup, but.... you don't want to be that much of a shambles. It's not good for Almunia's confidence, which looks a bit shaky at the moment anyway.
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