Miguel L. Pereira can be found in the social media here, and if you are hungry to find out more, Miguel has also written a book that delves into the heights and depths of Spanish football, and it is all cultural and social. Find out more about it here.
It’s always thirst more than anything else. You can be the best side in the world, play for the most fun, but if your heart isn’t in it, then things probably won’t work. The greatest thing about football is that it is a game played in the mind and executed with the foot, but its soul is in the heart. You really need to want it if you’re ever going to get it, and with the basic Denaf El Clasico being the core, some want more than that. And that was about it. Not for the quality of the gameplay, the particular glamor, or the strategic masterminds behind it. It was pure hunger.
No classico kicks off. There is always something going on behind the scenes days before the ball is kicked. In a nation that lives on twenty-seven football, we can also say that the DEELS between Barcelona and Real Madrid started a while ago the game. That was pretty good too. Last season Barcelona played brilliantly, they were completely dominated, they had the best performance and, above all else, they had a young thirst for a magnificent life. They were not very good; They wanted to hear what the best is like. And they had a feast.
When the previous El Clasico ended, it was clear that the best side won, but also that the side wanted to win more than anything else. Real Madrid players are likely to take notice. They do so. It’s funny, the clasicos. Being too far away is not enough. You need to want to beat the other person, sometimes even to embarrass yourself. Not for three points, but to prove a point. One point that says I am much better than you. If you throw spices in the pot, well, it only helps. Lamine Yamal did it innocently. Not because he behaves like a child, but because he hasn’t started yet that football is a game of emotions, and you don’t want to let your opponent, whose expression is full of pain.
Sun Tzu says that, if you want to hit someone, never leave them with no choice but to run, because then they will fight for their life instead of giving up or running away. Lamine Yamal may believe that Tzu is the new King League player, and who can blame him? You can’t date a street smart player and expect him to know ancient philosophy. He acts like an 18 million year old, the same way Vinicius, who hasn’t been 18 for a while now, does.
These two children, at least mentally, were a big attraction before the game and ended up being the news after the game, but during it, they were very much left at the table of the grown up, and the quality of the football presented as a result. There was never any idea that Lamine would do the things that Lamine does, and Vinicius always seemed concerned with looking at every possible TV camera approach, rather than actually playing the game.
It is possible that perhaps for the best, since Real Madrid has already found the highway to success, that combination between Jude Bellingham and Kylia Mbappe, with everything at the mercy of which the opponents are willing to put down the low block. Running back and forth, putting balls in space, and looking like he owns the area is what Jude does best, while MbAppe is happy to have an extra mile to run before hitting the ball into space.
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The latter got a very good goal, with less concessions, they hit the trademark spot, and missed a penalty to check that everyone was still awake. These numbers were there, but his impact far exceeds what he does during the entire game, without the combinations or creations that pass to his name at the right time when he is in the equation.
However, that effect was much better than what happened on the other side. Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski were always a problem, especially for a side that can’t be counted on in lamin yamal at his best. Neither Marcus Rashford, the left cut, nor Ferran Torres, who was swallowed by the real defense of madrid in the first stages and spat out at the end in time to return to the bus page, ever curled up. Only Fermin Lopez, a direct barcelona if barcelona ever had one thing, but that included some kind of danger, but also, Barcelona left BernabeUU when they need to be in the clinic, very hungry, they will be very hungry, to be very hungry, they will be very hungry.
Perhaps it is best described by the tie between PEDRI and Aurelien Tchouameni. The Canarian Wonderboy, who is, next to Vitinha, the best player in the world by a mile, never had the ball at his feet as he should have, especially when Madrid presented a low ground and invited Barcelona to their home with respect. The game required Pedri to ask for the ball and coordinate every single movement, but no one cut inside like crazy, and none of his Midfield partners seemed worried to drive the game forward.
They were tired, not physically but in their hearts and minds. Tchouameni, on the contrary, was burned last year for not being able to play well with the ball in his fest, he had a feast for playing without it most of the time, doing what he does best. He covers, defends, puts himself in positions of the path of injury, giving a stellar performance like chamartin has not seen in a holding midfielder since the golden years. He was already in the middle where none of his teammates were players at his level – Guler was disappointing and no one understood what stabbing was done when he was in the wrong position – but he played almost Solo, until he played almost enough.
Against a side that did not exist, but Barcelona seemed to be very satisfied with the results of last year who believed in their understanding that the win was a given. Never. Pep Guardiola, who knows a thing or two about football, has always insisted that his players need to run more off the ball because they cannot dominate games if they did not last season.
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This year, not so much. Barcelona spend many minutes chasing shadows but without holding back, and that is often enough to beat them. They can flourish when they put together quality play and they will be successful, but if something is missing, they end up on the sidelines. Madrid, on the contrary, had grown over the years the ability to do with or without football in the same way. They just sometimes need to be awakened from their deep fall, as the club often appears when the ball is out of the European clock. Lamine Yamal and the memories of last season are enough to wake them up just in time before they go back to sleep.
Perhaps, if Florentino Perez remembers where he left the key that opens the roof of the Bernabeu, the Sud Ninhle of the SAND completely wakes it up. In the sauna, there is no sunlight, the best thing people can hope for is a small football style of football, and that, in October, it suits Xabi Alonso’s Real Madrid more than anyone else. Neither Bellingham seemed motivated enough to run and open their arms to the cheering crowd. Maybe you’re just waiting for that bright light to shine on POPS in a few months time.