Overeducated sports writers log

[version]

You can still have that though. Those Madrid-Barca games were a contest. That's why they were so good. You had everything you're talking about, but also an incredibly high level of football.

 

[luka]

I'm not anti skill anti technique, I just need the contest to come first and to be fierce and hard fought or I'm not interested. It's just men prancing around in shorts otherwise. Don't need it.

 

[luka]

You can still have that though. Those Madrid-Barca games were a contest.

Yeah I don't want the football to be crap. That's not my point.

 

[version]

I think we're operating between two poles represented by Barca and Burnley. I lean toward Barca, but there's obviously a lot of middle ground between the two.

 

[luka]

Not really. Any two teams can provide a contest. It's very rare 99% of football is meandering and aimless.

 

[luka]

I'm not into football for footballs sake. It's not a detached aesthetic pleasure. I want the drama.

 

[version]

I'm talking in the abstract. Burnley representing the reactive, physical game, Barca the lofty, technical game. A team like Liverpool sits somewhere in the middle. The best of both worlds. Lots of hard pressing, charging around, passion, but with an ability to play through the opposition, good passing, attractive football.

 

[luka]

Look at last years champions league semi finals. Drama. The final. No drama. Boring. A typical football match. Dross.

 

[version]

The semis are usually better than the final.

 

[IdleRich]

I'm not anti skill anti technique, I just need the contest to come first and to be fierce and hard fought or I'm not interested. It's just men prancing around in shorts otherwise. Don't need it.

I'd rather play than watch ninety percent of the time.

 

[WashYourHands]

 

[version]

 

[IdleRich]

Depends. I get really frustrated watching teams like Mourinho's Inter or Simeone's Atletico at their most cynical. I don't mind reactive football, but when it's taken to an extreme like that it's just irritating. Likewise when Spain took the possession game too far and started playing without a striker. I don't want to watch 90 minutes of sideways passing.

People moaned about that but they kept winning (until they didn't) - I'd like people to moan if it were me, the point is not to complain about the way someone beats you, the point is to figure out how to beat them.

 

[IdleRich]

I mean I have more sympathy for Rep of Ireland playing cynically to maximise their limited resources than for Spain or Barcelona doing it.

 

[version]

People moaned about that but they kept winning (until they didn't) - I'd like people to moan if it were me, the point is not to complain about the way someone beats you, the point is to figure out how to beat them.

That doesn't make it fun to watch. That's a completely different discussion. I'm talking from the perspective of a spectator. I never played against them.

 

[WashYourHands]

 

[version]

 

[IdleRich]

That doesn't make it fun to watch. That's a completely different discussion. I'm talking from the perspective of a spectator. I never played against them.

I dunno. The suspicion is that Spain could have played any way and been good so why play like that... whereas Charlton's Ireland had to to avoid getting blatted.

 

[WashYourHands]

Karate Kid be fucked. That knee to the trackied bloke though....

 

[version]

That was after he came back from having his ankle broken by The Butcher of Bilbao.