That may be a paraphrase, rather than a direct quote, though, it could provide quite a bit of inspiration to the writers and producers of Green Street 3. Fortunately, if the need to maintain the level of believability thus far established by the series requires a London-based rival, Chelsea would make an unimpeachable stand-in.

I wholeheartedly agree. However, if Chelsea put 9 in front of the ball, it won’t matter who’s at left-back.

Unlike Real Madrid, FC Barcelona carries with him the weight of the morality it wants to embody.

Winning becomes less important, because it is important to win in the “right way”. In Madrid, winning is the ultimate goal. The club exists to win. In that view, their phisical attacks on Messi, though reprehensible, are “justified” by that higher imperitive. In Barcelona, a century of (percieved and real) persecution created a pathos of a football club that is the embodiement of a cultural demonstration. As such, form is as important as result. The utilitarian form is abandoned in favour of surrealism. The dreamed shape is the archetype.

Living with this standard is extremely difficult, in every walk of life. It is also, for lack of a better word, arrogant. Arrogant because it devalues the “loss” as a failure of morality, in the same sense that plato talks of “Beauty” as grounds for moral superiority.

That is why, as the FC Barcelona teams approach their ideological conclusion, i find myself more drawn to the concrete thinking of the Real Madrid model, and their utilitarian approach. It becomes easier to relate to a team that simply plays the game as a game, and not as philosophical panflet (though in reality doing it, by acting as propaganda of a dominant centripetal force exerced by the “Spanish” establishment as oposed to the “Catalan” independentist machinations.

This all becomes apparent in the analisis of both teams performance in the various encarnations of the European Cups.

Both had (most of) the best players ever. From the Di Stefano’s, Gento’s, Kubala’s to the Zidane’s, Ronaldinho’s and Iniesta’s, of the mordern eras, they were blessed with the biggest talent the world had to offer in terms of footballing traditions. However, in Madrid, great players were recruited with the sole objective of creating the best footballing side, with view to winning, and winning they did, specially in Europe, where the need for adaptation is greater than in the more secluded surroundings of La Liga. In Barcelona, teams are designed to be a demonstration of their philosophical motivations, and therefore, the mutating nature of the european game becomes more dificult to accept and to juggle without breaking the designed model. In their illustrious history, they won the European Cup a grand total of 2 times. Both with teams that were percieved to be “Dream Teams”. The Cruyff model, with Koeman, Stoichkov and Guardiola as center players, and the Ronaldinho side, with the mentioned brasilian, Xavi, Messi and Eto’o as the leading performers. For Barcelona, winning the title as Real Madrid won, in the Capelo years, or the Champions League with Jupp Heynkes or Vicente Del Bosque (in 2000) is a no-win, because it is a negation of its Ethos.

As such, FC Barcelona will take the scoreline of this game and accept it for what it is. A moral injustice that has a chance to be corrected in London. Such is their origin and destiny.