Five things to learn from El Clasico (Part 2)
Real Madrid are down but not out
A five-nil thumping at the hands of your arch-rivals is enough to knock the air out of even the most resilient of players – Real Madrid are just a bunch of youngsters. Prior to the game, Los Merengues led the table by a solitary point. Now, as things stand,
Mourinho’s men trail the Catalans by two points. With just thirteen games of the season played, there is everything to play for.
Mourinho is a great coach and will get over this defeat in no time. The ‘special one’ – Not so special now, is he? – admitted that his side were a distant second best in the post match press conference.
“One team played very good, one team very bad. One deserved to win and one deserved to lose. Last week, we had a point lead, and now we have two points less. I've always said that the club is a finished product and Madrid is a long way from that”
Mourinho has hit the bull’s eye with his last comment. Barcelona has a group of players who have been playing together since they were kids munching on Nougats. The chemistry and understanding these players have with each other is unrivalled. For all of
Mourinho’s talents, expecting him to take a group of players who have played together for the first time this season, and scoring a majestic victory is highly unjust.
Madrid are a ‘Work-in-Progress’ and will come good in time. They might have been torn apart by Barca, yet they are good enough for the rest of Spain, and the title race will go till the final day – hopefully.
Kaka has a role to play at the club after all
Mesut Ozil and Angel Di Maria have played brilliantly so far this season, but were brought down tumbling from their high horses in Catalonia. Ozil in particular was woeful and hardly touched the ball – No, back passes don’t count – and his substitution hardly
came as a surprise. The German was supposed to link the midfield to attack, but failed miserably.
Unfortunately, Los Galacticos have another playmaker nursing his battle wounds at home. Lying on the treatment tables of the Santiago Bernabeau, the Brazilian prodigy bides his time, and the defeat would have left him raring to go and take aim at Barca.
Last season, Kaka was the most impressive Madrid player in a highly unfortunate 2 – 1 loss to Barcelona. With Ozil failing on the mighty stage, and Di Maria looking as if he was dragged straight out of high school, Kaka definitely has a huge role to play
at the club. On full form, there are not too many play makers better than the former Milan sensation, and Jose Mourinho will plan his revenge mission on the back of his sumptuous through balls and juicy passes.
Barca the greatest club team of all times?
Barca might not be better than the great Milan team of late 1980s, termed the greatest club team of all time by FIFA. They might not better the records set by the Ajax team of Johan Cruijff or the Madrid squad of Di Stefano, but they have captivated football
fans worldwide with their unique brand of football, which is probably one of the many things this squad will be remembered for.
Football is an ever evolving game and Barca couldn’t and shouldn’t be compared to a team that played half a century ago – well, almost a century in Di Stefano’s case.
However, having said that, should Barcelona continue with this rich vein of form for at least two more seasons, they might just launch a genuine claim at being the best club football team in the history of the beautiful game.
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