I have a new piece in Slate about the Champions League final and whether we’re about to see the end of Barcelona’s magical run of the last few seasons. Of course, no sooner had I ventured this possibility in a draft than I went down with a sudden, bad case of food poisoning; most of this was written while I was clinging to the edge of the bed, sustained by nothing but Gatorade and rice. So take that into account, if you believe the universe avenges its chosen children.
The point of the piece is that compared with a lot of other good teams, Barcelona are what we might call metaphysically high-maintenance. Manchester United can grind out wins by any means possible and still hold on to their identity, but for Barcelona, a lot of really improbable stuff has to go right in every game for them to live up to the ideal that they’ve come to represent. Up to now, all that stuff has gone right—that’s the miracle of this team—but even a little slip here or there could bring them closer to earth. Over the next few months, if more stuff happens like the Busquets slur allegations, the backlash against diving, the struggles against a resurgent Madrid—basically, if the last few weeks turn out to be a preview of what’s ahead for them as Xavi enters the tail end of his career—a little slip would be more likely, and they could be left as just another very good team.
The comparison here, for me, is Roger Federer rather than Tiger Woods. It’s not that I’m predicting a sudden, shattering collapse. It’s that, like the Federer of a few years ago, they’ve spent several years on the inside of an utterly golden aura, to the point that, even though they occasionally lost, you never really believed anyone could beat them. The Inter upset last year was so incredible because it seemed to fly in the face of everything you knew to be true about this team—but then they regrouped this year, beat Madrid 5-0, and rolled more or less immaculately along.
But as with Federer, it’s possible to imagine them losing a step, diminishing a little, without falling out of the ranks of the elite. And as we’ve seen with Federer, the loss of that air of invulnerability would be almost a bigger deal than a real collapse—sadder, anyway, from a certain standpoint. When a defining star or team comes to mean as much as Barça has over the last few seasons, watching it decline, watching the deflation of the ideal, is unsettling. (There’s something weirdly, impossibly pitiable about Federer these days.) I’d guess that that’s especially true when the team has managed to change the way you think about the game, even if only for a little while.
And maybe it won’t happen. As one of the commenters has already pointed out, Thiago is wonderful, and Barça has some time to find a replacement for Xavi before anyone needs to worry. I could be getting ahead of myself (partly because I’m not convinced that the entire history of the game has produced a viable replacement for Xavi). I just see some ominous signs, and frankly I doubt whether it’s possible to keep as many things spinning in the air as Barça has, for so long, for much longer. If that makes me a cynic, please believe that I would love to be wrong.
The question that I didn’t have room to explore in the Slate piece is what this all means for Spain. They’ve been the dominant international team for almost exactly the same period that Barcelona has had the dominant club team, and face some of the same issues. Xavi will be even harder to replace on the international level. If the Barça-Madrid rivalry gets nastier, as I think it will, next season, then the unlikely warring-states chemistry the national team has forged could be in jeopardy. I’ve loved the Spanish team for a long time, and I’m not rooting for this, but it won’t surprise me if 2012 sees a new European champion.
Read More: Barcelona, Champions League
by Brian Phillips · May 25, 2011
I think 2012 will see a new European champion regardless. Though Barca does always have its Masia to fall back on, the last 12-18 months in Real’s story shows they’re all about finding the best at whatever the cost, nationality be damned. Which is not a bad thing — heck, sometimes I feel like the EPL was founded on such a philosophy — but of course, the arms race for La Liga supremacy cares not for the Spanish NT. Nor should it, but as you say, I think the two “wars” (Spain in Europe/World, and Barca-Real in La Liga) dovetail here, and it’s not necessarily rosy for La Furia Roja.
That said, I’m sure all the Spanish kids like Canales and Javi Martinez will be just fine, albeit missing a few key components. Bit like the Spanish NT of the mid-to-late 1990s, really: Raul plus 10 others.
I don’t think Spain will have same control over matches without Xavi as they do now but like Barca, they will still remain a very good team (and perhaps the best on paper) just more susceptible to the ruthlessness of knockout football.
That’s why Cesc is key to both sides. He’s not yet the metronome Xavi is but I think he has the skill set (maybe not the mental attributes yet) to fill ) that position. Obviously, there is no replacing Mr.Bogart like France found out with Zizou, but the team can adapt if given the time.
The longer a team stays at the top, the more the narrative goes against them as more and more fans start to root for a fresh face. Some teams (Manchester United, Real Madrid, The Yankees, Duke Basketball, etc.) seem to do well and thrive on a “go ahead and hate us, we’ll still kick your ass” mentality. It’s no surprise that these teams are able to stay near the top of their game since they almost need some of the hate to power themselves.
Barca though (and Spain as well) seems to need to be loved. I’m not sure either is built to be a dynasty. Though what I can see happening is Barca having a down year (or two) and then coming back with another magical spell. So sort of similar to what happened in the last couple years of Rijkaard’s tenure as coach before the rebirth under Pep. And I expect it to be triggered by Pep’s leaving this time.
I think the idea of divisiveness within the Spanish is a really interesting point, because I think the rivalry *is* going to get uglier. If I had to guess at 2012 now, I’d put my money on Germany, but I wouldn’t be surprised at all if Spain 3-peated.
