Reflecting on last night’s game in the Nou Camp in the early light of today’s dawn I wondered what it was that had provoked a feeling of deep melancholy in me.
At its most basic, I saw my team in just over a week not just beaten but comprehensively so-twice and with the ultimate humiliation played out on home ground. But then Barca is not any team- for millions of fans around the world it has become an idea of football not just as a sport but as an idea of how do things with nobility and beauty, of creativity drawn from deep roots, and thus enduring.
I don’t know what hurt me most last week in Munich and last night at the Nou Camp- the idea of Barca losing, or Bayern Munich winning- but what I felt I witnessed was the equivalent of a Panzer division laying waste the Parque Guell.
Much has been deservedly been written, and will continue to be written, about the mastery, discipline, and energy of the German team- but this was football played by determined engineers, not poets in motion- precise in its conception, clinical in its execution.
Absent from the conquerors across the two-legs of this Champion’s League semi-final was anything that elevated their actions to a higher level than the mundane, that produced a moment of sublime artisanship, on or off the ball, that transformed the defining moment into something that brought a smile to one’s face, that endured as a moment to warmly relish with allies and rivals alike, that brought joy to the universal fan. Even the Dutch goalscorer lacked grace.
In fairness I blame my melancholy not just on the victors, but also on the vanquished. But for a few wonderful turns, and intricate passes, there was nothing in this Barca worthy of its legacy: it was as if the evolutionary process that had began with Cruyff, and developed under Guardiola, had run out of imaginative steam and collective spirit.
To blame its underperformance on the absence of one star player, and the injury and exhaustion of others, are all excuses unworthy of a club whose defining identity lies in its history, its collective ethos and commitment to a cause- that of making football an art form, a truly cultural and social, phenomenon. Barca could not score a goal, and the ninety-odd cules in the Nou Camp seemed to have lost faith even before the game had started.
This is not the end of an era for Barca but a time to take stock and rebuild around its essence-to recover the dynamism, passion and creativity of its dream years when glory was sought but not at any price. The beautiful game is not built on regiments- nor does it deserve an extended period of mourning.
Jimmy, I have been predicting the death of the Barça dream in your blog for a long time, but you never wanted to see the writing on the wall. It is the end of a dream…
The tika-taka control football of Barça and the national team, is anti-football. The game is about passion, aggression & entertainment, not egoistic self love & narcissistic pleasure as represented by the Cruyff-Guardiola model.
When Chelsea defeated Barça in last season’s Champions semi final (and went on to defeat Bayern!!), Guardiola made the cowardly decision and left, the spirit that had sustained the club began to evaporate. The results in La Liga, against mediocre teams, hid the truth, which when facing better teams like Real Madrid or in Champions (Celtic, Milan, Bayern…), it was hard to hide.
Just looking at Tito’s face and complexion, I can only feel sorry for him and just hope he retires this summer, for his own good. The only sensible solution would be for Jupp to continue at Bayern and Pep return – after all, he could never match the Bundesliga double and Champions cup!
There was something very noble about the Bayern Panzer division (I can just see Schweinsteiger popping his head out from turret), efficient yes, destructive too and so beautiful in its ruthlessness. And yes, something rather sad, seeing the Barça machine implode, Pique’s own goal, Iniesta & Xavi misfiring and substituted, Messi on the bench and the rest of the team running around like headless chickens, a shadow of their former selves.
Maybe all this is the price for having sold the Barça soul to the fascist regime of Qatar, Pep as football ambassador for Qatar, Rossel involved in corrupt deals in Brazil, etc., all in all, hardly noble & beautiful ways of making money in the name of Barça…..
Jimmy, the Epilogue of your 2012 book, La Roja, was prophetic (p.p. 336-337) about teams losing their hunger, managers and players with diminished legacies with the passage of time, and mismanagement at
the club and national level. Maybe many of your concerns have happened
with Barca. Rather than rehash what others have said about the two
losses to Bayern, I would just like to make two observations of my own.
First, if Neuer was in Barca’s goal for the two games there might have
been a better outcome; not that Barca would have won, but they may
have allowed fewer goals and possibly scored a vital away goal against
a less able keeper. Second, it was obvious in the second game that Barca
without a healthy Messi is not much of an offensive threat. There is no offensive depth on Barca’s bench to replace him. You cannot hope to win
against Bayern in the future without acquiring some world-class strikers
to complement Messi. So, Barca needs a world-class goalkeeper and
some additional world-class strikers.
I remembered seeing the Milan tie and chatting with friends of mine about barça performance and we were aware we can come through but we won’t win the champions league.
Another idea I have realised this week is that the backbone of Barça comes from futbol academy and no contracted player has modified it.
How has barça chosen players and how can we improve our football next years are the key points.
In my point of view we need to get very good players, they have to be able o replace (messis, iniestas, xavis, puyol and piques). We need to recover the pressure.
After special one has spoken today nothing more to say
Força Barça!!!
This is football not poetry. It’s unfortunate that you had to resort to so many German cliches to describe Munich.
Quite apart from winning the supreme continental prize, Barcelona is also in the extremely enviable position of being the only team in Europe to have participated in every European Cup since 1955 the first year the tournament began. Their massive European trophy collection also includes the Cup Winners’ Cup, which the club has won no less than four times – making it undisputed king. Barcelona has also collected four UEFA Cups, two of these when the tournament was still known as the Industrial Inter-Cities Fairs Cup.