Covering el Clásico
December 13, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
Last weekend brought the biggest game in Spanish club football so far this season with Barcelona in Madrid for the first La Liga Clásico. This meant plenty of previews to write for Sport 360, including views from both teams’ final press conferences (Barca – Madrid) and also a tactical look at where the game might be decided.
Being on the spot here in Madrid helped get me a first piece on the FOX Soccer website – which discussed whether Mourinho would sacrifice style for pragmatism in his approach. My weekly Football Ramble blog predicted that Barcelona have Messi, so Barcelona would win.
This was more or less (ahem) how the game played out and although Madrid went ahead early, Barca roared back to win 3-1. The match report went to Sport 360 right on the whistle, while I went downstairs to listen to Guardiola and Mourinho and processed what they said into a look at what Pep got very right for FOX Soccer.
There was then some follow-ups for Monday’s Sport 360 with Mourinho ruing missed chances from Cristiano Ronaldo. By Tuesday Barcelona were already in Japan to take part in the Club World Cup. So quite a busy Clasicó weekend, but pretty rewarding too.
Busy month in Spanish football
November 29, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
November’s been exciting enough as I’ve settled into role as Spanish correspondent for UAE newspaper Sport 360. It still takes a bit of time to explain about being an Irish guy living in Madrid writing in English, about Spanish football, for readers in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but it’s working well.
There’s definitely been plenty to write about, including lots of goals. I’ve been to the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu to report for the paper on Madrid’s 7-1 win over Osasuna in La Liga, 6-2 hammering of Dinamo Zagreb in the Champions League and 4-1 win over nine man Atlético in the Madrid derby. I also got to direct a visiting Croatian journalist to the Bernabéu mixed-zone, which was nice to be able to do. This close view was handy when it came to writing about why Madrid are playing so well at the moment.
Besides Madrid there’s also been plenty of different Spanish football stuff to cover for Sport 360 – including a breakdown of Lionel Messi’s first 202 goals for Barcelona, a preview of Spain’s ultimately unsuccessful recent trip to Wembley and a profile of ex-Atlético and Sevilla and new Al Ahli coach Quique Sanchez Flores.
My weekly blog on the Football Ramble website is handy for looking at different aspects of the Spanish game – recent pieces have covered the Galician derby down in La Segunda, Sergio Ramos’ mistaken view of his own strengths and the wheels coming off at Real Betis. There was also a blog for Iberosphere about how Jose Mourinho can’t but smile when everything’s going his way. More seriously, I wrote a piece for the latest When Saturday Comes magazine on the influence of Portuguese super-agent Jorge Mendes has on various La Liga clubs. No link for that one, but you should buy the magazine.
The secret history
October 14, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
When Jesus ‘Chus’ Pereda, a goalscorer in Spain’s 1964 European Nations Cup final win, passed away recently at the age of 73, I wasn’t surprised by the wave of sympathy and nostalgia in Spain, with fond remembrances from former colleagues, older journalists and current national coach Vicente del Bosque. More of a shock though, were the recollections of a 40 year conspiracy of silence which followed the tournament win.
It looked an interesting story, mixing sporting glory and political intrigue, i.e. perfect material for my weekly Football Ramble blog, so I did a bit more digging around and found out that Chus had been edited out of the official film of the Spanish winning goal…
“The footage had been put together in a way which, depending on your point of view, was either a technical error or politically motivated. Most people were none the wiser, and those who did know kept their mouths shut even after fascist dictator Francisco Franco died in 1975, in keeping with the ‘pact of forgetting’ agreed when democracy was established in Spain. Spanish TV showed the doctored action right up until 2008, when Canal Plus show Fiebre Maldini found the actual footage in a Dutch TV archive.”
The fullstory (or at least an honestly put together version of it) is through here on the Ramble site.
