Barcelona showcase their evolution on way to Champions League victory
BERLIN --
Once in a while, a team will score a goal that, upon reflection, stands almost as a physical embodiment of its entire style. Barcelona have evolved this season and turned slightly away from the pure philosophy laid down by Rinus Michels and Johan Cruyff, but there was a majesty to their opening goal in the Champions League final that was entirely in keeping with the club's pre-eminence in Europe over the past decade.
The approach may be more varied now than it was under Pep Guardiola, but this is still a side playing to the principles of press-and-possess. They are capable of moments of extraordinary beauty. In a perfect narrative, perhaps, their first goal would have come last: it would have been the final flourish to round off the masterpiece. Instead, the goal arrived after four minutes with such astonishing quality that it almost seemed to overshadow the first quarter of the game.
It began, unpromisingly enough, with a throw-in on the Barca left, about 10 yards inside the Juve half. The ball was worked across the pitch and back again, until Dani Alves presented it to Lionel Messi just outside the center-circle. Suddenly there was an injection of urgency, a change of direction -- just as there had been when he played a similar pass in the clasico. The ball was swept out to the left flank, where Jordi Alba was surging forward into the space inevitably -- and probably necessarily -- left by the narrowness of Juve's midfield diamond. He knocked it inside to Neymar, who waited until Andres Iniesta had made a burst away from Arturo Vidal. From there it was all extremely straightforward: a ball inside, a square pass across goal and a simple finish for Ivan Rakitic.
As Neymar, Jordi Alba, Iniesta and Rakitic ran to celebrate, the looks on their faces betrayed their awe. All the plans, everything Juve had set out to do before the game, and the problems their pressing had seemed to be causing Barca: It all meant nothing. Football played with that sort of precision, invention and pace simply cannot be stopped.
For 20 minutes, Juve reeled. Barca could have had three or four in the first half of the first half alone. But it was as though they too were unsettled by the aesthetic quality of what they had just done. The ruthlessness, the drive that might have finished the game almost before it had begun wasn't quite there and Juve, to their enormous credit, rallied. For almost an hour it was nearly an even contest before, at last the goals came to turn the quality of Barca's opening into a 3-1 victory.
After the final whistle, there was the familiar trope of Gerard Pique cutting away the net to take as a souvenir, a new one of the five Brazilian players posing with their national flag and Neymar wearing a bandana with "100% Jesus" emblazoned on it.
Perhaps most symbolically, there was also the poignant sight of Xavi being carried around the pitch on the shoulders of his teammates. He was an unused substitute in the 2006 final, but he was a key part of the wins in 2009 and 2011. His time is over. He was only a late substitute here after replacing Andres Iniesta, but for years he has embodied Barca: He made the sideways pass an essential part of the armory and made a whole generation realize that the best way to goal isn't necessarily always forward.
It's not just that, at 34, age has defeated him, though: Barca also have moved past him. Rakitic may never win what Xavi did, and he will never serve as a symbol Xavi did. But Rakitic has been essential to the more direct approach of which the side is now capable.
Rakitic's pass to Messi in the build-up to the second goal will never draw the attention, but the pass was perfectly weighted and directed. It helped Messi create the angle for the shot that ended up being slammed home by Luis Suarez after Gianluigi Buffon saved the initial attempt. It had been Rakitic's pass, of course, that had set up Messi's brilliant second against Bayern in the first leg of the semi-final. That partnership with Messi is flourishing, and that willingness to risk the instant direct ball has added a dimension to Barca's play.
Familiar as many of the post-match rituals may have seemed, there was something new here. After Guardiola left, there was a sense of drift about Barca, as though the summit had already been passed and the way was inevitably downhill. That has gone. This is a reinvigorated, repurposed side. Three Champions League titles in six years may only be the start.
