I have just returned from a trip to Nigeria for the burial of my beloved sister, whose sad, sad story (http://www.ogorip.com/) has ignited the internet and brought new focus to women issues in Nigeria.
But thats not what am about here.
In the midst of the pain and the sadness though, I had some small window to follow football, specifically the UEFA champions league (UCL) semi finals.
What particularly struck me was the passion of huge sections of Nigerian football fans against Barca, which led me to repeatedly asking- why do Nigerian football fans hate Barcelona so much?
Why do Nigerian football fans, who are famed for their love of beautiful football, the same fans who rebelled against Amodu and his depressing team, hate a Barcelona team that has set new standards for art football and redifined time-space dynamics in football, while being extremely successful?
As if this was not enough, even the pundits have joined in the act!
Every foul call in favor of Barca (they pronounce it 'Barka') is greeted with derisive chants of 'PDP'..., and the players labellled divers, even for the most obvious fouls! Every yellow card for a Barcelona player should've been a red card! And Messi? The only thing they did not wish was the pox on him! To many of them, the Ronaldo v Messi debate was long settled in favor of the Madrid player...
In writing this, I know that I will come under attack from the horde of Chelsea/EPL androids out there. And for full disclosure I am a longtime Liverpool fan.
But even if the roles were changed and Liverpool was in the same position as Chelsea this week, while I would be happy with the win, I would simultaneously be saddened by the spectre of a multi-million dollar team, replete with experienced internationals resort to prehistoric football to win a match, however important that match may be. The sight of a Didier Drogba repeatedly chasing huge punts downfield from Petr Cech, left me wondering if I was somehow caught in a time warp, trapped in Wimbledon in the 80s. Worse still, to see the talents of our Jon Mikel Obi, a close contemporary of Messi at the world youth championships in 2005, reduced to chasing shadows, was physically painful.
And as the game wore on and Chelsea brought football frther to its knees, the English commentators would explain each downfield punt as, just another way of playing football. True that...
Its also another sure way to kill football. John Lennon asked us to imagine...so imagine a football in which all critical games were reduced to the Chelsea approach at the Nou Camp...We would either all become androids or fans of netball!
I pondered these on my long flight back to the States, through the flight from Abuja to Amsterdam; then during the long layover and through the connecting flight to Memphis..Late at night as my last flight made its way to Philadelphia, it finally struck me....
The EPL has made football zombies of Nigerians...
There is this saying in Nigeria that goes like this " a woman will recognise a man she sees as her husband" Nigerian football fans watch premier league every weekend because they enjoy it more than a 2 team dominated league (La liga). You got it all wrong they do not hate Barcelona, they only believe there is one constant thing in life: CHANGE. They are tired of seeing same team wining all the time even when they dont deserve it. As for your analysis of the game, I cant just stop laughing because it was obvious you were pained Barca lost. Different teams have tried in the past to beat this Barca which I also admit is the best team ever ( club level) but have failed. So how do you stop them? device a tactic to beat them, which was exactly what chelsea did and that was DEFEND SOLIDLY AND HIT THEM ON THE COUNTER. Any team that harbours a hope of beating them especially at Nou camp will not dare play them at their game (Ask Arsenal and Man U)Madrid' recent victories over them employed the same tactic. Finally, Barcelona have got themselves to blame for losing to Chelsea for two reasons (a)Lack of plan B: In everything you do in life,you should always be prepared for tough times,hence a back-up plan. Barca do not have plan B,it is always the passing and sometimes over passing.
ReplyDelete(b) No point Man: Barcelona were so afraid of chelsea ahead of the tie that they did not play a point man in both legs, instead they chose to play 3 strikers in the final third of the pitch and therefore were very wasteful in front of the goal and at this stage if you fail to take your chances you get punished for it. Check the stats, over both legs Barca had 70% of the ball possession and Chelsea scored 60% of the goals.
Do not blame Nigerian football fans, they only love football where there is competition and where4-6 teams will be challenging for the title unlike in Spain where your Barca dominates.
deola adelakun....adelakun_17@yahoo.co.uk
Deola Adelakun.... I struggle to posit a better defence for our nation of avid Footie technicians .....you've done an exceptionally well comprehensive writ on the issue ...THANK YOU.....!!! as for "liverpudian " Tony...sorry your beloved "barsaah/barkaaa/barçaa/ lost, the aim of the game is to come out tops with most goals or by the applicable technicalities of the 2 legged format matches.. yes "they " play "beautiful " soccer a lot of the time, but for most of the time in all,yes I said ALL their matches, 60 % of their play is wanton movement of the ball towards no justifiable end, hoping to mesmerize the opposition almost to the point of hypnosis then the incisive goal move ... but give them mentally alert opposition and all their screws, nuts and bolts come undone ...world cup 2010(barça) Spain lost 1st match, struggled most of the rest and other matches remember intercontinental cup played 2009 (also in SA).... then UK (EPL) Opposition always seems to unhinge them.... check out their defeats, and their mauling at the hands of Alexis Sanchez's home team before they got him in europe and barca subsequently snapped him up.... they never hack it against mentally sound teams, and yes they get too much glaringly obvious protection / assistance from the officials (uefa orchestra) even when messy oh sorry messi has been quite clearly nasty to opposition .....
ReplyDeleteI think ur comment on the lack of end product is not supported by any known evidence. Barca have scored in almost every game they have played this season, with Messi breaking the single season record of goals long held by Gerd Muller. Even against Vhelsea, the failure was not from a lack of chances created but the conversion rate. Only losers complain about refs...
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