Media saturation in everything, especially sport, has cheapened the meaning of words.
Twenty-four-hour television now means people talking for 24 hours. And there are just so many words for commentators to use to describe the play and the players.
The word "great", for instance, is used so often to describe everything from a shot or pass to a nice play, that in practice, there is little difference between great and good. The same goes for the description of teams. Every good team these days seems to be "great".
But for the record, the Oxford Dictionary defines "great" as: considerably above average.
To me, that hugely cuts down who and what qualifies for such a description. I would have no hesitation whatsoever, however, for using "great" to describe the current Barcelona football team.
I had come to that conclusion long before Saturday, when Lionel Messi and company met Cristiano Ronaldo and the rest of Real Madrid for the first Clasico of the new Spanish League season.
Back at Woodford Cafe for the DirecTV experience, it was truly entertaining to see the manner in which Barca recovered from going a goal behind after 22 seconds to outplay Madrid in their own stadium and win 3-1.
The fact that Madrid were three points ahead with a game in hand, and on a ten-match winning streak (15 in all competitions) was made irrelevant on the night by a simply superior side.
The power and formidability of Madrid was made irrelevant by a group of Barcelona footballers—ball artists, really—who, better than any of their peers, win the ball with style, pass it with beauty and finish with panache.
My footballing heart does not lie in Barcelona or, worse yet, Argentina. But who but a Madrid supporter would not have been wowed by the way Messi raced at, and then went straight past three defenders to set up Alexis Sanchez's angled shot past Casillas for the equaliser on 23 minutes? And what of the third goal?
Hot-foot Messi finds Dani Alves on the right wing who swings a cross to Cesc Fabregas diving in with his head at the far post to kill off the match.
To play with such precision at the pace at which Barcelona move the ball around is simply breathtaking. And they are a group of football players from the back three come forward. Pass and move, pass and move, they go. When you play football in your dreams, you want your side to play the way the Barca men do.
Dream teams will beat the "Real" ones any day. So despite having a mastermind coach in Jose Mourinho preparing a high calibre side too good for probably every other club team around, Madrid will continue to play in the shadow of the Nou Camp masters so long as Pep Guardiola can keep the nucleus of this group--Messi, Xavi Hernandez and my favourite, Andres Iniesta—together.
I got that sense after my trip to Camp Nou in August for the second leg of the Spanish Supercopa, when Barca won the second leg 3-2 to take the trophy.
They were short of pre-season work then and not at their most fluent, but still too good for the Madridistas.
On Saturday, the Cafe was as noisy as it was back in May when the last league Clasico was shown there. The young people on hand made a good go at creating a stadium atmosphere. But I was intrigued by what produced this fervour. So I asked a few of them.
Hassan, a Madrid fan for six years, was impressed by how much Real had already won.
"It's a championship-winning side...31 Spanish leagues, nine Champions Leagues, can't get better than that."
Miguel, who has backed Madrid for 12 years, is impressed by the "cohesion in the team, a lot of unity, a lot of love, a lot of desire. We have a team that wants to win things".
On the Barcelona side, Kurt loves "the history behind the club, the importance of the club to the city, and the whole Catalonian region, also the brand of football they play and the philosophy behind the type of football they play. That's why I support them. They will stick with their philosophy no matter what".
Nigel was even more articulate.
"I support Barcelona mainly because of the type of football they play...what they stand for. Initially, they didn't have a paid sponsor on their shirt...now you would see Qatar Foundation. The motto of the club: 'Mes que un club', 'More than a club?' It speaks volumes about what the club stands for which is way different to other clubs. There are no outright owners of the club, the members are shareholders. The club is like an organisation for the people of Barcelona. It represents the struggles of the people of Barcelona against Franco and that era in Spain...Barcelona represents Catalonia in Spain. I just identify with that team. I love what they stand for and it comes right back down to football and the football that they play... They play selfless football."
Nigel was expecting victory by "either 2-1 or 3-1". He was spot-on.
What struck me, though, about all those expressions was how much these Trinidadian youths appreciated and identified with the HISTORY of these Spanish clubs.
I didn't ask, but I wondered nevertheless whether any of my interviewees knew and loved the history of West Indies cricket in the same way.
In Real Madrid and Barcelona, these young fans could see sides playing to their traditions, attempting to play to an established standard.
West Indies cricket has a history as impressive and as worthy of consideration as those Spanish football teams. Like the Barcelona side, the West Indies cricket team has become an expression representative of the people of the region. And like the Catalan team, Caribbean sides, even today, try to play with flair and attacking intent.
In their pomp, West Indian squads, like the current Barca team, also played their own way everywhere...and won.
So why is West Indian cricket not so fashionable today? The steady licks obviously.
Nothing makes sports teams as unattractive as steady defeat. Even for a team that was unbeaten in Test cricket for 15 years, the succeeding years of empty have been hard to withstand. And the West Indies Cricket Board does not have access to the kind of money available in Madrid and Barcelona to fund success.
WI cricket also suffers because its history has not enjoyed enough media exposure, I feel.
You can go to the Camp Nou and see video of Maradona, Romario, Messi, et al.
Allen Stanford's Sticky Wicket restaurant in Antigua used to have stuff on West Indian stars. Don't know about now.
However, footage of the best of West Indies cricket is just not accessible to the masses in a way so as to capture the imagination of the present generation. Solving that problem is a matter of economics as much as it is about a lack of vision.
But there is no price too high, reader, if the viewing of true sporting greatness can inspire in future more ones who are "considerably above average".
By Garth Wattley
Source: www.trinidadexpress.com
Team TTO
Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee