http://soccernet.espn.go.com/feature?id=319849&cc=5901
The Incredibles
Phil Ball
Back in London this last Saturday, I tuned into Match of the Day in the evening. The theme tune's comforting chimes always make me smile, taking me back to childhood when my mother would occasionally allow me to stay up until ten o'clock to watch the highlights of a couple of matches.
Alan Smith battles with the 'have-nots'. (MikeEgerton/Empics)
It was enough to feed the obsession, and weaned on the programme's weekly milk it is difficult not to feel a certain affinity to it even now, after years of watching and enjoying the different scene that is Spanish football.
Nevertheless, despite the programme's fame and longevity, few European countries have ever taken up its format. The Spanish certainly haven't, and remain stubbornly resistant to the 'collective extended highlights' concept that the programme still champions.
With the technological advances (and investment) in television coverage now permitting Match of the Day to cover every single Premiership game, the format usually means that one game will be accorded a slice of say, 30% of the total highlight pie, another game 20%, with the rest given an equal share of the remaining time. It seems a satisfactory arrangement, with every game warranting reasonable attention.
In Spain, there is a live game on the national channel on Saturday, followed by one with Canal Plus on Sunday - then a host of round-up programmes on every channel. They are of varying quality, but none of them follows the Match of the Day highlights plus analysis format. The Spanish round-ups show the goals and the occasional goalmouth incident, but they are not 'highlights', in the English sense of the word. Why is this?
Watching the slick editing and deluge of goals on Saturday night's Premiership highlights one could well have been convinced - as many surely are - that the English Premiership is the place to be. It looked dazzlingly exciting, breathless and spectacular. Wonderful goals, non-stop action, and football of the highest quality.
The ending collage to the programme, where the best goals were shown in close-up focus to the accompaniment of a testosteronic guitar riff, only served to package the product more spectacularly. I thought that people had grown out of this, that they had cottoned on to the mass delusion this creates - but apparently not, according to the viewing figures. And it's not surprising, for the show is indeed an entertaining one.
Nevertheless, it is to real football what Johann Cruyff was to modesty. There is no link between what one sees on the programme and the actual reality. The implicit truth of last Saturday's highlights, beneath the well-presented hype, was to show up, in glaring terms, the gaping chasm that exists between the have and the have-nots. It seems almost pointless to carry on with such a charade.
The standard of defending of most of the have-nots in the Premiership was so poor as to raise the question of exactly what these teams get up to in training every week - but what one witnessed last weekend was in no way typical of La Liga, for example.
There is a general feeling in Europe that Spain consists of Real Madrid, Barcelona and the rest, but whilst these two sides have undoubtedly a large slice of the country's attention (and money) you only have to watch a Spanish game or round-up to see that the lesser teams are much cannier, much more likely to put the spokes into the big wheels.
Maybe the previous century's statistics do not bear this so-called democracy out, with only nine different sides ever having won the top league prize, but that's not quite the issue at hand. Norwich's 4-0 capitulation at Chelsea was extraordinary for a side of supposedly top-flight status, despite the quality of the opposition facing them. The standard of the defending was abysmal, as was that of Crystal Palace in their 5-2 defeat at Manchester United.
No Spanish side of similar status would commit such a litany of schoolboy errors, and yet here it was, for all to see. Frank Lampard's wonderful second goal for Chelsea, a swerving shot from twenty yards which left the 'keeper grasping at atoms, was talked up enthusiastically by the programme's panel, conveniently ignoring the fact that Lampard had been left in several hectares of space and been permitted the time to sit down and unwrap his Christmas presents.
A tougher test awaits at the Nou Camp for in-form Lampard. (BenRadford/GettyImages)
Game after game it was the same story - great goals, rock and roll, defenders stumbling or wholly absent from proceedings. Real Madrid have knocked in a few goals recently, against Albacete and Levante, but in general this season they have had to work for their suppers. So have Barcelona. Back in the Premiership, ex-Barça stalwart Reizeger scored for Middlesborough in their 3-0 win over Aston Villa, the type of goal that he never scored in Spain.
Playing at left-back, he cut in from the touchline, drifted almost apologetically past three defenders and almost shoulder-shrugged the ball into the net. You could tell by his smile that he wasn't used to such generosity. And so, to answer the original question - there are no extended highlights in Spain because there is no collective desire to fool the public.
