Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Barça’s best ever showing after 13 games
Manel Tomàs
The 5-0 win over Real Madrid on Monday also makes Barça 2010/11 the best ever FCB team after thirteen league matches, with eleven wins, one draw and just one defeat.
There is plenty of reason for optimism. Whenever Barça have got 32 or more points from their first 13 games, they have gone on to win the championship.
First league with Cruyff
In 1990/91, the Dream Team under Johan Cruyff got off to a cracking start with six wins in a row against Espanyol (0-1), Valencia (3-1), Betis (2-3), Valladolid (1-0), Tenerife (0-1) and Athletic Bilbao (4-1). They then slipped up against Atlético Madrid (2-1), but after beating Mallorca at the Camp Nou (2-1) they had ten wins, two draws and one defeat, scoring 26 goals and conceding nine. With 22 points (32 by today’s system), Barça were four ahead of the surprising Logroñés. They ended up winning the title with 57 points, ten more than Atlético Madrid. Zubizarreta, Koeman, Bakero, Begiristain, Goikoetxea, Laudrup and Stoichkov were the stars of that team. Rijkaard’s winning mentality
With stars like Ronaldinho, Eto’o, Deco, Xavi, Puyol, Iniesta and Valdés in the 2004/05 squad, the second of the Frank Rijkaard era, Barça got off to a great start. The 2-1 win over Getafe in game 13 meant that with 32 points from 10 wins, a draw and a defeat at Betis supposed a 7 point lead on Real Madrid, who had been beaten at the Camp Nou. 3-0. Barça won the title with 84 points, four more than Madrid.
First for Guardiola
Despite a dodgy start (1-0 defeat to Numancia and 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou against Racing), the 2008/09 season then saw Barça and Guardiola go on an amazing 9-win streak, such that by game 13 (a 3-0 win at Sevilla) they were flying away with 10 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat. The 32 points put the club six ahead of Real Madrid. Finally, 87 points for Barça and 78 for the whites. It was the beginning of a golden era. Eto’o and Henry were the strikers supplied by such geniuses as Leo Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol, Piqué and Alves. Guardiola marches on
There was more of the same in 2009/10. Rather than rest on their laurels, Barça continuing playing dazzling football and breaking records. By game 13, they had set a new record of ten wins, three draws and no defeats. Ibrahimovic, Pedro and Bojan had been added to the blend, and such was the level of demand that the team were even criticised for the three draws on away turf. The numbers spoke for themselves, and after beating Xerez (0-2), FCB had a record 33 points, five more than Real Madrid, who had played one game more. It would be a remarkable season in which Barça topped the league with a record 99 points.
A 5-0 win to set up new record
But this team knows no limits, and has just beaten even that amazing tally. In 2010/11 Barça have a new 13-match record of 34 points thanks to 11 wins and one draw, and just one defeat, a 2-0 shock at the Camp Nou against Hercules. The run has included such extraordinary results as 8-0 away to Almeria and the historic 5-0 win in the clásico to leapfrog Real Madrid and take a two point lead. Impossible to ask for more.
But the overall record for the first 13 games is still held by Real Madrid, who started with 12 wins and a draw in the 1991/92 season. They won the title that year, eight ahead of Barça, in the time when wins were still only worth two points. But none of that served for anything, because ultimately it was Barcelona that won the champion ship that season.
Xavi: “It’s a day to enjoy”
Anna Segura
Xavi Hernàndez was a happy man in his press conference today at the Ciutat Esportiva. Well, he has good reason to be after participating in the amazing 5-0 win over Real Madrid.
FC Barcelona midfielder Xavi admitted he’d had trouble sleeping. It’s not every day you put five past Real Madrid and it was hard to come down from the clouds. Being a man with Barça in his DNA, he was as happy as happy could be, and said “I’m delighted to have made the Barça family happy”.