Even as Xavi ages, Spain don’t lack for depth with Fabregas, Silva, Alonso, and Navas sitting on the bench most games, and while none of them will replace Xavi (who is the oldest major component of the Spanish National team), they’re not to shabby in their own right.
Raul was left off in 2008 because they wanted to give the team over to the new (Catalonian) generation. But aside from Casillas, who has always seemingly risen above the fray in the same “magical” way Barca does with his Saint-Ikerness, who on Madrid would crack the first 11 for the Spanish National team, aside from Casillas, Alonso, and Sergio Ramos? Arbeloa?
Sergio Canales and Pedro Leon? Not until 2014.
Puyol has previously speculated that Sergio Ramos will replace him at Barca one-day, which reads like science fiction to me, but who knows? And even if Casillas pulled a total 180 from National Hero to selfish villain and declared he couldn’t trust Barcelona’s defense in front of him, Pepe Reina is arguably a better goalie at the moment, and Victor Valdes isn’t that bad either.
The analogy of Barca and Federer is a very intersting one. Given that it is difficult to find parallels of them in their respective sports with their incredible combination of aesthetic beauty and success. However, the difference is that while Federer cannot turn back the years as an individual, Barca – even if they do have a blip when Xavi goes, would be able to replace him or reinvent their style and continue having this success.
The La Liga has been extremely competitive in the last two years between the Top 2. The sad part is the gap below them – which does not look like reducing any time soon.
@john mclauchlin France didn’t have nearly the youth that Spain has ready to go coming in after Zidane. And while none of them ARE Zidane, we going to see the next wave of great French players this decade.
I think it will be expected that Barça do indeed drop their level of playing beyond 1 or 2 more years. They had a treble winning season, outstandingly record breaking, then the World Cup came about and that was reason to believe they would not be as incredible as the season that just passed, but they returned and continued with the beautiful game.
This season they are sending some players off again for the summer for the Copa America and the Gold Cup, and that would be a reason to speculate that they will drop their level of game, but like after World Cup, we cannot tell how the players will return and other players from other teams will return after the summer events.
I think Barças success depends solely on themselves regardless of other teams, and other players, they maintain a system and nobody by purely football means has been able to break it, violence of course will have a toll in any teams tactics, but hopefully that isn’t the case in the future.
One of the reasons that they will drop is that they have won everything, and at some point I think it doesn’t mean the same.
I don’t think any team can hold onto a static identity or style of play and remain successful. The nature of the game dictates that if you are not constantly changing and improving then you are left behind. This incarnation of Barca is not timeless though. I was just thinking that if they win it will be the 3rd time in 6 years but that the 2006 winning team was nothing like this current team and that the 2009 team has some significant differences in terms of style and tactics (as well as players obviously). At some point this “small ball” style is going to crest. It may be Saturday or not but I think we can say that Barca will have to shirk off this version of themselves if they are going to keep up this track record, especially in Europe. So I don’t see replacements as the key. No one can replace a player like Xavi. When he’s gone they will have to play differently (as United have done without Ronny) and so the question for me is not do they have another Xavi laying around but whether they can adapt their style to not having Xavi and others and thus reinvent themselves as a different, but still dominant, side.
Brian, what kind of stuff do you refer to in “…a lot of really improbable stuff has to go right in every game for them to live up to the ideal that they’ve come to represent.”
I believe that many games are won/lost by an improbable mistakes by a player or coach but that is part of the game. Why would it be different for Barcelona?
@Dan I think the ideal he’s talking about is the form during the first half of this season where Barça was blowing everyone away by multiple-goal margins and making it look easy, breezy, and beautiful.
“if you believe the universe avenges its chosen children”
Surely you mean Unicef and not universe.
I disagree that a team cannot maintain their stylistic identity if they wish to continue winning. The way Barca is set up right now – 2nd richest franchise in the world (if i remember), an unrivaled youth development program with a high concentration of local, like minded talent, plus their status as one of the most popular franchises in the world, it’s easy to see them winning the league and dominating Europe for years to come. Nick pointed to their lack of an “us against the world mentality” like that of the Yankees (arguable) or Duke basketball. I would argue that what they lack in the self-imposed underdog mentality department, they make up for with a depth unseen in professional sports. Guardiola’s comments on Jack Wilshere were harsh, but if there’s even a hint of truth to it then it’s telling of what’s waiting in the wings. Combine that with a relatively young manager with no desire to move on, and you’ve surely got a recipe for a dynasty.
The biggest advantage Barca have is the ability to essentially recruit the best players from Catalonia, and beyond that only really compete with Madrid for the best players in the rest of Spain. In comparison, the London area has about the same population as Catalonia, except with multiple top clubs recruiting from the area. If you took the top English players from London, placed them all in a single club and then allowed that club to sell their television rights individually, you’d have an English club that would be as great as Barcelona.
Just something to think about when people start praising the Barca youth system as somehow “unique.”
Umm, Spain has Fabregas also to replace Xavi. In any case, I think Spain will win the Euros. Xavi is not that old and the Euros is just around the corner.
I see Spain playing with a midfield of [Busquets, Fabregas – X, Thiago, Iniesta] OR [Javi Martinez, Busquets – X, Fabregas, Iniesta] once Xavi retires. Under Vicente del Bosque, Spain usually plays the 4-2-3-1 with 5 midfielders. I think it would be easier for them to replace Xavi than Barcelona, without a big change in their playing style.
