Leo Leads...Does Your Star?
With Barcelona’s convincing wins against Racing and Malaga added to Real Madrid getting two quick and easy wins against Villareal and Tenerife the two undefeated teams left in the Premiere Division have finally gotten away from a crowded pack.
The separation came easier when Bilbao dropped two straight games (against Sevilla and Tenerife.) With Tenerife being recently promoted we now have to wonder if Bilbao can keep pace or if this is the beginning of a long and slow fade. When you’re hanging with Barcelona and Real Madrid you can’t suddenly stink up the joint can you?
It appears the odor is getting strong in Bilbao.
Sevilla is standing fast having held off Bilbao and Mallorca this week. It would appear that they would be the straggler behind the two big timers. At this point you can say this: You may like Real and Barca to be in the final match, but you wouldn’t be surprised is Sevilla spoiled it for one of them.
Soccer is not a game of parody and it often runs into distractions.
With two top scorers (Iraola and Llorente) on the Spanish National Team one has to wonder if their minds have drifted. I don’t care how well the Spaniards have played, you can still lose your focus. “But they’re the high scorers on their team!” you say. Aha, but that doesn’t mean they’re leading. Remember all the years Kobe
led by scoring without winning a championship? These gentlemen must score AND lead at the same time. Not just lead by scoring. I think there’s a fine line there.
Sevilla also has players with World Cup aspirations (Escude, Fabiano, Adriano) and they are holding up a little better right now. Is this a character issue? I won’t call it character, but I will call it leadership. For all the things I’ve said about Real Madrid falling apart this year at least right now they are exhibiting that they have internal leadership. The same goes for Barcelona. Messi scores AND leads. Ronaldo and Kaka score AND lead. Men want to be led into battle, and right now Barca and Real Madrid are being led.
I’ll say it again. If Barcelona or Real Madrid have a breakdown in leadership they will fall…hard. If Sevilla maintains leadership they could be the dark horse. If Bilbao finds its leadership they can rise again.
I’ll ask again: Leo Leads. Does Your Star? Do your guys feel like they’ve won before they hit the field? Soccer is all about strategy and part of that strategy is the mental competition. Not allowing your opponent to know you (as in Sun Tzu’s “Art of War”)
allows you to have your opponent in hand. All Barcelona and Real’s opponents know right now is that they’ll most likely lose.
