International Football Is Ruining Football: Why Madrid Is Worse Because of Spain

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: September 9, 2010

commentComment        

I love football: some of my earliest memories are of Real Madrid, of celebrating on the Castellana and at the Cibeles when we won the League in 1996 and the Champions League in 1997. I’ll never forget watching the most recent World Cup either: Spain winning ranks among the greatest sports moments (heck, moments in general) of my life. So as a life-long fan—and by fan, I mean fanático, because I live and die with my teams—it’s hard to say this: international football is ruining football.

What a bold statement! I wept like a baby when Spain won the World Cup, so why would I say something like that? It’s simple: I like good football, and while “good football” is subjective, “good” is a word hardly used to describe international competition.

Think about it like this: international teams take a couple of weeks every few months to train with each other, then play a grueling set of qualification games to participate in tournaments. The players know each other well, certainly, but don’t play enough with each other to know where the other player will be on the pitch at any given moment. 

Every definition of “good football” has a base in communication, in knowing your teammates better than you know yourself: when a team can play together, then the team will (most likely) play “good football.” Simply put, the players on a national team don’t play with each other enough to know each other’s tendencies.

It didn’t used to be like this. In the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, and even in the early 1980s, the best football was played at the World Cup because the best players were dispersed throughout the world on myriad clubs—Pelé, for example, never played outside of Brazil.

The World Cup became the wonderful spectacle of football, unsurpassed in greatness until the top European clubs—Real Madrid, Manch...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - International Football

Latest News


Comments

Comments are closed.

Sponsors

Bruins Tickets The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston, Massachusetts. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League.

Red Wings Tickets The Detroit Red Wings are a professional ice hockey team based in Detroit, Michigan. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League.

Penguins Tickets The Pittsburgh Penguins are a professional ice hockey team based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League.

New York Rangers Tickets play their home games at Madison Square Garden, they are one of the oldest teams in the NHL, having joined in 1926 as an expansion franchise, and are part of the group of teams referred to as the Original Six.

San Jose Sharks Tickets The San Jose Sharks are a professional ice hockey team based in San Jose, California, United States.

Toronto Maple Leafs Tickets The Toronto Maple Leafs are a professional ice hockey team based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League.

New Jersey Devils Tickets The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. They are members of the Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League.

Washington Capitals Tickets The Washington Capitals are a professional ice hockey team based in Washington, D.C.

Buffalo Sabres Tickets The Buffalo Sabres are a professional ice hockey team based in Buffalo, New York. They are members of the Northeast Division of the Eastern Conference of the National Hockey League. Get the Sabres and all of your NHL Tickets here.

NASCAR season is on of the most attended sports in the world. NASCAR Tickets to the best tracks is a must every year. Some of these tracks are: Talladega Tickets, Lowes Motor Speedway Tickets, Pocono Raceway Tickets, located in Ridgeway Virginia you have Martinsville Speedway Tickets and southern US you have two of the most popular Atlanta Motor Speedway Tickets and Texas Motor Speedway Tickets. Don't miss all the racing events this year!

Boston Red Sox Tickets The Boston Red Sox are a member of the Major League Baseball’s American League Eastern Division. Since 1912, the Red Sox's home ballpark has been Fenway Park. This is one of the hottest MLB Tickets sales of any team in the major league.

New York Yankees Tickets The New York Yankees are a professional baseball team based in the borough of the Bronx, in New York City, New York and are a member of Major League Baseball's American League East Division. Get tickets to one of the hottest games of the season Yankees Red Sox Tickets.

Chicago Cubs Tickets The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of Major League Baseball's National League.

Phillies Tickets The Philadelphia Phillies are a Major League Baseball team based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are the oldest continuous, one-name, one-city franchise in all of professional American sports, dating to 1883.

Orioles Tickets The Baltimore Orioles are a professional baseball team based in Baltimore, Maryland.

Do you love wrestling? Get your WWE Tickets and WWE Survivor Series Tickets today!