Word: barcelona
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This was, indeed, a beautiful freedom--until this month. I had adopted two European clubs as my own, watched their games every weekend, wasted work hours reading blogs about them, emotionally invested myself in their travails. But last week my two beloved teams, Barcelona and Arsenal, played each other in the final of the UEFA Champions League in Paris. What glory! What pain! This was the sporting equivalent of those thought experiments about desert-island cannibalism. Which of my loves would I be forced...
...have, over the years, constructed a theory that linked Arsenal and Barcelona in an alliance of virtue. Like the cartoon superheroes that reside together in the Hall of Justice, Arsenal and Barcelona had, in my mind, joined to battle the game's bad guys--namely, Chelsea and Real Madrid, the Yankees of European football...
...teams share the same essential strengths. They eschew boring defensive security for the pleasures of relentless attack. Both exude an irresistible cosmopolitanism. Or rather, Barcelona, founded by a Swiss man, has always exuded cosmopolitanism, and Arsenal learned to do so under the stewardship of Arsène Wenger, its urbane French manager. Both combine their exciting international style with a heavy dose of localism. Arsenal coupled the Frenchman Thierry Henry and Dutch genius Dennis Bergkamp with an English-dominated back line. Barcelona fields true Catalan heroes such as Carles Puyol...
...gritty and hardworking, or champagne flash. This was, indeed, a beautiful freedom ? until this month. I had adopted two European clubs as my own, watched their games every weekend, wasted work hours reading blogs about them, emotionally invested myself in their travails. But now my two beloved teams, Barcelona and Arsenal, must play each other in the final of the uefa Champions League in Paris this week. What glory! What pain! This is the sporting equivalent of those thought experiments about desert-island cannibalism. Which of my loves will I be forced to eat? I have, over the years, constructed...
Nike also scooped up such world-class stars as Brazilians Ronaldinho and Ronaldo, British sensation Wayne Rooney and American Landon Donovan to wear the company's boots. It paid marquee European clubs--Manchester United and Arsenal in England, Juventus in Italy and FC Barcelona in Spain--to wear the Swoosh on their kits...