The Greatest Title Race Ever?

The most respected achievements are always the ones which are the hardest won. A league title won by a double digit points difference merely emphasises the team's superiority over the rest of the pack but it can never compare to the romanticism and drama of a title race which goes down to the last day. After all, the worth of a team is defined by its rivals and its most satisfying when your rival is almost as good as you, almost.

Never has this been more true than the FC Barcelona - Real Madrid rivalry in Spain and never has this epic rivalry been exhibited more brilliantly than the ongoing 2009/2010 season.

It has been an unwritten law of nature that both teams undergo cycles of fortune which perfectly complement each other. When Barca is riding high, Madrid is struggling to even ride the easy waves, and when Madrid is the closest to the finish line, Barca is stumbling and vainly trying to catch its breath in a faint hope of overtaking its bitter enemy. Even when the title race between the two is close (and it has been several times), there is always the feeling that one of the two deserves it way more than the other one, and it invariably wins it.

This season has broken this law. With the last game of the season to be played in less than 24 hours, Barca hold the slenderest of one point advantages over Madrid. However, this is not astonishing, we have seen this scenario so many times. The astonishing part is the points tally of the respective teams - Barca has 96, Madrid has 95. The previous record tally in La Liga was 92, in a 22 team league. Both teams swept aside this record in a greedy nonchalance while racking up win after win after win. In fact, you'll be hard pressed to find such ridiculous tallies in the archives of all the major leagues.

What is the reason behind such a points glut? Is it, as some have suggested, simply that Barca and Madrid have pulled away from the rest of the pack so much that the other teams will be inevitably defeated and the only two fixtures which will realistically decide the title are the el clasicos? There may be a modicum of truth in that, in that the big two's spending power is infinitely more than the rest and the gap is ever increasing. But when one observes the teams, Barca is essentially unchanged from last year's historic treble winning squad, in fact the one major change - the Eto'o/Ibrahimovic swap has arguably done more harm than good. Madrid's team is vastly improved from last year, but the undiluted individual brilliance in the squad tempered with a characteristic dysfunctional play has only served to bring it up to Barca's level, as the points tally shows.

Nor have the other teams suddenly become worse. Valencia managed to keep its stars against all odds and have done splendidly to finish third after two seasons outside the top four, with breakthrough seasons from the likes of Ever Banega and Pablo Hernandez making them a stronger team than before. Sevilla is similarly unchanged and a mid season change of manager has brought the free flowing football and stability back into the team. Atletico and Villareal have disappointed, the latter very much so since meltdowns are always expected of the mattress makers, but their seasons are negated somewhat by the splendid season Mallorca has had. More importantly, none of these teams have lost any of their significant players, so to characterise them as weaker is certainly a knee-jerk reaction at best.

No, the true reason, as has always been, is each other. Barca and Madrid have pushed each other step by step all season long. Unlike in England, where also the season finished with one point separating the top two but the race was run by trying to make sure that the team stumbled the least number of times, Spain has seen a title race in the teams have made each other run faster and faster and breach previously untouched frontiers. Every comfortable win by Barca has seen Madrid match the victory with a now typical resilient performance and every Madrid thrashing has seen Barca somehow hold on to their nerves and record their own positive result. Barca has lost just one game all season and did the second successive double over Madrid, while Madrid has broken the record for most number of wins, scoring over a hundred goals along the way.

But then why this season over all the others? What makes it special? The primary reason would that the current Barca, which is being talked about in the same breath as the greatest teams ever, achieved so much and so outrageously swimmingly that its eternal rivals could not help but react to this dominance. Thus came the neo Galacticos spending spree and a complete rehauling of the squad which has forced Barca to be even better than it was before. Surely a season which is defined by pushing the boundaries of perfection instead of merely hoping to screw up less than the other fellow deserves to be called the greatest title race ever?

Whatever the reasons, whatever the legitimacy of this assertion may be, the truth is that these performances have been exceptional. Cliches are so because they are often true, and neither is more true than the one that both teams deserve their hands on the trophy. In 24 hours the curtain closes, and it is a huge shame that it has to

La Pulga (The Flea)

There are some players who you want to see play all the time. There are some players who are so good you secretly love watching them even if they played for your hated rivals. There are some players who can inspire such loyalty that you would change club allegiances if they move.

Then there are the very few, very special players who it is simply a privilege to experience. Who do things which haven't been done before and will likely not be repeated in your lifetime. Whose brilliance transcends boundaries and unites every fan in experiencing that simple feeling which is the hardest to command - the pride of saying "Yes, I was there. I've seen him play."

