As it turned out Jose has done it again, though he had to surrender his 10 years of Invincibility at home. It would be a mammoth task for any manager to land a trophy at a new club in less than 12 months let alone do that in 4 different countries. Tribute to the SPECIAL ONE as a new era begins, an era where rivalry will take the sport to unparallelled heights, the winner for sure will be the game.
We have enjoyed the dominance and play of this Barcelona team under PEP, like we enjoyed Roger's dominance of Slams. But the best thing that happened to tennis was when a tireless tenacious 19 year old decided to run down every ball and topple the strength of Roger to a misery under pressure (the lethal one handed backhand wilted and still misses the lines against Nadal).
Here comes the parallels, Barcelona take your breath with one touch passing, sublime 7 second pressing off the ball and truly produce magical football, something similar to what Roger brings to Tennis - Elegance and Perfection. Treat to eyes, moments galore. But such dominance needs spice otherwise it could put off the neutrals and would never appeal to newer audience. To take the sport to the next level you need a rival and finally PEP has his task cut out. Real Madrid with Jose at the helm are molding themselves into a Nadal - Speedy, Tenacious and Never give up (wear your opponent out mentally and mistakes will give you Victory). The parallels dont stop there. Nadal made clay his fortress, improved on grass and then humbled Roger on Hard courts. Bernabeau will be a fortress (jose 10 years of management is a proof for it), neutral venue will give madrid 50:50 chance of winning the match and at Valencia they showed what they are, and it will be a matter of time before Barcelona would be pressurized at Catalan. But for now the philosophy of Barcelona will be under the Jose pump and if Champions league tie over two legs doesn't go their way (they still are the overwhelming favorites) then people would call this philosophy of elegant football as uni-dimensional. No matter how many trophies you win, as the best in sport you always want to win that extra against your nearest rival.
The ball truly is in Pep Gaurdiola's court. Will he stick to his philosophy of elegant one touch football or go the Manchester United way of giving up pleasure for results. Do his players have what it takes to deliver on Big occasions against such rivals (Roger attacking the net against Nadal though keeps the point short he doesnt get the major chuck going his way)?
Only time will tell but for the moment let us enjoy the remaining 2 EL clasicos this year and minimum couple more next season (after which PEP being smart for sure would phase himself out, his engine Xavi would be 30 and wouldnt be the same to feed the little under 5.7 strikers to keep netting).
What better that a tactically brilliant coach with a ready to die team testing his wits against technically brilliant coach with a machine team at the biggest stage "Champions Legue". For sure Barca could wake up and show the kids of RM that it could take longer or Jose might end up having the last laugh.
Will PEP end up doing a ROGER ??
