Barcelona's Cup Continues to Runneth Over!

Messi Seals Deal in 3-2 win over Real Madrid for 2011 Super Cup





Mouriho adds a new twist to El Super Classico



There was only one game in town last night; in fact only one sportswatching option in the entire world to watch - and no, it wasn't the WPS playoff between Boston and MagicJack (yes, corporate sponsorship is so blatant these days that teams have dispensed with city/region names in place of brand names - can future teams named The JiffyLube, JiffyPop USA, or iPhone4G FC be far behind?). No, it was the second leg of the Spanish Super Cup at the Camp Nou, where FC Barcelona picked up where they left off last season, beating Real Madrid 3-2 (5-4 on aggregate) - thanks to Lionel's Messi's second goal in the 88th minute - to pick up their first silverware of the 2011-2012 season. Newly signed Cesc Fabregas was involved in the build-up to the winning goal (just six minutes after Karim Benzema provided the equalizer for Real), coming on as a late substitute to supply Adriano, who then crossed to Messi for the sliding effort.



Watch Messi' game-winner.





Andres Iniesta opened the scoring for Barcelona in the 15th minute (assisted by Messi) and Cristiano Ronaldo leveled the match five minutes later before Messi scored his first goal late in the opening half on a back-heel pass in the box from Gerard Pique.



Watch Messi's first goal.





It's not for nothing that games between these two teams are called "El Super Classico," for Barcelona vs. Real Madrid is the greatest sports rivalry in the world, bar none. Barca played Real Madrid four times in 18 days last spring and after a lax off-season of promotional touring and meaningless friendlies the clearly still-rusty defending champions of Spanish and European football started their heavy lifting with back-to-back games against their arch-rivals; they tied Los Blancos 2-2 in last Wednesday's first leg match at the Bernabeu in Madrid before last night's victory at the Camp Nou. And, like all their previous encounters with los Madristas this year, this prequel to the 2011-2012 Spanish League campaign was a hard-fought battle throughout the 90+ minutes, with every touch contested and the usual and testosterone-fueled violence and childish behavior at the end. It was a true "Super Classico" with great, intense play, stunning goals (epecially from the newly beefed-up Messi and Andreas Iniesta's cheeky chip shot over Iker Casillas), and the usual tactical and mental one-upmanship between the coaches. Moreover, it hammered home the point that Barcelona (yes, even now at about 70% fitness-level) and Real Madrid are clearly the two best teams not just in La Liga (where this year's title chase will be closer than ever) but in the world - and feature the two best (and most dangerous) club players in the world in Lionel Messi (183 goals and 75 assists in 273 appearances at Barca, including 103 goals in his last 110 games) and Cristiano Ronaldo (87 goals in 91 appearances since arriving at Madrid in 2009). As a Barca supporter, I'm scared; Madrid already had a super team, now they've bulked up even more and have more depth than any team in the world - former World Player of the Year Kaka can't even break into the starting lineup!



But the game ended in chaos after Real Madrid’s Marcelo was sent off for taking down Fabregas from behind in a hard, reckless challenge in front of the benches. This seemed to follow what has become the standard script for all Super Classicos beween the two teams since Mourinho arrived in Madrid. Subsequent red cards were issued to Madrid's Mezut Ozil and Barca's David Villa after a benches-clearing melee, but as expected Jose Mourinho had to upstage a bravura performance by his new-look Gallacticos with boorish, juvenile behavior that included dissing the world's best player (with a "you stink!" gesture on the sidelines), stepping on Cesc Fabregas' head, and either twisting the ear or poking the eye (depending on which video clip angle you see) of Barcelona coach Titi Vilanova at game's end.



Men Behaving Badly

Here are the telling clips of the game:



Watch Mourhinho make his "You made a Messi" stink face.





Watch Marcello's match-ending tackle & subsequent melee.





Watch Mourinho's eye-gouge.





