Jimmy Burns's Blog, page 18

Andy Murray y el sentido de un pais

 

De las muchas imagenes que dominan  las paginas de los medios britanicos hoy , pocas resumen con major claridad el  sentido de un país en paz con si mismo como la de David Cameron y Alex Salmond,  en el mismo palco ejecutivo,  mostrándose igualmente estáticos a raíz de la victoria de Andy Murray.

La celebración no podía de ser otra que compartida ya que tanto  Cameron, el primer ministro Britanico  como  Salmond, el primer ministro de la Escocia autónoma y líder del partido nacionalista escoces, son lo suficientemente astutos como para no intentar monopolizar al campeon tenista para fines políticos. Algo de este mismo pragmatismo llevo haze unos meses a que Cameron y Salmond acordasen los términos democraticos del futuro referéndum sobre la independencia  en Escocia.

Saben que a pesar de no romper nunca sus lazos familiares y amistosos con Dumblane, el pueblo escoces donde nacio y fue a la escuela, de mantener su acento local, y dejarse aparentar, en su manera de luchar, a  esa furia guerrera del mitico luchador anti-ingles William Wallace ‘Braveheart’, este héroe de Wimbledon no se ha dejado seducir por el sentimiento independista, como si lo fue, anos  atrás Sean Connery, el primer James Bond de la pantalla. Tampoco se ha convertido Murray en un militante del partido conservador. Este deportista es un deportista de pura cepa.

Ayer, las primeras palabras  de Murray tras su triunfo sobre el serbio Djokovic fueron de reconocimento hacia un publico que le habían apoyado sin separatismos ni partidismos: “Reconozco  lo mucho que la gente deseaba que ganase Wimbledon un Britanico…pues hize lo que pude para conseguirlo.” De Norte al sur del Reino Unido,y mucho mas alla de estas islas,  nadie se sintió defraudado. Al mismo tiempo,  la celebración de la victoria fue tan apasionante  en Dumblane como en Londres. El  heroísmo de Murray había roto fronteras.

Eso si, hubo un momento cuando Salmond saco una bandera escocesa y la flameo  a las espaldas de Cameron, en frente de las cámaras de TV.  El gesto oportunista y picaresco no callo bien en la cancha de tenis mas famosa y universal del mundo donde tradición prohíbe el desplazamiento de símbolos politicos de cualquier índole.  Pero aunque si criticado por algunas medios ingleses, paso sin mayor incidente.

Ayer, igual que hizo al ganar la medalla de oro del equipo GB en la Olimpiada, Murray capto el corazón de toda un pueblo  que a pesar de sus divisiones políticas y nacionalismos, nunca ha perdido la capacidad de celebrar una victoria histórica ejemplar, conseguida con un gran espiritu de sacrificio, coraje, y nobleza, con sangre Escocesa en las venas, y un sentimiento Britanico reconciliado en el corazón. Hay que recordar que este fue el país que invento la frase ‘fair play’, y que salvo a Europa del nazismo.

 

 

The post Andy Murray y el sentido de un pais appeared first on Jimmy Burns.

Lo poco y lo mucho que tiene que cambiar La Roja de Don Vicente

 

Vicente Del Bosque es un hombre con sensibilidad política y una buena memoria.

Sabe que la mayoría de los españoles no ven al futbol como la solución a su crisis, pero si miran hacia él y su selección- con su colaboración de catalanes, vascos, y otros españoles, como una inspiración que contrasta con la intolerancia, división, y fallos institucionales y de liderazgos que la ciudadanía tiene que sufrir.

Sabe el largo y difícil camino que llevo a que España por fin fuese respetada como Campeón Europea (2008 y 2012) y Campeón Mundial (2010) y como esto se logró gracias a una generación de jugadores talentosos dispuestos a juntarse en un gran proyecto- o sea una definida filosofía de solidaridad de equipo y practica de futbol, todo un ejemplo de conducta humana y creación.  

Pero el futbol también tiene que ver con la suerte, con la energía de cada uno, con la táctica individual y en conjunto, incluyendo la capacidad de reforzar la defensa y la capacidad goleadora una vez identificados fallos internos y la amenaza menos pensada del rival.

