Barcelona must attempt to create a dynasty not just a passing delight
Barcelona must attempt to create a dynasty not just a passing delight
As well as etching silly grins on the faces of football fans, the Catalan club must also use their brilliance to obliterate
As well as etching silly grins on the faces of football fans, the Catalan club must also use their brilliance to obliterate
If the Barcelona principle were applied throughout society Philosophy Today would out-sell Nuts on the magazine stands and a Miles Davis re-issue would massacre Lady Gaga in the album charts. In this world, the hardest thing to do would always be the most celebrated, and the poet would recline in business class while Dan Brown rammed his knees into an economy seat.
Hold that thought, because plenty of us can remember Route One as religion. A football was a cannonball that would be launched "into the mixer" for the knock-down and the shot. The excuse made for this Neanderthal method was that it was scientifically proven to be effective. World football is now in the enviable position of being able to demonstrate that the most artistic form of the game is also the most productive.
All you would need to bang home that claim is a DVD of Barcelona's first-half performance at Arsenal in midweek: a display that etched silly grins on the faces of all who saw it. Martin O'Neill, the Aston Villa manager who played in a European Cup-winning side at Nottingham Forest, said the next morning: "How Barcelona play is what everyone should be aspiring to, honestly. I'm not saying every single football club in Europe has Messi or Xavi to call upon, but it's lovely, really, really great. It's inspiring."
But while we luxuriate in this majesty it is also necessary to say the European champions have a weakness. It can be seen in the rhetoric of artistic endeavour – of entertaining the Catalan masses – which even presidential candidates at Camp Nou are reciting to the mirror to prove their cred.
Sandro Rosell, who would like to be king of the Barça salon, said this week: "People see Barcelona not as an industry, not as a business, more as a feeling. As a human being you prefer to be involved with a feeling or an emotion than a business. How do you describe a feeling? How do you describe love?" Presumably Rossell got rich in business, not love, but never mind.
This oratorical arms race was taken up by Joan Laporta, the incumbent: "Our philosophy is spectacular and attacking. It is a kind of love between Barça and the team and the ball. We play a maximum of two touches per player. In my opinion, if we are loyal to this philosophy we will always be the best. We used to say that we prefer to be best than to be first, but normally the best is also the first."
The maximum two-touch rule is a myth. Imagine telling Lionel Messi to stop and pass after his first two-touch dribble. That lad can get you a goal from the halfway line. The heart soars to hear Barcelona grandees express these life-enriching principles. But the point where beauty becomes an end itself is also the junction where Pep Guardiola's team can draw 2-2 in a game they led 2-0 and which they threatened to win by six or seven.
Guardiola said recently: "For me, it all makes sense, the effort, the work, the planning, the concentration and the discipline, if you do it for the people. The manner in which we play is a demonstration of the respect we have for the people who pay for a ticket or pay money to watch matches on television." And: "It is a philosophy of football, win or lose. I want us to show what kind of football we believe in."
Even a TV evangelist would hesitate before walking to the pulpit with this kind of language. However strong the urge to perform cartwheels in gratitude for Barça's gift to us all there is also a voice that urges them to kill teams off and not just enchant in bursts. As O'Neill concedes in these pages, there is no use demanding credit for bringing James Milner and Ashley Young along if the trophy cabinet stays bare.
On Wednesday night Arsenal suffered a kind of 45-minute velvet assault. "I've not seen Barcelona press as high up as often as they did in the first half of the game. It's hard to keep that going," O'Neill said. "Barcelona lost concentration. Arsenal's first goal was a direct result of the boy losing it in midfield, just playing a sloppy ball, and the next thing you know they [Arsenal] are in. And the game changes, the momentum changes, you could sense even from the TV, the momentum changes, the boys are back in the game."
As this new dream team strives to become one of history's great ensembles the question will arise in many high-stakes games: what do the players think they are there for, what is their raison d'etre? To captivate, certainly. But this brilliance must obliterate, too, it must crush.