But I don’t see Spain winning the next World Cup — but not because they won’t have Xavi, but because they won’t have Puyol.
@Pete Good points. I think it depends on how we define style temporally. The current Barca style (small men with the ball on a string with no out-and-out striker ping pong passing around the pitch) can be tracked back to a larger style the team has embraced for decades but I think rigidly adhering to this current incarnation of the Barca style as if it were somehow the manifestation of the essential Barca style, rather than finding a way to work within the the long-term Barca style, would be a mistake. What Barca have done so well is to integrate disparate players into the system-I’m thinking of Henry, Eto, Ibra, etc not just sticking to a single tactic. So for me, simply running this same system with new players doesn’t make much sense because just as players adapt to new systems the systems need to adapt for new players. So I think a certain stylistic identity can be maintained as long as there is built-in flexibility. The idea of replacements though is where the flexibility fails because it seems to content that all one has to do is run a winning tactical system with the right cogs in place and past success can’t help but be repeated. Not only does this mistakenly contend that players are interchangeable but it also elides the fact that the opposition changes. If more Arsenals-type teams come up in the world for Barca to play surely they would need to adapt the system, or let’s say Fergie figures out how to shut down the whirling and whizzing machine that is the Barca midfield. So I guess I’m thinking of immediate style and long term Style as ways of considering this.
Busquets will become a centre midfielder and he will be better than Xavi.
I agree with the probable decline of both Spain and Barcelona over the next few years. As you wrote, “a lot of really improbable stuff has to go right in every game”. I think this runs even deeper than you implied. Spain has been playing with a similar style since the 90s. In my mind, Spain’s rise to success correlates with two timelines. The first you’ve mentioned, in the rise of Xavi. The second, is the decline of the defensive midfielder.
Looking back at who knocked Spain out of tournaments in the 90s and early 00s, you find countries that used excellent defending midfielders or countries that managed to keep Spain at 0-0 and advance on PKs. 2006 is the crossroads year. Xavi played for Spain in that World Cup. They won all of their games until they ran into France with their fantastic defensive midfielders, Vieira and Makelele.
Around that time, the emphasis on Makelele’s passing skills (versus his brilliant defending) and the rise of Barcelona (Champions league winners that year) began to change the primary role of a defensive midfielder from defending to possessing. In this environment, when opponents pack their midfield with possessors not defenders, Spain wins. There is not a country who has better possessors than Spain’s. The tactical response is to play defensive midfielders chosen solely for their ability to defend. This is why the US upset of Spain makes some sense. For as dreadful of a possessor as Ricardo Clark is, he’s actually a good defender (see his Bundesliga action as a center back)and Michael Bradley can hold his own defensively.
However, with the ubiquity of the 4-2-3-1, and the increasing popularity of false 9s, there will likely be a push toward defensive midfields who are more skilled defenders than possessors to nullify the Sneijder’s, Oezil’s, Messi’s and Rooney’s of the world. In a two defensive midfielder set, one can be primarily defensive, while the other is primarily a possessor. In combination with the slow decline of Xavi, for whom, I am also convince that there is no replacement, this will land Spain back to where they were before this stretch of the last few years.; a team that plays an entertaining style, beats most countries handily, and gets knocked out by a country whose midfield defense is better than Spain’s midfield possession.
@Sergio At what, falling over?
Brian – I agree with you that the signs of wear have started to show. However, this Barca side is very different from the Riijkaard era of Dinho-Deco-Etoo (which preferred first touch passing and had some amazing three player passes to pry open defenses). I’m sure Barca will have one or two down years, but come back “reloaded” and ready to rumble.
@Tonyto – Fantastic point about them incorporating players with a disparate style. You’re right, outside of their “little men with ball on a string” (made me laugh), they’ve always been excellent at rotating in powerful workhorse style players, albeit workhorses with phenomenal skill. Even a guy like Dani Alves, who I don’t think gets enough credit for their success, has meshed well with their rhythmic scheme, but has a bit of the wild side to him which we’ve seen especially when he’s defending. Your point is well taken too based on the raw physical power that teams like Real Madrid, Chelsea, or even Man City have now.
@jonathan I have to disagree that a team made up of the the best London players would be any where near as good as the best from Catalonia. If this were true, one would think England’s NT would be made up of those same players, like Spain’s NT is basically Barca, give or take a few players. With England’s roster is much more geographically diverse, relative to Spain’s. (Rooney, Gerrard, Milner, Barry)
Would London’s best midfielder, Lampard, make Barcelona’s starting XI? Doubt it. Would Defoe? No way. And with Pique and Puyol at their best, it’d be hard to justify putting Terry in there.
Not to play the simpleton but perhaps what you are observing is more the end of a long and grueling season, which came on the heels of World Cup, rather than a decline of will or luck or ideals?
At any rate, Spain arrives in Boston next week, their line up announced today. Given the absence of Xavi and Puyol, the friendly will be an interesting test to some of the theories laid out in the commentary.
@rike I don’t disagree that right at this exact moment, players from London (and I mean born/growing up in) would probably find themselves on the outside of Spain’s starting eleven, but if you went back even two years I contend things would be different, and
Catalonia – Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Xavi, Busquets.
