Football Week

So, this week is full of football action.

On Saturday, I watched Crystal Palace vs. Arsenal. Then I watched Ruhr Derby. This is the match between Schalke 04 and Dortmund. Then the biggest match of all, probably the biggest match of this La Liga season. The first El Classico. Yes, the biggest of all the club football rivalries. Then on Sunday, I watched Chelsea vs. City.

Nothing much to talk about Arsenal's match. They are still the league leaders for now but I doubt that they can win the title. For one thing, all other clubs have played big matches and dropped points, while Arsenal had just one North London derby and hence didn't loose many points. Two, Arsenal's bench is weak. Of course, Gnabry and co have been performing well in the main players' absence, but I still doubt they can win, this consistently at the business end of the season. May be if they are still at the top of table during winter's break, Wenger may buy a striker. We will see.Then Dortmund's match. They lost Gotze, but found good replacement in Henry Mkhitaryan. They also bought Aubameyang who plays as a wide midfielder. Even though, Dortmund is on the list of teams that I've decided to watch this season, this is only the first full match that I've seen them play. I don't know much about their possession style play, but their counter attacking is deadly. Their third goal is a testament to that. It is not wrong to I say that Dortmund is the 2nd best counter attacking team in last three seasons after Real. Now that we are having more possession and playing most of the game in opponent's half, Dortmund may become best counter attacking team.


Now, El Classico. Yes, we lost. I am disappointed but it's not something I didn't expect. I knew it would be very difficult to win in Camp nou. Mourinho, with all his Machiavellian tactics could only dominate Barcelona in his second season. It is very hard for Ancelotti to start winning right away. We didn't have Alonso and Bale didn't find his form yet. On top of that we changed our style from counter attacking to attacking mode. We attacked more than what we usually do when we play Barcelona. Once Illarramendi came and Bale was substituted for Benzema, we dominated the match. We played positively, with more intent, the way Real Madrid was supposed to play and lost by just one goal margin in Camp Nou. That is really positive news. Had the penalty been given for the push on Ronaldo, or had Benzema's shot crept into the net, who knows, we could've won the game from then. And Ronaldo's shot was saved by Valdes. On the other hand, if we see Barcelona's chances they had only three scoring opportunities apart from the two goals. Neymar had one shot because of Varane's poor positioning, then Messi had one shot saved by Lopez and Alves, after nut-megging Ronaldo, hit straight at Lopez. I don't know about you, but this is a great step forward by Real. We don't have to fear the next time we face Barcelona and we don't have to play rough and hard from now - not that there is anything wrong with that.

Now, talking about the penalty. Yes, it was a penalty. But then, these things happen. Sometimes we get lucky, sometimes opponent team gets lucky. But what I don't like is the hypocrisy by Barcelona players. They get some unfavourable decisions too. Poor Neymar, was subjected to rough tackling, but still called as diver sometimes. Accepted. But then, they also get benefitted. Example - Sevilla's game, one disallowed goal for Sevilla and then the referee continued the game after injury time which led Barcelona to score the winner. And one more example in yesterday's match. Clear penalty denied to Real Madrid. But they don't remember that. They only talk about the decisions that go against them. Always surround the referee, put pressure on him. Demand referees to protect Messi from being tackled by defenders. Perhaps, if they had their way, they would make defenders to stay 2 feet away from Messi and watch him score goals. Then again, Real Madrid too should've showed more maturity and accepted their defeat to barcelona. Silly that we blame the defeat on denied penalty to Ronaldo. Perhaps if we got the penalty and equalized here, then we wouldn't have scored the winner in Elche. Over the time, these decisions all even out. Perhaps our players are frustrated at the defeat after putting in so much performance, they blamed the referee.

Now, Chelsea vs City. I will say only one thing. What on earth was Joe Hart thinking. Torres whole performance is matched by the sole strike of Aguero till the end. But then Joe Hart came to Chelsea's rescue.

Then, what I have been doing apart from watching football? I've read The Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. This book is bleak, sort of drama and deals with the conflicts between main characters who are mostly Indian Amercians. Something I didn't want at this time when I've been looking for some novel that is funny and that lifts my spirit up. Then, I've started India after Gandhi by Ramachandra Guha. Don't ask me about my civils preparation yet. Let me screw up the Mains exam in December. Then may be I'll wake up. Till then Adios...