Every week is Holy Week in Sevilla
October 6, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
Although still busy with football and other stuff, I did a travel piece last week for top English language Spanish comment and news website Iberosphere, advising people that the best time to learn about Semana Santa in Sevilla is when it’s not Easter. That might seem a bit counter-intuitive, but given the crowds and hassle of holy week in the city, and the way Sevillanos spend the rest of the year preparing for Easter, it does kinda make sense. Here’s a taster…
El Señor del Gran Poder, carved in 1620 by Holy Week master Juan de Mesa, now resides in a purpose-built basilica on Plaza de San Lorenzo. The deep-purple, cloaked, dark wooden figure dominates the building from his post over the altar, with a mix of intense agony and weary acceptance carved deep into his face. Such sublime pain can be difficult for modern non-believers to fathom, but was presumably deeply resonant when the Spanish Inquisition was burning heretics. Steps beside the altar bring you right up close to the Great Power, for female visitors to kiss his shiny wooden heel.
The rest of the piece is through here on the Iberosphere site. Enjoy. Hopefully.
Some ding-dong battles
September 15, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
It’s been busy week of La Liga and European football for Spain’s footballers, so I’ve also been kept busy previewing and reporting on what’s going on.
A preview of last week’s Barcelona Sociedad game which hinted at the defensive issues Barca would show is here, while a report on Madrid’s ding-dong 4-2 win over Getafe is here. A preview and then report on Málaga’s impressive 4-0 win against Getafe at La Rosaleda followed on Monday. Then there were match reports on Barca 2 – Milan 2 and Dinamo Zagreb 0 – Madrid 1.
Possibly the most interesting tie this week in Spain though is Atlético Madrid hosting Celtic in a match which has brought back memories of the team’s previous meeting in the 1974 European Cup semi-final. My preview of 2011′s Europa League group game for Sport 360 is here, while I also did a piece for the Football Ramble looking at how the Scottish and Spanish media have taken contrasting approaches to recalling the 1974 tie which saw three Atléti players sent off and left a lot of bitterness in Glasgow.
Viva el futból, viva la revolución…
September 15, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
Last week also saw some off-the-field debates in Spain, with some of La Liga’s other 18 clubs looking to challenge the TV rights arrangment which gives Barcelona and Madrid the lion’s share of the revenues. Sevilla’s president comparing the situation to the French Revolution is here and coverage of the meeting where 12 clubs discussed the issues is here.
The international break also saw, well international football, with Spain ensuring they would be in Poland and Ukraine next summer to defend their European Championship crown. For Sport 360 I did a preview and a report on their easy 6-0 qualifying victory over Liechtenstein. For the Ramble, there was a more in-depth look at Spain boss Vicente Del Bosque’s defensive problems in the run up to the tournament.
Moving a bit further south from Spain, I had the pleasure of reviewing for When Saturday Comes a new documentary film called Soka Afrika, which looks at the hard time many teenage African footballers have when the come to Europe to try to make a career from the game, and uncovers some pretty shady practices by agents and clubs exploiting these youngsters’ dreams. The film’s website is here , but I can’t link to the article as you’ll have to go and buy the magazine.
Football and rugby bits and bobs
September 7, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
La Liga did kick off, eventually, and I was busy enough on opening weekend writing pieces for the Sport 360 paper, including some previews of the first weekend’s action, a match report of Madrid’s easy opening day and then some exciting transfer news stories as the window slammed shut.
The blogs on the Football Ramble site allow for a more light hearted / in depth look at what’s going on in La Liga – and the last few couple have examined the battle of personalities between Jose Mourinho and Iker Casillas at Real Madrid, and how Sevilla still seem to be on the slide.
With the Rugby World Cup coming up I also co-wrote a profile of Irish boss Declan Kidney for the Sunday Business Post. It says that what was once seen as Kidney’s strength – his preference for man-management over tactical wizardry – might now be holding him and his players back and you can read it by clicking here.
If you fancy keeping an eye on what’s happening in La Liga and Irish sport you can follow me on Twitter for more links and updates.
La Liga (doesn’t) kick off
August 20, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
The big news here in Spain (well discounting the Pope’s visit to Madrid) is the postponement of all the games in the top two divisions due to a players’ strike called over unpaid wages.