Fue evidente que desde el primer minuto de la final de la Copa de Las Confederaciones, La Roja no era La Roja en la cual creemos sino un desordenado equipo en el cual casi cada jugador jugaba su peor partido, y que Del Bosque no tenia nada que hacer- o sea un paciente futbolero en la sala de urgencias, sin aparente remedio, ni capacidad de reacción.

 Cualquier equipo puede ganar o perder un partido pero Brasil gano porque jugo mejor. Nada más terminar el partido, Del Bosque no busco  escusas, pero si apelo a la sensatez, recordando lo que no debíamos olvidar fácilmente, la alegría que ha supuesto La Roja a lo largo del camino atravesado.

Del Bosque sabe mejor que nadie que habrá que tomar decisiones difíciles en los próximos meses, con jugadores como Villa, Arbeloa, Casillas, y Torres enfrentándose con un futuro incierto no como jugadores de Alemania, y ahora Italia y Brasil que ya ven creciendo su potencial y auto-estima.   

Pero el reto es manejable. España aun cuanta con una fuente incomparable a nivel mundial de talento futbolero. El primer equipo de ahora tiene un pro-medio de edad esperanzador, y jugadores de gran talla como Xavi Hernández, Iniesta, Jordi Alba, Ramos, Javi Martínez, Busquets, Pedro, Cazorla, Mata , Cesc Pique y Navas que tienen aún mucho para ofrecer con tal que club y selección se pongan de acuerdo para no liquidarles físicamente.

Y luego están los jóvenes del sub-21, liderados por Isco y Thiago Alcantara y con otros talentos como Morata, Tello, De Gea, y Muniain que hicieron grandes cosas en la recién Eurocopa en Israel pero no estuvieron estos últimos días  en Brasil y que están  ya listos para la promoción.

El futbol creativo de control, posesión, y toque, de movimiento fluido, rápido y efectivo no es cosa del pasado. Pero para seguir contando con nuestro respeto La Roja tiene que asumir mejor flexibilidad táctica, y asegurase que en los grandes partidos pueda contar con jugadores con la motivación y energía necesaria. Al mismo tiempo hay que cuidar egos y saber cuándo suprimirlos cuando esto se vuelva en contra del buen común del equipo.Ojo Ramos.

Del Bosque tiene la sabiduría, y lo ha demostrado en el pasado para saber dónde las cosas están mejor sin tocar, y donde es necesario un cambio.  Confió que será su sabiduría la que le ayude a escoger bien en los meses que vienen los jugadores y la táctica que pueda llevar a que  La Roja se sienta reforzada y dispuesta a defender, su corona, con un gran futbol, como los buenos tiempos. El Domingo la derrota me sembro mas dudas que esperanzas.Pero no he perdido la fe en Don Vicente,  ni en que La Roja retome su camino, y siga en proceso de evolución.

 

The post Lo poco y lo mucho que tiene que cambiar La Roja de Don Vicente appeared first on Jimmy Burns.

La Roja : What needs to change

 

Vicente Del Bosque is a man not only with a sensitive and sensible political mind but with an enduring memory.

He knows that a huge majority of Spaniards while not seeing football as a  solution to their crisis, do look to him and the national team-with its cooperative of Catalans, Basques, and other Spaniards-  as an inspiring contrast to the intolerance, division, and leadership and institutional failures that otherwise mark their existence.

He knows the long and difficult road that lead to Spain’s finally becoming widely respected European (2008 & 2012) and Word Champions (2010) and how that achievement was only made possible by a new generation of hugely talented players prepared to coalesce in a defined philosophy of solidarity and practice of play that proved an example of human conduct and creative excellence.

But football is also about luck, energy, and tactics, including the ability to beef up one’s defence and goal-scoring capability when evident failures on one’s side and surprise threat by the opponents are identified. It was clear from the first minute of the game last night that La Roja was half the team it normally is, and urgently needed fixing, but had temporary lost the ability to react positively.

Last night within minutes of Spain’s crashing to defeat in the final of the Confed Cup, Del Bosque reminded us that any team can win or lose a game of football, Brazil won because it played better-on the night- , and suggested we should not easily forget that long road already trodden by Spanish football, nor the great moments of joy and unprecedented success experienced along it.

