La Liga - Week 36 Fixtures - 4-9th May, 2018

[SirBalon]

Let's all talk about the interesting number 18... It's no ordinary number and has a lot of significance in so many cultures around the world.

The 18th group of the periodic table are known as the noble gases for being the least reactive because of the 18 electron rule.

In most countries, 18 is the age of adulthood, the legal age for driving, drinking, and voting.

As well, in many cultures, 9 has both good and bad symbolism and 18 is considered double of this power.

Now for the math:

18 is the first positive number that is equal to double it's digits.(Harshad number )

18 is the sum of the first three positive multiples of 3, and it is divisible by all of them.

18 is the first inverted square-prime of the form p·q^2.

18 is the sum of the first three pentagonal numbers(1,5,12)

 

 

[Samuel Eto'o]

11 hours ago, Cicero said:

I always thought Michels was the founder of total fooball. A system that has revolutionaised the game to what it is today. He passed that knowledge to Cruyff, who then passed it to Guardiola. 

@The Rebel CRS @SirBalon  @The Palace Fan @Stan @Panna King

Guardiola's interpretation and implementation of Total Football/tiki-taka/Barcelona style football was a significant improvement over all the names mentioned here. Let's give credit where it's due. Guardiola does deserve and merits all the praise he's been getting.

It's no coincidence he's such a success in England, the self-professed most grueling league of them all. When implemented well by skillful players at the top of their game, his ideas translate anywhere and everywhere. The results speak for themselves.

 

(I personally didn't think "football the Barcelona way" would be this successful in England, in the Premier League. Guardiola, once again, is proving to be a gamechanger, now in the very home and heart of football itself, England. The Premier League won't ever be the same after this, his sophomore season)

 

We can extrapolate from all this that the two Spanish European Championships of 2008 and 2012 and World Cup triumph of 2010 would not have been possible if not for Guardiola (and by extension FC Barcelona). Fully 6-7 players on the national squad on the pitch at any one time were from Barca. 

 

Kinda ironic, isn't it, that it was the Dutch native son Cruyff whose footballing philosophy (perfected in FC Barcelona) prevented his country of birth from winning the World Cup. One whose legacy continues to this day. 

 

It really is quite simple: If there was no Cruyff, there'd be no Messi, no Iniesta, no Xavi, no Spanish football domination in major tournaments at the national level, no FC Barcelona as we know it (for all the reasons everyone's mentioned). It was Cruyff who started and laid the foundation for La Masia.

 

As such, I do think that Cruyff is certainly the most influential modern footballer of them all.

 

I do think Xavi will come back to coach Barca one day. Hopefully sooner rather than later. He's been getting his coaching badges in Qatar. He won't have "a Messi" so it'll be interesting to see how he manages with the players he does have.

 

I think we just might see "the art of the pass" and "interpretation of space" a la the Guardiola Era come back into prominence for Xavi is nothing if not one of the greatest passers our sport has ever seen. (Iniesta's not the coaching type, maybe in another role?) He'll be more "Guardiola than Guardiola" is the feeling I get from Xavi, the football he'll preach a perfect distillation and embodiment of everything good about Total Football/Barca style football. In other words, we'll see FC Barcelona play "attractive football" again (with all those beautiful triangles).

 

I, for one, can't wait. 

[Samuel Eto'o]

1 hour ago, SirBalon said:

Let's all talk about the interesting number 18... It's no ordinary number and has a lot of significance in so many cultures around the world.

The 18th group of the periodic table are known as the noble gases for being the least reactive because of the 18 electron rule.

In most countries, 18 is the age of adulthood, the legal age for driving, drinking, and voting.

As well, in many cultures, 9 has both good and bad symbolism and 18 is considered double of this power.

Now for the math:

18 is the first positive number that is equal to double it's digits.(Harshad number )

18 is the sum of the first three positive multiples of 3, and it is divisible by all of them.

18 is the first inverted square-prime of the form p·q^2.

18 is the sum of the first three pentagonal numbers(1,5,12)

 

 

You too mate?  Kinda obsessed with that number. Any particular reason you're sharing it here? 2018?

[SirBalon]

40 minutes ago, Paulo Dybala said:

You too mate?  Kinda obsessed with that number. Any particular reason you're sharing it here? 2018?

I don't know mate... Seems to have become a rather popular number these days and it's going down like a storm in Spain, it's all the rage to be honest.  Right now the most popular digits in Spain are 0 and 18 with more focus having been put on how the humble zero has been achieved instead of the more wholesome eighteen.