London – Ferdinand, Terry, Ash Cole, Lampard, Walcott,
But my point in general wasn’t to directly compare individual players from the two areas, but simply to point out that it makes it easier to build a team when you can pick the cream of the crop from a large population, supplement that youth academy by attracting the best players (Iniesta, Pedro) from across the entire country due to the absence of catchment restrictions that English teams face, and then spend all your money on wages and on transfer fees to fill in the few gaps you do have (Alves, Abidal, Villa).
None of this is to say that Barca does not do a fantastic job training and teaching in their youth setup, only to point out that they do begin their work with a significant built-in advantage.
@Pete
Except that Guardiola isn’t going to last more than one more season, if that. He’s been very clear about how he is less and less enamoured of the toll the stress of running Barca — especially running Barca in the face of the increasingly hostile rhetoric from Madrid — is taking on his health and sanity.
I doubt that Barca is going to dominate as handily next season or beyond, due not only to the ageing of Xavi and Puyol, the inevitable departure of Guardiola, and an honest lack of depth to the squad but to simple exhaustion. The majority of the team has been operating at peak efficiency with no real break since the 2008 Euros, and this one summer of vacation — which the South American players won’t even have — is not going to be enough.
What frustrates me about Barca’s imminent decline is not so much that I enjoy watching their artful dominance (I enjoy other styles of football as well), but that it will play neatly into Mourinho’s self-created narrative of Best Coach Ever, and I really, really loathe that man.
CR7 had 40 goals to Messi’s 31, CR had a single match with 5 goals, so CR is focused. Where does Kaka fit? who knows, but Real had 3 of the top 7 in total assists for the season, and Kaka was not even one of them. Barcelona has a “perfect” system, but that system relies on perfection to work, whereas Real and Man U. bring in who they need, assimilate diverse footballing styles, and scrap and claw for wins. Barcelona as a system is not sustainable at the top, it requires too many factors to align at the same time season after season. They have a beautiful game, but will never be the legendary club that Man U. is.
Well, when Guardiola steps down, they’ve got Luis Enrique to step in.
I think therein lies the key.
More important than the physical ability of the players is mentality – Barcelona’s strength over the past few years has been to adhere consistently to a system. They’ve retained a core of players who know each other inside out, they’ve brought in players who they consider can adhere to this system, and shunted those deemed unable. Greece showed that a team of average players united under a system can beat a team of simply great players. Barcelona are a team of great players united under a system.
Cesar Luis Menotti stated that “a team is above all an idea, and more than an idea it is a commitment, and more than a commitment it is the clear convictions that a coach must transmit to his players to defend that idea.” Barcelona more than any other club in the world today embodies this concept.
Having ex-players move into support and coaching positions guarantees that experience will not be lost. Xavi will stop playing one day, but his skills can be passed on.
Btw, nice article on Slate, Mr Phillips.
That’s how I made my way to the Run of Play, originally.
@Brian erm, I thought Barcelona were already considered legendary. What with the rich history of winning, the players, the managers, the everything. o_O
I’d put an outside bet on Croatia at Euro 2012. I think they have the makings of a kind of ‘golden generation’ right now. I think of Modric as a kind of Croatian Xavi, and there are a lot of other talented pieces around him.
The funny thing about the Spanish NT is that they could field all Barca (even the goalie with the level Valdes plays at) + a few non Real players like: the LB from Villareal (blanking on his name); Torres (if he ever recovers his form), Guiza, or Llorente at Striker; I’m just not sure who would play RB. If Xavi or Iniesta are out then you have EPL players in Silva and Fabregas to fill in.
If there is still massive amounts of tension between Real and Barca players come summer 2012 then if I were the coach I would just dump the Madrid players since Barca has more Spanish talent. But who knows how the press would take that especially with Casillas being the captain.
The fact that Spain won’t have anything other than a couple meaningless friendlies to worry about this summer comes as a huge boost for the Barca players, especially Xavi and Puyol. They’ve basically been playing non-stop football for the past 3 years (Euro 2008, Confed Cup 2009, World Cup 2010). The timing of this much needed summer break is almost perfect for what they need as fatigue and a lack of squad depth appears to be the only main concern for this team as we’ve seen in the second half of this season. As long as Guardiola’s work ethic remains, things should be fine, especially with the likes of Thiago and other talents coming through La Masia. The club have also recognized the need for more quality of depth in the fom of summer signings…. the greatest strength of this team is the constant willingness to learn and improve even in the slightest aspects. I honstly worried things would fall apart well before now but look where we are.
Barca and especially Spain should both be fine even when Xavi and Puyol retire. Most of the posters here are referring to existing talents at Barca and Madrid plus Fabregas and Silva to take over Xavi’s spot. They’re all over looking the rest of La Liga. There are some fantastic Spanish mid fielders already, Borja Valero for one. And of course Busquets in a couple of years can take over from Xavi, he has the skill and mentality already, all he needs is some more experience and to learn how to stop diving.
I think the likely parallel is the Benfica side of the 1960’s. Benfica were built around youth team members, the most important one being the foreign born Eusébio. Benfica won their 2 European Cups relatively early in their superstar’s career, but continued to dominate the Portuguese league and contend for European silverware for the rest of Eusébio’s career. They were European Cup runners up 3 times during the Eusébio era, in addition to the 2 victories.
