"We have the chance to put in a big performance in Bilbao next week and keep competing in the four games we have left. It will be hard, but we will do what the fixture list demands and asks of us: win, win and win.''
Diego Simeone just gets it, doesn’t he?
After the 3-0 win over Granada on Sunday, the Atletico Madrid manager invoked the spirit of late coach and club legend Luis Aragones. Facing the prospect of an unfancied league title, let alone Champions League success against the might of Bayern Munich, Aragones’ motto of ‘win, win and win’ is exactly what la Rojiblancos need to take the challenge head-on.
This is not the first time Simeone has mentioned Aragones: far from it. “Atletico are my life,” Aragones once said and the Argentine has ensured the reverse remains equally true.
2014 was the year Aragones, nicknamed Zapatones or Big feet, passed away. Calling him “a courageous man with a lot of character,” Simeone proclaimed “Everything we get this year will be for him because he is an Atletico and Spanish football legend.”
As if on cue, Atletico reached the top of Primera division the weekend after. Then, after drawing 1-1 at Camp Nou on the final matchday to snatch the league title from Barcelona, Simeone mentioned he had been thinking of Aragones. “I am sure he was out there helping us to defend in the area in the second half,” was what the charismatic trainer thought of Atleti’s rearguard action.
A team built on Aragones’ principles
Remembering club-heroes to inspire a team is one thing, but Simeone has gone further. Courage and character are what the present Atletico team relies on. Duopoly in the league? Not a problem. Crucial players leaving every summer? Not to worry. Munchen in the semi-finals? Challenge accepted.
And so, los Colchoneros march on, laughing in the face of adversity. Winless against arch-rivals Real Madrid since 1999, Simeone’s men ended the 15-year wait in August 2014 with a Super Cup win. Since then, they have lost once in eight Madrid derbies.
‘El Cholo’ Simeone’s team have also shown the way to counter Barcelona, considered one of the finest club teams in football history. The Blaugrana have not reached the semi-finals of the Champions League only twice in the last nine editions: on both occasions, they ran into the impenetrable defence of Atleti.
Also read: Fernando Torres feels Atletico Madrid are yet to hit top gear
The Red-and-Whites continue to defy expectations. Even by its own standards, the Atletico defence has been exceptional in 2015/16: 20 cleansheets and 16 goals conceded in 33 games is no mean feat.
In doing so, Simeone has broken La liga’s duopoly, at least on the pitch. Continued inferiority in terms of television rights, finances and status could easily break the spirit of any other club standing in the way of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Atletico come back year after year after year, relishing the inequality, almost seeming to need it to play the way they do.
Aragones, the wise man of Hortaleza, would be proud.
What lies ahead for Atletico?
As for their present challenges, Atletico have more than a chance to win the league. Barcelona’s most recent loss to Valencia confirmed signs of their title-defence withering in the face of Rojiblancos resilience. Real Madrid’s resurgence is a threat, but Atletico are one point ahead of the All-Whites, effectively two with a better head-to-head record.
Even two points seem difficult to defend over five games against a talented side led by Cristiano Ronaldo, but the Vicente Calderon faithful will point out that Real Madrid’s star-studded team lacks a soul, let alone that of Luis Aragones. As the man himself said on the eve of the Copa del Rey 1992 final against Real Madrid, with a Coke bottle in his hand:
"If you don't win today, I'll stick this up my a***. You've got to do them. This is the moment you've been waiting for: Real Madrid and at the Bernabeu. They've been sticking it up our a**** for so long, now it's our chance to stick it up theirs."
Need we say anything else?
Then, of course, there is the small matter of Bayern Munich in the UEFA Champions League semifinals. The two teams last met in the 1974 European cup final. Aragones scored in that match, but Bayern drew level in extra-time and won the replay 4-0.
In his last interview, Aragones expressed his regret, stating he “would love to see Atletico Madrid win the European Cup. That’s a thorn in my side still.”
Aragones the bond uniting Simeone’s Atleti
It would not be amiss to think the 1974 encounter was too long ago, representing little of the present version of these teams and having little bearing on the upcoming fixture. That, however, is not how Simeone is going to see it.
Come the eve of the match, El Cholo will relive a match that happened more than forty years ago. He will mention how the goal-scoring exploits of a club hero went in vain and how, after years and years of decline, irrelevance, relegation and near-obscurity, destiny now beckons to set right the wrong that triggered them.
The memory of loss is painful, but it is in these moments that the ethos Luis Aragones and Atletico Madrid shine through.
When the club went ‘through hell’ (relegated to Segunda division), Aragones led them back to the havens of the first-division. When the national team looked gifted but directionless, he had the courage to drop Raul and bring in the Xavi generation to kickstart Spanish football’s dominance. When Fernando Torres was incapable of scoring a goal in the 2008 Euros, he drew a cross on his forehead and said, “Nino, you’re going to score today.”
The kid duly obliged.
Simeone realises this and is determined to carry forward the teachings of Zapatones. Rest assured, whatever the outcome of their season, Diego Godin and co. will exorcise past demons, get in the face of Guardiola’s Bayern and do what they have to do, to ‘win win and win again.’ So far, it has been enough.
Courage, character, cojones was what Aragones always desired. It is what the Red-and-White army always delivers.
One can easily imagine how Simeone would react if Atletico were to reach the final and find Real Madrid in their path. The cruel loss two years back is sure to be reminisced, almost to the point of cherishing it. There will be pride in standing equal to an opposition with far more resources. It will, of course, end with another Aragones quote:
“You do not play cup finals. You win them.”
Diego Simeone just gets it, doesn’t he?
