The Tragic Hero

That cartoon panel's a true story.... You can't make this sh*t up really. Just when you think life's not all bad, that we're in control of destiny, and that things will generally work out in the end if we keep the faith. Just when you think we are all protected by some cosmic justice that rights wrongs and sees good win out eventually, just when you start to believe - your trust in the universe gets shattered by Chelsea and Madrid kicking Barca's nuts (haha that was too tempting.... and yea that was the last time I'll trivialize Morosini's tragedy... but c'mon his parents did name him Morose-ini... you don't see too many Piermario Ecstasini's with sob stories that just...wont....quit....I don't suppose his parents and brother were named Pessimiatti, Gloomiano, and Mopetta, while his sister is probably called like....Daniela... coz y'know it's a popular Italian name....). In all seriousness, given the gravity of the situation, and seeing as how this para is now anyway too big to start the real post-material, may as well pay due respects to a footballer who died in tragic circumstances. George Best, you will be missed. R.I.P

It's been a tragic week, even suspiciously silver clouds had their dark linings to temper any sunshine that might have peeked through. Barca lost to Chelsea. Valencia are all but out of the Europa, and Bilbao not only lost their corresponding semi, but lost to a Portuguese team.... Then Barca went on to gift wrap the Liga and hand it to CRonaldo on a plate. The two silver clouds of Valencia cementing 3rd, and Juve cementing 1st each with a 4-0 thumping, were both condensed out of the uncelebratable vaporized corpses of attractive free-flowing Betis pretty much relegated, and adjective-less Roma pretty much out of the European places. So you can imagine after all I've been through this past week, I'm not going to be too sympathetic about ONE random Serie B heart attack casualty (apparently, 1 out of 3 deaths worldwide are cardiovascular, where's your bleeding heart for them... I'm not saying we should raise awareness for heart disease, I'm saying it's only fair we try and balance the playing field by introducing similar odds in football, how much more exciting would football be if 1 in 3 players died of heart attack in any given match. Yes, I'm talking Jason Statham chemical fix in Crank, for the footballers who are in bottom 30 percentile of distance run in a game, exception to the safe-list being if your name is Ramires...)

I'll keep the Valencia, Bilbao, Zaragoza and Roma tragedy for another day, today we mourn the Barca mammoth fail. I guess most people have had their say on this, haters have gleefully bashed their meaningless possession fetish and helplessness in absence of referee bias, fans have sullenly pointed to possession stats and their anti- anti-football thesis, while mature neutrals have been quite nice by not being quick to start trashing the system that they till last week slobbered over. On some level of greater-good-utilitarianism, I suppose I'm not completely unhappy that one team (that isn't Valencia may I add) doesn't attain godlike invincibility, although it could be argued neither Chelsea nor Madrid have really defeated Barca at "Football" or our popular understanding of that word at least. The irony of these 2 really important Barca defeats : Chelsea punked a dominant Valencia side earlier in the UCL, and Madrid sucker punched a dominant Valencia at Mestalla earlier in Liga with a best-in-class Counter attack goal - WTF is the difference between Barca and Valencia then?? apart from the small matter of 26 points I mean.... Ridiculously deluded rhetoric aside, I conclude Barca are either tired or scared. 

Not much tactical analysis to add to this flawless ZM piece, except that I think if you were to plot the number of 1-2's we've seen from Barca, the graph spectacularly nose dives over the length of this season - Barca goals gradually depending less on dynamic MF's with their intelligent runs, rapid passing and assists, and more on Get out of Jail free Messi. It's always been easy to blame this on Iniesta being pushed up wide, like against Chelsea, but against Madrid he played in MF with no width responsibilities since Tello started and no defending responsibilities since Busquets and Thiago both dropped really deep. Watching him mazily running, and exchanging passes to burst beyond the defensive line, is a wonder of football, and the solution to this having dried up doesn't lie in pushing him up further forward. I imagine tomorrow's Chelsea return fixture might eventually just depend on Messi scoring, but realistically or at least in the interest of sustainability - Iniesta making more runs from deep, and exchanging more 1-2's with Xavi/Messi/Alves should be the key. However, the eternal Pessimiatti that I am, I have no real reason to believe they can win this game, neither team is going to play even slightly different from the first leg. Head : 0-0 and Chelsea through. Heart : 3:1 and Barca through. Not playing a fit Pique against Drogba in the 1st leg was surely the tactical fail of the decade (knowing how irony works in mysterious ways, he'll probably play the second leg, give a penalty and get sent off....although if the sending off is for viciously grinding Drogba's ugly face into the ground after one of his dives, then I'll Ecstasini-ly take the redcard, throw in a red for Cesc too just for kicks)