Barca will contend for La Liga and the Champions League as long as they are solvent and aren’t forced to sell Messi. Inevitably, some breaks won’t go their way, and they may not win La Liga every year or dominate the Champions League. However, they’ll always be in the mix, as long as they have deep pockets and a certain Argentine wizard. They’ll be helped by Financial Fair Play as well. FFP, by preventing teams from running at excessive losses, will essentially create an oligarchy of high revenue clubs (Barca, Real, ManU, Bayern, and a few others). The few teams who have international brands, vast commercial income, and massive television revenue will lord it over the rest, with potential Abramoviches and Mansours prevented from splashing unlimited amounts of cash to break the status quo.
No one thinks that Villareal look like there any good? Thats the challenge to the state of the world that I have my fingers crossed for. I know I said this about Athletico a few years ago (and then they go and sell everyone that looks like a footballer) and I know that Valencia are technically closer to the top of the league but I can’t see past Villareal for the challenge and I very much intend to go on hoping that it might happen. Dear god I wish Porto were in La Liga.
Xavi probably has quite some time left at this level. At 32, he’s fitter than he was in his mid 20’s. Stats from the world cup last summer showed that he made more miles than any other player, which is a constant factor in his play since his remarkable transformation in his late 20’s from excellent, but lacking fitness and prone to injuries to utterly brilliant, never tiring and highly resistant to injuries. He is very difficult to mark, as he’s always moving around, and never breaks a sweat, even after extra time.
Talking about Spain: International tournaments are random, knockout events, much more open to randomness than club football. Absolutely anything can happen in 3 or 4 knockout matches (penalty shootouts, shots hitting the post, a bizarre 20-minute Brazil vs. Holland fadeout, a Switzerland vs. Spain-style holdout). It will be hard to maintain the success even if Xavi were an ageless robot. It would surprise me more if Spain DID win 2012; knockout football is walking a tightrope.
I don’t know where to begin about why this is the worst piece of garbage I’ve laid my eyes on in ages.
1) Your main argument is: “Well, I think it’s going to happen.”
2) Xavi’s brilliance is not superhuman, it is taught by Barcelona’s youth system. Pep Guardiola was essentially the same player in the 90s, and Barca has a youngster by the name of Thiago who is the heir apparent to Xavi when he decides to hang it up.
3) FIFA is enacting Financial Fair Play rules in the near future that will no longer allow Madrid to spend ungodly amounts of money, while Barca’s youth system is cost effective. In fact, Barcelona makes money by selling some of their young players.
4) Sergio Busquets is Spanish, not French.
5) Barcelona wins because they are better than everyone. Not because of their players but because of their style. They play simply. They are the best in the world at passing and at “jugar a la pelota.”
6) Barcelona’s success is not a random confluence of ultra-rare events but, in fact, a methodically planned and ultimately stable system: Barcelona is good, they earn money, they invest that money in their youth, they sell their aging superstars (see Samuel Eto’o, Ronaldinho, and Yaya Toure most recently) and bring up the youth.
With all due respect, as long as Barcelona plays the beautiful game the way they do, they will be among the best clubs every year.
As a Spurs supporter, I’ve been struck by one key similarity between Barca and Spurs this year, that a few other commenters have already hinted at. Teams like United, Real, City (gag), and even Chelsea pre-Torres play a fairly versatile style that can swap in one part for another without losing a ton. Sure, there’s some limits to that as we can see with the Torres failure at Chelsea. But within reason, Chelsea could play with a target man, a couple wing/wide strikers, and three men in the midfield and they were good. United is even more versatile working out of their 4-4-2, which, thanks to Giggs and Park can take on a variety of shapes and even gives SAF the freedom to shift into 4-5-1/4-3-3 when needed.
One of the problems we had all year at Spurs, in contrast, was our dependence on pacey wing players which meant we were strapped into playing a single style. Trouble was we only had two pacey wing players. So when Lennon or, God forbid, Bale went down, we were gutted like Barca w/out Xavi rather than Chelsea without Anelka. Chelsea can swap in Kalou for Anelka and keep going. But we had no replacement for our wings. Suddenly we were a counter-attacking team that couldn’t play another style and had no pace. And that’s how we ended up getting 4 out of 18 points against West Brom, West Ham, and Blackpool.
Barca is similar in that they are so dependent on the specific skill set of Xavi and, to a lesser extent, Busquets. (You could even throw in Valdes’ ability with his feet, which allows the attack to keep going even when the ball is played back to the keeper.) Take out either of those guys, and the possession game doesn’t work as well. Mascherano is, I think, a better holding mid than Busquets and would be ahead of him at any other club in the world. But he doesn’t fit at Barca b/c Busquets is the backline anchor to their attack and Masch just hasn’t figured out how to do that. And when I read people who think Fabregas can replace Xavi I can only wonder if they’ve watched Fabregas play. There’s no replacement in the history of football for Xavi, but if there were, it wouldn’t be Cesc. Too injury prone, too immature, and I think he plays more like Iniesta than Xavi anyway.
Point being: Teams that play a really idiosyncratic style tend toward short bursts of glory rather than sustained domination.
Every now and then it gets a little bit harder to remember Federer.
You made me sad now.
