Barca and Real Madrid: Victimization Complex

Read either paper today, any one of a number of Barcelona and Real Madrid papers will do, but focus on Marca or Sport. es and you will get inundated with phantom calls that should have been penalties, clear chances that were rewarded and shouldn´t have been, and either red cards were with-held or too many were given, all for the sake of maintaining a league competition that is broken other than that which is taking place between the two front-runners.

Look at last night's Almeria v Real Madrid match. If it isn't referee Perez-Laza ignoring a push in the box by Juanma Ortiz on Cristiano Ronaldo in minute 74, or a second on Benzema in the 80th, or a handball by Almeria's M'Bami, then reporters will bemoan the fact that clubs lose in the Camp Nou before they ever hit the pitch. Next week, if the roles are reversed and Barça drop points, which is conceivable I guess if Perez-Laza referees next week's game against Racing Santander like Mourinho says. Will we be hear Pique or Xavi bemoaning the anti-barcelonismo that they are subjected to? Will we read this quote again?

“The referee had helped the team that did not want to play football. It was a very intense game, and the referee did not regulate the match properly. He gave out many warnings, but the cards did not come to pass. They man-marked us throughout the game and played with pressure and intensity, and we never felt comfortable at all during the match.”

Any idea who that was? That was the otherwise revered Xavi Hernandez, Ballon D'or runner-up, and here the resident mouth-piece for Barcelona victimismo after a dysfunctional draw in a Barcelona derby last year. So it isn't just one side or the other. It's both of them. 

While we should be marveling at the skillfull brand of football that Barcelona plays with, or the tenacity and opportunism that Real Madrid plays with, all we hear about is the constant whining of the propagandists that have turned this wonderful league into a cartoon. Barcelona expect to win every match, take points from all comers, and one of the strongest Real Madrid squads in decades has mightily struggled to keep pace. In a league of two giants, there is no such thing as a miraculous upset or a hard-won draw for the visitors, just a collection of bad calls, referee bias or league-wide favoritism for or against madridistas or cules on any given weekend. You can't expect to win every match, take full points off every "little-club", and then be taken seriously by the supporters of the other clubs in La Liga.

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