I’ve been following events pretty closely, and writing about them for the UAE-based daily sports newspaper Sport 360. Here’s the latest Saturday morning with La Liga opening fixtures shelved as row rumbles on, and this was from Friday when the headline was Strike casts dark clouds over the start of La Liga.
As well as this I’ve been blogging away as usual in a few different places. Recent Football Ramble columns have included a look at how Valencia always manage to the ‘best of the rest’ in Spain, a deeper look in to the funny-seeming €8.6m transfer of Roberto to deep in debt Zaragoza and an admiring look at how the ‘quiet billionaires’ at Málaga are impressively building a real La Liga force.
I’ll be keeping more of this going throughout the La Liga season (when it eventually does get going). Feel free to follow me on Twitter for more links and the like.
Gearing up for the Spanish football season
July 28, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
I’ve been ramping up the football writing in preparation for hopefully get more regular work reporting from here in Madrid on La Liga and related events. This week so far has been busy enough, with three different pieces published on three different websites.
First up was a piece for the When Saturday Comes site looking at how YouTube’s coverage of the recent Copa America competition might lead to more of us watching our live football through a web browser rather than on a TV screen…
“The most interesting novelty at the Copa America – which concluded on Sunday with Uruguay beating Paraguay 3-0 in a surprise final pairing – was not a swing in the balance of power of South American football, but a peek at the way football will be mostly watched in the coming years.”
Next was a piece for the Football Ramble’s blog looking at how preparations for the new season are going at Atlético Madrid. Badly, is the answer…
“This almost instantaneous slump from on-the-up Europa League winners to shambolic also-rans might seem pretty drastic, but won’t have surprised experienced Atléti-watchers.”
Finally today there’s a piece on Iberosphere.com arguing that Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho now has enough power to ignore the nudges, winks and full-summer long front page campaigns of AS, Marca and the marketing department…
“Some of the front-page photos looked suspiciously photo-shopped – one showed a disconsolate Agüero looking wistfully at a Real jersey, another had Neymar holding a Spanish phrasebook as evidence he would move to Madrid.”
Hope you like ‘em. I’ve also got a piece in August’s When Saturday Comes magazine on the less bright sides of the links between Udinese and Granada which helped the Andalucian club gain promotion to Spain’s top division for the new season. There’s no link to read that, you have to buy the magazine, which you can do online here though if you wish.
The plan is to keep the productivity up throughout the coming La Liga season. If you’re interested in reading more keep any eye out here or follow me on Twitter. If you’re an editor or x looking for Spanish football coverage for your publication feel free to get in touch via the contact me page of this site.
Using the web to build your career
July 24, 2011 by dermot · Leave a Comment
Over the last couple of weeks the Sunday Business Post has run a couple of stories from me looking at how the web and particularly online social media can be helpful in building careers.
First up Marie Moynihan, vice-president HR, Dell EMEA spoke to me after the recent Connecting Women in Technology (CWIT) event in Dublin. In the feature (out Sunday July 10th) she discussed how people could build their own ‘personal brands’ online.
‘‘These new tools give people the opportunity to plan their professional online presence in a really positive way. There is value in really analysing your network and knowing the key people to reach out to and engage with. The key thing is to put the work in to build relationships, build trust and build your own credibility.”
The second piece was out last Sunday (July 17th) – a chat with Richard Clunan founder of Wordfruit.com, a new online recruitment service for the advertising industry. Clunan told me that the web and the rise of social media were changing the way agencies were structured, and helping previously under-valued staff break through glass ceilings:
‘‘Since the 1960s, advertising agencies have produced campaigns from core teams of copywriter-plus-art director. The newer digital agencies instead have larger teams, with more diverse skills, to deal with the diverse needs of new media. These collaborative environments generate a greater sense of inclusivity, telework and flexi-time are often more acceptable. There is also more of an emphasis on communities and on nurturing relationships. These trends are more conducive to increasing the numbers of and promotion of women, and of people from ethnic minorities.”
The full pieces are through on the SBPost.ie website – the Dell / CWIT feature is here and the Wordfruit interview is here.
me social media