Del Bosque will know that there is some hard thinking and tough choices to be made in the months ahead with some players like Villa, Arbeloa, Casillas, and Torres among those on which the jury is out, as La Roja prepares for the real World Cup, with the national teams of countries like Germany, and now Brazil and Italy growing in strength and self-confidence.

But the challenge is a manageable one. Spain still has one of the most formidable pools of talent of any footballing nation in the world, an existing squad of huge experience  and  youthful average age, and players like Xavi and Iniesta than can play better when rested and younger players like Isco and some of his comrades in the Under-21 squad who were not in the Confed tournament but are ready for promotion.

There is no sell by date for a creative, flowing  football, based on possession and quick passing- poetry in motion. But if it  is to retain its well earned respect, La Roja needs to be tactically flexible and have players fit and energised enough to respond as the under 21′s showed last month in Israel. There can be no room  for special status players who divide the dressing room and break the unity of the team.  I trust that when we get to the World Cup Del Bosque will know who to pick and when, and prove more successful than last night when La Roja returns to the Maracana.

  

The post La Roja : What needs to change appeared first on Jimmy Burns.

Why I am not thankful to Edward Snowden

 

Sometimes, very rarely I grant you,  it is not a Sun  headline but a front-page in the Guardian-my breakfast newspaper of choice-that makes me almost choke on my corn flakes.

The Guardian is unsurprisingly on a  roll having first broken the story that has been subsequently covered widely by the media   internationally , and stirred a political debate on both sides of the Atlantic. But while this  story has , as they put in hack parlance ‘legs’, the direction of it seems somewhat one-sided thus far.

Today’s Guardian devotes most of its front page to boldly quoting Daniel Ellsberg’s view that there has not been in American  history a more important leak than Edward Snowden’s release of National Security material.   “The so-called  intelligence community has become the United Stasi  of America,” Ellsberg tells us.

Such hyperbole  not only paints a false analogy between a western democracy and a Soviet satellite state,it  is, to say the least, somewhat ill-timed coming as it does in a week when the commemoration of the D-Day landings remind us how secret intelligence  based on surveillance techniques shared by the Allies contributed to defeating Nazism.

But it does sum up the central argument behind Snowden’s elevation to  hero status,  that the US intelligence community has become the 21st century’s criminal fraternity, and that what this ‘whistleblower’ has done  has been to the overwhelming benefit of the civilised world and democracy.

Frankly while I can  see why there are people out there who want to make a fuss about the US surveillance practices, I neither share in their anxiety or sense of outrage. Surely the fact that both the US and UK intelligence agencies take social networks extremely seriously and feel it necessary to follow, secretly, those who might misuse the information highway   for criminal ends should not  surprise  us. I mean what do we expect them to focus their gizmos on in the second decade of the 21st century- carrier pigeons?

Let’s be clear. There are crazy people out there- from child violators to terrorists- who need monitoring, and catching before they do further damage by carrying out what they are plotting. Those of us who try and lead peaceful lives, within the law, have nothing to fear  other than their own  security being compromised.  If I feel less safe today, it is because of Snowden not the spies.

The post Why I am not thankful to Edward Snowden appeared first on Jimmy Burns.

Some home truths behind the Neymar/Barca show

 

So the Neymar show has come to the Nou Camp and with it a lot of money going into a few pockets and in a way that is about as transparent as the sea off the Costa Brava after a stormy night. Beyond the razzmatazz, only time will tell whether the money spent on this boy from Brazil is worth it.

For now, let me say that I have my doubts.  I watched him play in last summer’s Olympics and more recently against England at the reopening of the Maracarana, and he didn’t exactly set the world alight- as Pele and Maradona both did at a younger age.

That said, after Pele, every major Brazilian star became a better player thanks to playing in Europe, and FC Barcelona has a track record of getting the best from most of its Brazilians, before they drift into the Mediterranean night and fall away. If the publicity machine surrounding Neymar is to remain credible it will have to be well oiled in the coming season with impressive performances by the boy not just in La Liga, but in the Champions League, not to mention in the warm-up games the Brazilian national squad will have to show improvement in as they prepare to host next year’s World Cup.

I incline towards an optimistic spirit, so my hope is that Neymar find his true genius playing for FC Barcelona, bringing a necessary dynamism to a team that needs to recover the magic and joy that helped it win so many millions of supporters around the world in the heyday of its success.

