I rarely get too excited watching a football match on TV. But on that fine afternoon at O’Grady’s in Toronto I couldn’t hide my delight when Iniesta unleashed that improbable shot to send Chelsea crashing out of the Champions League. I screamed and leapt in joy, hugging anyone within arm’s reach, singing with beverage in hand. I was mes que un fan – more than a fan.
Fast forward two seasons. David Villa curled one past a hapless Edwin van der Sar to deliver the final blow to Manchester United and hand Barcelona their second Champions League in just three years.
Two aesthetically comparable goals, yet one moment trumps the other regardless of their respective occasions.
While Villa’s goal came at a Champions League final, my reaction was no more than a shrug. A mere ‘meh’. This time I watched the game from the couch in my apartment with my roommate who happened to be a Man Utd. fan. After the final whistle, the only physical contact I had from my fellow football fan was a congratulatory handshake.
Barcelona had pretty much swept everything clean in front of them since Guardiola took over in 2008, but that was not necessarily a positive thing.
Barcelona went through periods of instability, of ups and downs, prior to the Guardiola era. They won some and they lost some. There was struggle. There was tension. But more importantly, there was drama.
In the 2009 Champions League semi-final against Chelsea, Barcelona barely had a sniff at Chelsea’s goal until Iniesta’s late strike. Today, Barcelona spend the majority of their time in the opponent’s half. It has become too predictable, too monotonous. La Liga too, suffers from the same.
Have Barcelona and Real Madrid become too powerful? Is La Liga not as strong as it was some ten years ago when it could boast names such as Gaizka Mendieta, Albert Luque and Alexander Mostovoi as players hailing from outside the big two?
Perhaps the simple answer to both questions is yes. Anything lower than an otherwise ungodly 90 points for Barcelona or Real Madrid in a La Liga season would be deemed a disaster. The power gap between the big two and the rest is far too large. It’s quite distressing to realise that Radamel Falcao is perhaps currently the only superstar to ply his trade outside the big two in La Liga.
You can’t fault Barca or Real for striving to be as successful as they can be. Sure, they eat up the larger slices of the La Liga TV money pie and command some of the largest global support ever. From Jamaica to Japan, you’d be hard pressed not to find some kid wearing a replica Messi or Ronaldo jersey.
But can’t things go back to the good old days?
It sickens me to meet glory supporters at every turn who have no knowledge beyond Messi or Fabregas. The more these people exist, the more Barca or Real, or even the most successful clubs in Europe, will have a stranglehold over their less-famed rivals. In order to bring the drama back into modern football, the figurative playing field needs some leveling.
I realise I’m being somewhat hypocritical. I am neither from Barcelona or even Spain, but I’m a cule. I love and have loved FC Barcelona since Guardiola, Koeman and Romario donned the blaugrana jersey in the early ‘90s. I’ve been through the peaks and troughs with them. I was a Barca fan way before it was cool.
But I dream of a football utopia where clubs can only receive local support. Supporting a team other than the one from your hometown would be illegal. There would be only two ways one can watch a football game: you could go to your club’s stadium or turn on the local TV station. Matches would not be broadcast outside each local jurisdiction. Only then would football get its soul back and cease to be the global commercial machine that it is today.
I know this scenario is not beneficial to a lifelong Barca fan like me. But imagine how much more exciting La Liga would be if Barcelona were equally as strong as Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Granada and the other 14 clubs competing. I’d pay to see that. Except I can’t. So I’ll have to illegally stream matches from a dodgy Chinese website.
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