Let's Talk About Cesc

Oh, and what about the new boy at Camp Nou? GOLTV Commentator Ray Hudson put it best when he said, "Cesc Fabregas spent eight seasons at Arsenal without so much as a wooden spoon to show for it and now he's lifting his first trophy after playing 10 minutes with Barcelona." As usual, Hudson was slightly off in his details (Fabregas did lift one trophy with Arsenal - the 2005 FA Cup), but his overall gist was spot-on. And people wonder why the former Gunner golden boy wanted to return home to the Camp Nou? It's called European football, folks - like all great footballers, Cesc wanted to compete for (and win) trophies. That should have been the storyline of this game, but instead Mourinho spoiled the party with his spotlight-stealing antics. Apparently, it's his world; we just live in it.

Mas Que Nada

Real Madrid: 2011 Kings of Europe?

Mas que un club ("More than a club") - FC Barcelona motto
Mas que nada - In Brazilian Portuguese slang: "Yeah, right!; in Spanish: "Better than nothing"

Royal Pain: Real Madrid hoists the 2011 Copa del Ray trophy

It pains me to say this, but I predict Real Madrid will win the 2011 Champions League final against Manchester United in an historic victory that will make Jose Morinho the first coach to ever win three European soccer crowns with three different clubs. I hope I'm wrong, but if I was a betting man, I wouldn't bet against it. And it pains me because I am an FC Barcelona fan through and through. Every night when I go running, I proudly don one of my three Barca jerseys (usually getting sympathetic car honks from cab drivers and only the occasional raspberry from Real Madrid or Man U detractors) as I pretend I'm Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta or Xavi Hernadez repeatedly running the length of the Camp Nou for a 5K jog.

But anyone who's a realist, anyone who's been following soccer lately has to admit it: Real Madrid may be second in La Liga (8 points behind Barcelona), but in everything else their current form is world-class. Even Barca coach Pep Guardiola agrees, admitting that the recent extra time loss to Madrid in the Copa Del Rey final and the 1-1 La Liga tie at the Bernabeu makes his team underdogs for the upcoming clash with their arch-rivals in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final meeting at the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday, April 27.

Barcelona may be "more than a club" (as in their motto, mas que un club), but they aren't more than human.


You got the silver: All that glitters isn't gold at Barca these days

Both sides were exhausted by the long and extremely physical Copa del Ray final, but Mourinho's "reserve" team - if one can call last year's leading Madrista scorer Gonzalo Higuain, Brazilian former World Player of the Year Kaka (also the second most expensive player transfer in history, after Ronaldo), and Karim Benzama a "B-side" - was much more impressive in its next game, a 6-3 win over a very good 3rd-place Valencia team, than Barca's reserves were as they struggled at home to beat an outclassed 17th-place Osasuna side 2-0; Barca reluctantly had to insert its exhausted superstars Xavi, Iniesta, and Messi into the game to ensure the victory, with starter Dani Alves having to play the full 90 minutes despite running his legs off in the recent Copa del Ray clash.

The problem with Barcelona is simply this: they are small and they are thin of bench - and they rely far too much on one player, Lionel Messi, whose 31 league goals and 50 (!) total goals (in all competitions) this year have carried the Blaugrana on his miniscule back.

Counter that with a Real Madrid side of Galaticos who are big and tall (Ronaldo, Bezema, Adebayor), deep (the midfield in particular is positively bursting at the seams with Xabi Alonso, Sami Khedira, Mesut Ozil, Marcelo, Angel di Maria, Lassana Diarra, Sergio Canales, Estaban Grenaro, Fernando Gago and - oh yeah - Kaka vying for playing time) and, under The Special One's stewardship, more disciplined (especially defensively, with Morinho adding his reliable former Chelsea stopper Ricardo Cavalho) than ever. But that's what you get when you break records spending in excess of $220 million dollars to sign peeps like Ronaldo ($80 million), Kaka ($56 million), Benzema ($30 million) and Alonso ($30 million). And play defensively, which is Morinho's style.