Superiority
As Guardiola said last night, Xavi was happy with the way they won it. “We were the better side on the pitch from the first to last minute” he said. “It was a historic result, but especially because of such superiority”. Better than the 6-2
The 6-2 win at the Bernabéu last year is fresh on everybody’s memories, but Xavi actually thought that “although the result was more or less the same, we played even better last night … It was one of the best games of my life. We have done better in other games, but probably never in one quite so important”.
Talking on the pitch
“In the build-up to the match we just wanted to ignore all the noise being made, we just wanted to do our talking on the pitch. Barça were vastly superior. In every way, every facet, we were better”, said Xavi. But he didn’t think they had a point to prove. “We’re just a team that loves to compete and to keep accepting challenges”. Big blow
Xavi agreed that it was “a big blow for Madrid, now we have to see if they can recover.” In turn, for his own team, he reckoned “it had the opposite effect. It was a huge boost for morale”.
World press amazed by Barça
www.fcbarcelona.cat
As has become wonderfully common in recent times, the world was enchanted by Barça’s incredible win against Real Madrid.
Not only did the 5-0 result have a massive impact on the Catalan and Spanish press, where it made the headlines left, right and centre, but all around the planet the world’s media was stunned by such a convincing display in the clásico.
Sports press
It goes without saying that the Barcelona papers had news of the victory emblazoned on their covers. ‘Sport’ led with the headline “Slap in the face for Mourinho. Rout, humiliation and leaders”. ‘Mundo Deportivo’ simple went for ‘5-0’, the result of the incredible win against the all-whites. ‘El 9 Esportiu’ went for the header “And without abusing”. 
‘Marca’ and ‘As’, published in Madrid, had no option but to accept FC Barcelona’s superiority. ‘Marca’ went for “Mouchísimo Barça”, a play on the Spanish word for ‘much’ and the name of the defeated manager, while ‘As’ said “Thrashed and driven mad”. Humiliation for Madrid in national papers
The general interest newspapers also featured Barça v Madrid on its front pages. In Catalonia, ‘El Periódico de Catalunya’ was titled “Reality bath”, ‘La Vanguardia’ stated that “Barça humiliates Real Madrid with an exhibition of football”, and ‘Avui’ filled its front page with ‘5-0’. ‘Ara’, which came out for the first time on Sunday, also included Barça v Madrid by asking “And now what?”. Examples from elsewhere in Spain included ‘La Razón’ (“Barça wins by absolute majority”) and ‘El Mundo’ (“Barcelona humiliate Madrid once again”).
From Portugal to Argentina
But there was also an extraordinary amount of coverage in the international press. ‘Jornal do Notícias’, in Portugal, went for the self-explanatory “Real humilhação”; ‘L’Équipe’ in France made it the main headline, proclaiming “Barcelonesque”, and ‘Corriere dello Sport’ spoke of “Barça scream. Real Mouto!” (a play on the Italian for ‘mute’. On the other side of the Atlantic, Argentina’s ‘Clarín’ (“Barcelona dance and rout in the clásico”) and ‘Olé’ (“Mourirte de risa” (die laughing, again playing with the name of the Madrid coach) were just two of the papers that praised the job done by Guardiola and his men.
22 in squad for Copa Catalunya
www.fcbarcelona.cat
Barça have named 22 players to the play the three-way Copa Catalunya tournament in Sabadell on Wednesday. The seven first team players that didn’t start against Madrid are joined by 15 reserves.
So the team is made up of Pinto, Jeffren, Keita, Bojan, Maxwell, Mascherano, Adriano, Thiago, Rochina, Vázquez, Soriano, Tello, Montoya, Bartra, Dos Santos, Romeu, Fontàs, Sergi Gómez, Riverola, Masip, Carmona and Abraham.
The only unavailable first team player is Gaby Milito, while the players that appeared in the clásico are to be rested. Barça will start the Copa Catalunya against Espanyol at 21.45 and will then face Hospitalet. All of the matches will be just 45 minutes long. Oh, what a night!
The 22 Copa Catalunya players trained on Tuesday at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, as did Alves and Abidal. The other players that were so impressive against Madrid worked out in the gym.
