El Clásico Intermission, Did Madrid Supporters Deserve It More?
By Stephen Kuzner, WFD La Liga Blogger

One of the best things about writing about La Liga for WFD and being a Barça supporter at the same time is writing an opinion piece about Real Madrid winning the Copa del Ray in extra time fashion over FC Barçalona in Act II of a four act El Clásico play. This hurts, but I have to do it. Maybe it’ll be cathartic.

The first thing I have to get off my chest is regarding the supporters. WFD regular and GolTV commentator Phil Schoen mentioned during the broadcast that the Barça faithful had their culés (bottom sides) attached to their seats most of the game waiting in anticipation for that goal that just did not come. I have a major problem with my tribe that travelled to the Mestalla. Supporters should support, i.e. make noise and make an effort to elevate the team, not sit and wait with baited breath to be satiated with a goal.

I was reminded of a trip I made to Ann Arbor to watch U. Michigan play Ohio State in girdiron. The Michigan fans at the “Big House”, one of the world’s handful of  largest stadia, stayed reserved, dignified, patient. I felt like I was swimming in a quiet soothing sea of polite people. The focus on manners and respect had seemed to sap all enthusiasm out of them. It was a very depressing scene to me to see 100K+ walk from the stadium, heads down, not mentioning much after the loss to their  mortal enemy, while happy, boisterous, and some obnoxious and rude Ohio State fans paraded among the Big Blue supporters.

FC Barçalona President, Sandro Rosell, congratulated Madrid and expressed his pride that Barça’s supporters “set a great example”. This may be true in relative terms to some of the venom that I saw spewing forth from Madrid’s section on my TV, but the broadcast looked and sounded like a home match for Madrid. In my mind, it’s better to be 110% vocally behind your club you whole game with a few  instances of “inappropriateness” than sitting and waiting. Now, I wasn’t there so this is all second hand to me, but I’d have to say that the Madridistas deserved it more. Man, that hurts.

So we are at intermission in this four act El Clásico play. At this point, things look bleak for Barça. The Copa del Ray was very reminiscent of the Champions League semifinals tie between Barça and Inter Milan. Madrid defended brave and brilliantly, relying much less on fouling, but more on occupying more players collectively in the spaces on which Barça passed the ball on their half of the field. This is the only method I’ve seen consistently stymie Barça.

Jose Mourinho, with Inter and now with Madrid, deployed soccer’s equivalent of a half-court trap in basketball: let Barça slowly get into your half, but once then do, unleash the hounds, swarm the ball, double-team is occupant, and suffocate the short placing lanes. This tactic was remarkable in the first half. In the second half, it was less effective because of tiredness, but still got the job done.

At the end of the next two ties, Mourinho will be lauded the best coach ever if Madrid gets through or Barça touted the best team ever if they advance. The bigger silverware lies in the next two El Clásicos. Right now, things look bleak to me for Barça. The 5-0 drubbing earlier this year now looks like it was intentional by Mourinho. It’s as if he decided to play ‘beautiful attacking’ football to have it fail so he could go back to what he does best later in the season when things mattered most. In the last two seasons,  Mourinho is 2-3-2 against Barça, but you could write off two of the ties and one of the loses. Things look dark for Barça, however hope comes in passing and passing and passing again. Many times the past few years, their opponents get passed to death and broken down in the second halves of games. This is Barça’s hope for the second half of our four act El Clásico play.

Stephen Kuzner is a Baltimore-based Blogger for WorldFootballDaily.com who specializes in La Liga. You can reach him on Facebook at facebook.com/BarcaBlogger or Twitter at @twitter.com/BarcaBlogger.