La Liga Loca

A sideways look at Spanish football

Tim Stannard and Simon Talbot

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Spain in consensus over Barça brilliance

Thursday 28 May 2009 09:30

There were only two people in Rome who weren't completely sucked in by the enthralling action of the 2009 Champions League final.

The first was the very desperate housewife, Eva Longoria, who was caught flicking through a magazine during the second-half with the same look of disdain and despair as Maniche faced with a Caesar salad.

The other was the lead commentator for Spanish TV channel Antena 3, who spent much of the match apologising for the pesky encounter getting in the way of their broadcasting of crap cop show Los Hombres de Paco.

Indeed, as soon as the final whistle went on what was a fairly historic night for a certain Catalan club, the channel blocked the screen with a plug for the programme and went off for advertisements for a good 45 minutes. That’s how it felt, anyway.

NEWS: Brilliant Barça crowned kings in Rome

Fortunately for Antena 3, the ending of this season’s fantastic footballing finale means that the station can return to its normal, low-budget, wobbly-set, grubby little ways.

While La Liga Loca was all with the ire after yet another testing time in front of the television, nothing - bar the Spanish government renaming Catalunya ‘Raúllandia’ - can bring the Catalan press down from their cuckoo-land cloud on Thursday morning.

“Emperors of Europe!” yells the Mundo Deportivo headline, with the paper reporting that some 100,000 celebrating supporters turned up in the city-centre before the inevitable attacks on the local plod and the 134 arrests.

"Celebrate good times, come on!"

La Liga Loca has no idea what the paper’s website says, as the sheer volume of whizzing and popping from its numerous epilepsy-inducing logos and banners caused the blog’s struggling browser to crash repeatedly.

Sport's front page says “The best in the world!” in Catalan. At least that’s what La Liga Loca thinks it says. It’s either that or “The flour of your mother!”

“Barcelona is the best team in the world and only the Champions League was missing for this fact to be beyond discussion,” writes a hyperventilating Josep Maria Casanovas in a giant-sized gushing tribute to Pep’s Dream Boys.

Over in Madrid, Marca and AS are just as full of goodwill to all Catalan men - but ruing the fact that while Barcelona were celebrating the greatest day in the club’s history, the police were camped out at Castle Greyskull investigating corruption allegations.

“Barcelona’s football had no antidote,” writes AS editor Alfredo Relaño. “The Treble, exquisite football, local players, Guardiola... perfection.”

Pep reaches for the stars

Marca’s headline declares the current Barcelona team to be “a work of art” and praises the first ever Spanish side to win the trio of titles in one season.

“There can be no doubts,” opines the paper’s editorial. “Barcelona are the best team in the world.”

Bernd Schuster had been let loose on Manchester United’s tactical deficiencies during the game, with the former Madrid manager telling Sir Alex Ferguson that “you can’t play that away against Barça, so far back, with such fear, just waiting for them to come.”

After the game, a truly stunned Pep Guardiola joked that he would be “Leaving the club straight away. I can’t do anything to top this.”

In fact, that’s not entirely true. Next year’s Champions League final is being played at the Bernabeu - a final that Barcelona already have every chance of winning.

Now that would be a sight to see.

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About Tim Stannard and Simon Talbot

When he isn't fighting the evil forces of flamenco or attracting libel actions for La Liga Loca, Tim Stannard is building his media empire in Madrid. As well as contributing to Football365 and doing odd jobs elsewhere, Tim also works in the glamorous world of television as a producer, script writer, news editor, coffee boy and stand-in fluffer.

Simon Talbot? Well, he's a man of mystery.

Comments

	May 28, 2009 10:06 PhilJones said: That's a brilliant picture of Guardiola. So, the dream final was crap. Man Utd forgot how to play football after 10 mins, and Barca, although passing it well, didn't really have to play any better than average to win, which is a shame.
	May 28, 2009 11:22 Paul said: As regular readers will be aware i'm not having the best of days, so here goes. I went to the cinema,The Visitor,Very Good "100,000 celebrating supporters" and less than a thousand Travelled to them at Espanyol. The best team in the world for sure, but yet again, Beazer Homes League level supporters( no offence to fans of Hednesford Town and the like,You are all way better). Hope the law comes down hard on the morons as opposed to last time where the biggest fine was 800 euros for looting and some poor Ukranian got fined 2,000 euros for trying to take a can of Beer into Camp Nou. Actually Tim, they usually say "Best Of The World" And what's all this "WE" outplayed United etc" from People in York,Bristol and India on a certain newspaper's website. "WE"????? Thank you for letting me share
	May 28, 2009 13:16 RayDeChaussee said: How dare you LLL? Los Hombres de Paco isn't crap ... it's f***ing atrocious. Boom Boom. With La Primera taking over again next season we can expect more of the same unfortunately - shameless plugs for crap programmes and annoying prize draws. The best channel for watching fitba is La Gallega (if you live in Galicia anyway). No programme plugs, no prize draws, no pointless stats and no singing buffoons - just two guys commentating on the match and nothing else. Bliss.
	May 28, 2009 14:36 Mgonz78 said: I have to agree with that Ray, I'm from Galicia and I love watching matches on the Galician channel. There is no BS envolved.
	May 28, 2009 16:12 AdamCule said: Simply superb, a patched up defence but a work rate which denied United the chance to make any impression on the match and a stunning end to the season. The Yancs were hardly in top form but Barça deserve credit for making them look so poor in so many departments and pretty much ever individual battle went the way of the player (or coach) in Blaugrana. A season for the history books, Phil and Paul will have to console themselves with the fact that we missed out on the Copa de Catalunya.
	May 28, 2009 16:48 PhilJones said: Adam, don't get it twisted, you sound petty making little remarks like that. I think Barca were infinitely better than Man Utd yesterday and deserved to win, I just wanted a better match than we got. And that was Man U's fault rather than Barca's, as I stated I don't think I've ever said anything anti-Barcelona in here have I? Anti-morons who may or may not (I'm anti-moron generally I'd say) support Barca yes, but not against the club ever
	May 28, 2009 16:53 Paul said: "Phil and Paul will have to console themselves with the fact that we missed out on the Copa de Catalunya." Not bad for you Adam .A few more humourous posts and I might think you are human after all. Best team won but still tainted in my book after a helping hand in the semis.
	May 28, 2009 17:54 kbones said: I think the time is right to ask - who are you, Paul the Perico from Barcelona?
	May 28, 2009 18:09 Vergilius said: Congratulations to Barca -best team won. Disappointing final at least compared to the hype it got beforehand, but a good season of football draws to a close nonetheless. It would be interesting to see a "Chelsea vs. Barcelona 2: the Final Reckoning"-style encounter in the final next year.
	May 28, 2009 19:56 PhilJones said: Paul = Simon Talbot Ooops, was I not supposed to reveal that? Apologies.
	May 28, 2009 21:17 Gerard said: f*** yeah! The best of the night was to see Cristiano Ronaldo's face after the match. He's a goddamn bad loser! I'd love it if Barça signed it, though. That would be hell of a punch in Real's face.
	May 29, 2009 14:24 Paul said: If Only Phil,My local pub back home is called The Talbot and that's as close as i get to being Simon.Though i am aware who he is but am sworn to secrecy. Clue,His name is based on a children's game that had flashing lights and his surname is similar to a Hostelry near my Mum's house.
	May 31, 2009 22:25 Guerrero said: "Now that would be a sight to see." To imagine next year's CL Final with Barça playing, say, a non-Spanish club. Madridistas roaring Barça's name in the Bernabeu. That would just be otherworldly. That might also make a great goal for FCB come 2009/2010.