For there is no doubt in my mind that there are some  problems at Barca  the symptoms of which include Pujol’s long-term  injury, Messi ‘s failure at Munich and his growing moodiness, Pique’s distraction, Valdes’s  long anticipated threat of departure,  Villa’s evident disfunctionality, and last but by no means least Tito Villanova’s periodical health checks. A worrying air of uncertainty predominates at FC Barcelona.

The post Some home truths behind the Neymar/Barca show appeared first on Jimmy Burns.

Mourinho was not so special in Spain

I can think of several coaches deserving a noble place in Spanish football history, but Jose Mourinho is not one of  them.

Cowardice dictated his red card in the King’s Cup final, his verbal outburst the cheap shot of a bad loser. He had promised more than he could deliver and knew it but rather than stick around and fight to the end with his players, he chose escape.

It was a game in which Simeone’s street bruisers had found their perfect counterpart in Mourinho, and beat him at his own game. With Mourinho expelled, it was left to Casillas to try and rally the troops from the touchline-an act of chivalry belatedly restored at the Bernabeu.

Previously Casillas, a decent guy much loved by club and national team colleagues, had  found himself sidelined, simply to fuel Mourinho’s ego. Such treatment came lose to wrecking Real Madrid’s sense of its own identity. Mourinho enjoyed the support of the Ultras Surs , much as a dictator rallies his storm troopers. They mirrored each other in  their thuggery.

Ultras Surs waved the Spanish flag and in so doing made a mockery of true patriotism. Their hero Mourinho tried his best to drive a wedge in the solidarity of the  Spanish national team, fuelling club rivalries, turning friends against each other, a veritable agent provocateur. Neither Guardiola nor Del Bosque owe him any favours, and Tito Vilanova  should never forget that poke in the eye. Mourinho was not so special when it came to Spain.

The post Mourinho was not so special in Spain appeared first on Jimmy Burns.

The sadness in Barca’s defeat

 

 

Reflecting on last night’s game in the Nou Camp in the early light of today’s dawn I wondered what it was that had provoked a feeling of deep melancholy in me.

At its most basic,  I saw my team in just over a week  not just beaten but comprehensively  so-twice and with the ultimate humiliation played out on home ground. But then Barca is not any team- for millions of fans around the world it has become an idea of football not just as a sport but as an idea of how do things with nobility and beauty, of creativity drawn from deep roots, and thus enduring.

I don’t know what hurt me most last week in Munich and last night at the Nou Camp- the idea of Barca losing, or Bayern Munich winning- but what I felt I witnessed was the equivalent of  a Panzer division laying waste the Parque Guell.

Much has been deservedly  been written, and will continue to be written, about the mastery, discipline, and energy of the German team- but this was football played by determined engineers, not poets in motion- precise in its conception, clinical in its execution.

Absent from the conquerors across  the two-legs of this Champion’s League semi-final was anything that elevated their actions to a higher level than the mundane, that produced a moment of sublime artisanship, on or off the ball, that transformed the defining moment into something that brought a smile to one’s face, that endured as a moment to warmly relish with allies and rivals alike, that brought joy to the universal fan. Even the Dutch goalscorer lacked grace.

In fairness I blame my melancholy not just on the victors, but also on the vanquished. But for a few wonderful turns, and intricate passes, there was nothing in this Barca worthy of its legacy: it was as if the evolutionary process that had began with Cruyff, and developed under Guardiola, had run out of  imaginative steam and collective spirit.

To blame its underperformance  on the  absence of one star player, and the  injury and exhaustion of others, are all excuses unworthy of a club whose defining identity lies in its history, its  collective ethos and commitment to a cause- that of making football an art form, a truly cultural and social, phenomenon. Barca could not score a goal, and the ninety-odd cules in the Nou Camp seemed to have lost faith even before the game had started.

This is not the end of an era for Barca but a time to take stock and rebuild around its essence-to recover the dynamism, passion and  creativity of its dream years when glory was sought but not at any price. The beautiful game is not built on regiments- nor does it deserve an extended period of mourning.

The post The sadness in Barca’s defeat appeared first on Jimmy Burns.

