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James Lawton: Catalans map out a route for Spanish domination
Dazzling possession football that won victory in Rome can deliver
the World Cup next year to a nation that is showing even the mighty
Premier League how to play
http://0rz.tw/PeXpo
Barcelona's historic treble of Champions League and Spanish league
and cup is a stunning tribute to the club's enduring belief about
the way the game should be played. But it is one that may have to
take its place soon enough in wider homage to the soil in which
their game has grown – precisely, next summer, when the most
feasible guess is that Spain will add the World Cup to the European
title they annexed so brilliantly in Vienna last June.
A pattern is forming here. Well, really, it is more a blazing mosaic
painted by the skills of such as Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez
with their wondrous Argentine helpmate Lionel Messi.
Among other things, it tells us quite how much can happen in a single
year of football; how a landscape can be changed so radically the old
one is almost beyond recall.
Certainly, as the fans of Barça threw themselves joyously into
the Fontana de Trevi here in the small hours of yesterday morning,
it was not so easy to remember the mood in Moscow last year after
the slugfest between Manchester United and Chelsea. But then if you
tried hard enough it did percolate through the prism of Barcelona's
beautiful display of exquisite and inventive ball control. It centred
on the awed reaction of a Spanish observer in the Luzhniki Stadium to
the pace and the pummelling pressure produced by both teams before
United's shoot-out victory. "My God," said the Spaniard, "only
English football could produce such football at this level."
Then, it seemed that the mastery of the world's wealthiest league
was just about complete. There were no awkward questions about how
much it was contributing to the growth of the England team, how much
beauty it was bestowing beyond the consistently aggressive play of
United and the flickering brilliance of Arsenal. The Premier League,
we were told, had created its own, dominant world. The trouble with
this, as we saw so indisputably at the Stadio Olimpico this week,
was that Barcelona had another idea, another dream.
Some no doubt will claim that the status quo would very likely have
been maintained if Uefa had appointed a passably competent referee
for the second leg of the semi-final at Stamford Bridge, and there
is no question Chelsea all but obliterated Barcelona's magic until
the moment Iniesta rescued his team with that late strike.
It is also true that Chelsea did turn up to play, while United
abandoned the project here as soon as Barça made their first,
brilliant strike. But then perhaps we should consider for a moment
exactly how Chelsea played. It was a spoiling game that almost
worked but at no time did they seem to abandon their fear of the
potential of their opponents to rip them apart. How else can we
explain the decision to haul off Didier Drogba and replace him
with a defender after Barcelona, through another refereeing
mistake, were reduced to 10 men with nearly half an hour to go?
Chelsea played Barcelona in the only way they could and it nearly
succeeded, but if they were casualties of fate, surely, we saw
here, the great beneficiary was football – and our sense of what
it can still mean in the hearts of all those who watch it.
Sir Alex Ferguson was as generous in defeat as he was irritated
by a question about the appetite for competition at the highest
level he and his team retained after the imperious nature of
Barça's victory. No doubt his disappointment at the failure
of any of his players to produce the kind of performance he
expected had gone deep into his bones – and equally certain
is the fact that some United reputations, notably those of Wayne
Rooney and Michael Carrick, will need some brisk refurbishment
at the start of next season.
Ryan Giggs, no doubt, deserved his career achievement award as
PFA Footballer of the Year – perhaps he should, on that one
occasion, have been announced as footballer of the years – but
this surely was his last hurrah in a game of such magnitude. His
influence, like all of his colleagues except, in the early going,
Cristiano Ronaldo, was almost non-existent, and, sadly, Paul Scholes
might easily have ended his magnificent career with a red card in
one of the most important matches he has played.
However, while United nurse their wounds, Barcelona are entitled
to admire their battle ribbons.
Not only have they hoarded their own silverware, they have given
Spain the foundation for a golden epoch. It is no doubt true that,
club for club, strength for strength, the Premier League remains
the most competitive league, but La Liga is fuelled now by the
oxygen of the best football produced anywhere in the world. Even
the idealistic Arsène Wenger thought that the romance of Barça's
game would ultimately run aground under the physical weight of
English football at its most pressurised and disciplined. But he
was wrong in the way that probably, deep down, he had hoped his
own critics would be dismayed.
Again, we can expect plenty of disputatious reaction along the
Kings Road, but its most passionate arguers will perhaps understand
if they are somewhat isolated in their mourning.
Certainly, there is no sense here that the wrong team finished
up with the greatest trophy offered by club football. Barcelona,
let's not forget, were claiming the prize for the second time in
four years – and on precisely the same terms negotiated by the
brilliant Josep Guardiola's predecessor, Frank Rijkaard.
They were doing it with the most profound commitment to the
beauty of football. No, agreed Guardiola, Barça are not a
finished article; they need, as a priority, to strengthen their
defence, but then it also has to be remembered that they played
here without three key members of it – the equivalent of United
coming in without Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Patrice Evra.
It meant that they simply had to play to their greatest strength,
a sublime ability to hold the ball and use it with all of their
imagination. The result was more than one club's memorable triumph.
It was an endorsement of the belief that, from time to time, the
purpose of football is to light up the world.
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※ 編輯: Petrie 來自: 219.87.89.203 (05/30 00:47)