Lionel Andres Messi is such a player.


This is like flogging a dead horse, no? Reams have been written about him in recent times, nothing really is left to be said. Hell, even the narrow minded English football fan who is myopic enough to believe that Theo Walcott is the X-Factor in any game, let alone a game against Barcelona, is coming around to the realisation that the lad probably is actually good. But really, how can I not?

Leo Messi is making the impossible routine. In the last 30 days he has scored 16 goals. 16! That's more than what Emile Heskey has scored in the last three seasons. Combined. He scored thrice three times in 2010 including in two successive matches in the league and so made the hattrick passe. Therefore, he went and scored four yesterday against Arsenal. And the scariest part is, yesterday wasn't his best performance, he is capable of doing better. And he is only 22.

But the statistics are not the point. They are just a side effect of his brilliance. The point is his brilliance. The point is it is such a joy for anyone to watch him play. The sheer raw innocence of taking defenders on and beating them every single time. He is the child who never grew up, the child who made a monkey's uncle of his playground opponents just because he could, and still does it. He is what we all daydreamed of becoming during our childhood, he is our dreams magnified. As Sid Lowe puts it, "he has made the ridiculous so routine that he doesn't get talked about as much as deserves; playing perfectly is hardly news." He has scored more solo goals in this calendar year than most Ballon d' Or winners have scored in their career. He is a throwback to an era when skill was more valued than physicality, he has shown that genius cannot be obtained merely by being the fastest runner or the strongest bulldozer. He makes the cheeky lovable, the impudent adorable. And he does it all without declaring that he is the first, second and third best in the world. He doesn't need to.

Leo Messi has become so good that the debate is no longer whether he is the best player in the world. The debate has shifted to whether he is the best player ever. While that is something which can only be decided at the end of his career, it is easy to see what the next step towards achieving that status is - the World Cup. Although I am traditionally a Brazil fan, a part of me will be cheering him on this time. And you wouldn't put it past him to do a Maradona and drag his country to the trophy.

Regardless of what happens, even if he by, the unlikeliest of transfers, moves to Real Madrid, I will watch him play as much as I can. Yesterday, a new mission was added to my 'things to do before I die' list; I have to watch him play live once. Because then I can boast that "Yes, I was there. I've seen him play."

More Than Just The Cantera

There has been a lot of talk over the last couple of years on how FC Barcelona is a model club in that they have built a champion football team primarily through youth products with the occasional astute signings. While it is certainly true that La Masia is currently the leading youth academy in the world which includes not just the players currently playing in the club, but others like Fabregas, Arteta and Capel who are enriching other teams and leagues as well. However, it is a bit of an stretch to hold a moral high ground solely on the basis of how many youth products are in the first team and frankly unfair on the Ronaldinhos and Eto'os who came to the club and became legends by their own right. It is also a stretch to declare that this has always been the Barca philosophy.

Not the complete story

Youth systems go through their own golden periods where by a mixture of coincidence and a good system a bunch of talented players come together at once. Barca is having one now, in the 90s it was Ajax and Manchester United, in the 80s Real Madrid's five title winning team was built on a spine of home grown players. Before the rules regarding foreign players were relaxed, every team was anyway dependent on its youth products and the occasional foreign star.

While it is true that to preserve the Catalan identity of the club there has always been an emphasis on having Catalans playing for the club and this invariably means a healthy focus on the youth academy, it is not like Barca has always been a flagbearer in having teams which are solely dependent on home grown players. The Dream Team and throughout the 90s there were more than a fair share of first teamers who were bought from outside. If one remembers the sorry Gaspart era, Barca had a Madrid spending policy, except without the titles (brr). In recent history, the focus on youth products was only intensified in the later stages of Rijkaard and of course Guardiola eras of which the fruit is being reaped now.

While it is heartening and certainly a source of pride that the sextuple was truly won by a team which was mostly built from ground up, it should be remembered that a lot of this is down to the good fortune that players like Xavi, Iniesta and Messi have come together at once instead of ten years apart. I am more proud of the fact that no matter who is coaching or where the players come from, our attacking philosphy which was defined by Cruyff has remained steadfast and all the players from Messi to Oleguer have to accede to it. That philosophy is what really defines Barca, not how many youth products started the CL final. And that is why I support the club.

Thank You, Samu

The last symbol of the of the 2004-06 F.C. Barcelona era is finally handing over his baton to the Guardiola regime. And the departure of Samuel Eto'o is honestly hitting me harder than Ronaldinho's, since he is leaving on a tremendous high.