Barca after Munich

 

Having travelled with and sat and stood among the couple of thousand-odd Barca fans at last night’s Champions League semi-final away match tie between their team and Bayern Munich,   it is hard not to share in the feeling of desolation provoked by its outcome.

The majority of these visiting  fans in the huge impressive Allianz Arena stadium were in their twenties, part of a generation that has grown up finding in the success of their club and the respect for it worldwide one of the few genuinely positive aspects of a life overshadowed by debt and unemployment, and yet fuelled with a passion for Catalan identity they express waving independence flags and shouting unprintable verbal abuse at Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid.

They were joined in Munich by a smaller contingent   of middle-aged and largely middle-class cules  (Barca fans) who have followed the club in bad times as well as good times but for whom last night’s match caused,  similarly, profound shock, no doubt adding to the general sense of political and social uncertainty provoked by Catalunya’s tortuously ill-defined road map to independence.

This was not defeat, at the hands of Bayern, suffered through poor referee decisions or fluke opposition goals. This was a comprehensive thrashing by a team that on the night showed themselves superior across positions and in every aspect of the game.  For those with longer memories, there was a sense of having been there before-back in  1994, when Johan Cruyff’s ‘Dream Team’ were beaten by a similar score line  by AC Milan in the  Champions League final  in Athens.

Certainly there is a sense today, as there was then , that, barring a miracle in the second-leg at the Nou Camp, and despite on track to win the Spanish  league,  FC Barcelona may  have reached the end of an era of unrivalled international supremacy- a feeling, if the truth be told that been growing  in the world of football ever since Barca won its  last champions league trophy in May 2011 although-let us not forget –it was Barca who helped world champions Spain win the European championship for the second time in two consecutive tournaments in 2012.

And yet while Barca ‘s dream of a third Wembley final  may effectively be over for now, I do not believe that the club is entering an extended period in the European doldrums similar to that which it  suffered during and long after  the Di Stefano years of the 1950’s . Nor for that matter do I believe that the era of Spanish football –whether at club or national team level-generally is at an end.

Barca urgently needs some important repair work-rather than simple fine tuning- but it is not an irrevocably broken team of beyond sell-by dates.  It can  still count on players of world class star qualitythe likes of Iniesta, Busquets, Xavi, Jordi Alba, and Pedro- that on better days will deliver.  Its key component, Lionel Messi, is not a player that has peaked. It would be absurd to consider his lacklustre performance last night as anything other than largely the consequence of a mistaken decision to have him played not fully fit against an opponent of the calibre of Bayern Munich.

That said Barca can no longer afford to be Messi-dependent when the chips are down. It is desperately in need of  an attacking player-other than Messi and not Villa or Alexis– that can be relied upon to be sufficiently versatile to suit Barca’s style and to score with consistency in top European games against tough well organised opponents. That killer streak-and by that I mean effective, accurate goal scoring- seems so often lacking in Barca’s patient build up play and occasional counter-attacking forays. But I don’t think Barca needs to change its style. It need to reorganise and strengthen itself  in a way that the style does not become an end in itself but the effective conduit for a more effective attacking as well as defensive options. It has young some young talent that has come up through the youth team, who have shown this ability, but this should not stop Barca going for some transfers, both buying and selling players.

And it needs a manager capable of imposing a collective ethos on Barca that all players, not least Messi can adhere to, while retaining the sufficient tactical flexibility and element of surprise to confuse, outmanoeuvre and ultimately defeat the opposition. Here I fear one comes to the heart of the matter for it necessitates generating a public debate around an issue which has thus far been far been avoided by FC Barcelona for perfectly legitimate reasons of human decency and respect:   the question of Tito Villanova’s health and the extent to which this may be impacting on his ability to face up to the challenges of the job.

Amidst the powerfully regimented mass support of the Bayern  fans for their team last night, and faced with the tactical and strategic precision of the German champions ,  Tito cut a particularly forlorn figure on the touchline as he watched the dispirited  shambles of his own players, seemingly unable to put it right, and leaving Barca fans  obsessively hoping  that Mourinho’s Real Madrid doesn’t  end up getting to Wembley  and winning. 

The post Barca after Munich appeared first on Jimmy Burns.

