It is not just a game | Samizdata.net

November 22, 2005
Tuesday

It is not just a game

Scott Wickstein (Adelaide, Australia) Sports

(0)

In Spain, when Barcelona play Real Madrid, there is more then just three points at stake. And when Barcelona go to the Bernabeu and win, there is a lot of significance attached to it.

That is what they did on the weekend; Phil Ball looks at the history and the implications.

The most startling fact about Saturday's game was not so much the two wonderful goals scored by Ronaldinho but rather the fact that after the Brazilian's second and Barça's third, several sections of the Bernabéu began to applaud him, and by implication, the whole team. Florentino Pérez looked on from the Director's box in stony silence.

Madrid experts have been speculating all Sunday on this one, but the last living memory that any journalist has of the Madrid supporters applauding the eternal enemy was back in 1983 when Maradona ran Real's defence dizzy in the clásico of that year. Was this a sign of Madrid's sporting supporters, or was it just their way of protecting themselves psychologically?

Read the whole thing, as they say.

Comments

All change at Real then.
I saw the match and messi and ronaldinho were simply superb and RM's defence is about the level West Brom.

If the supporters are protecting themselves
then this is a break from the norm. It usually manifests itself in not according respect to the opposition (eg. our defence was appalling...even THEY managed to score).

Maybe the RM supporters are giving a big hint of who the fresh blood should be in the next transfer window.

Posted by sesquipedalian at November 22, 2005 01:42 PM

"I saw the match and messi and ronaldinho were simply superb..."

I second that. Maybe the best match in a decade (at least for me).

Posted by Jacob at November 22, 2005 01:45 PM

Balls! I keep missing these 'best ever' matches...

Posted by mike at November 22, 2005 02:03 PM

Almost as good as the game we played against Barcelona last year when we put four past them ;-)

Posted by Julius at November 23, 2005 07:57 PM

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