Thats a really apt analogy between Federer and Barcelona – or, at least it will be if your prediction comes true, which it seems to me like it might.
Two points:
1. The prospect of the Madrid vs Barcelona games getting nastier is bad for everyone: Spanish NT, La Liga, everyone who likes watching football. The way those games inflated into comic book tales of good and evil was incredibly frustrating.
2. Jogi Löw must have been rubbing his hands with glee at talk of fissures within the Spanish camp. Germany would stand to benefit from them big time.
@Jason Oddly, Real Madrid has been reporting profits, while Barcelona is losing money. A few million t-shirts with the name Ronaldo sold around the world cover his transfer fee and salary. Real Madrid’s ludicrous sums of money spent on super stars are part of a business model that works for them.
Haha well you can wish all you like for the demise of Barca but I doubt Baconface and his scumbag players and fans (I guess including the author here) will be cheering this Saturday.
After 20 (TWENTY) years of sustained success, the end of Barcelona sounds a little bit harsh. Similar style of play, different players, different teams but always looking for ‘perfection’ and still, after 20 years, as much silverware as the best European team. Cruyff’s legacy at the highest level. Why to bother about ‘everything has to be perfect’? Last 20 (TWENTY) years have proved a point, haven’t they? Just relax everyone and enjoy, the goal is very important, but enjoying your way through, watching matches with a smile and making football lovers cheer up is priceless. Maybe in 20 (TWENTY) years time I’m proed wrong, but in the meantime, please let me enjoy every single minute.
@Sergio I agree that Busquets may be the one to surprise everyone and take over for Xavi as the heartbeat of the club. At just 22 he already reads a match better than most players in their late 20s. He’s also got the quick one touch passing down to a tee.
I don’t understand why this so controversial. Sport is defined by the moving sands of time altering it’s landscape (ask any Nottingham Forest / Reims fan). It’s why we keep coming back for more.
There are very few (if any) cases of a team dominating a sport to the level Barca do currently.* By extension, it must be very hard to do. Therefore, as mentioned in the piece, many circumstances have to converge and the chances are that perfect alignment will be finite which leads to the conclusion that Barca’s time is numbered.
And any person who comes back and says they’ve been doing it for years has obviously not watched Barca since 2008 because this team is a cut above anything they have ever produced.
* – That domination has to be considered purely stylistic as Manchester United’s performance over the last 4 years is comparable in terms of trophies.
@Boo and @Jason, correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t Barca number one in the average wages or total wages payed to there players?
@Jason If you want people to respect your views, and that does happen here, perhaps not leading with ‘this is the worst piece of garbage I’ve laid my eyes on’ might be an idea. With all due respect.
The author’s point is that Barcelona haven’t just been winning a lot, for the past few seasons they’ve been as close to untouchable as a modern day team can be, imperiously sweeping opposition aside like the grande armée, sending people into orgasmic rapture, redefining football, causing thesauruses to burst into flames, deviating the Earth’s orbit, etc.
Clubs can win most of the time, and can sustain a certain level of success if managed well, which Barcelona most certainly are – from the grassroots up to the nou camp canopy – but a particular aura that surrounds a team like the current Barcelona team is difficult to maintain.
Addendum: A lot of people have taken issue with the author’s point that “a lot of improbably stuff has to happen” in every Barcelona game, but that’s not a condition for them to win, it’s “for them to live up to the ideal they’ve come to represent.”
A metaphor that comes easily to mind when thinking of Barcelona is clockwork – tiki taka tiki tock tick tock – a finely tuned mechanism that relies on all parts working in harmony to work optimally. A poorly tuned watch may still tell time, just not accurately; a poorly tuned Barca may still win, just not in a way that lives up to “the ideal they’ve come to represent.”
@Benderinho Thanks for that. It can’t be stressed enough that I’m not arguing that Barca are about to become a mid-table La Liga side.
@joao jorge federer will always be better than your faves
I think you’re absolutely right and I wish people who root for Barça were mature enough to accept it.
(And yes, I do love Barça.)
@Benderinho
Yup, you and Brian nailed it. All good things end. Especially in sports. The closest analogy (or at least the one that always comes to me) is between Barcelona and the Detroit Red Wings. For a while there, the Red Wings were the hockey version of Total Football, and they won championships. But, they got old, and no infusion of new talent has been able to change the fact that they aren’t as awe-inspiring as they once were, even though they still compete at a level above 95% of the NHL, year-in-and-year-out.
As to the need for the “improbable” for Barca to be Barca, well, I don’t know about all that. What I do know is that we watched the 74 World Cup Final here last night, and it seems to me like it’s taken 40 years or so of systematic and dogged pursuit, but, Barcelona have finally reached the apex of that dream those Dutch (and Ajax) teams laid out so many years ago.
Good piece. And yes replacing Xavi will be very difficult. More difficul than replacing all those stars from the past.
I must confess to being a bit confused about what’s under discussion here. The “end” of what exactly? The end of Barcelona winning everything in sight or the end of their regularly putting on a spectacle that people have never seen the likes of before?
I don’t think it’s the habit of winning that people admire Barcelona for, but rather their habit of making people the world over go “Wow” an awful, awfullot. To some extent the two do go hand in hand, yes, but they can also part ways without any kudos or cool points being lost. Whether they carry on winning or other clubs get their number and beat them from now on, we’ll yammer on regardless to our largely uninterested grandchildren that we saw Messi, Xavi and Iniesta do what only they could do, much as the old-timers told us that they’d seen Di Stefano and Puskas.