Thatcher’s funeral at street level

 

I was twelve years old when Churchill died. My father-a WW2 veteran- took me to the vigil outside his house and then got me to watch the funeral. I needed no persuading.  I knew that Churchill had not only saved Britain from Hitler but helped liberate half the world from fascism.

Earlier today my daughter left for work as usual, as did my wife, leaving me with grave doubts about whether I should take the morning off and go and watch Thatcher’s funeral live.  In the end I decided I would.

I never voted for her. Her economic and social programme ridiculed the concept of the common good, replacing it with egoism and the culture of money. She divided the country between those she left jobless and those who, thanks to her, got very rich with their shares and privatizations, and banking deals and deunionised workforces.

She destroyed whole communities in the North and Wales. Many people of a darker shade of pale intuitively felt she was a bit of a racist. Many poor people became poorer. In Ireland, she was hated by some as a symbol of state terrorism, if not for the coldness of her humanity.

But before my daughters were born, I worked as a foreign correspondent in Buenos Aires when the junta of Galtieri invaded the Faklands Islands. Thousands had disappeared – tortured and killed – and I thanked God that in Thatcher British and Argentines had a prime-minister capable of defeating the military regime in the field of battle and on the high seas and in the air. The military support that Pinochet’s Chile offered Thatcher and which she accepted did not diminish the impact Britain’s victory in the Falklands War subsequently had on the democratization of South America’s Southern Cone. Perhaps it was the memory of that war that took me first this morning to the Cenotaph, and later to Fleet Street, to watch Thatcher’s body go by.

The streets took a bit of time to fill out, not least along Whitehall, but they were eventually filled, generally with well-wishers. It was a strangely dispassionate funeral. Few tears-none, in  fact, that I could see-, and  silence broken by respectful applause, with the military-all pomp and circumstance- and the police discreet and retrained, and Land of Hope and Glory resonating along Fleet Street- a very British funeral. They were some who protested and got some air time on TV and live blogs, and Obama was not the only president to be absent. I did not feel the sense of national and international mourning I remember Churchill provoked.

The post Thatcher’s funeral at street level appeared first on Jimmy Burns.

Football and Pope Francis

 

The gift of a shirt of Spain’s national football team-signed by all its star players- given this week to Pope Francis by Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is the latest reminder of the links that bind the beautiful game to the Vatican.

Pope Francis is himself a self-declared football fan, with a dedication from his childhood days to San Lorenzo, the local club of the neighbourhood of Almagro in Buenos Aires where he was born. It is a club which owes its origins to the Catholic Church and which is deserving of a mark of honour in the history of Spanish football.

For San Lorenzo owes its existence to a parish priest Father Lorenzo Massa who in the early 19th century allowed the first organised kick-about in the Almagro neighbourhood to  take place in the backyard of his church. It was his way of keeping youths out of trouble after a local kid was run over by a tram during a football match played between rival gangs in the street.

San Lorenzo later evolved into one of Argentina’s top teams and just before Christmas of 1946 embarked on a legendary tour of Spain, after overturning River Plate’s dominance of the league championship. While beaten in their opening match against Real Madrid, the Argentine visitors remained undefeated in the rest of the tour, beating FC Barcelona, and Spain’s national team, and holding three other top – Athletic Bilbao, Valencia and Sevilla- to a draw.

As I note in my history of Spanish football La Roja the Argentinian champions left a deep imprint with their elaborate play of short passes in contrast to the more direct aggressive play then favoured in Spain where to talk of tactics was regarded as a heresy.

These days  it is said that Spain’s national team-World Champions and twice European champions since 2008-owes much of its success to FC Barcelona’s style and players. But then Spanish football generally owes a legacy to the example of San Lorenzo- and Argentine football generally. Among the pending invitations in Pope Francis’s  in tray is one to  Spain-courtesy of Rajoy, a Real Madrid fan-, and another to the Nou Camp- courtesy of FC Barcelona president Sandro Rosell, who wrote to the Pope days ago, pointing out his own Argentine family roots and how much Barca owe to one player in particular, Lionel Messi.

So which footabll stadium will Pope Francis choose to go to when he eventually visits  Spain? It will be a tough choice, and one requiring tact and diplomacy.

 

 

 

The post Football and Pope Francis appeared first on Jimmy Burns.