El Clasico

Last night at a bit of a loose end I found myself sitting down to watch a game of Spanish football.  This was quite a strange thing to do as whilst I enjoy watching football, it is not if I'm honest my favourite sport and I have no real affiliation with any team outside of England. 

The game was "El Clasico" between the two giants of Spanish football, Barcelona and Real Madrid, who are also quite possibly the two best football teams in Europe and not just their homeland.  What has inspired me to write about this game (instead of the England Ashes fightback in Brisbane, the Rugby Union Autumn Internationals etc.) was because I was mesmerised by the performance of Barcelona.  If I'm honest, I have probably never seen a team play football so beautifully. 

Barcelona won the game 5 - 0 and in the second half of the game in particular, I don't recall Real Madrid keeping possession for more than 10 seconds at a time.  The Catalan team's ability to retain possession through their passing and movement, finding of space and using the whole of the pitch until an attacking opportunity presented itself, were something I have never witnessed in a game of football.  What it made it all the more special though was this was against their greatest rivals in a very competitive league and not a friendly or demonstration game, but that was what it looked like.  For the few seconds at a time Barcelona did not have the ball they pressed their opponents where ever they were on the pitch to immediately win the ball back - all I can think is this is what is meant by "total football", a phrase I remember being used to describe the Dutch team of the 1970s led by Johann Cruyff.

Of course it is no coincidence that the great Dutchman has been integral to the development of Barcelona in the last 30 years but for a team to embrace and develop his mantra so positively is almost unbelievable.  What it showed was that for a style to develop it needs to be coached and practised from a young age so that it can flourish and the fact that during most of the game 8 or 9 of the Barcelona team had graduated from the academy demonstrates the success of the approach.

For much of the second half the only time the pass and move stopped was when a frustrated Madrid player kicked the legs away from his opposition and there was quite an accumulation of yellow cards because of these tactics - that only one red card was issued and that in injury time after the fifth goal was more than surprising.  Jose Mourinho may have found a way to stifle Barcelona last year with his Inter Milan team on their way to win the Champions League but last night neither he nor his charges had any clue in how to defend against such skill.

To conclude, all I want to say is that if you like football and have never watched Barcelona, or not recently, then take the opportunity (I found out through watching the game they won their previous match in La Liga 8 - 0)!  Other football managers will say that they can devise systems to counter the Barcelona way of play but I imagine their will be a heavy reliance on the dark side of the game and not the beautiful way in which Barcelona played last night. 

For all of Manchester City's money, Alex Ferguson's inspirational abilities they are not the future of football - the future is here and is on show now in the Camp Nou!  I for one am a convert.