O Terceiro Clássico, uma saida preconceituosa

The Third Clássico, a biased departure

At home, watching my third of four Barça-Madrid clashes. At half time, it looks as if Mourinho has solved the Barça puzzle with his particularly dark set of keys. Fine. Barcelona’s dominance in ball posession alone must rank upon the top teams of all time. If Barcelona lose this tie, they will claim ( as the loser always does) that they lost beautifully. The depths of my pessimism are such that even after Pepe’s expulsion in the 62^nd minute I am not convinced that the basic pattern of the game will change. The first 5 halves of football these teams have played in the last ten days produced one goal. Would the second half of the third game be any different? I  questioned my motivations. Mouriho’s pragmatism would have us believe that RMadrid have to score one goal over two legs and that could just as easily happen at the Camp Nou as in the Santiago Bernabéu. Mourinho wants us to believe that the forces are aligned against him, and he may be right. At least I hope so. Regarding Pepe’s summary dismissal, the Brazilian commentators tell us that o arbitro é muito pequeno por um jogo muito grande. Mourinho scribbles furiously, Guardiola gesticulates to his assistants. The signal on the web is choppy, giving me an even more fragmented experience of the game. I want to know what Mourinho is writing, what Guardiola is saying. If Mourinho is given credit for creating a system of play that is so disciplined, so perfectly coordinated to limit and condense space, how does he go about training his players to move in the sequence, rhythm and form that he demands? The impression is that the only unbalancing factors are Messi and RM freekicks. The depth of the event, the magnitude of connections, expressions, and experiences begins to overwhelm, again. Fouls are becoming rougher and more frequent as the game grinds on. RM will stop any and all attacks through violence. Then, as I just finished writing…Messi in the 77^th minute. The man is a genius and brings joy to my heart. Now I'm stuck into the game, and when you think Barcelona should sit back and defend, Messi takes the ball of Busquet's foot, surges forward, dribbles two, three, skips past Marcelo, outwits Casillas and kills the game. Mourinho expulso, Madrid’s anti-football reaps its just rewards.