In the time that Jose Mourinho’s been at Real Madrid, he’s won only once versus Barcelona, that being the Copa del Rey final where they won 1-0 off a Cristiano Ronaldo header. That might not seem bad, except that they’ve eight times now. Three times in the Copa Del Rey, three times in La Liga, and the two legs of the Champions League last season. Now that’s a problem if you’re a Real Madrid supporter. But what is to explain for their struggles against Barca?

I think the easiest one to point out is the poor defending. While they arguably have one of the best goalkeepers in the world, every combination of their back four has been poor. You can argue “They have Sergio Ramos, Carvalho, Marcelo, Coentrao and so many other start players that can play defense. How can it be bad?” The problem that their line has is in actual defending and focusing on the various runs from Barca players.

Here’s a video of the highlights on the latest match in the Copa Del Rey match:

Here’s one example where there’s poor marking. Realize that Alexis himself is a fairly short player. Yet, somehow, he manages to be the one to get a head on the ball versus Coentrao and Ramos. Here’s another example:

The problem is that they’re not tracking Iniesta, who makes the run. They came out lucky to not have had a tied game because of that series of passes. Then comes the two goals:

Here are two prime examples of poor defensive play from Real Madrid. What’s interesting is that both of the scores are coming from defenders. The first goal, Puyol gets the goal somehow while Pepe is a complete spectator to the run. In the second, Abidal runs into open space and toe pokes the ball into the goal. More so, the fact that Barcelona had been putting balls over the Madrid back four more often than usual (remember that Barca is a considerably shorter than the average side) should have been a clear warning to mark after runs by various midfielders and defenders. They saw the flaw in the lack of marking from the midfield and defense and exposed it easily.

But then how did Mourinho do it with his squad in Inter, when they won the aggregate against Barca? Simply put, they had a better defense. Walter Samuel, Lucio, Zanetti, and Maicon are better defenders when they need to be. They lack the pace and athleticism that Madrid’s defenders have, but they have a considerable amount more discipline. This itself changes the entire gameplan for Inter, compared to Real Madrid’s.

Because of the weaker defense in Madrid, Mourinho has to compensate for this by readjusting his midfield. If you don’t have confidence in your back four, Barca’s midfield will have a field day with you and beat you with through balls and intricate passing drills to get around your defense. So, to make up for it, you put in more holding or disruptive midfielders to stop their midfield, rather than have productive playmakers to assist and score goals. That is why it’s been so common for Mourinho to start sides of Alonso, Diarra, and Pepe (who’s usually a central defender) in the central midfield to try to interrupt Barca’s passing play.

This leads to something not talked about as often: attacking Barca’s defense. One of the things about Barcelona’s play is that they’re just as susceptible in the back. With Alves running forward, sometimes, he doesn’t track back and that leaves Puyol, Pique and Abidal to defend. But for Real Madrid, they’re typically only attacking with two or three players. Even with Ronaldo on your side, if Barcelona has all four back, it’s still going to be a challenge to get through and score a goal with only one or two other players with you. There’s two clear ways to beat the Barca defense:

1. Play the aerial game and try to head in a goal.
2. Send in more attacking players.

Given that Barcelona’s team is shorter, the first option seems very logical. If you have a clear height advantage over them, use it. Pique, Puyol and Busquets are typically their best aerial defenders, with possibly Abidal on that list as well. But beyond that, their midfield is pretty undersized. Madrid needs to take advantage of this more. They did for much of the second half with a few key chances by Benzema, but he failed to capitalize on this.

The other option might be a little tougher for Madrid. Let’s go back to the game in which Inter won 3-1 versus Barcelona in the San Siro (pardon the French commentary):

In each of the goals scored by Inter Milan, there were usually four or five players in attacking positions or making attacking movements, one of which included Maicon, one of their wingbacks. Because of the steady defense that Inter has, it allows them to run with a more attacking midfield. Usually, they’d send in Sneijder or Motta to go forward with Cambiasso holding in front of the back four. As a result, it keeps the Barcelona defense honest.

As you watch games by Real Madrid, keep an eye out on how many players they have coming forward. Usually, it’s not enough to pressure the Barca defense, and as a result, they can remain comfortable and easily get out of the situation and restore the momentum back in their favor. But, if they can find a way to get more players forward, they may have a shot at beating Barcelona. Until then, players like Ronaldo have to remain patient and not get frustrated because all he’ll get in terms of support will be Higuain and Benzema.