In the Copa del Ray game, I didn't notice until the second half (when Manuel Adebayor came on) that Ronaldo was being played as the lone striker in Real Madrid's 4-5-1 attack - backed by a packed midfield of Ozil, Kehdira, Marcelo, di Maria and Alonso. They had Benzema, Adabeyor, Higuain, and Kaka sitting on the bench! And the game plan was obvious: Morinho's men were told to sacrifice their bodies contesting every ball - especially Khedira in his best game as a Madrista, who gave so much that it looks like he may now miss the rest of the thigh injury he suffered giving it his all - and clog up Barca's creative generals in the midfield. Morinho deployed three defensive midfielders (Khedira, Marcelo, Alonso) in that clogged five-man midfield, with only Ozil and di Maria left to create crosses and chances for the well-marked strikers. Real Madrid played ugly and won; Barca tried to play with class and lost, thrown off their game by tactics dictated by a master tactician.

Barca has a paper-thin bench (thinner, in fact, than Guardiola's increasingly gray-flecked hairline), with Puyol (and now after the cup final, Adriano) and Eric Abidal (first a liver tumor, now a thigh boo-boo) out injured, Bojan out for the year, Milito coming back from almost two years of inactivity, Maxwell out with a back injury following the Osasuna game...and everyone outside of Sergio Busquets, Gerard Pique and Abidal are tiny!

There's a reason why Ronaldo got that header to win the Copa del Rey for Madrid: he's a big boy! Little Brazilian Adriano played his heart (and now injured legs) out marking Ronaldo for all but one play in the match, but he couldn't match the soaring girth of Ronaldo and that sky-high header. Size matters. That's the main reason why set plays for Barca are so anti-climatic. They don't have anyone - even Messi - who can take a free kick and score from distance like a Ronaldo. And with the departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, they don't have any big bodies to throw into the box on corner kicks other than defensive midfielder Busquets or defender Pique (who have to hurry and get back to guard as against counterattacks) - which is why they so often play the ball short and outside on corner kicks.


Big little man Messi and Little big man Ronaldo

And, post-Ibrahimovic, there is no big, Didier Drogba or Andy Carroll-type striker who can play with his back to the opposing goal and hold the ball up. It's all the burden of Villa and Messi to get the perfect pass from the tiny midfield trio of Pedro, Iniesta, or Xavi, or for Pedro or Dani Alves to make exhausting runs on the wings to snake through. And, unlike Ronaldo, Lionel Messi never flops in the box, always staying on his feet no matter how hacked he gets with his legendary footwork. Ronaldo may have more weapons (size, scoring at will from free kicks, deadly with headers), but Messi's heart and spirit-of-the-game are stronger; he's no cheat.

"We accept that Madrid are in the role of favourites in the Champions League," Guardiola admitted to the Spanish media. "I understand that is so, because they won the Copa and they are playing well. We also accept the challenge. We have great faith in ourselves and I have faith more than anything in my players."

I too have faith in Barca, but as I've seen over the course of the 2010-2011 season, faith is an intangible. Reality is tired legs, injury, limited bench options, and the burden of knowing you must play a perfect match every time out against a foe who can concede bodies, who can survive red cards (Madrid ended up with 10 players in its last two Barca clashes - a tie and a win), and still throw more world-class bodies at you. So while it looks certain that Barcelona will soon win its third consecutive La Liga regular season title (they now only need just two wins and a draw in the remaining five games to clinch), in the scheme of things it's really not much mas que nada. Better than nothing (as mas que nada translates in Latin American Spanish), but no silverware. No European glory.

Of course, Sir Alex Ferguson's Red Devils will have a say in the finals as well. It's a given that they'll get past a "Cinderella" Schalke 04 squad inspired by Madrid cast-off Raul, as the 10th-place Bundesliga team is clearly playing over their heads. Though two other Madrid cast-offs, Bayern Munich's Arjan Robben and Inter Milan's Wesley Sneijder, powered their respective sides to last year's final, it's unlikely given run of form that Schalke will repeat the trick (though Inter would argue otherwise!). Certainly Ronaldo is looking forward to this potential final against his former team; his outspoken critism of Sir Alex's tactics in Man U.'s loss to Barca in the 2009 final led quickly to his ouster there.

Time will tell. Until then, I'm keeping the faith, but accepting that this may not be Barca's year for European glory. Barca's aura of invincibility has passed since that infamous 5-0 drubbing of Real Madrid last November that now seems so far away and insignificant. Barca will continue to play the beautiful game of attacking football (that's why they're Barcelona!), but I'm afraid Morinho will continue to win titles, if not beauty contests.