What a great time to be alive! I can stream the battle between the two giants of La Liga when I get home from work at my leisure. Thank you ESPN3. And the game is worth ten times the price of admission. Barcelona balanced its controlled, soporific, point to point play with brilliant little gems of attack. The score mounted slowly but steadily. One. Two. Three.....then a long break. Then four. And finally at the end, a fifth goal as the clock ticked off. Real Madrid were less than gracious. C. Ronaldo shoved Barcelona coach, Guardiola-Sala, thirty minutes in as the skipper held the ball for the throw-in. After he'd given it to the Real star. Petulant to say the least. And at the end, sadly, Messi was hacked down hard as he pulled away from another scrum with ball at his feet.
All of that is an aside. Barca showed brilliant team play and exactitude in dissecting the Real defense. For every one of the five goals there were two attacking runs that could easily have turned their way into the net. I know a lot of folks think Barca's feint, push, pull back, go wide, come in style is boring. I think it shows amazing discipline. More, I think Barca's players across the board exhibit better field vision than any other team I've seen. They look at the three choices presented them, and often take the least obvious. Like chess players and magicians, they realize that misdirection is often the shortest way to the back of the net.
I was glad, truly glad that I got to see this match. It was enchanting despite the petulance.
