Of Barcelona and Messimania

Take this from a Manchester United supporter.

Football has never seen a team like Barcelona PERIOD.

We’ve seen attacking football; the kind that looks good and the kind that’s played to win by simply scoring more goals than the other team. We remember Eusebio’s Portugal, Cryuff’s Holland and the Brazilian National Team at nearly each and every World Cup. At the club level, we remember (statistically at least), Di Stefano’s Madrid, Arsenal’s ‘Henry’-Era and the advent of the Galacticos. Ironically, we also remember a Barcelona team of not too long ago – Ronaldinho’s Barcelona.

It’s entirely unfair of me to comment on teams that I haven’t visually witnessed play so I won’t dwell on them. Football however, is an eleven man game. Over the past couple of decades, the team that has the reigning Player of the Year has never been guaranteed club success, especially when it has been awarded for International brilliance and consistency. And this is precisely what makes the Barcelona story so alluring.

While praises continue to be sung about Messi and Messi alone, we must ask ourselves when the last time was that a Football club, at almost each position, had one of the Top 5 players in the world at that position. Or ask yourselves this: Pick the Top 10 players (irrespective o f position) in football today. I did, and without thinking (in no particular order), I came up with Messi, Ronaldo, Rooney, Kaka, Torres, Ribery, Iniesta, Xavi, Aguero and Villa/Drogba/Gerrard/Lampard etc. Three of those players play for Barcelona and they’re heavily involved in controlling the game and setting up (as well as scoring) goals! Anyone who watched both the Barcelona-Arsenal Champions League legs probably found themselves asking when the last time was that the gulf between two premier clubs was ever so wide.

For some, Bendtner’s goal might have sent shockwaves through Camp Nou and may have had even the most devout of Blaugrana fans wondering whether this was one of those dreaded nights when frustration would overcome brilliance. Ah! Therein lies the difference between the Barcelona of today and all the great club teams of the past. The latter had ‘off-days’, days when they just couldn’t seem to find the back of the net or days when the defense would erroneously concede goals that they would never dream of conceding. This team doesn’t really go through ‘off-days’, and when they do, it’s not entirely that ‘off’ after all.

And just like they did in last year’s final, Barcelona succeeded again in playing the beautiful game the way it’s meant to be played. Those short, crisp one-touch passes at a dizzying pace, the careful and patient build up towards a run down the flank or penetration through the middle and above all, clinical and comprehensive finishing evidenced by one man alone.

The only stage where they can be upset (and since it’s in the Bernabeu it’s highly unlikely), is in the Final where everyone would like to believe that anything can happen. Over two legs? Sorry. Even with a four goal deficit I would never bet against them.

FC Barcelona is here to stay.