Barca Light.

ex-german exile

ex-german exile

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Jan 27, 2011
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Cille Mheàrnaig
Killie fan in peace. Firstly, congratulations on a superb result. Last night's match is one of the best I have seen in a very long time. Many teams would have crumbled against the onslaught immediately after the opening goal. The Fabergas' lob to RVP at 0-0 was the play of the match for me, although there were so many highlights from both teams.

So now to the reason for my post. I watched the match on the German channel SAT1 with unsurprisingly a German commentator who kept reffering to Arsenal as "Barca Light"! Have you heard this before? or is it just a German thing?
Also, I can't quite make up my mind if its a compliment or not. Your thoughts.

Also, when he was commenting on the fantastic atmosphere the commentaor mentioned that Highbury used to be known as "Highbury the Library" because it was so quiet. Is that true? I had never heard it before.
 
germanexile said:
So now to the reason for my post. I watched the match on the German channel SAT1 with unsurprisingly a German commentator who kept reffering to Arsenal as "Barca Light"! Have you heard this before? or is it just a German thing?
Also, I can't quite make up my mind if its a compliment or not. Your thoughts.
Click to expand...

That was coined by the media in the build up to the match last year. It was definitely not intended as a compliment - the implied meaning was that Arsenal try to play the same style as Barcelona, but are a vastly inferior version. Another interpretation is that Coke light is Coke without the calories, so Arsenal is Barcelona without the trophies. So it possibly also originated in the wake of Barca's treble winning season in 2009, where Barca showed how to play attractive attacking football, but still win things.

http://www.football.co.uk/arsenal/is_it_gunner_get_messi_-_free_bet_with_paddy_power_rss638774.shtml
http://www.spanishfootball.info/2010/12/european-draw/

germanexile said:
Also, when he was commenting on the fantastic atmosphere the commentaor mentioned that Highbury used to be known as "Highbury the Library" because it was so quiet. Is that true? I had never heard it before.
Click to expand...

Yep, that's true. Even some Arsenal players referred to it as the library, specifically referring to the North Bank, which lost all atmosphere when it was made all seater. The nickname was in place for around 12-15 years - even Steve Bould the defender from the 1990s remembers the nickname:

http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/highbury-memories-476516.html

and part of the advertising for the Emirates stadium states that "State of the art acoustic technology was integrated into the design, chiefly to combat the "Highbury Library" quietness of old"

http://www.spoonfed.co.uk/london/venue/highbury-37/emirates-stadium-2941/
 
Cheers m8. Thanks for the explanations. I did think twice about posting as it did read back a bit WUMish, so pleased you intepreted it as I intended.

I understood the root of the "Light" epitaph being from Coke Light as that's what Diet Coke is called in Germany, and while using that as a synonym in reference to trophies is journalistically quite clever - its still a f*****g cheek!

Anyway, good luck for the second leg. As a fellow Brit, I root for all the English teams in Europe, but as a Scot and SAF fan usually ManU <sorry> get my vote when it comes down to it. However, this season if you can knock out Barca, I genuinely hope you can go all the way.
 
Lol, I should point out at this point that I'm a Utd fan! I just come on the Arsenal board for the banter and to keep an eye on our closest rivals. So Utd get my vote as well... ;)

And yes, it's the Moscow in Russia. Not the one in Scotland, or the one in Idaho!
 
The reason I ask about Moscow - is that the Scottish village of the same spellin, but pronounced MOSS, as in the green stuff and COW as in the animal is only a few miles from my home town of Kilmarnock. It has little footballing pedigree of note, except that in the late 90's when Scotland were playing Russia in a WC or Euro qualifier in Moscow, loads of the tartan army who couldn't make the trip decended on the village of Moscow to watch the match there!
 
I do remember reading about all the Scots watching the match 'in Moscow'. Although did you know that Moscow in Scotland was actually named Moscow in honour of Napoleon's defeat at Moscow in Russia? Before that it was named Moss-sca or something like that. Some combination of Moss and a Scottish word for hill I think.
 
Didn't know that. Isn't this high brow this morning. <whistle>

Moscow, Ayrshire is only two miles from the village of Fenwick; and, of course, the country in the Peter Sellers' film "The Mouse That Roared" was the Grand Duchy of Fenwick. Isn't that a coincidence? <doh>

Anyway, got to get on with some work. Got a meeting in half an hour I haven't done any prep for.
 
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