Match of the Day can make the most tedious of goalless draws look like a classic, but the brief, matter-of-fact presentation of a 0-0 draw between Málaga and Numancia will never wish to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. Though the Spanish often excel in the art of self-deception in other matters, they at least try to be realistic about their football.
The so-called hard-nosed TV analysis of English football is really nothing of the sort. It's amusing that the same English pundits who were trashing José Mourinho so easily in September for his apparently cynical defensive attitude to the game are now queuing up to lavish their belated praise upon his neat small head.
Mourinho basically understood (as opposed to the English media) that to make Chelsea truly competitive he had to make them more 'continental', if that is what being defensively competent means. Once he had established that, the rest could fit into place, as it now appears to be doing.
The Chelsea v Barcelona draw is thus an absolute classic in the making. It could even restore one's faith in the Champions League. And the game should not be viewed as a clash of styles, i.e. Chelsea's pragmatism versus Barcelona's spectacle. The truth is surely that both sides have proved this year the primacy of intelligent defending, and that you need to have (and use) an effective midfield hod-carrier. Makelele for Chelsea, and Marquez for Barça. Should you get past those two, there are still some formidable chaps standing in your way.
It's not all about Ronaldinho and Robben, excellent though they both are. These two sides best characterise the new model football - where you don't make mistakes, but you pack your squad so full of quality that when the opposition does make them your own thoroughbred attackers move in for the kill. This is why I tentatively favour Barcelona's chances in the quarter-finals, because they are more accustomed to feeding on less free morsels than are a side like Chelsea. There is no team in La Liga who would have handed them a 4-0 win on the sort of broken plate that Norwich offered up to Chelsea.
La Liga takes its break next week, after a midweek league programme that has been squeezed in to ensure that the second half of the season doesn't get too jam-packed with fixtures. The spectacle then resumes on the weekend of January 9th. There'll be some great games, there'll be some poor games, and there'll be some in-between games, but the Spanish media will, thankfully, continue to present the product in those very terms.
As Dash says to his mother in The Incredibles; 'If you say that everybody's special, that's just a way of saying that nobody is'.
The Incredibles
Phil Ball
Back in London this last Saturday, I tuned into Match of the Day in the evening. The theme tune's comforting chimes always make me smile, taking me back to childhood when my mother would occasionally allow me to stay up until ten o'clock to watch the highlights of a couple of matches.
Alan Smith battles with the 'have-nots'. (MikeEgerton/Empics)
It was enough to feed the obsession, and weaned on the programme's weekly milk it is difficult not to feel a certain affinity to it even now, after years of watching and enjoying the different scene that is Spanish football.
Nevertheless, despite the programme's fame and longevity, few European countries have ever taken up its format. The Spanish certainly haven't, and remain stubbornly resistant to the 'collective extended highlights' concept that the programme still champions.
With the technological advances (and investment) in television coverage now permitting Match of the Day to cover every single Premiership game, the format usually means that one game will be accorded a slice of say, 30% of the total highlight pie, another game 20%, with the rest given an equal share of the remaining time. It seems a satisfactory arrangement, with every game warranting reasonable attention.
In Spain, there is a live game on the national channel on Saturday, followed by one with Canal Plus on Sunday - then a host of round-up programmes on every channel. They are of varying quality, but none of them follows the Match of the Day highlights plus analysis format. The Spanish round-ups show the goals and the occasional goalmouth incident, but they are not 'highlights', in the English sense of the word. Why is this?
Watching the slick editing and deluge of goals on Saturday night's Premiership highlights one could well have been convinced - as many surely are - that the English Premiership is the place to be. It looked dazzlingly exciting, breathless and spectacular. Wonderful goals, non-stop action, and football of the highest quality.
The ending collage to the programme, where the best goals were shown in close-up focus to the accompaniment of a testosteronic guitar riff, only served to package the product more spectacularly. I thought that people had grown out of this, that they had cottoned on to the mass delusion this creates - but apparently not, according to the viewing figures. And it's not surprising, for the show is indeed an entertaining one.
Nevertheless, it is to real football what Johann Cruyff was to modesty. There is no link between what one sees on the programme and the actual reality. The implicit truth of last Saturday's highlights, beneath the well-presented hype, was to show up, in glaring terms, the gaping chasm that exists between the have and the have-nots. It seems almost pointless to carry on with such a charade.