Before the session, the reserves made a pint of congratulating the first teamers on an amazing evening at the Camp Nou, where Real Madrid were devastated by a 5-0 hiding.
5-0 win over Madrid in numbers
www.fcbarcelona.cat
Barça’s exhibition against the old enemy produced a number of interesting facts, especially relating to their absolute domination of possession.
-Before the opening goal, Barça passed the ball for 1 minute 25 seconds, and immediately won back to only lost ball. Before making it 2-0, they held onto the ball for 1 minute 17 seconds, topping the move with Pedro’s goal.
- Barça show 15 times, but Madrid just five.
- Puyol recovered an astonishing 19 balls.
- Xavi was by far the most active player with 114 passes made out of 119 attempts, followed by Busquets with 91/102. - Messi ended his run of goals in ten consecutive games. But both Villa’s goals came from sublimely brilliant Messi assists.
- The Argentinian took players on 16 times, and this paid off 9 times.
- This is the fourth time Barça have hit five past Madrid at home. The first was on January 8, 1994, with a hat trick from Romario: The others were way back in 1935 and 1945.
- Guardiola has won all five of his clásicos as a coach. In these games, Barça have scored 16 goals and conceded just 2.
- Mourinho has yet to win at the Camp Nou and Cristiano Ronaldo has never scored against Barça.
- Barça are top, 197 days after winning the Liga in 2009/10.
- With 11 wins, 1 draw and 1 defeat, Guardiola’s side has made the best ever Barça start to a league campaign.
Guardiola: “we are proud of how we did it”
Anna Segura
Pep Guardiola was proud of his players’ performance at the Nou Camp on Monday night and claimed: “we had a good time tonight and that makes all our hard work worthwhile”.
Speaking to a packed press room after his team’s demolition of Real Madrid, Pep Guardiola expressed his satisfaction as he chalked up his fifth win against Madrid and explained that for him the key to the win was his insistence on maintaining the team’s trademark attacking identity.
Time to enjoy the win
Pep Guardiola was happiest with “how we did it - that makes us proud. Now just let us sit back and enjoy that win - we’ll reflect and look at the whole game, but now it would be wrong not to revel in the win. Games like that happen very rarely indeed”. True to club’s traditions
Guardiola stressed that the win was very much in the Barça tradition:“Cruyff and Rexach were the first to get that way of playing started. That’s the track to take and those of us who have come after them must be loyal to that. It’s an idea that we shouldn’t betray – it has been implanted in this club for a long time now”.
Long way to go
Despite his satisfaction though, Guardiola warned: “there are still a lot of games left to play in this league. We were the better team tonight, but both teams are at a very high level. We are only two points ahead and Real Madrid remain an impressive team”. Messi and Alves
Guardiola paid particular praise to Messi and Alves. “Messi is the best of them all. In all aspects of his game he is just the best”. As to the Brazilian, the boss claimed: “he is an enormous help for the balance of the team. I hope we reach an agreement soon (on his new contract) – he’s better off here than anywhere else he could go to”. Memories of the 2-6 win
The 5-0 win inevitably brought memories back of the famous 2-6 victory at the Bernabeu and Pep explained: “it’s a similar feeling now, because of the way we won, but that win meant we won the league and this one, well we are still in November. It produces the same feeling of satisfaction though”. Guardiola was also reminded of the 5-0 win under Cruyff, but he preferred to settle for the fact that: “we’ll remember this 29th November for the win over Madrid”.
Fourth 5-0 win over the eternal rival
Jordi Clos
Tonight’s brutal thrashing of Real Madrid definitively marks this Barça team as a worthy successor to Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team, the last Barça team to beat Madrid 5-0, a result that’s now been recorded four times.
Nearly 17 years after Cruyff’s team’s 5-0, Barça have done it again. Guardiola’s men, who beat Madrid 2-6 on that wonderful night a year and a half ago, tonight equalled the Dream Team’s fantastic win as they surged towards the fourth successive league title of the Cruyff/Rexach era.
