Hassan Chamas

 

About a year ago, would-be La Liga champions Real Madrid produced a 1-0 domination of Barcelona in the team’s own backyard, the Camp Nou. As the Castilla festivities debuted, the end of the Frank Rijkaard epoch at Catalunya was starting to loom on the horizon, and the rematch that took place at the Santiago Bernabeu five months afterwards nailed the final piece of iron in the coffin of the Rijkaard-Ronaldinho-Deco dynasty.

Back then the Blaugrana had some grave alterations to make, both on and off the pitch, if they were to come back into contention this season. During the summer it became clear to everyone that Barcelona had to learn from their mistakes (to read about this click here), and fill the gaps that were becoming perceptible in their squad.

Indeed, Los Cules underwent a total remodeling following their second-rate past season, with no less than eight new players being brought into the Camp Nou spotlight, three of whom were part of their reserve team: They bought back Gerard Pique after the latter enjoyed a fruitful spell with newly crowned World Champions Manchester United, swiped for Sevilian Seydou Keita, and attracted both Daniel Alves and Aliaksander Hleb to plug the void created by Gianluca Zambrotta and Ronaldinho, both of whom departed for new pastures in Italy.

Their start under coach Josep Guardiola couldn’t have been on brighter note, as they find themselves topping the standings in Spain as 2008 draws to a close.

In all fairness to the current leaders, kudos to Barca. They have enhanced where needed, fixed their troubling glitches, and perhaps most of all, president Joan Laporta managed to survive his job-considering consensus over the summer, albeit by a slim margin. With fresh air filtering through the lungs of his beloved club, we are witnessing the birth of the second age of Catalan ascendancy under Laporta’s stewardship.

Barcelona’s potential to get back to winning ways was not in question, yet many believed Real Madrid would still hold onto the crown. The prerequisite, for La Liga silverware was to hold on to Robinho and manage to bring in either one of David Villa or Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. With Los Merengues coming up only with half the task, their current misfortunes do not surprise.

The one thing though that has truly surprised many experts and followers of Spanish football is Josep Guardiola’s ability to maneuver this off-track juggernaut back on to the correct road. The former Blaugrana all-terrain midfielder had only one year at the helm of the Barcelona B team printed on his CV, and Laporta’s decision to gamble on such an amateur name in terms of coaching was unexpected to say the least. Nonetheless, Guardiola rose to the occasion, cleared out the trouble-makers and “black sheep” of his team’s dying body, and injected it with fresh, rejuvenated blood.

So, with less than six months in charge, Guardiola has turned his team from season floppers to a team touted by many as the winners of this year’s Champions League trophy along with La Liga. The first-day slip-up to newly promoted UD Numancia raised a few eyebrows, and questioned the coach’s knack for handling such immense pressure, but Guardiola shut his critics up in the most beautiful way a coach can, and that’s decimating every team that crossed their path.

Indeed, the Blaugrana established a new La Liga record, with 41 points out of 16 matches, with 13 wins, 2 draws, and just the loss to Numancia. With a win rate of 85% in the league it’s really no surprise to see Guardiola’s squad lead their nearest rivals, Villarreal, by 10 points, which is the biggest margin between champions and runners-up since the conception of Spain’s top tier league at the half-way point of the season. The team also holds the best goal stats ever, with 48 goals to their name – 15 of which belong to Samuel Eto’o – and only allowing 10 past keeper Victor Valdes.

Another issue worth noting about the Blaugrana involves the team hot on their pursuit, Villarreal: 1-0 down at El Madrigal, Guardiola’s men gave in their all, until they came up with the equalizer, before an on-form Thierry Henry slotted in the winner to crown Barcelona winter champions, 10 points away from the sunken Yellow Submarine. Another time, perhaps back when Frank Rijkaard was still wrapped in his seat, Barcelona would go on to lose such a bout had they found themselves on the wrong end of the score sheet. But the new winning mentality that Guardiola introduced to the team swiftly managed to lift morale, and reminded the senior squad members of the exploits of 2006 that had long seemed to be nothing but a distant memory.

Inside Futbol’s La Liga preview plumped for another year of Real Madrid trophy-gathering, but it is now clear FC Barcelona will be crowned league champions come May. Led by Lionel Messi – who should be the strongest candidate for next year’s individual accolades – and the rest, there’s no limit to what this destructive armada can achieve. It’s almost impossible – and inconceivable – to see them throw away their lead. Santa Claus might have missed them last year when they practically gave away the league to Madrid around this time, but this time around, Barca jumped right on top of the “nice” column, with the results being very much apparent.

Moreover, it looks as if the Blaugrana’s jaw-dropping play has the entire European audience looking carefully as the team looks like their past continental threatening self. A draw against relative European lightweights Lyon will more than likely see them progress to the quarter-final stage. Forget Manchester United, forget Internazionale: the entire continent seems to regard Laporta’s henchmen as the team to beat this season, of whom current Italy coach Marcelo Lippi, declared as the sure winners of this year’s Champions League edition.

In Spain, they won comfortably against Sevilla at the Andalucians’ own play box, practiced merciful euthanasia over champions Real Madrid, and lifted themselves up to beat Villarreal by TKO. With the mercurial Messi leading a flock that harbours the likes of midfield maestro Xavi Hernandez and lion-hearted skipper Carles Puyol, clubs better come up with their crop’s cream if they want to put an end to this beast’s pillaging and plunder.
 

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