Congratulations Barca

It may have been com­ing for a while but you have to pay trib­ute to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona for their achieve­ments so far in a sea­son that could still get even better.

Cham­pi­ons and Copa Del Rey win­ners, his side have dom­i­nated the Primera Divi­sion this year and are wor­thy win­ners. They can, of course, claim a tre­ble with a win over Man­ches­ter United in the Cham­pi­ons League final in Rome next Wednesday.

It is hard to believe that many fans and press were ques­tion­ing Guardiola’s abil­i­ties at the start of the sea­son. A shock open­ing day defeat to Numan­cia and a home draw with Rac­ing San­tander was their worst start to a sea­son for 25 years and doubts were raised about the wis­dom of appoint­ing such an inex­pe­ri­enced manager.

But credit to Guardi­ola he seems unaf­fected by pres­sure and rode out the storm. He has a steely deter­mi­na­tion and desire to play the right way and set about his task with con­fi­dence and focus.

By Novem­ber it had swung the other way and many peo­ple were sud­denly com­par­ing the side to the dream team of the early ‘90s. A lit­tle too early to com­pare this side to the likes of Koe­man and Sto­ichkov, but it was tes­ta­ment to the level of foot­ball Barca were play­ing week in week out.

Again as nice as it was to receive such praise it brought pres­sure of its own but Guardi­ola still appeared unruf­fled. He got the side play­ing the foot­ball he wanted them to and one which was bril­liant to watch and vir­tu­ally impos­si­ble to stop.

In the first half of the sea­son six goals were smashed past Sport­ing Gijon, Atletico and Val­ladoild. Five despatched past Alme­ria and four past Malaga and Valen­cia as Barca stormed to the top of La Liga in style.

The stats also speak for them­selves. They have amassed with 86 points from 35 games with 50 points on the board at the halfway stage. They have beaten the record for home wins in a row (9), were unbeaten from game 2 to game 24 and have scored almost three goals per game on average.

The turn of the year saw a resur­gent Real under new boss Juande Ramos try to chip away at Barca’s lead. A draw with Betis and defeats to Atletico and Espanyol in early March threat­ened to de-rail Barca’s sea­son but once again Guardiola‘s faith in his play­ers and the style of foot­ball pre­vailed, cul­mi­nat­ing in El Cla­sico to end all El Clasicos.

You know it must have been some­thing unique when one of your bit­ter rivals admit you played “great and spe­cial foot­ball.” This was exactly what Raul said after Real’s 6–2 maul­ing at the hands of Barca at the Bern­abeu. The game effec­tively sealed the title, end­ing Ramos’s slim hopes of catch­ing them and forced the foot­balling world to stand up and take notice (if they weren’t already on their feet).

All eyes now, of course, turn to Rome and the Cham­pi­ons League final with Man­ches­ter United. Though we mustn’t for­get that Barca were very nearly not there. Chelsea’s frus­trat­ing tac­tics in the semi-final meant the likes of Henry, Messi and Eto’o couldn’t break free from the defen­sive shack­les of the Lon­don­ers, until a moment of bril­liance from Ini­esta in the dying moments. It remains to be seen whether United play the same way. One thing is for sure and that is Barca will play one way, the only way they know how.

It can be seen as a weak­ness – some­times you need to adapt the way you play and play ugly to win games. But Guardi­ola has such faith in his style and instilled such con­fi­dence in his play­ers they believe they will steam­roller over their oppo­si­tion, who­ever it maybe, on their terms.

I can’t see United being steam­rollered, but I can’t see them employ­ing the same tac­tics as Chelsea either. If both sides attack, it could be an all-time classic.