Arsenal 2 - Barcelona 1... by gimleteye

The Brazilians call football, the beautiful game. So it is. Yesterday in the Champions League competition -- the wealthiest sports event in the world -- the British premier league team Arsenal beat Spain's best, Barcelona. A few weeks ago, I lavished praise on Barcelona; the best football team in history. So goes the beautiful game.

At the time, an EOM reader promptly noted that the Spanish League is weak in comparison to other national leagues. That's right. The Champions League pits the previous season's top four teams, within each of their respective European national leagues, against each other. Even in this group of Champions, I estimated Barcelona to be the best in the world.

Not yesterday. For the fans at White Heart Lane, Arsenal's home, it was a rocking thriller. With just fourteen minutes left in the ninety minute span, Barcelona lead 1-0. But the Spaniards who started the game with blazing confidence had been knocked off their game by the physicality and speed of a young Arsenal side. It is almost unthinkable at this level of competition that a team can come back with fourteen minutes left on the clock. That's what happened. It is why it is the beautiful game.

The Dutchman Robert Van Persie, a star who had struggled throughout to find his footing, found just one foot of daylight at an impossible angle between the Barcelona goal tender and the near post. At full speed he took the ball in mid-air and put it in the space with his left foot. 1 - 1. With just five minutes left in the game, the Egyptian Samir Nasri sped down the right side chasing a perfectly weighted pass and then calmly paused, weighing his own opportunities, and pushed the ball inside the 18 yard line to the Little Russian Andre Arshevin speeding in from the left. Arshevin, who has spent the season sulking inside and outside his capacity, one timed a shot against traffic that came within an inch of being deflected away by the Barcelona defender. The stadium, packed to capacity, erupted.

Nasri is a very interesting player, to me. One of the few Arab stars in British football. What makes a superstar? Over the past few seasons, as Nasri emerged, he looked to be nothing particularly special. Suddenly, this season he has blossomed. Why? Why, Nasri, and not others and especially others more physically gifted? I can't explain it any more than how Roger Federer emerged from the pack, more than a decade ago, at the Lipton Tennis Tournament on Key Biscayne. At the time, Federer was just another of the top twenty big hitters; powerful, erratic, and no more clearly a star than his opponents at the time. It is a mystery.

I watched the last half hour, twice, just to be sure that Arsenal won. It did. Barcelona's brilliance was on display throughout, but the British side kept pressing and never gave up; a testament to preparation. The world's best team looked merely mortal. One of the beauty's of the constant action in football is that momentum, at the top level, can shift so quickly among athletes who are thoroughbred race horses. It is not like basketball or American football, where size and coordination are at a premium. Here, magical dexterity is at a premium.

The world's finest footballer, Argentine Lionel Messi, appears so slight on the field to be almost mistaken for a ticket usher. Messi's midfield support team, who elevate his brilliance, wouldn't stand out as physically gifted on a crowded street in Manhattan. Yet they are. Last night, Messi had the chance to convert two opportunities in the first half and missed by just a little. The game swung on the slight falter in confidence.

We will see, in a few weeks, what gives in the second round of play-- this time on Spain's home field in Barcelona. Arsenal has a one goal advantage; meaning that Barcelona must win by two goals to advance to the Champions League quarter final of match play. On that day and that time, I will be glued to the television somewhere. Fascinated whether Barcelona is, in fact, history's best football team.