Let’s take a minute to appreciate
and thank Atletico Madrid. La Rojiblancos
have just interrupted a 119-week stint in La Liga in which the Big Two rotated
at the league’s apex – the last 59 manned solely by Barca – and mourned favourite
son Luis Aragones in a loamy, rose-tinted weekend.
Former coach Aragones, who spent
nearly a quarter of a century at the club as player and manager, passed away on
Saturday as a result of leukaemia at the age of 75. In helming La Furia Roja to victory at Euro 2008, he
managed Spain to their first major trophy since 1964.
Despite selling each of its past five
most appealing assets* for significant sums and looking likely
to do so again this Summer*, Atletico Madrid has invested in an exciting
lineup of young playmakers who are able to
build from a stoic defence. Despite a 3-0 loss to rivals Real Madrid in the
Copa del Rey last night, their 2013-14 season has been a successful one.
 |
| courtesy: en.wikipedia.org |
It’s time to recognize that achievement.
Breaking football’s class caste system – even temporarily – occurs so rarely
nowadays that it’s a pleasure to behold, sometimes
if it comes at your own club’s expense. In Spain, the top tier contains Real
Madrid and Barcelona; there is room for no one else. Underdog appeal underpins
every sporting movie simply because the masses can relate, giving the trope box-office
pop. When an unfancied squad (even if they are the
fourth-largest club in the country) wins a battle in real life then, we
should similarly enjoy those small victories.
An old adage states that the only
way of finding out how good you are is to actually play the games.
Over the past decade or so, this
statement has lost some of its cache as this class system has quickly become
entrenched. In 2014, the major Euroleagues are dominated by a plutocracy derived
from cash nouveau or Boston-type old money, resulting in nationwide competitions
that have devolved into mini-leagues that limit hope to besting their immediate
rivals at year’s end.
The rise to prominence of football-based
computer games and social media editorialisation – with or without taking
in more-available-than-ever match footage – only heightens this perceived stratification:
excepting the odd Manchester
United/Stoke City outlier, we now accept that the same predictable teams
finish in (about) the same predictable positions.
While Atleti certainly
aren’t paupers, they certainly haven’t been in the same strata as their
now-direct rivals. A change at the top is nice, even if it isn’t always
entirely successful or long term. Not only will Montpellier HSC fans forever embrace
their 2010-12 Ligue
1 performances (that came straight from promotion), but so will football. La Rojiblancos have perhaps a more storied history than the la Pallaide, breaking into the Iberian
duopoly is still a triumph that should have knowledgeable fans smiling.
* Fernando Torres, Sergio Aguero, David De Gea, Diego Forlan
and Radamel Falcao
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