I never thought I'd see the day I'd say this but United deeply missed Darren Fletcher in midfield. As it was, their midfielders were unable to cope with Barca's passing game. After a strong showing against Arsenal, Anderson seemed to be disoriented by all the one-twos and tight ball control shown by Barcelona. Ryan Giggs never seemed comfortable at his position throughout the game and you have to wonder why Sir Alex Ferguson didn't start Paul Scholes instead and use Giggs as a substitute. Scholes was the one who eliminated Barcelona last year with his wonder strike and with the introduction of the new ball at Rome, he probably could have tried to take a whack at it. Furthermore, his presence could have brought more stability in central midfield especially to Michael Carrick who seemed to feel terribly alone against his opponents. The English midfielder probably had one of his worst games on Wednesday, reacting late defensively and being unusually off-the-mark when it came to distribute the ball to his wingers/strikers. On Barcelona's first goal, he was late to get back in the box in order to cover Nemanja Vidic. You could say that it isn't his job and that Rio Ferdinand was supposed to be there but Ferdinand was already covering Messi so his hands were pretty tied at the moment. And as all my various coaches liked to say, it's always better to outnumber your opponent when you're playing defensively, otherwise you're practically toast. After beating Evra on the left flank, all Eto'o had to do was skip past Vidic and had Van der Sar at his mercy. Had Carrick been there two seconds earlier, the play could have gone differently.
Speaking of Eto'o, Pep Guardiola's move of switching the African striker on the wing and putting Messi in the center was pure genius as it destabilized United's plans a bit. Evra was counting on stopping Messi while the Ferdinand-Vidic duo would have no problem outmuscling Eto'o. With the switch though, Ferdinand and Vidic often found themselves backing up as they didn't want to get beaten by Messi's speed while Evra was the one getting outmuscled by Eto'o. With the defense backing up, and the attack sticking to Barcelona's backline, United were completely and for awhile they fell into the same trap as Bayern did against Barcelona in the quarterfinals. The midfielders suddenly had a lot more work to do since they had to support both sides of their team which inevitably led to Barcelona's complete dominance in the second half.
Although United seemed to be bolstered by Tevez's entrance at halftime, their newly-found energy disappeared just as quickly as it came as they were reduced to two midfielders – with only one pure center midfielder I might add – making it even harder to a) get possession and b) keep possession of the ball. Messi's goal at the 69th minute off of a sublime pass by Xavi was the death blow to Ferguson's hope of recapturing the trophy since it was obvious that the Red Devils wouldn't come back from a two-goal deficit.
Despite Barcelona's brilliant showcase offensively, they were just as solid defensively, looking like they didn't miss Abidal, Marquez, and Daniel Alves at all. Puyol and Pique in particular had an excellent game with the latter probably playing the best game of his career. As for Puyol, his experience and calm served him well as he prevented first Rooney then Ronaldo from coming through his side of the field. Later on, he felt secure enough to go on offensive rushes of his own which caused even more problems to United's defense. Truly a great game from the captain.
In the end, Pep Guardiola had an incredible season as a rookie manager. He took a team that was starting to crumble under the presence of so many egos and turned it into a true powerhouse, bringing back glory to the blaugrana shirt. It's amazing to think that in his first season, he managed to guide his team to a treble. But in the words of Ferguson after Wednesday's game, “the better team won.” Now, if Henry and Eto'o still want to leave, it's their choice but they'll be throwing away their chance at a repeat after a magical season. Now, wouldn't that be special? Seeing Barcelona come back next year as United did this year? I, for one, can't wait for next season.
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