A Collection of Whiners

Reading the reaction of the Real Madrid players to yesterday 2-0 home loss to Barça, it's hard to believe that they actually are so poorly behaved and lacking in self-awareness, and they aren't just playing a role. For instance, Ronaldo:

I do not understand why everyone playing against them (Barcelona) in the Champions League ends with ten men, Arsenal, Chelsea... It is not an excuse but playing against ten is very different to playing with 11.'

It's not an excuse, but allow me to excuse our loss. And:

We controlled the game at 11 versus 11 but we conceded two goals when we were down to ten. Every year is the same and I do not understand. The truth is that getting through the tie is now very difficult, but in football anything can happen.

They controlled the action 11 versus 11 for portions of the first half of the Copa final. That is all. And:

I wish I had the chance as Messi did to play against 10 because then everything is so much easier.

And, of course, Mourinho:

"I just have one question: Why?,'' he added. ''Why Ovrebo [Chelsea vs. Barcelona referee in 2007 semi-final], Busacca [Barcelona vs. Arsenal in this year's Champions League], Stark? In each semi-final it is the same. We are talking about an absolutely fantastic team. Why didn't Chelsea make the final? Why did Inter have to be saved by a miracle?

''Congratulations to Barcelona. But I just do not understand why Barcelona always receive the help of the referee. All my life I will be asking myself this question, and one day I hope to receive an answer.

''I am not too sad, I have a great family. But I don't understand why Barcelona have this power. It happened two years ago to Chelsea (in the 2009 semi-finals), almost to my Inter last year, and also to Arsenal this year.

''Why do the opponents of Barcelona always have a man sent off? Where does this power come from? Maybe it is to give more publicity to UNICEF, maybe because of the power of (Spanish federation president Jose Angel) Villar in UEFA.''

[Break]

I have already won two Champions Leagues, and I won them on the pitch, with two teams that weren't Barcelona. I won one with Porto, a small team from a weaker league. And I won another with Inter, sweating and fighting hard.

''Josep Guardiola is a fantastic football coach, but the Champions League he won was an embarrassment because of what happened at Stamford Bridge - it was a scandal. And if he wins it this year, he will win after the scandal at the Bernabeu. Let's hope he gets the chance to win a clean Champions League (in future), without scandals.

Gah, what a pair of whiners. If you willingly concede 70 percent of possession, you will be tackling more. More tackles overall means more card-inducing tackles. If you do that enough, eventually you will get burned. They didn't get burned in the Copa del Rey, despite Pepe's studs-up tackle to the junk (at least, I think it was Pepe), and Alonso's takedown from behind on Messi. It goes both ways. As far as last year, Mourinho got by them with Inter thanks to a goal being disallowed by a questionable handball in the vuelta. Plus, Inter was offside on one of its goals in its 3-1 win in the first leg. Inter played great, the slap on Busquets was not worthy of a red, and Piqué might have been offsides on his goal, but there was certainly an element of luck to Inter's win. There usually is in close games; moaning about afterward when the luck doesn't go your way is just lame.