When Barcelona and Real Madrid met on November 29th, 2010, it was a meeting of the best team in Spanish football and an excellent team that wanted to usurp that title. It was a meeting of almost diametrically opposed styles of play and football philosophies: offense with possession vs. defense and counterattack. When the smoke cleared, only one team was left standing; Barcelona, with its eye-catching total football, was once again on top - by a wide margin. The reason for this continued dominance is the same for the success of many sporting and non-sporting organizations: the clarity of its ideas and the subsequent superb execution of these ideas that makes Barcelona the world's best football team.
When asked for comment on his victory, Barca coach Pep Guardiola had this to say, "I want to dedicate this victory to Rexach and Cruyff because they are the ones that showed us the path. This is the victory of everyone in these 15 years who has believed in this way of playing. (Quiero dedicar esta victoria a Rexach y Cruyff porque son los que nos enseñaron el camino esta es la victoria de todos los que en estos 15 años han creído en esta forma de jugar al fútbol)." The comment, like the team's football, was spot on.
Barcelona has been perfecting the ability to play offensive, interchangeable-player, ball-control football since (at least) Cruyff became head coach of the team. They inculcate it in their youth team as soon as they can put on a blue-and-red-striped jersey. Perhaps they start even earlier. Guardiola has said on multiple occasions that Barca's players have offensive football in their DNA.
Barcelona always plays attacking soccer and everyone knows it. In case you didn't, Guardiola reiterated before the game, "Mourinho knows what we'll come out and attack them, we'll be who we are: Barça. (Mourinho sabe que saldremos a atacarles, seremos lo que somos. El Barça.)
If Barcelona's style is to attack: Mourinho's style has traditionally been the exact opposite: keep your own goal at zero, the rest is a bonus. He is the master of the Champion's League, where a 2nd match tie or even minimal loss can get a team to advance. No one remembers the name of the general who lost to Pyrrhus, yet Mourinho has elevated the loss-to-advance to an art form. To do this he often plays anti-futbol or extremely defensive football.
The tactic worked to perfection against Barcelona last year. Debate the merits of Inter advancing on numerous questionable calls (annulled goals, questionable offsides, etc.) if you will, but Mourinho's tactics worked to perfection in Inter's home leg, where they outworked Barcelona and lethally counterattacked, and then held off the offensive juggernaut in Barcelona, when Inter "parked the bus" in front of goal in order to lose by only 1 point. Given this tie and others from Mourinho's resultadista career and you'd expect him to try to write defensive football into Real Madrid's DNA. Except that he can't do that.
Real Madrid fans want a spectacle as much as any other soccer fan - perhaps more. They're Spanish, raised on the football of Di Stefano, La Quinta del Buitre and recently reminded of good football by their world-cup winning team. They have an expectation that Madrid will dominate opposing teams with regal authority embodied in their name (Real means royal in Spanish). So, I'm sure Mourinho has had several lectures from management about playing offensive football. To his credit, Real has played spectacularly, with what Guardiola called, "the best counterattack in the world."
Until the clasico, Madrid was the most prolific team in La Liga, winning 10 games, with 2 draws. They scored 33 goals to their opponents 6! They pressed high, got the ball back early and their counter attacks were lightning-quick (I believe I saw one opposing coach say that the counter attacks te revientan, or blow you away). Their defense was rock solid and Iker Casillas barely had a chance to touch the ball. So, as they entered the Clasico, which team were they?
Madrid's uncertainty, met by Barcelona's unshakable certainty, was the reason for the lopsided 5-0 score.
Some analysts have claimed that Mourinho lost the game for Madrid with his tactical disposition and minimal changes. I don't agree. Proponents of this theory will cite Mourinho's errors as playing his defensive line too high and not playing the recuperating Gonzalo Higuain. They see Mourinho's lack of defensive planting at the outset as the key to the game. That was only part of the problem.
It was Madrid's players that failed as much as the coach did, because neither was sure what to do. Mourinho isn't used to coaching an offensive team and his players aren't used to playing Mourinho-ball - either version 1.0 or 2.0. With 4 coaches in the last 3 years, they can hardly be expected to have subconsciously mastered a system the way Barcelona has. This showed on the field.
The Merengues weren't sure how to initiate and maintain their quick strike offense in the face of a team that plays its own offense so well. Barcelona doesn't give the ball back. Once they have it, your best chance to get the ball back is for Barca to miss their shot on goal.
Madrid didn't run and press enough to be able to get the ball back otherwise. The distinct lack of hustle from Madrid was possibly the biggest reason that Madrid lost so badly. The teams that have given Barcelona problems in the last year have left their heart and lungs on the field. Watch Inter's effort in Milan or Kobenhavn's recent effort. These two teams gave Barcelona fits because they didn't allow the blaugrana passing game to get started. Without that effort, Madrid was stuck "chasing ghosts" around Camp Nou.
When Madrid did get the ball back, they didn't know what to do with it. They aren't built to attack from their own goal so much as to counterattack. So, when the ball comes from Casillas, what do we do? Before their players had a chance to say, "Me cago en la puta" they had two Barca defenders on them. And, when Barca got the ball back Madrid was stuck chasing ghosts again.
Barcelona was all to ready for the Madrid counterattack, too. Alves and Abidal played in offensive check all game and Barcelona got back quickly in ordered fashion to meet the few Real advances.
Barcelona played their game to perfection by any stretch of the imagination. It's never easy to beat any team 5-0 - even a team from the Segunda B. Beating Real Madrid by such a convincing scoreline should and will go down in history.
By any statistic you want view, Barcelona played perfectly. Xavi made 97% of his passes (see below), Barcelona outpassed Madrid by almost 3-1, their efficiency on goal was almost a goal every 3 shots. It was as if there was only one team on the field. That's not easy to do whatever the extenuating circumstances.
Barcelona could have scored more. If Messi's shot doesn't hit the post, if some of the early runs aren't ruled offsides, if Messi doesn't get run over by Carvalho in the second half; then Barcelona would have come out with more than 5. It's my impression that Guardiola's disciples took their collective foot off the gas after the 4th goal, too. They knew that Madrid was incapable of fighting back, so they didn't pile on the goals. (Don't believe me? Watch from about minute 65 - minute 90.)
This is a victory that Barca fans can savor for years to come. Will it win Barcelona La Liga? Probably not, but it is an amazing achievement and validation of attractive, attacking soccer.
Will Mourinho's Madrid ever be able to match Barcelona? I think at some point they will. The quality of their players and coach is too high not to mount a challenge. But that challenge won't reach maturity until Real know how they want to play. Do they want to play defensive anti-football, attractive offensive football or some combination of the two? When they reach a conclusion from the President down and give their players enough time to learn that style subconsciously, then they'll mount a challenge.
Until then, the victor and champion is Barcelona.
And, until then, I hope you enjoy this artistic, dramatic video. My favorite part comes at about 4:45 where they shoot close on the feet of the Barca players so you can see how well they keep the ball close at speed. I couldn't like this more (except for the end where the Madridistas turn on their players).
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