So long story short, how do you fix this Real Madrid team to beat Barcelona? Fix the defense. Make it stronger and more disciplined. This will free up your midfield to allow for more attacking players and force Barcelona to have make good defensive stands. Use this knowledge with the ability to win and score goals in the air, and you have the equation to beating Barcelona.

EDIT – One other thing that I failed to mention was the possibility of using one of Barca’s own tactics against them: pressing. Mourinho has used it several times to good effect. But the side effect of it is fatigue on the players. Because Barcelona’s ability to make mistakes in their own third of the field is so uncommon, the players will typically have to chase for long periods of time. And as a result, that will tire them out quickly and will play into Barcelona’s hands. One goal was scored as a result of an error from Valdes, but other than that, they’ve been mistake free in the back. So while it may be effective in disrupting their game, it doesn’t provide as many opportunities to score and one would hope. It’s the question of figuring out the risk and reward for getting a goal off Barcelona’s errors passing in the back versus potential fatigue later in the game.

So it’s 2012 now. And we all have our new year’s resolutions. Work out more, eat healthy, be on Facebook less. It’s all stuff we want to improve on… Or at least say we’re trying to do. But how about trying different endeavors… Like programming? Codecademy has a concept that surely will interest some people. And it’s worth trying, whether you’re a nerd or not.

A friend sent me a link to this new programming course called Code Year. Basically, it’s a one lesson a week course that started earlier this week. It teaches people how to program in JavaScript. And if you’re curious, it’s actually a useful programming language… You’ve probably used it while surfing the web. In any case, you get a lesson plan that teaches you some basics and you follow that up with a little “challenge” or application to what you’ve learned.

I decided to try it out myself since I’ve always wanted to learn JavaScript (but just been too lazy to actually buy a book and read up on it or ask my buddy Benji to borrow one of his books). One of the first things that stood out is that it starts users with a console instead of just an empty area to write a block of code. This allows you to see immediate results from what you’ve coded. It also makes finding errors a breeze. Try finding an error in a block of code as a beginner, to only find out you were simply missing a semicolon.

In any case, the early lesson plans are suited for the beginner. So for those with programming backgrounds, it’ll be somewhat boring and quick to complete. You go through the basics of what a programming language is capable of doing and then proceed to learn the syntax and other capabilities of the language. Afterwards, you get the opportunity to apply what you’ve learned through writing your own first application (and thus facing the arduous task of reading and writing a block of code). However, it’s worthwhile and pretty fun to complete.

Code Year definitely opens up an avenue for many people who haven’t even considered with free programming lessons for the masses. But it also opens up even more than just the ability to program. Farhad Manjoo of Slate.com wrote this in his article of Code Year:

But knowing how to code will improve your life even if you don’t ever program anything useful. I learned the Basic programming language when I was a kid, and then I sharpened my programming skills in high school and college. I am by no means an expert programmer, and I rarely take up coding in my job, but I learned enough to alter the way I approach problems. And that’s the most interesting thing about taking up programming: It teaches you to think algorithmically. When faced with a new challenge—whether at work or around the house—I find myself breaking down the problem into smaller, discrete tasks that can be accomplished by simple, repeatable processes.

I think he is accurate on this. I know when I took programming classes in high school, it made me think more “algorithmically”, that is, looking at a problem logically and attempting to solve it in a specific way. In essence, it helps improve our ability to approach problems that we might encounter, whether around the house to a specific task on the job. It makes us think differently about how we see those problems. I don’t just go about things in a guess-and-check methodology these days. It’s analyze the situation and work through it step by step. It also improves your efficiency as well, which is crucial in a day and age where you can’t be wasteful with your time.

Overall, Code Year definitely provides an opportunity to learn to code and does a good job of it for the person that has never touched programming in his or her life. Code Year won’t make you an expert programmer and get you a job at Google after finishing it by the end of the series (though that would be awesome). But it does allow you to think differently and enables people to learn how to program. For some people, they might find their calling and actually enjoy programming. From there, learn Python, Java, C#. Then you potentially get a job at a huge company like Microsoft or Google. Who knows? Anything’s possible right?

I’d hate Tom Brady too if I were this kid. Kinda. Maybe. Not really (since (1) I’m not a Philly fan and (2) Steelers beat the Patriots earlier this year).

The book concept still reminds me kind of the storyline from the Japanese book and movie Battle Royale. Anyway, here’s the trailer for The Hunger Games:

I’ve seen videos like this before. A husky howling to calm down a crying baby. TV shows. And music too… But Biggie Smalls?

