They say a week is a long time in politics, but try football. It is a game seemingly in a constant state of flux, where the modern fan is incapable of processing a single defeat and a day, or even 90 minutes, is the difference between glory or crisis.
In that context, two years is a lifetime; and do not expect the football public, both media and fans, to have long memories.
On May 1, 2013, I sat among some hardcore Barcelona supporters at Camp Nou when they watched in horror as Bayern Munich destroyed their team in their Uefa Champions League semi-final second leg.
The mood was toxic. Marc Bartra and Gerard Pique had nightmares against Thomas Muller, Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben. Poor Cesc Fabregas bore the brunt of the fans’ fury. Around us, shouts of “burro”, or donkey, accompanied his every misplaced pass.
Lionel Messi, who had scored one of his best goals only a few days earlier against Athletic in Bilbao, was never came off the bench. Pep Guardiola had left the previous summer.
No one on the pitch was spared, aside from the adored Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez, who were withdrawn by the middle of the second half. It was as big an indication as any that Barcelona had meekly surrendered.
The final score was 3-0 for Bayern, and a humiliating aggregate loss of 7-0 for Barcelona.
The verdict was unanimous. Tiki-taka, that silliest of tags, was dead. Barcelona, the critics agreed, had been “found out”. No so much “more than a club”, but no more a club, if you believed the backlash.
Football, however, is never as black and white as the fans and media want it to be.
Exactly two years on, it is now Barcelona lording it over Bayern, 5-3 on aggregate.
When Mehdi Benatia scored a sixth-minute goal, a Bayern miracle comeback seemed possible. But this was not the Barcelona of 2013. And how did they resist the onslaught? By keeping possession of the ball and hitting on the break. Reports of tiki-taka’s demise had been exaggerated.
Barcelona did not hit the heights of the first leg, but they did not need to.
Barcelona’s comeuppance in 2013 was celebrated with glee by those who saw possession football as soporific. Good riddance, they said.
But could it not have been a problem with personnel, rather than system? Many players were injured, getting on or enduring a drop in intensity. A team that flirted so closely to perfection were suddenly there for the taking. Bayern in 2013 were a better football team than Barcelona.
Under Guardiola, Barcelona had perfected the art of keeping the ball, thanks to the peerless midfield trio of Iniesta, Xavi and Sergio Busquets.
In Messi, who could score a goal or two, they also had perhaps the greatest passer of all.
Much has been said about Luis Enrique playing a more direct style, with the front three of Suarez, Neymar and Messi relied upon to deliver match after match. Certainly Barcelona do not control midfield as they did under Guardiola, as the twin influences of Xavi and Iniesta have waned.
At the same time, there has hardly been a departure from the ideology that Johan Cruyff instilled into the club in the early 1990s. It is still pass, pass, pass. The opposition cannot hurt you if they do not have the ball, as Bayern and Guardiola found for long periods on Tuesday. If you have an in-form Neymar, Suarez and, above all, Messi, whose peaks correlate with Barcelona’s, then the hurt will be one way.
Barca march on to the final in Berlin, once again a dream team. Bayern, necessarily for the narrative, are in crisis.
Tiki-taka may be a worn-out, obsolete phrase, but Barcelona had not been found out in 2013 after all. They were simply taking a breather.
akhaled@thenational.ae
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