Guardiola’s Barça continues making history. In a dull match against Levante they sealed their third consecutive League under the guidance of the coach from Santpedor, a hint that until now only Cruyff’s dream team could get, which linked four consecutive titles and which was the one that opened a door that since then has allowed Van Gaal, Rijkaard and Pep himself to improve the original work to form a team that continues making history. Yesterday’s match draw was good for both teams, so that it’s not strange that after a first half in which nobody knew very well which role they had to perform, at the second half both teams gave each other a respite.
However, yesterday’s match can’t outshine the great season the team has done, which this year was facing a big challenge against a Real Madrid that signed Mourinho as an antidote for Guardiola’s recipe. The Barcelona coach is the one who has got the best result.
The Catalonian team could already guarantee at the first match-ball a title which allows them to rest and get fit for the Champions League final of the 28th of May against Manchester United. They really need it.
And it’s so that apart from the game, sublime in some moments of the season, the greatest merit of this team is to have been able to break with the conformity tradition that affected Barcelona even more in the victory than in the defeat. After linking eight titles in two years and after providing the main framework of a Spanish National Team that got its first World Cup, Guardiola got to banish the conformity and feed and ambition that already places Barça definitely at a sport level consistent with its social power.
The third consecutive League was closed with a big conga done by the players and all the technical and assistance staff on the pitch of the Ciutat de València, where Rijkaard team restarted in 2005 the flame that seemed out since the times of Cruyff, clung to a Ronaldinho who revive a club that was going through their worst moments.
For one time, the guide’s departure didn’t mean the break of the idea, despite the two years at the purgatory. The idea was born even stronger on the hand of a man from the house who together with a group of Academy players have been able to resist, more hardly than it was expected, a hellish season because of the schedule, the intensity and the category of the rival, who armed itself completely in order to end with a run of triumphs that can still have its culmination in London, in Wembley, the symbol of where a wonderful way of playing football was started.
- MATCH STATS:
RESULT: LEVANTE, 1 - FC BARCELONA, 1 (1-1, at the half time).
-LINEUPS:
LEVANTE: Munúa; Venta, Ballesteros, Nano, Juanfra; Iborra; Valdo, Pallardó (Larrea, min. 82), Xavi Torres, Xisco Nadal; and Caicedo (Stuani, min. 75).
BARCELONA: Valdés; Alvés, Piqué, Mascherano, Abidal (min. 62. Fontás); Xavi Hernández, Busquets, Keita; Afellay, Messi and Villa (Pedro, min. 86).
-GOALS:
0-1, min. 27. Keita.
1-1, min. 40. Caicedo.
-REFEREE: Paradas Romero (Andalussian Association). He booked Iborra from Levante (min.68), while on the Barcelona side the yellow card was shown to Piqué (min. 65).
-STADIUM: Ciudad de Valencia. About 20.500 spectators.
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