Deconstructing the team
For those whose football is limited to watching and commenting on matches and admiring impressive results or statistical indicators, it is difficult to understand and logically explain the processes that took place at the Catalan club at the end of 2014 and the beginning of 2015.
For those casually interested in the Spanish championship kitchen, all talk of scandals and crises seems strange. What crisis is there when "Barcelona" has just won their Champions League group matches, occupies second place in the national championships, and is only one point behind the leading Madrid "Real"?
For many teams, such results can only be dreamed of.
"I feel like I visited Disneyland in my childhood," - Luis Enrique described his appointment as head coach of "Barcelona."
However, how "Barcelona" looked at the turn of the year completely did not resemble a beautiful childhood idyll. "It's more like Mordor," - a well-known Spanish football commentator Sid Lowe vividly quoted one of his colleagues.
"Success is how high you can bounce when you hit bottom," said U.S. Army General George S. Patton.
However things may be, whatever may have happened, "Barcelona" somehow bounced back from the bottom, rose, and... flew.
On January 11, 2015, just a week after an institutional crisis that shook the club, Luis Enrique's guard played the last match of the first round of the Spanish championship against Madrid "Atletico."
To the surprise of many, the "Camp Nou" stadium suddenly saw a completely different "Barcelona."
Lionel Messi was everywhere, Neymar danced with the ball, and Luis Suarez broke the "athletes'" defense as much as he could until they could resist no more. It was the first time all three "Barca" attacking stars shone in a single match.
Just days before that match, "Barcelona" crushed "Elche" in the King's Cup competition, with Neymar scoring his 16th goal of the season, one more than he had scored throughout the entire 2013-2014 season.
Having shed a couple of extra kilograms, Luis Suarez was no longer the one for whom "teammates' passes were too fast," and Lionel Messi, asked by journalists about his relationship with the head coach, replied: "I know and have heard everything that has been written about me. People waste their time trying to create false news that I disagree with the coach, that several former players had to leave the club because of me. I am being made out to be some kind of club director who makes all the decisions. It's all nonsense. I never asked for the coach to be fired because I don't have the right to do so. I don't make decisions and I am not involved in the management of the club. I am just one of the players."
"One of the players," together with Neymar and Luis Suarez, soon began to strike fear into opponents.
...The hunting season, as Luis Enrique called it at the end of last year, was drawing to a close.
The Triumph of Harmony
May 17, 2015.
Exactly one year had passed since the day when the despairing "Barcelona" failed to defeat the reigning champions Atletico Madrid players at their home "Camp Nou" stadium.
Exactly a year - no more, no less.
And again "Barcelona," and again "Atletico." But this time the stadium was different, and the situation was different. And "Barcelona" was now different.
Diego Simeone's team no longer has even theoretical possibilities to defend their champions titles, for which Luis Enrique's team and Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid are still competing.
In the 65th minute, Lionel Messi sent the ball into the net, and as it later became clear, that was the only goal in that match. It didn't matter that "Barcelona" didn't crush the opponents, and it didn't matter that after the goal, all three forwards didn't score.
On the stands of the Vincente Calderon Stadium, "Atletico" fans applauded "Barcelona" just as loudly as a year ago Barcelona fans did at the Camp Nou arena.
...The hunting season, as Luis Enrique called it, was coming to an end.
The Triumph of Harmony
May 17, 2015.
From that day when the despairing "Barcelona" at their home "Camp Nou" stadium failed to defeat the reigning champions Atletico Madrid players, exactly a year had passed.
Exactly a year - no more, no less.
And again "Barcelona," and again "Atletico." But this time the stadium was different, and the situation was different. And "Barcelona" was now different.
... (continues)fcbarcelona.lt