(Via CNNSI.com)

“$30. That can feed a family of four in Viet Nam for a month.” –My Dad, to me

… I headed downtown with some guys in my small group this past Monday as part of a serving event we participate in. We get the opportunity to serve Seattle’s homeless dinner with the Lord’s Table, a program that serves the homeless every Monday through Thursday. It’s good in the sense that we know that they’ll get a good hot meal that evening. It wasn’t exactly the warmest weather either. But getting the opportunity to talk to them, hear their stories, and just serve their needs is something we’re called to do as Christians.

We’ve all served through the Lord’s Table numerous times. But as the first couple of individuals came around, I think for a number of us, there was a bit of surprise and heartache.

As we were serving food, there were these two little girls with their mother and father right behind them going through the line. I’ve seen homeless kids when I made my trip over to Viet Nam when I was in high school, but I expected there to be homeless children given the conditions of the country. But it was hard to see such young kids in our own city, let alone country, going through a serving line like this. It took a second to really regain my focus and composure at what I saw. How could we let young children go hungry and have to go through lines like these when we’re the richest country in the world?

… The next day, I was just going through my social networking feeds and I noticed a Twitter and Facebook post made my church in Bellevue (Mars Hill Church) with the words “URGENT”. It was talking about 2,000 pounds of food (or about one ton) being stolen from the Salvation Army (here’s the news link from Seattle’s Komo News about the theft). That news story just baffled me. Why would anyone steal from an organization that looks to serve the poor?

… I knew that Seattle Restaurant Week was going on this week and next week. I’ve always enjoyed the opportunity to check out some of the local restaurants that are around, trying out new plates and dishes for a pretty cheap price ($28 for a three course meal). But then I was thinking about what happened these past few days. The two girls being at the Lord’s Table to be served… the theft at the storage container at the Salvation Army… How could I really indulge in eating what would be high-class food when I know things like this are going on? (The ironic thing about this is that while I was asking myself this question, I had take-out at a local teriyaki restaurant… Way to think through, right?)

$28 is a lot of money. You can buy a good portion of pasta, canned goods, and other non-perishable food with that amount. Part of me is just thinking “This sucks. I was looking forward to doing this for the past couple of months. Now I’m being called to give that up… Ugh.” But another part is reminding me of what we’re called to do as followers of Christ: “To serve the poor. Serve the hungry.” And the thought of how we are arguably the richest nation in the world and we still have people who are in need of a meal is hard to fathom.

In the end, it doesn’t matter that some of the homeless may have inflicted themselves with poverty for the poor decisions that they’ve made. It’s not our place to judge them for those decisions. If that’s the case, they’re already facing punishment for living such a life. For all we know, they could have taken every preventive measure to try to avoid coming to be fed and this is the only option left. And can we blame those two little girls for coming to this line when they’re probably as innocent as one can be at that young age? Obviously not.

Thanksgiving is just a little over a month away. But it’s something to think about. We should be thankful and blessed for what we’ve been given. It doesn’t mean we should hoard what we have though and not share it. We’d just be another Sodom (Ezekiel 16:49 - Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.) To use the gifts that we’ve been given to give to those that need it more than us.

The past few days have just left me with something to think about. It’s just a reminder of the fact that there are so many people out there in this world that are hungry. And that doesn’t exclude Seattle. We can criticize the government for not trying to fix this problem. Or we can help remedy the problem and start taking it into our own hands and doing something about it.

I know where my $28 will be going. Sorry to whatever local restaurant I was planning on going to. There’s a bunch of people who could be fed with that kind of money.

This is a great commercial. I couldn’t stop laughing at “Double Mutumbo” and who shows up after the Miami Heat guy says “South Beach is king!”

Here’s a choir using their hands and bodies to emulate a storm. It’s in the first few minutes of this clip:

This is kinda funny: Samuel L. Ipsum. I’ve linked the lite and SFW version (See the upper right hand corner for the NSFW version). It’s an alternative to the Lorem Ipsum that you find in doing dummy text. I recognized a couple of the quotes from there, namely this one from Samuel L. Jackson’s more well known roles:

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the iniquities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who would attempt to poison and destroy My brothers. And you will know My name is the Lord when I lay My vengeance upon thee.

Guess which movie this is from? Better yet, what book did he quote this from? (Thanks to Benji for the link).

Now this is pretty cool. It started last year, but still going on today. It’s called the Johnny Cash Project. It’s a music video of Johnny Cash’s last song, “Ain’t No Grave”. However, instead of real film footage, people can draw a frame in the video and submit it to the project. Then users can vote on the best drawing for that frame. Eventually, they take the top vote getter for each frame and compile it to form the entire video. A very creative idea.