BY Sunday Omeike
Sunday’s latest episode of the biggest and most glamorous derby in world football, El Clasico, played out between Barcelona and Real Madrid has come and gone, with Barcelona’s summer signing Luis Suarez settling the entertaining encounter with a wonderful control and finish to pull Barca four points clear in the race for La Liga crown and earn the Catalan side bragging rights in the country.
Iker Casillas once again showed the world that he is past his prime, Gareth Bale went missing once again and when he finally showed up, decided to be selfish rather than help the team – he should take lessons from Karim Benzema about sacrificing individual goals for team spirit. Real Madrid had enough chances to kill the game early while Barcelona looked like they could close out the game by a wider margin.
More drama, however, ensued in the Camp Nou, with numerous players showing their acting skills in front of over 95, 000 spectators who came to see wonderful football artistry on display. Although I was not one of the mammoth crowd who were lucky enough to see the match live in the stadium, seeing several players throw themselves to the turf and ridiculously feigning non-existent injuries from the bustling football house on my street got me shaking my head at the ugly side of football these world-class players were selling to the millions of football fanatics watching on their TV sets.
It is recently being pointed out in football discussions that footballers have overthrown lawyers as the greatest liars in the world and each game I watch gives credence to this fact while the Clasico further endorses it.
An earlier example in the day was during Chelsea’s narrow 3-2 win at Hull City where Brazilian left back Felipe Luiz was seen in replays intentionally stretching out his hand to block an intended Hull pass. The former Atletico Madrid man, however, argued with the referee that the ball struck his rib cage and bounced off his arm accidentally – a blatant lie.
To the Clasico matter, the first episode of the show of shame started with perennial culprits, Neymar and Pepe. Brazilian wonder boy, Neymar Junior had several chances to put Real Madrid to the sword, but I can only recall mostly his dives and play-acting from the game. Both players clutched to several unhurt parts of their body in trying to drive home their point of infringement to the referee whom – to his credit – mostly ignored them.
Reigning world footballer of the year, Cristiano Ronaldo, not contented with the Ballon d’Or gong, also added his script to the melodrama by trying to con the referee for a free kick on the edge of the box. Probably the 30-year-old has trained free kicks all week and needed one to show the world he’s still got it after over 30 kicks without a goal.
Not to be outdone, match-winner, Luis Suarez of the biting fame, brought his full acting regalia on stage. The former Liverpool hit man was floored by a tackle to the ankle, but the Uruguayan clutched his knee. Dani Alves, too, held his face when there was minimal contact in a corner routine while Dani Carvajal did something similar, clutching to his stomach!
Messi acted the last scene, rolling over the touchline despite no contact from Marcelo, and the Argentine former world player of the year duly laughed it off, probably thinking “I knew the referee wouldn’t give it, I just wanted to contribute my skills to this show of shame”.
However, it was unusual to see Sergio Busquets benched for Barcelona although he only recently returned from injury, but more surprising was the fact that he did not even try to get on the act, a noble gesture from the lead actor of several previous episodes in the Clasico theatre.
The worst (or best if you enjoyed the comedy drama) was served by Javier Mascherano. The combative player, who can star in both defence and midfield, got into a tangle with Cristiano Ronaldo as the Portuguese superstar rimmed in a tackle. The former Argentina captain held is stomach, waiting for the referee’s whistle to punish the reigning Ballon d’Or winner who was already on a yellow card. What he got, however, was a finger to the forehead from Real’s Carvajal and it prompted the partially bald-headed energetic defender to forget the ‘pains’ in his stomach and wriggle on the turf like he had just been hit on the forehead with a club.
Except the brain transfers pain differently in football players, I don’t see a reason why these grown up men would be setting bad antecedents for kids to follow, and on a personal note I do not look forward to the next Clasico because memories I have of it are the images of men with kids launching themselves on the grass like missiles.
These acts only tend to rub the shine off a wonderful spectacle.
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