Football would not have half the drama it does unless therichest and therefore often the best teams, were pushed hard to show their mettlefrom time to time. It happened in England and Spain last week when teams at thetop were made to fight and claw their way out of losing situations. Not all ofthem made it. Manchester United faced a two-goal deficit at home againstTottenham Hotspur and ended up losing, 3-2 “ the first time that Tottenham hademerged victorious at Old Trafford in 23 years.
There was luck, there was debatable refereeing, but most ofall there was the combined courage of Tottenham players not to surrender to thepressure and expectations stacked against them. Later Sevilla,which also changed its coach recently, led Barcelona, 2-0, at the Ramon SanchezPizjuan stadium.
Barca was dominating play but being picked off throughdefensive errors. Barcelona, however, is made of sterner stuff. This time, inSeville’s raucous citadel, Barca did what Manchester United failed to do athome. It came all the way back to win the points and to preserve its perfectstart to the season in which it has occasionally struggled, yet still won allsix league games so far. This theme was repeated as Manchester City over hauledFulham down in London. Chelsea imposed its new style and its collective beliefby taking the lead over Arsenal, suffering an equaliser but ultimately, anddeservedly, winning the game, 2-1, at Arsenal’s stadium. One might almost saythat it is emulating, to a degree, the Barcelona way. Nothing is morecomplimentary than to be copied, but still nobody does it better than Barca.Manchester United’s veteran manager, Alex Ferguson, has openly admitted he istrying to learn from Barcelona. Tottenham had dared to hit United on the nosenot once, but twice in the first half when Jan Vertonghen and Gareth Balescored after Manchester’s frail defense was exposed.
Ferguson changed his game plan. He put in Wayne Rooney, whohas been recovering from a fearsome cut in his thigh, but as the manager said,it was attitude rather than personnel that changed the momentum of the match.United did, and Nani and Shinji Kagawa scored within minutes of the secondhalf. But in between those goals, Clint Dempsey had popped up to side-foot hisfirst goal as a Spurs player, off a rebound into an unguarded net.
In Seville, by contrast, the underdog could not defend itstwo-goal lead. For once, Lionel Messi was not the finisher, though he was oftenthe architect of the threats. And so, riding his luck but sticking to hisattacking principles, Tito Vilanova, the new Barca coach, has equaled therecord start of successive victories by his predecessor, Pep Guardiola. ''Itwould be better not to suffer,'' Vilanova said before leaving Seville. ''But itis important to have the ability to sacrifice yourself in order to continuecompeting.'' Exactly.
