Real drama

What a finish! I watched the Primera Liga's final match between Real Madrid and Real Mallorca live on RealMadrid TV which started at about 2 a.m. And it was unlike any other football game I've watched so far. It was similar to how I felt when the Bulls trailed the Suns in the 1993 NBA Finals and against the Jazz in 1998.

To give you an idea, Real Madrid had to win that match to win the league title and end their 4-year trophy drought. In the Spanish Primera Liga, the champions will be the club with the most points at the end of the season. Heading into the final day, Real Madrid and arch-rivals Barcelona were tied with 73 points. By virtue of a better head-to-head record (Madrid defeated Barcelona at the Bernabeu 2-0, and drawn 3-3 at the Nou Camp), Real Madrid would be champions if they remained tied (in terms of points). For those who are not familiar with the scoring, a win is worth 3 points, a draw 1 point, and no point for a loss.

The race itself was extremely tight the final weeks, and Real Madrid had a series of amazing comebacks and good fortune in their past games.

On May 12 against Espanyol, they came back from a 3-1 halftime deficit to win 4-3.

On May 20 against Recreativo Huelva, Roberto Carlos scored in the dying minutes of injury time and gave Real Madrid a 3-2 win. The Brazilian left-back raced down the full pitch, settled Fernando Gago's cross and scored under the sliding goalkeeper. The win gave Madrid 69 points, the same as Barcelona, with 3 more matches left.

On May 26, they won against Deportivo, keeping them tied with Barca with 72 points.

On the penultimate match day on June 29, both Real Madrid and Barca were playing at the same time. With a couple of minutes left on both matches, Barca were leading Espanyol 2-1 while Madrid were losing to Zaragoza 1-2. It was then when Madrid's top striker Ruud Van Nistelrooy scored a goal a minute from the final whistle to tie the match at 2-2. In amazing stroke of good fortune, seconds later, Espanyol's Raul Tamudo scored a late equalizer with 25 seconds left. So the day ended with Madrid and Barca both with 73 points.

Thus, the league championship depended on the last game.

For over an hour the title looked to have slipped from Real's grasp as they trailed to a 17th-minute strike from Mallorca's Fernando Varela, while Barca overpowered Gimnastic.

Real suffered another setback when league leading goal scorer van Nistelrooy was forced off in the 32nd minute after appearing to pull a hamstring as he ran towards goal. At halftime, Mallorca led 1-0. Barcelona, meanwhile, went 3-0 up by the break with goals from Messi and Ronaldinho.

Real manager Fabio Capello introduced the inconsistent Guti at the start of the second half but his side continued to live dangerously with a succession of last-ditch tackles stopping Mallorca adding to their lead.

It became worse midway through the second half, as David Beckham, the man who is largely responsible for Real's resurgence the past couple of months, limped off the pitch and was substituted by Jose Antonio Reyes.

Little did everyone know that the substitute would become Real's hero, equalizing a minute after coming on in the second half. Reyes fired in from close range after some dazzling footwork by Robinho and Gonzalo Higuain on the right side of the area.

The Bernabeu burst into life after Reyes's goal and Real were back on top of the table 12 minutes later when Diarra, called back from international duty with Mali, sent a header bouncing off Mallorca's Angelos Basinas and across the line. The Bernabeu crowd (who interestingly included a Beckham party consisting of wife Posh spice and Hollywood couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes) was ecstatic. Again, it was unlike anything I have ever witnessed. The Madrid fans were partying.

Reyes made sure of victory four minutes later with a great strike from the edge of the area to spark wild celebrations.

As the final whistle sounded, the Bernabeu went wild. Fireworks were lit, and an amazing celebration and ceremony was held. After this, the team paraded throughout the city of Madrid on their team bus with tens of thousands of frenzied fans surrounding them.

I watched all of these on TV from 2am to around 8am. Really incredible nail-biting drama.

This record 30th league championship saved Real Madrid's otherwise disappointing season. After a major overhaul in the off-season (hiring a new coach and signing the likes of Cannavaro, van Nistelrooy, and Diarra), the team was full of potential. However, for some reason, the team struggled early and got eliminated early in the European Champions League and the Spanish King's Cup. It also signified the end of the Madrid careers of Brazilian superstar Roberto Carlos and English football icon David Beckham. The important thing was that Real Madrid was hopefully back on their winning ways, ending a four-year drought. Hopefully, things will even be better next year.

Working on Independence Day

Perhaps for the first time since June 12 was official made "Araw ng Kalayaan" or Independence Day, Filipinos worldwide will be spending the day at work. Tsk tsk tsk. This is result of GMA's so-called holiday economics. The Arroyo administration introduced holiday economics a few years ago to boost domestic tourism. Under this arrangement, holidays are adjusted to extend up to the weekend. Thus, if let's say April 9 (Araw ng Kagitingan) falls on a Tuesday, the holiday is moved to Monday, so as to give us a longer weekend.

Is it just me or isn't this defeating the essence of the holiday? Though, this is laudable idea (which is being done in other countries), but there are just some days that are too important to be moved. An example is one where we commemorate an important event in history. This holiday should be observed on that day itself and not just any other day.

Let's say we don't have Christmas breaks and let's just imagine that January 1 falls on a Thursday. Should New Year then be moved to Friday (January 2) pursuant to holiday economics?

One more example, just imagine your birthday being moved to another day...