FC Barcelona: because tomorrow is another day

So Bayern have beaten Barcelona fair and square, and in the process condemned them to the worst ever aggregate defeat in the semifinals of any Champions league season to date. What is weird regarding this whole scenario is the happiness it has brought to fans around the world. Barring the faithful Culers who are writhing with the agony of the annihilation caused to their beloved club, there seems to be a general sense of collective joy flowing around the world and it seems to be sarcastically mocking the abject failure of the so called ‘tiki-taka’ system which Barcelona had become so proficient at.

So is all of it called for? No. Is it the beginning of the end of Barcelona? Certainly not. I’m not one of those ardent Barcelona fans who proclaim that their blood is blue and red instead of red, nor am I the greatest advocate of the “Messi is God” chant . But I am a football fan, a purist who loves the game in its most beautiful and simple form, and love them or hate them, but in the past decade or so, no team has played football as beautifully and as wonderfully as Barcelona. It has been a privilege rather than a treat to watch them play. They have not only provided a new meaning to the term ‘beautiful football’, but have gone a long way in making the observers realize what it would have been had they seen Cruyff’s Holland of the 70s or Dalglish’s Liverpool of the 80s, the two previous teams who epitomized the pass-and-move virtue among their play most effectively.

Watching them play, one can’t help but notice the ease with which the ball finds one Barcelona player after another, the insane accuracy displayed by the passing of Andres Iniesta and the brilliance of the little Argentinian ahead who scores goals just as easily as Chris Gayle scores sixes. You know, you admire a team when being a neutral supporter; their play makes you gasp for your breath, their goal makes you clap like a buffoon and their general movement on the pitch makes you feel as if you’re in a Mozart concert, slowly building towards a high that will leave you awe-struck. You may abuse me or find me to be a fool, but yes, I’ve felt those strong emotions watching the Catalans dismantle opposition teams one after the other over the years (although I’ve only ever heard a few of Mozart’s symphonies, so that comparison might be debatable).

A general law of life is that everything that rises has to fall and although yesterday’s defeat is not the end of everything, it certainly is a stern reminder of the fact that with time, everybody adapts and every new idea ultimately becomes obsolete. Heynckes and co. had a plan and executed it to the word. I’d go as far as saying that they’ve provided Barcelona with a conundrum – is the age of the ‘tiki-taka’ a thing of the past? Psychologically, the defeat has had so damning an effect overall that the league title win seems of little importance now, despite them producing a near flawless season domestically this year. Manager Tito Vilanova, who has had a tough year from a personal point of view, might now understand the reason behind the quick ageing of his predecessor Josep Guardiola while at the helm.

Maybe what Barcelona really need at the moment is to get their heads down, work hard in the off season and turn this humiliation into inspiration for the next season. Maybe they also need to start developing an idea of a Plan B, something that they have always lacked and something for which they have often paid dearly (remember Chelsea last season?). Some critics suggest that the over-reliance of the club on Lionel Messi is also a negative aspect of their game. I fail to find any logic in that statement; when you have the best player in the world, you build a team for him, around him, and that is how you maximize his talents to get the best for the team. AC Milan built a team around ace striker Marco Van Basten in the late nineties and scaled the heights of Europe, Italy and the world for a good chunk of time in football history.

So as the club passes through their most darkest hour in terms of football performances on the pitch, they need to find solace in the term that, ‘Haters gonna hate’. It is no apogee of sorts and they need to realize that every successful journey has bumps it can’t avoid but has to endure. They need to dig deep inside and realize the history of the city has always seen it come to triumph from the most precarious of situations in the past; the’ve done it before and they’ll do it again. The world, at the moment, is a place full of vultures ready to pounce on any chance to scavenge the club and make it an institution which only gloats when it recollects its past achievements, but it’s like Abhishek Bachchan stated in Guru:

“Agar log tumhaari ninda karein, toh socho ki tum tarakki kar rahe ho.” (If people are criticizing you than you should know that you’re doing good).