How reassuring, then, to hear Messi say: "We have already written a page in history but we have to continue doing that. We have to take advantage of this great team – all of us feel that." This should be a dynasty, not just a passing delight.
Penyabarcelonista@sapo.pt
Hold that thought, because plenty of us can remember Route One as religion. A football was a cannonball that would be launched "into the mixer" for the knock-down and the shot. The excuse made for this Neanderthal method was that it was scientifically proven to be effective. World football is now in the enviable position of being able to demonstrate that the most artistic form of the game is also the most productive.
All you would need to bang home that claim is a DVD of Barcelona's first-half performance at Arsenal in midweek: a display that etched silly grins on the faces of all who saw it. Martin O'Neill, the Aston Villa manager who played in a European Cup-winning side at Nottingham Forest, said the next morning: "How Barcelona play is what everyone should be aspiring to, honestly. I'm not saying every single football club in Europe has Messi or Xavi to call upon, but it's lovely, really, really great. It's inspiring."
But while we luxuriate in this majesty it is also necessary to say the European champions have a weakness. It can be seen in the rhetoric of artistic endeavour – of entertaining the Catalan masses – which even presidential candidates at Camp Nou are reciting to the mirror to prove their cred.
Sandro Rosell, who would like to be king of the Barça salon, said this week: "People see Barcelona not as an industry, not as a business, more as a feeling. As a human being you prefer to be involved with a feeling or an emotion than a business. How do you describe a feeling? How do you describe love?" Presumably Rossell got rich in business, not love, but never mind.
This oratorical arms race was taken up by Joan Laporta, the incumbent: "Our philosophy is spectacular and attacking. It is a kind of love between Barça and the team and the ball. We play a maximum of two touches per player. In my opinion, if we are loyal to this philosophy we will always be the best. We used to say that we prefer to be best than to be first, but normally the best is also the first."
The maximum two-touch rule is a myth. Imagine telling Lionel Messi to stop and pass after his first two-touch dribble. That lad can get you a goal from the halfway line. The heart soars to hear Barcelona grandees express these life-enriching principles. But the point where beauty becomes an end itself is also the junction where Pep Guardiola's team can draw 2-2 in a game they led 2-0 and which they threatened to win by six or seven.
Guardiola said recently: "For me, it all makes sense, the effort, the work, the planning, the concentration and the discipline, if you do it for the people. The manner in which we play is a demonstration of the respect we have for the people who pay for a ticket or pay money to watch matches on television." And: "It is a philosophy of football, win or lose. I want us to show what kind of football we believe in."
Even a TV evangelist would hesitate before walking to the pulpit with this kind of language. However strong the urge to perform cartwheels in gratitude for Barça's gift to us all there is also a voice that urges them to kill teams off and not just enchant in bursts. As O'Neill concedes in these pages, there is no use demanding credit for bringing James Milner and Ashley Young along if the trophy cabinet stays bare.
On Wednesday night Arsenal suffered a kind of 45-minute velvet assault. "I've not seen Barcelona press as high up as often as they did in the first half of the game. It's hard to keep that going," O'Neill said. "Barcelona lost concentration. Arsenal's first goal was a direct result of the boy losing it in midfield, just playing a sloppy ball, and the next thing you know they [Arsenal] are in. And the game changes, the momentum changes, you could sense even from the TV, the momentum changes, the boys are back in the game."
As this new dream team strives to become one of history's great ensembles the question will arise in many high-stakes games: what do the players think they are there for, what is their raison d'etre? To captivate, certainly. But this brilliance must obliterate, too, it must crush.
How reassuring, then, to hear Messi say: "We have already written a page in history but we have to continue doing that. We have to take advantage of this great team – all of us feel that." This should be a dynasty, not just a passing delight.
Penyabarcelonista@sapo.pt
posted by PBL at
10:55 a. m.
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