Eto'o departs after becoming the third highest scorer in the history of the club, with a more than laudable record of 130 goals in 200 games, which includes a phenomenal 108 goals in 144 league games. He was the focal point of the Ronaldinho-Deco magic which dragged the club from the depths of the UEFA Cup to the top of Spain and Europe. He was the focal point of the Messi-Xavi-Iniesta magic which won the triplete three years later. He's scored crucial goals twice in Champions League finals, there are not many who can say that. His contribution to Barca's success in the new century has often been underestimated and overshadowed by the more glamorous names in the club. But the sheer weight of statistics tell their own story, and for once, a true one.

Eto'o was transferred into the club in 2004 from Real Mallorca, and being a typical Madrid casualty of the Galacticos (I) era, he hated the capital club with a vengeance. Which naturally suited Barca and with a player of his talent, it was a transfer just waiting to happen. During the next five seasons he showed a scoring instinct which I have rarely seen anywhere else. He was not the typical fox in the box, nor was he ever the most technically gifted, but he was blessed with sheer pace and a thunderous finish. I have always regarded him as the cleanest hitter of the football (to use an awkward analogy) in the modern era, when the ball connected to his feet, no goalkeeper could get near it. For a striker, his work rate and hassling was outstanding, the true example of Barca's philosophy of defending from the front.

Whatever his antics were off the pitch, and he has certainly never been the most mellow of characters, his professionalism was a joy to watch. It was an open secret that he and Ronaldinho never got along, but the telepathic understanding between them on the field made it all irrelevant. He was subjected to the some of the ugliest of racism football has seen and he soldiered through it. After he was put on the transfer list at the end of last season, he took it as a challenge and produced a string of brilliant performances in pre-season to convince Guardiola to keep him. And we all know how well that worked out.

Some will say that he has been disrespected by the club who ultimately used him as a makeweight in a transfer, and they will be right. Although he still leaves through the front door with his head held high, the feeling that he has been undervalued yet again cannot be shaken off. On the other hand, the post-2006 era has shown that there is a justification in radically changing the team to keep it fresh, and let's face it, Ibrahimovic is a phenomenal talent by his own right. At least Barca has not been stupid like Madrid to let one of their most influential players (Robinho) slip through in a similar makeweight saga without making sure that the other chap was actually coming.

Regardless Samuel Eto'o leaves a legend of F.C. Barcelona and there are more than a few misty eyes among cules due to his departure. So thank you for everything Samu, you have written yourself into Barca folklore, and may you achieve as much success in Inter, and wherever you go after that.

And welcome Ibra, you have a hell of an act to follow, hope you are ready for it.

In Pep We Trust, In Barca We Believe

In the end of the 2007-08 footballing season FC Barcelona lay bruised and battered, finishing 18 points behind rivals Real Madrid in the league and dumped out of the domestic and European Cup semifinals, the worst season in the Laporta era. A change was needed, the old guard had lost its hunger and had to go. So went Frank Rijkaard and club talismans Ronaldinho and Deco, who had dragged the club out of a six year title less streak and had made the club virtually invincible two years before under club president Joan Laporta, before it all fell apart.

And in stepped Josep 'Pep' Guardiola as the new head coach, the man given the task to be the new messiah, to remind the world what Barca was all about, to usher in a new age of greatness.






But was it really such a good idea? Guardiola was a mere 37 years old then, his only experience of coaching having been one season in the youth squad. Was it really the wisest move in giving one of the most high pressure footballing jobs in the world to such an inexperienced manager? Granted, Guardiola was a club legend, who grew up in La Masia - the youth academy, became the heartbeat of Johann Cruyff's Dream team and won a host of titles with the club. But such sentimentality does not necessarily automatically a good manager make, nor even an inspiring messiah; just ask Alan Shearer. What the hell was Laporta thinking?

The season gone by has shown the Laporta was completely in his senses, in fact the decision has proved so succesful that no Barca fan can scarcely believe what has happened. FC Barcelona has arguably had his finest season ever, winning the triplete, the Spanish treble of La Liga, Copa del Rey and the UEFA Champions League. In the process, it has played the most beautiful and dominating footaball in living memory, scoring over 150 goals in the process, which is averaging more than 2.5 goals a game. With a nucleus of home grown players, Guradiola instilled a fantastic work ethic in the team where losing possession of the ball was regarded as worthy of capital punishment, a never say die spirit which made the team fight till the final minute and score many late goals, not least in the Champions League semi final against Chelsea, and an undying commitment to playing the game beautifully and for the fans. There is only one way Barca knew how to win, by keeping to its philosophy of playing the beautiful game and trusting in itself.

