Footballkommentaren: Barca

Loyal readers will know that football is of great interest to one of the editors of this filmkommentaren.dk – the one to the left on the photo together with another enthusiast, Zoran Popovic from Belgrade, who with his wife Svetlana are directors of the Magnificent7 festival in Belgrade, that celebrates its 10th edition at the end of this month. Mr. Popovic points at the screen where we watch one of the legendary Messi’s many brilliant matches…

… as I did the other day, where the Argentinian star returned to Camp Nou after 59 days of injury absence. He was on the pitch the last 30 minutes of a Copa del Rey match against Getafe and made 2 goals! Messi is back, as is Barcelona FC, Barca, I think, contrary to the many, who again and again have declared their tiki-taki football style as dead and do not think that the team will achieve any success this year. Well, Barca is in the lead in the national league, they are still in Copa del Rey, they are in Champions League (even if the next opponent, Manchester City, is playing fantastic soccer right now). So, what’s the problem?

I am writing this the day before Barca plays Atletico Madrid, a top match where Barca has not only Messi but also Fabregas, Alexis, Pedro, Alba, Iniesta, Neymar in great shape. And with some adjustments the tiki-taki style will still be the most joyful to watch. Barca has for sure problems in the defense but as long as the team makes more goals than the opponent… As one of the founders of this way of playing football, Johan Cruyff, has said: Remember that the ball never gets tired, in other words, first time passes, always move around, make yourself playable, change tempo when needed. It’s an art form, Barca performs, sometimes with great beauty.

Photo taken by Svetlana Popovic at Hotel Prezident, Sremski Karlovci in Serbia.