Soccer: Guardiola’s Barcelona Are the Greatest of All Time

Never one for understatement, Al Dannity says Pep Guardiola’s charges have staked their claim to be recognized as the great club Soccer team in history. It’s a bold claim but one that’s tough to dispute after Saturday’s triumph in the UEFA Champions League Final.

The flaws of history
The teams that immediately spring to mind when discussing the greatest club teams of all time are the Real Madrid teams of the 1950s, the Ajax teams in the 1970s, and the Bayern Munich and Liverpool teams that followed them. The Madrid teams benefitted from the fledgling nature of the tournament, taking many of the early titles without facing a serious challenge. The giants of the 1970s and 1980s were amongst the best of all time but they suffered from the economic parity of the era, with no team able to stockpile talent the way Barca did. They could not maintain the level of success they have enjoyed beyond a five year period. Barcelona’s core talent is still relatively young and capable of dominating Soccer for years to come.

The quality of opposition is also a big issue. Those great sides competed in an era where even the big nations only had one team in the competition. Now all of Europe’s elite sides do battle for the greatest prize in the game. That same affliction hurts the claim of Arrigo Sacchi’s great AC Milan team of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Sacchi’s Milan rose to prominence at the same time that English clubs were banned from Europe. There’s no doubt his Milan team ranks up there in the pantheon of greats but they simply didn’t face the challenges of this Barca team. Quite simply this Barcelona team is comprised of the best and destroyed the cream of the rest.

Just when did this era start?
Barca have won three of the last six UEFA Champions League titles but the 2006 team looked very different to the pair that claimed titles in 2009 and 2011. Victor Valdes was the only man to start all three finals, while Carles Puyol and Xavi are the only two other survivors from the 2006 squad that saw action on Saturday. In truth we need to look at what this team has achieved in the three years that Pep Guardiola has been in charge.

In 2009 the Catalans won La Liga, which is the Spanish championship, as well as the Spanish Cup and, of course, the Champions League. It was the first treble in club history. They followed this up with a second straight La Liga title last year, where they set a record points total in the process. Were it not for the ash cloud that caused them to drive to Milan for a Champions League semi-final last year, we might well be talking about this being a third straight Champions League title.

Then came the crowning moment. Having dispatched the aging Thierry Henry and Sylvinho, and lost talents such as Samuel Eto’o and Yaya Toure, Guardiola re-shaped his team to put Messi at the core of the attack. With the Argentine wizard in the middle of the attack they claimed a third consecutive La Liga title and beat a murderers’ row of opponents to triumph in Europe yet again. This is a side which has managed to blend in one of the world’s great individual talents with a team-focussed outfit with remarkable success. This is what happens when you do that:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tterrAS8a_o&feature=player_profilepage[/youtube]
It may be impossible to prove Barcelona are the greatest of all time but you’ll have a hard time convincing me of a team that could take them.