This was Guardiola's greatest achievement this season, he had pretty much the same squad as the one which had performed so poorly last season, in fact some would argue that it was weaker after the departure of some of the stars. However, Guardiola instilled in them the beliefs which had become a part of the club since the Cruyff era and which the team had forgotten, and he did it with an uncompromising disciplinary hand, penalising players for any departure of rules. For this, the biggest credits of the triplete surely belong to him.

Now on to the players. The biggest strength of this team is that it played and won as a team, which is why so many players can claim to have got superstar status from this season. The first to come to mind is obviously Lionel Messi, the Ballon d' Or elect. 38 goals and 24 assists in the season tell its own story (to put things in perspective, Cristiano Ronaldo's recordbreaking last season had 42 goals and 8 assists) but not the complete one. Anyone who saw Messi play recognised that the little guy was having a celestial season above anyone else on the planet and it was simply a matter of formality to anoint him the next World Footballer of the Year.

Or was it? Barca and Spain's midfield heart, the duo of Xavi and Andres Iniesta, have a strong case to challenge Messi's rise to the throne. The midfield was the fulcrum of Barca's possession football, adn the true reason of its dominance, exhibited so brilliantly in the Champions League final, where Man Utd's midfield was as good as non existent. Xavi has grown into the finest playmaker in the world, and Iniesta the most terrorising. Together, they accounted for over 50 assists and 20 goals between them.

Then we have Samuel Eto'o, who showed once again how it is never feasible to write him off, and no matter what his antics are off the pitch, there is no one more professional on it. He was put on the transfer list by Guardiola but proved to him in pre-season why he should stay with a whole lot of brilliant performances. Guardiola relented into keeping him in the face of such desire, and the decision turned out to the best transfer of the season. Even though he was pipped to the Pichichi (top goalscorer) by Diego Forlan in the league in the last game, by being the first person with Forlan to reach the 30 goal mark in La Liga in 14 years showed his importance.

Ably making the third spike of Barca's attacking trident, Thierry Henry turned back the years and brought a grace to the team which typified his Arsenal days. Popping up with crucial goals in many matches, and capping it with one of his finest performances in the 6-2 mauling of Real Madrid in the Bernebau, his contribution to the season must not be underestimated.

Which brings me to the transfer of the season, the rightback Dani Alves. The only right back in the world who has the attacking instinct to stay more in the opposition's half than the opposition full backs but has the stamina and drive and fall back each time the other team attack and not leave the defence exposed. Alves was the troubleshooter in chief of the team, every time Barca was in trouble, there would be a tendency to pass the ball to him so he could make one of his trademark runs and crosses. He saved many games that way.

Puyol, Pique and Marquez had to shoulder the defensive responsiblities and they did it with aplomb. Particularly, club captain Puyol got back the form to go along with his grit which had defined him a few years ago and Pique, the surprise of the year, became a rock solid defender this season. With Yaya Toure providing invaluable cover in the midfield and being the best water carrier around, the Barca defence is in good hands, although much can still be imporved.

Last but not least, the supporting cast who all stepped up when they were needed, mostly (Hleb was an unfortunate exception). It's not the biggest squad, or the best, but it had the desire and the commitment to be the best, and therefore the club became the best again.


What next? Let us go do it all over again next season. There is still much improvement which can be made, and if they are made, the titles keep coming and the beautiful football keeps flowing, this class of Barca will have to be recognised as one fo the greatest teams ever.

El Clasico scoreline: 6-2

The pasillo has been emphatically redeemed. The Liga is practically in the bag. I am the happiest person in the world.

The Beautiful Game

Football season is here in NLS again and I've spent the last few days playing and building up stamina for the tournament. It's been lovely to feel the touch of a football on my feet again and horrific to find out that I have lost said touch. The recent rain is only helping matters; softens the ground and brings back nostalgic school days of playing football in the mud, there is really no better weather to play the game than a stormy wind and rain.

I would love to write pages on Barca's performances this season, but until it is over I don't want to say anything and jinx my team. Still, regardless of how many trophies we get or don't get, I have never been more proud of supporting this club in ten years of being a cule. I got interested in the club after playing FIFA '98; shallow reason to start following a club, I know, but one decision which has worked out well, methinks.

Related: We are apparently going for an ambitious 4-3-2-1 Barca style formation in the tournament. I like it. For the record, I'll probably be playing in right central midfield.