Barcelona 5-0 Real Madrid (29/11/10)

Barcelona had just scored eight goals without reply at Almeria the previous week, which prompted Cristiano Ronaldo to dismissively say: “I’d like to see them get eight on Monday”. They got five in the end, but it was a performance so complete, it probably felt like an eight-goal thrashing. The result was an era-defining one. They had destroyed their arch-rivals, who had fielded the most expensive side in history, costing €292m. They had rendered the tactics of Real Madrid manager Mourinho, so often the scourge of Barcelona with his exploits with Chelsea and Inter Milan, impotent.

The statistics were also damning. Barcelona had completed 636 passes to Real’s 279. They scored with their first four shots on target, the second being a twenty-pass move accompanied by a chorus of olés. Strangely, Lionel Messi (who has scored a record number of goals this calendar year with an insane total of 58 goals in 54 games) didn’t get on the score-sheet but did assist twice. Surely this game finally ends the pointless debate concerning who is the better player – Messi or Ronaldo?

There were fewer dribbles and less fantasy in Messi’s game, as he adopted the team ethos in precision passing, which humiliated Real Madrid. Xavi, now generally recognized as the best midfielder in Spanish history, hit a 100+ passes for the sixth time this season, completing 114 of his 117 passes. He also scored the opener, before Pedro, Villa (2) and Jeffren Suarez completed the rout. Real were reduced to kicking Barcelona off the pitch and bemused looks at one another, wondering how to cope with such genius.

Barcelona 1-0 Inter Milan (28/04/2010)

Mourinho called this result “the most beautiful defeat of my life”. Inter lead this Champions League semi-final 3-1 from the first leg in the San Siro. This was a clash of vastly different philosophies – tiki-taka and catenaccio. The clash in styles of further emphasised as Mourinho altered his starting line-up minutes before kick-off, replacing the “injured” Goran Pandev for the more defensive Christian Chivu.

In the opening leg, the Catalans had complained that the pitch had been altered to suit Inter’s tactics. This time, the grass had been cut short and watered to Guardiola’s specifications. Barcelona, as expected, monopolised possession, as Inter defended admirably. It was a much harder task as Motta was sent off for a second yellow, catching Sergio Bursquets lightly in the face. The Spaniard went down in a comically inept fashion, holding his face, before sneaking a look to make sure his opponent would be sent off. Inter battled manfully, with Barcelona’s eventual breakthrough coming in the 84^th minute through a smart turn and finish from defender Gerard Pique.

Then Bojan fired the all-important goal in the 91^st minute as the Nou Camp erupted, only for the goal to be disallowed because of a harsh handball call on Yaya Toure in the build-up. Perhaps it was karmic retribution for Busquet’s douchebaggery earlier in the game, but for Mourinho, it was vindication for the transcendental negativity of his tactics as he took Inter to their first European Cup win since 1965. It wasn’t a great game but the tension alone made it one of the defining games of the year.

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It is a well known fact that some of the greatest amounts of natural resources on the planet lie within the geographical boundaries of Russia and Qatar. It is also common knowledge that neither of these nations has ever hosted a World Cup. They present FIFA and its sponsors a clear opportunity to exploit new markets and continue the world football governing body’s rampant commercialism in the Blatter era. When you combine financial possibilities with bikini-clad models (as Russia did in their final presentation at the FIFA ExCo hotel in Zurich), it is no surprise that Russia were chosen as the hosts of the 2018 World Cup and Qatar as the 2022 hosts.

England’s bid team are left in a problematic place. The Chief Executive Andy Anson criticised the timing of the BBC Panorama investigation, while the bid team essentially denounced any accusations of corruption directed towards FIFA as false. Any moral or ethical high ground was lost when the notion of a free press was lambasted. Despite, being one of the strongest bids in terms of the independent technical report, England accrued only two votes from the twenty-two Executive committee members.

After the disappointing outcome and first round bidding exit, Anson called for FIFA to reform the bidding process. Sadly, his opinion lacks any credibility and smacks of rank hypocrisy, given the uncomfortable amount of sycophancy directed to FIFA President Sepp Blatter and his followers prior to the final announcement. Where the English bid failed was that it failed to wholly relinquish its morals and buy completely into Blatters’ agenda that FIFA is essentially a force of good for humanity.

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