The standard of defending of most of the have-nots in the Premiership was so poor as to raise the question of exactly what these teams get up to in training every week - but what one witnessed last weekend was in no way typical of La Liga, for example.
There is a general feeling in Europe that Spain consists of Real Madrid, Barcelona and the rest, but whilst these two sides have undoubtedly a large slice of the country's attention (and money) you only have to watch a Spanish game or round-up to see that the lesser teams are much cannier, much more likely to put the spokes into the big wheels.
Maybe the previous century's statistics do not bear this so-called democracy out, with only nine different sides ever having won the top league prize, but that's not quite the issue at hand. Norwich's 4-0 capitulation at Chelsea was extraordinary for a side of supposedly top-flight status, despite the quality of the opposition facing them. The standard of the defending was abysmal, as was that of Crystal Palace in their 5-2 defeat at Manchester United.
No Spanish side of similar status would commit such a litany of schoolboy errors, and yet here it was, for all to see. Frank Lampard's wonderful second goal for Chelsea, a swerving shot from twenty yards which left the 'keeper grasping at atoms, was talked up enthusiastically by the programme's panel, conveniently ignoring the fact that Lampard had been left in several hectares of space and been permitted the time to sit down and unwrap his Christmas presents.
A tougher test awaits at the Nou Camp for in-form Lampard. (BenRadford/GettyImages)
Game after game it was the same story - great goals, rock and roll, defenders stumbling or wholly absent from proceedings. Real Madrid have knocked in a few goals recently, against Albacete and Levante, but in general this season they have had to work for their suppers. So have Barcelona. Back in the Premiership, ex-Barça stalwart Reizeger scored for Middlesborough in their 3-0 win over Aston Villa, the type of goal that he never scored in Spain.
Playing at left-back, he cut in from the touchline, drifted almost apologetically past three defenders and almost shoulder-shrugged the ball into the net. You could tell by his smile that he wasn't used to such generosity. And so, to answer the original question - there are no extended highlights in Spain because there is no collective desire to fool the public.
Match of the Day can make the most tedious of goalless draws look like a classic, but the brief, matter-of-fact presentation of a 0-0 draw between Málaga and Numancia will never wish to pull the wool over anyone's eyes. Though the Spanish often excel in the art of self-deception in other matters, they at least try to be realistic about their football.
The so-called hard-nosed TV analysis of English football is really nothing of the sort. It's amusing that the same English pundits who were trashing José Mourinho so easily in September for his apparently cynical defensive attitude to the game are now queuing up to lavish their belated praise upon his neat small head.
Mourinho basically understood (as opposed to the English media) that to make Chelsea truly competitive he had to make them more 'continental', if that is what being defensively competent means. Once he had established that, the rest could fit into place, as it now appears to be doing.
The Chelsea v Barcelona draw is thus an absolute classic in the making. It could even restore one's faith in the Champions League. And the game should not be viewed as a clash of styles, i.e. Chelsea's pragmatism versus Barcelona's spectacle. The truth is surely that both sides have proved this year the primacy of intelligent defending, and that you need to have (and use) an effective midfield hod-carrier. Makelele for Chelsea, and Marquez for Barça. Should you get past those two, there are still some formidable chaps standing in your way.
It's not all about Ronaldinho and Robben, excellent though they both are. These two sides best characterise the new model football - where you don't make mistakes, but you pack your squad so full of quality that when the opposition does make them your own thoroughbred attackers move in for the kill. This is why I tentatively favour Barcelona's chances in the quarter-finals, because they are more accustomed to feeding on less free morsels than are a side like Chelsea. There is no team in La Liga who would have handed them a 4-0 win on the sort of broken plate that Norwich offered up to Chelsea.
La Liga takes its break next week, after a midweek league programme that has been squeezed in to ensure that the second half of the season doesn't get too jam-packed with fixtures. The spectacle then resumes on the weekend of January 9th. There'll be some great games, there'll be some poor games, and there'll be some in-between games, but the Spanish media will, thankfully, continue to present the product in those very terms.
As Dash says to his mother in The Incredibles; 'If you say that everybody's special, that's just a way of saying that nobody is'.
