And Barcelona champion again

I could not watch the match between Barcelona and Real Madrid. No matter how many subscriptions to different TV platforms and cable, these special matches are only shown on some other special channel, and it is increasingly annoying.

Money rules, and money rules in particular when these two teams play. Real Madrid will end its second season in a row without a single title and with serious crisis in a squad where the superstar Kylian Mbappe has never won a title, and the club he left, PSG, has only appeared to become better without him. In the meantime, their archrivals of Barcelona have under Hansi Flick taken their second league title in a row, today with a 2-0 victory on goals by Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford.

There is no doubt who is the best team in Spain right now. 

Champions League in Mexico

Yesterday Mexico inaugurated its first female president, so I was off work as the focus was on this historical event. It was thus a good day to watch some Champions League.

There is scant interest for other teams than the Spanish teams in the CL, most of all, obviously, Barcelona and Real Madrid, so the only option to watch in a bar was Barcelona-Young Boys, even though there were so many interesting matches playing simultaneously.

And Barcelona-Young Boys was indeed as boring as expected, as Barcelona cruised to a victory with 5-0, and it comes at a good time after they lost their first match 2-1 to Monaco. That said, with all its crisis, Barcelona is doing great under German Hansi Flick: top of the Spanish League and giving chances to a lot of young promising players appears to be working for now, but is also what Barcelona needs as they are unable to sign super stars. And surely on the long-term it is better for Barcelona (and Spanish football overall) to be promoting so many young players from the outstanding Barcelona youth academy.

The new format of the Champions League is confusing though. As everyone is in a big league, but without everyone playing one another, one cannot study the teams against other teams that you will face, and most annoying for real football fans, adapt the tactics according to other results and new matches in smaller groups. In my personal view it takes away some of the excitement about the planning. As the 8 initial rounds come to an end, the excitement will not be about the top teams, but about the 7th-8th or 23rd-24th, who will snatch the last position for the play-offs. And the top teams will all go through....

 I appear not to be the only one annoyed at the new format. The fans of Borussia Dortmund (a team that incidentally is first in the league after two victories, the latest trashing Celtic 7-1) welcomed the new CL format at home with a huge banner: "UEFA Mafia", protesting against the new format that indeed appears to be a way for UEFA to make more and more money from the ones who love the game.

In Dortmund 

New Spanish arrivals

So it has been confirmed: Kylian Mbappe is joining Real Madrid. Already the best team in Europe, the arrival of the great Frenchman would only seem to make it stronger, but at the same time we know how such an arrival can destabilize the team as different egos collide. That said, if anyone can manage such a situation it is Carlo Ancelotti. That said, it is also interesting how Mbappe will enter the tactical set up of Real Madrid. Both Carlo Ancelotti and Mbappe himself have proven quite flexible, so depending on the match it would appear that Vinicius Jr. could play on top with Mbappe on the left (and Bellingham just behind), or alternatively an Mbappe-Vinicius Jr attacking duo. It would appear that the main player losing his position would be Rodrygo.

But it remains to be seen.

FC Barcelona are struggling to catch up with Real Madrid. There was a circus in terms of Xavi leaving (first yes, then no, and then finally to leave anyway), and after many rumours it has been confirmed that the ex-Bayern Munich and ex-Germany manager Hansi Flick is to take over as FC Barcelona manager. He did not have much success as Germany manager, but as Bayern Munich manager he is perhaps best known in Barcelona as the one who presided over an 8-2 trashing of the Catalans in 2020. That said, he appears to be an interesting choice, although Circus-Barcelona probably needs much more than just a new good manager.

Real Madrid are favourites for the next season in La Liga.

European World Cup Qualifiers

The last two days have seen some interesting European World Cup qualifiers (which I have unfortunately not been able to watch):

• Denmark is continuing on the way to the the World Cup: a 2-0 victory against Scotland was their fourth straight victory, and with a score of 16-0 they appear to be more and more certain to qualify
  
• Portugal defeated Ireland 2-1 on two goals by Cristiano Ronaldo, which makes him the most scoring player on any national team ever.  (and more to come). Truly a legend.
• Sweden defeated Spain 2-1 in Stockholm to take the first spot in group B and make things more exciting in a group that initially seemed like a walkthrough for Spain
• England defeated Hungary 0-4 in Budapest and with four victories also appear on their way towards the World Cup, although Poland, who defeated Albania 4-1, are right behind them
• The European Champions of Italy played their first match after winning the title, but were disappointing as they only managed 1-1 at home to Bulgaria
• Germany played their first match under their new manager Hansi Flick, and won an unimpressive albeit important victory 0-2 over Liechtenstein. This puts them in second spot behind a surprising Armenia

Let us be frank: the only national teams worth to watch are in Europe, South America, and some in Africa. Today I had a ticket to go to see a CONCACAF World Cup qualifier: El Salvador versus USA at the Estadio Cuzcatlan in San Salvador, but given the chaotic evening traffic it was impossible for me to even get to the stadium. This would have been my first football match for two years, and my only consolation is that it was between a USA side that I will never ever support, and a Salvadoran side whose only claim to fame is having lost 10-1.

So I could care less.