this blog comment board is like stumbling into plato’s Academy’s sports fans department – the level of intellect here is ridiculous. but mr. arctos, going from pre-shot clock basketball to cow corner – you sir are probably a malfunction of the matrix…

two small things i wanted to add here.

its true that the galactico style is very asphyxiating for a manger, but vincente del bosque really took it to a sublime level. even that side was nothing like the barca side of now, but they seemed to have 7 players all constantly looking for madcap adventures in the opposition half. the center backs were inevitably atrocious, and so casillas would have to be glorious, which he was. and of course there was makelele. it was a very different team, but a joy to watch.

secondly, a lot of madrid’s problems in the last two years have been due to this resignation that they can not beat this barca side. the closest games out of the past four clasicos have involved madrid defending with the paranoia of a pothead, but suffering from the stoner’s lack of motivation when it came to attacking. ronaldo’s disoriented forays into nowheresville seemed to epitomize that. i believe it is possible for madrid to use their ‘in the moment’ style to take on barca, but before the tactics work there has to be belief. all we have seen so far are mixtures of nervous posturing and stoic cynicism.

The tempo analogy is a good comparison, but I think that Barcelona presses more than any other team so there are slight differences.

The biggest difference for me when comparing basketball and football are what make them beautiful. When I play basketball, it is easy to keep possession, you are holding the ball in your HANDS. Scoring is easy, so teams won’t defend outside the three point line. So if you just pass the ball around the outside of the defense, basketball is boring, so Run and Gun basketball is exciting, because it’s fast, there’s lots of scoring, and it’s difficult to pass through and over defenders.
Possession is hard in football, because you are using your FEET. So the ball is easier to steal and scoring is harder. So when a team can possess the ball and make the team chase them, it is very interesting and beautiful. I’m guessing it would be similar to playing only inside the 3pt line once you enter it and having to dribble the whole time and once you stopped dribbling you have 1 second to pass the ball or it’s a turnover.
I will agree that fast tempo-ed football can be very beautiful because Brazil makes it beautiful and Arsenal did to (when they were winning everything). But when teams just kick the ball into space and let a fast guy chase it, it can get boring sometimes. I mean, that’s what I do when I play football, and I suck. So teams that play one touch and keep the ball, they amaze me.

Also: the new layout is fantastic.

@Elliot says “I am attacking the the current media monopoly of philosophical hegemony that their style of play is the apex of “beauty.””

(After explaining that I was trying to be lighthearted, I’ll now disprove myself.) That’s exactly what I found ironic — Madrid is, in intent, actually quite similar to Barca, in wanting to be at (or having the fan expectation that it should be at) an “apex of beauty”. If you want an antithesis to that aspect of Barca/Barca fan psychology, you don’t want Madrid — where to win is not enough, one must win with style — you want this guy, who couldn’t care less how the ball ended up in the back of the net, so long as it does so on the correct end of the field.

You might consider examining your relationship with the club.

@a quarterback is another useful term!

I am trying not to get too ad hominem here – I did write a part of this piece while at Starbuck’s, but I was drinking a hot cocoa and not watching Barcelona. I also already completed my grad degree. Thus, I am better than the rest of you. ALL OF YOU.

I always thought of Guardiola and his successors in the Barca midfield, such as Xavi, as the quarter-back equivalent of Soccer.