Romario’s magic
Xavi, Pedro, Villa (2) and Jeffren have entered into Club history alongside the scorers on that wonderful 8th January 1994 - Romario (3), Koeman and Ivan Iglesias. The wonderful mosaic at the Nou Camp, Romario’s spectacular dribbling for the first goal and the ecstatic reaction of Cruyff’s assistant Tony Bruins Slot from that night will always stay in the memory and the link between them? Pep Guardiola who was the mastermind on the pitch for that win and again from the bench for tonight’s. First two won in black and white
The other two 5-0 results were way back in the early part of the 20th century. In 1935 Ventolrà (4) and Escolà were the scorers, whilst ten years later, Barça’s five cup winning team in the making did it again with goals from César (2), Bravo, Escolà and Gonzalvo III..
Five out of five for Guardiola
Roger Bogunyà
This Monday’s win over Madrid was Josep Guardiola’s fifth in charge of the team - with Pep in at the helm, the team have never lost against their eternal rival.
This was Guardiola’s win number five following the 2-0 win on December 13th 2008, the 2-6 thrashing on May 2nd 2009, the 1-0 win at the Nou Camp last November 29th and the 0-2 win at the Bernabeu on April 10th 2010.
16-2
The goal difference between the two over those five games is an incredible 16-2 in Barça’s favour, with Messi leading the scorers on four goals - nearly one a game. First defeat for Mourinho
FC Barcelona became the first team to beat Mourinho’s Madrid, who had gone 19 official games unbeaten (12 in La Lliga, 5 in the Champions and 2 in the Cup) and the 5-0 score line is the biggest that the Portuguese coach has ever suffered in his managerial career.
Cap gol en contra
In the three games against Madrid at the Nou Camp that Guardiola has been in charge, the team have not conceded a single goal and have scored eight goals themselves.
Villa: “A perfect day”
www.fcbarcelona.cat
David Villa played a key part in Barça’s win with his two second half goals and after the game he declared: “there are two things I’d like to stress about the game –the fans’ joy and the great way we felt in the changing rooms after the game”.
After a great performance all round, David Villa stressed “the team really enjoyed themselves. There are no individualists; this was a collective Barça effort”.
Two goals
Villa stamped his mark on the game with his two second half goals, but he insisted: “more than the result, it was the way we played that was the most important thing. This was a perfect day, beating Madrid and going top”.
Below are some of the other players’ post match reactions:
Jeffren
“The truth is I am so happy. We all celebrated my goal together because we are a united group. We have been so hungry to win this one for so long”.
“I did my best and I ended up scoring -it was like a dream for me”.
Alves
“This team is capable of everything – there are no limits”. “Many things have been said about the game, but we have kept our humility throughout”.
“I’m not worried about my contract – I just want to enjoy the time I’m here and my intention is to stay”.
Busquets
“This will go down in history both for how we played and the result”.
“It’s impossible to single out one player, everybody was great”.
“We are a very compact team and we all support each other”.
Puyol
“We did things well, but let’s keep our feet on the ground, we’ve still not won anything”.
Leaders again, 197 later
Roger Bogunyà
Tonight’s win was good enough by itself, but it also means that Barça go top of La Liga –a position they last held 197 days ago.
197 days may seem like quite a time since Guardiola’s team were top of La Liga and in truth since that 4-0 win over Valladolid to confirm the title plenty has happened, including the World Cup, the Spanish Super Cup, the start of this year’s Champions League and 13 La Liga games. Now though, Barça are back where they like to be - top of the pile!
Valencia and Madrid early leaders
Although the team have been up at the right end of the table all season, the defeat to Hercules in week 2 delayed their rise to top spot and Valencia and Real Madrid enjoyed the early part of the campaign leading the competition, but tonight’s win sends a clear message to the rest of La Liga –Barça are back and back at the top! Beating Madrid gives Barça top spot again
It’s nothing new for a win over Madrid to give Barça the league leadership – the same thing happened last year, when on 10th April the 0-2 win at the Bernabeu took Guardiola’s team ahead of Madrid, who’d been in front on goal difference until then, a position they held until the end of that thrilling campaign.
