Hola Madrid !

Hola Madrid!!

When Real bought their Galaticos -2 this season for over 250 million dollars in Roanldo, Benzema, Kaka, Garay, Raul Albiol these were the same words they uttered after being paraded in the most pompous ways.

Sadly, this May 22^nd when the champions league final is held at the Bernabeu, Madrid it won’t witness any of these players playing nor their beloved club. It just reinforces that wise thought money can’t buy everything. Football is team sport and to win and play consistently you need team effort.

So how has the CL draw been, rather interesting? Well to start off I felt before the draw is being made that this season the champions league has been full of history, I mean United meeting AC Milan and the Beckham return to his boyhood club, the return of the self appointed special one Jose Mourinho to his old club – Chelsea and what a match that turned out to be, the blues well beaten in the end, Lyon ousting Madrid..

I was telling myself there’s got to be more and that’s exactly what we got – Man United visit Bayern Munich after their treble winning success in 99 when they beat Bayern in stoppage time and went home with all 3 cups, a mouth watering match between Arsenal and Barcelona, when Barca got the better out of Arsenal, highlight would be an emotional return of the gunners No.14 legend Henry who plied his trade to the summit at Arsenal. The other 2 matches being Inter travelling to CSKA Moscow and the all French Quarter finals between Lyon and Bordeaux.

Both United and Arsenal have tough draws, Barcelona and Bayern are tough opponents. But at this stage of the season if you got to be the best then one must beat the best. Arsenal and Barcelona will be a great spectacle the brand of football these teams play with Total Football ethos. The Germans are efficient teams and they play good compact style, United plays with possession and blistering counter, Inter is a reflection of their manager and that’s tactical, strong at the back and physical game, Lyon plays with a lot of energy with a fluid passing system and the surprise package this year has been CSKA Moscow and Bordeaux.

CSKA has been fuelled by their mercurial winger Milos Krasic who plays on either flanks and will be summers hottest property for all major clubs, the Russians are tough as nails and play with good movement and have terrific stopper in Igor Akinfeev. Bordeaux has done really well under former United player Laurent Blanc, the Girondins have toppled Lyon for the first time in 7 years when Lyon went unchallenged. Last season Blanc forged a winning team under the creative inspiration of Yoanne Gourcuff who is simply special. They play a very compact style, defensively good and yet strong going forward too.

Overall I feel it’s a great draw and next week we will witness which one of these teams will draw first blood and prove themselves.

I think we ought to celebrate the fact that the CL has teams like Bordeaux and CSKA who have made it this far in the knockout stage. Watching special players like Messi (Barcelona), Fabregas (Arsenal), Rooney (Man United), Ribery (Bayern Munich), Milito (Inter), Dzagoev (CSKA Moscow), Pjanic (Lyon) and Gourcuff (Bordeaux) will be a celebration indeed.

Darel Luiz