Barca’s name may not be engraved on the base of several trophies every year for much longer, but I’m confident its entry on the honour roll of our collective experience of football at its best is not only assured, but we quite possibly ain’t seen nothing yet.
Leo Messi is 23.
@Ronit I think (and fear) Modric is the real target for Barca as Xavi’s successor. It Tottenham don’t find their way back to the Champions League (and perhaps even if they do), the best midfielder playing in England will make the jump to the best side in the world.
The cynic in me believes this era of Barca supremacy will end, not for the reasons laid out here, but because “Barca-being-Barca” requires too much of its players for too long. The confluence of events Brian mentions here is nothing compared to the discipline it takes to play the Catalan style. Like any beautiful system, it can be destroyed by violence and negativity. That’s what Mourinho will use. It’s what the Dutch tried to use (and I think we all forget how close it came to working). The interesting question for me is what does the Barca core (Xavi, Iniesta, Messi) do when rough defensive play achieves some measure of success in disrupting the tiki-taka style. I don’t know if they’ll be calculating enough to do the cynical things that get results (a la Busquets) or stubborn enough to insist on the supremacy of their style. Obviously, style-vs-results is an old conundrum. But whichever way they go, Barca won’t be what they are now, Xavi or no Xavi.
I see your argument but I think this Barca team will carry on at their current level for a good 3/4 years yet.
Also it’s good to see another football fan who also recognises the importance of Xavi to Barca and Spain.
I find it HUGELY disappointing that runofplay’s only coverage of the Busquets incident seems to be “how it will affect Barcelona’s image,” instead of “what does this incident, and the way it was handled on all fronts — by Barcelona, Madrid, the media, and UEFA — say about the current state of racism in Spanish and European football.” Regardless of your beliefs on what happened during that moment on the pitch, I would think that the surrounding fallout would be exactly the sort of topic a football blog with a larger sense of scope and a higher tone of discourse would want to explore. In fact, I just did a search of the RoP archives, and only found two posts, both more than two years old and both very brief, that talk about racism as a main topic:
-http://www.runofplay.com/2009/03/08/the-run-of-play-on-freedarko/
-http://www.runofplay.com/2008/01/23/a-more-or-less-innocent-question/
If I’ve missed something, please let me know, but at it stands I am really disillusioned with this site — especially given that writers like Supriya Nair have written such insightful commentary on issues of race in the past.
Can’t wait for the game and sure hope I watch ManU Manhandle Barca!! Enjoyed the post and all these comments!
@elle I’m sorry you feel that way. From my angle, there are two responses to this. First: I don’t live in Spain, I have limited access to the Spanish media, there’s a lot I don’t know about the history and nature of racial prejudice in Spain, and—like everyone else—I have no idea what really happened between Busquets and Marcelo. You seem to have the idea that I didn’t write about the story because—why?—I’m trying to cover up an incident that makes Barca look bad, or something? In fact, a big part of why I didn’t write about it is that I don’t feel qualified to write about it. There are people with more interesting stuff to say, and I’ve tried to direct readers to those posts via Twitter—like Kevin Williams’s critique of Barcelona for not addressing the issue, which I linked to at the time and which you can read here.
Second, and more generally: This site isn’t really about doing op-eds on news of the moment. There are lots of important stories that I/we haven’t written about, because my/our idea of the site isn’t “react to what people are talking about.” If you think that’s irresponsible, my answer would be that there are a million responsible blogs on the internet and I want this site to have the freedom not to be one of them. Including not to be your go-to site for smart cultural criticism, which phrase essentially already conveys the complete content of every piece that such a site would publish.
That’s not to say I, or RoP, can’t address important political topics—I wrote about soccer and fascist violence for Slate; I’ve recently covered Togo and the problems with FIFA’s Africa policy; I’ve written about soccer and nationalism for various publications. RoP has covered human trafficking in the last two weeks, as well as having run dozens of posts, by me and many other writers, on Africa, FIFA corruption, violence in the game, players’ political expression on the pitch, and a great deal else. What I mean is that I want this site to be free to be capricious, to go where it wants, to be absurd, and above all, to be surprising—I would rather have it alienate you by ignoring a big story than bore everyone else by being predictable. (I realize you think that everything I write is a “paen to Barcelona,” but I’m also getting attacked all over the internet right at the moment for being anti-Barcelona, so somebody must be off-base.) I want our writers to feel like they can cover whatever seems most exciting to them at the moment they sit down to write, and since, guess what, all of us have other stuff going on and don’t do soccer blogging 24-7, that means some stories are going to slip through the cracks. I’m okay with that. Spanish racism is an ugly, pressing part of the game, but it’s not the game. If you don’t want to read RoP, then fine, but I don’t accept that we owe it to you to cover any specific story, even if it’s one you happen to care about.
@Simon luca modric is plain not good enough to be a barcelona player.
Nice piece Brian. That said, I hope to see new European champion this season and perhaps next season too. My money is on #ManUtd and do hope the team can live up to its “can do spirit”, SAF famously quips. Groeten.
