Anything Barça can do, Madrid can do better

Warning: I've flicked the article from elsewhere, I liked it, I thought you might too.
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They're the cocky kids arguing whose dad's bigger, neighbours preening over their pebble-dashing, tuning types upping the stakes with another pointless appendage to their Seat Ibizas — egging each other on, winding each other up. "If Barcelona didn't exist, we'd have to invent them," remarked former Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, and he was right. Barcelona go Dutch, Madrid go Dutcher; Madrid go galactic, Barcelona go cosmic. They're the US and the USSR racing into space, with missions to the moon and monkeys at the controls. Anything Barça can do, Madrid can do better. No, they can't. Yes, they can. No, they can't. Yes, they can. No, they can't. Yes. They. Caaaan!

And, let's face it, mostly they can. Barça buy a posy new team bus, Madrid buy a plane. A rickety airfix plane soon quietly ditched but, still, a plane! Barça have two Catalan comics fawning over them, Madrid have two national ones. Barça celebrate their centenary by playing Brazil, Madrid celebrate theirs by playing the whole wide world. Barça visit the Pope, Madrid visit the King, the UN and the Pope. Barça nearly buy David Beckham, Madrid really buy David Beckham. Barça beat Madrid 5-0, Madrid take Michael Laudrup and beat them 5-0 back. Barça get Alfredo di Stéfano for three games, Madrid get him for 11 years, eight league titles and five European Cups.

And now it's getting really silly, with a little helping hand from a fixture list that groups together all the likely title contenders (except Atlético), meaning the champions may not be the best team over the course of the season but the best team over the course of two six-game stretches in which Sevilla, Barcelona, Valencia, Villarreal and Madrid face each other. More importantly, a fixture list in which twice a season every team plays Sevilla, Barça, Madrid and Villarreal consecutively, giving Madrid the perfect opportunity to succeed and supersede Barça. Which is exactly what they've done. Barça lose 1-0 to Numancia on the opening day, in the very next match Madrid beat Numancia 4-3. Barça draw 0-0 with Racing Santander, the following week Madrid beat them 2-0.

So far, so standard, but even raising the bar impossibly high makes no difference: On Sunday night, Barcelona smash Sporting Gijon 6-1 (six bleeding one!), prompting the Catalan press to declare, "it doesn't get any better"; one Madridista pundit to declare, "Bah! We're better than Barça, 6-1 is nothing!"; and Sporting's marvellously moustachioed manager Manuel Preciado to declare, "Madrid suit us better, although I might be eating my words soon." Only it does, he's right, and Preciado is busy wolfing down a plate of Alphabetti Spaghetti when Real Madrid do it better. Barcelona smash Sporting 6-1; three little days later, Madrid smash Sporting 7-1. Anything you can do better, I can do better.

Be Brave. Be Dave.

Last evening something really shocking, fearfully shocking happened. When a friend called asked me if had heard about what happened to Dave, I panicked. After a series of phone calls I found out what exactly had happened. As dramatic as it may sound, this was the story. Dave went outside college to a nearby store to get a recharge and he heard a lady scream. He went to see what it was and saw to his disbelief that there were three guys on the verge of sinning. Instinctly he picked up whatever was next to him and tried to hit them. Meanwhile the lady runs away, and the gang in disgust sways their knives in random directions causing random cuts on Dave's body. He somehow escapes the scene and his truly wonderful friends take him to hospital to get the necessary treatment. What I would like to stress upon here is that, any of us would have normally just run from the situation, but this guy, potentially put his life on stake to perform the rescue act for a lady who he has never seen. Some of his wing mates called it foolishness, I would like to interpret it otherwise. It's courageous. It's manly. It's what someone who goes by heart and not his mind does. And that is the perfect description of Dave. I don't know if I would have done the same. I would have probably run away, and I'm sure many others I know would have done the same. But thank God for people like him. As some sort of consolations, the wounds are barely serious. But what matters is that he did what he thought was right. Be Brave. Be Dave. Get well soon mate.

New Role

It's been a mixed past week. And it ended in a very mixed way too. After the bizarre cancellation of club event, to firing from team, due to lack of balance of two equal passions, as a blessing in disguise I felt how it is to be something like a coach to a basketball team. The experience was enthralling. Although it didn't finish in the best possible manner, the whole feeling associated with the job was good. When it came to calling the plays, I was not very much involved, thanks to a certain national player on the team and a few others who are sound with the game and have practised more together. The important job was to call the necessary timeouts and make substitutions if need be. Keeping the guys updated about the scores and time situation was also an important part of the job. The feel this gave was simply amazing. I believing in giving back to whatever makes you a better person, and this just increased the want that I already had to get to Basketball coaching at some later point of my life. Today, after the players I had almost as big a responsibility, for one I had to choose the replacement for the injured national player, apart from the above mentioned jobs, but nevertheless this was a challenge, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The sad part is that we lost, but it's just our first tournament and we obviously will improve by a huge margin. Huge trophy, team photo session and Akshaya dinner was nicely rounded up by a truly amazing truck ride back to college, thus ending this very bittersweet week.