PLANET DT: FC Barcelona conquers Europe & wins the treble!!

Uno - Spanish King's Cup (beating Athletic Bilbao 4-1 in the final).
Dos - Spanish La Liga.
Tres - UEFA Champions League.

There it is - uno, dos, tres, or 1, 2, 3 - a glorious & remarkable treble of domestic & European honours in season 2008/2009 by Barcelona, the first Spanish club side to win all 3 trophies in one season. The treble!! El triplete!! During the 2008/2009 season, FC Barcelona competed in 3 competitions, & won all 3. They won everything there was to win. The trifecta was completed this morning (Brisbane time) in classy fashion as Barcelona defeated Manchester Utd 2-0 in Rome in the Champions League final, & in the process dethroned defending European champions (Man Utd won the trophy last year). What a special season this has proved to be. Barcelona proved to be a class apart from their competitors, & swept all before them domestically & in Europe.

The Champions League final featured the champions of Spain versus champions of England, widely considered the best 2 teams in Europe & the world. Never mind the 2-0 scoreline to Barcelona, or the fact that the goals were well-taken. It was the brand of football Barcelona displayed for 80 minutes (they had a poor first 10 minutes) which showed why they are so widely admired. At times during the final, the gulf between the sides is as wide as the distance between the cities of Barcelona & Manchester, such was the Spanish champions' superiority. Barcelona bamboozled United with the same fluid, free-flowing carpet football as they have shown throughout this season. Actually, not just this season - FC Barcelona have always played this type of football for years. It is their football philosophy to play attacking, entertaining football. It's just that this season, they've been more devastating than they've ever been before, culminating in a clean sweep of trophies.

The win in the Champions League final was all the more impressive given that Barcelona's defence had been ravaged by injury (Marquez) & suspensions (Abidal, Daniel Alves). As for United, they were only missing Fletcher in midfield. It was this which had made me predict Barcelona to lose the final. Oh, me of little faith! Leading up to the final, my brother BT & friends Nigel & Mark Wang all tipped Barcelona to win. They had been more confident of a Barcelona victory than I was. Ivan C, on the other hand, had been confident of a Manchester Utd victory - he is a United supporter, though he said Barcelona are his second favourite team. Anyway, after seeing Barcelona's display in the Champions League final, I understand why BT, Nigel & Mark had been so confident with their predictions. It's because Barcelona managed to compensate for those 3 missing defenders by retaining possession very well - if you keep the ball & play in the opposition's half, it's very difficult for the opposition to hurt you. All in all, it turned out that United might have missed Fletcher more than Barcelona missed those 3 defenders.

United began the final strongly & looked threatening in the first 10 minutes, with Barcelona looking very tentative during that period. Then Barcelona's first attack in the 10th minute saw an exchange of passes before Iniesta strode from midfield & sprayed a pass to Cameroonian forward Eto'o. Now inside Utd's penalty box, Eto'o turned United's Serbian defender Vidic inside out & poked Barcelona into 1-0 ahead. I was pleasantly surprised & delighted, yet refused to get carried away. After all, I kept telling myself that United were more than capable of inflicting serious damage to Barcelona's depleted defence. The reality, though, was different - more smiles from me there! From the moment Eto'o scored, Barcelona gained confidence & the upper hand, & never looked back. Though United had their moments, Barcelona continued to look the better side with superior possession & movement, & they were well worth their 1-0 half-time lead.

The pattern from the first-half continued in the second, & Barcelona looking more impressive & coming close to scoring a second goal on several occasions. Henry & Eto'o had good chances after waves of incisive Barcelona attacks & Xavi's free-kick hit the post. Then, in the 70th minute, a Barcelona raid was cleared by the United defence, but Xaxi picked the ball on the right flank & clipped in a cross for Leo Messi to score with a looping header. It was now 2-0 to Barcelona. The stunned look on the United bench said it all - they knew they were well beaten. And so they were, for United only looked really dangerous during the first 10 minutes & rarely threatened Barcelona thereafter. The moment Messi scored goal number 2, I thought to myself: "Hey, we might actually go on & win it now!". And so they did!

With the final whistle, Barcelona clinched the treble & became champions of Europe. What an outstanding season the coach Josep Guardiola has had - it's only his first season in charge, & he has now come away with a treble!! His first move after taking over as head coach back in July 2008 was to get rid those deemed to be 'problem" players such as Ronaldinho, the extravagantly talented Brazilian, & Deco, the cultured but erratic Portuguese midfielder. A few other players have been sold, too. Some observers thought it unwise to have ditched the likes of Ronaldinho & Deco. But time & the treble success were to prove that Guardiola knew what he was doing. He kept a relatively low profile & brought in a few new players, mainly to reinforce the defence. None of the new players had the same high profile as Ronaldinho & Deco. That did not matter. Barcelona already had star players within the club. The Argentine wizard Leo Messi ensured that Ronaldinho would not be missed too much. The midfield quality of Xavi & Iniesta more than compensated for Deco's departure. Besides that, Guardiola managed to persuade Eto'o to stay for at least another season & French forward Henry showed a marked improvement in his form. The defence as a unit showed the sort of solidity & stability that was missing in previous season. On top of all that, Guardiola instilled a strong team ethic while keeping to the club's tradition for enterprising, attacking football. All of these were to prove key ingredients to the hugely successful season 2008/2009.

Visca Barca!!

PS: Seeing that Barcelona won the Champions League at Man United's expense, I'm really going to give Ivan C a good one the next time I meet him! Haha!!

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