@elle
OMG, are you for real? If there was a clear proof that Busquets had said anything resembling a racial remark, UEFA would have suspended him, no doubt about that. So your comment is just a subjective point of view.
Hope to see a beautiful game tonight, not like the semifinal Real – Barca (except Messi’s fabulous goal). Thank God that Mourinho is not involved in this final.
End of Barca? Really are you sure? HAHAHAHAHAHA Baconface your boys took one hell of a beating.
@Brian Phillips I think we’re both laboring under misconceptions here, so I’m going to try to explain my perspective. First of all, I don’t think that you’re ignoring this story as part of a larger Barcelona conspiracy to brush Spanish racism under the rug. I never said anything like that, and I think that your response speaks to the hyper-sensitivity this story, and the allegations at the heart of it, tend to induce. Perhaps it’s similar to the idea that being called a racist, or a racist-enabler, is an allegation just as harmful as being called a racist slur.
Secondly, I have been a faithful reader of this blog for a long time. I know exactly the sort of insight that it’s capable of, and I know the “capricious” ethos that you as the editor seek to instill. (I’ve used quotation marks only because I understand that the word is meant in a positive way, and that’s how I’m using it here — I’m not trying to be sarcastic at all) I enjoy the freedom allowed to the site’s writers to chase down the stories they find compelling. At the same time, however, I think it’s disingenuous to suggest that the content here has nothing to do with what’s happening currently in the football world; most articles are at least nominally tied to recent events. I kept coming back to this blog, expecting a sober, nuanced discussion of race and Spanish football (or race and UEFA) because I trusted that among your admirable stable of writers, there would be someone who deemed the topic “exciting to them” and who would publish a post to make me think about the issue in a deeper way.
You’ve made your editorial stance clear, and I’m not disagreeing with it in any way. I’m just expressing disappointment that within that editorial stance, there wasn’t room for an article on this subject.
(Also, on the subject of Run of Play’s record on serious issues, I’m well aware of the articles you mentioned; in fact, they’re some of the reasons I have found this site so compelling. However, it still doesn’t address the fact that searching for “racist” in the site’s archive produces four results, most of them throwaway references in articles with a different focus, and searching for “racism” turns up only five.)
@elle I can’t speak for Brian, but I think there still may be a misconception here. Your references to “coverage” and “chasing down stories” suggest that you think of this blog as a form of journalism, but it isn’t. It’s just a venue for Brian and some friends to write occasionally about a game we love. Here, at least, we’re not journalists, and we’re not providing news or even covering news. We’re just writing about what happens to catch our fancy, as long as it’s somehow connected to soccer, and I don’t believe we’ve taken on any obligations to do anything else.
So your response is, as far as I can tell, a category mistake. It’s a bit like going into Urban Outfitters and being “HUGELY disappointed” that they don’t have business suits. There are places on the internet to find serious, thorough, and responsible coverage of soccer news, but I don’t think this site ever intends to be one of them. (Lord, I hope not.)
@marc Neither was Xavi at Modric’s age. I highly encourage you to seek out on YouTube a video of all of Modric’s touches in a match — any match — and really watch. His dexterity, awareness, positioning, confidence, and passing are above anything you’ll see in the rest of the EPL. Period. The only black mark against him is that he plays on a team of clowns for a man who manages via horoscope.
Is Luka destined for Barcelona’s midfield? I doubt it (although it’s apparently always been his dream to play for them). But it will be because Busquets has already stepped into Xavi’s shoes (Thiago will play the part of a right-sided Iniesta), *not* because Modric is anything less than utterly phenomenal.
@Brian Davis Well said. At least Harry knows he’s got something really special in Modric. Now let’s see if he can keep him. . . .
@Alan Jacobs As history has categorically shown, Harry will jump ship and leave Tottenham with the bill. He has no allegiances.
The team, teetering on the brink of yet another Redknapp-imposed financial meltdown, will sell anything of value for too little money. This effectively amounts to all their Croatians (Modric, Kranjcar, Pletikosa, Corluka) and maybe Defoe, who will each do better wherever they go.
Man United has just had its heart exposed by Barcelona’s whirling dervishes, and if Fergie is any sort of genius, he’ll replace his midfield (and all 120 years of their experience) with something younger, fresher, faster, smarter, and more secure. Modric would be a hell of a start.
In summary, I predict a bidding war this summer for the lil’ guy.
P.S. A compliment from you is highly prized indeed. I’m printing off your reply and pasting it to the fridge.
@Brian Davis I usually sell my compliments for $4.99, but I gave that one away as a kind of loss leader.
@Alan Jacobs Well it worked, dammit.
@Mags Well, Spain took two national teams to school this week. The US team from June 4 was undermanned, and Venezuela is not a high-level team, but nonetheless, even without Xavi and Puyol, the Spain NT looks quite good indeed. Aggregate score: 7-0. Xabi or Cazorla instead of Xavi?
Something about the food poisoning reminds me of the Bridesmaids movie. It’s excellent how everything else can easily fit into the discussion of regal soccer.
Spain are Barca are like a machine, all their youngsters get used to playing the same formation from such a young age. There are plenty more on the conveyor belt waiting to slip in.
I’m reading this article again after Farca lost to Chelsea in London, to Real at home, and then tied Chelsea at home again to get knocked out of the CL. Nice