The Myth of Messi

The UEFA Champions League, Europe's premier sporting competition each and every year, the one with the great theme song (You know the video is coming), is headed to the semifinals tomorrow, but really, in most parts of the world, the real final is being played over the next three weeks between FC Barcelona and Internazionale Milano square off at Milan's historic San Siro (aka, Stadio Guiseppe Meazza), with another clash coming next Wednseday at Barca's even more historic Camp Nou. This may be a semifinal, but in all truth, it is the final. These are the two best teams in Europe, and there is a sense that one is a supreme favorite, and one is a massive underdog, with the former being Barcelona and the sad, latter, Inter Milan. I am here to tell you
that the world is believing the Myth of Messi, and that this is not so easy at it seems.

And Finally, the Beautiful UEFA Champions League Theme.
Goosebumps, that's all I can say, Goosebumps.

The biggest 'Myth of Messi' is really a myth of his team, FC Barcelona, who has captivated the football-loving world the past two years winning everything in sight. Barcelona is loved because they play beautiful soccer, with wide open passing, and passing and even more passing. Barcelona plays a style of soccer that was first popularized in the 70's by Holland's total football, and although Barcelona actually is much better defensively than they are given credit for and even moreso better defensively than the Total Football Holland teams of the '70's, Barcelona plays a style of football that is visually pleasing and critically acclaimed. They are widely seen as the best side in the world because they play great football, and have great talent and great coaching. But really, Inter Milan has almost equal talent, and they have the self-proclaimed "special one" Jose Mourinho as their coach, but they are seen as largely inferior. It all has to do with beauty.

Inter Milan plays defense and more defense in big matches. They have the ability to play attacking football, but Mourinho built a team that suits his favorite style of football, controlling the other teams by not allowing teams to play to their pace, and in Barcelona's case, it means not allowing Barcelona to play Barcelona football. Inter Milan is nearly as good defensively as Barcelona is offensively, yet no one will ever admit that these things are equal in importance. This is a direct parallel to American Football.

In the NFL, the offense first teams are glorified, and are, in all seriousness, overrated. Take the New England Patriots in 2009. They were a team whose defense was league average. Their offense was above average. They were the favorites in 14 of the 16 games they played. The Jets were the best defense in the NFL, but average offensively. The Jets ended up one game worse than the Patriots, but they were only favored in 8 games. People overrated the Patriots, for the most part, because they were great on offense. They underrated the Jets, for the most part, because they played great defense. The 2007 Patriots were hailed as the "Greatest Team of All Time" until their Super Bowl loss because they were one of the greatest offensive teams of all time. Five years earlier, the Buccaneers put forth the greatest defensive season since the advent of the 16 game schedule. They were amazing in the playoffs. They were not even included in the list of Top 20 Teams of All-Time in NFL Networks America's Game rankings. If the 2002 Buccaneers played the 2007 Patriots, universally the Patriots would be everyone's pick, but in reality, they are a close, close match. Defense still wins championships in football, here and across the pond.

Offensive football (back to the futbol version here) was always hailed as the perfect way to play, but now it is hailed as the best way to play, the winning way, as evidenced by Barcelona's run to glory last year in the UEFA Champions League (ending with a utter beatdown of favored Manchester United), and more importantly Spain's triumph in the 2008 European Championship (essentially the all-Europe world cup, however oxymoronic that is). Spain play Barcelona football to an even higher degree, passing effortlessly between four of the best midfielders in the game and two dynamic forwards. They passed and passed their way to glory in Europe. Offensive football is the rage, and it wins. However, let's rewind a little bit more. In 2006, in the last World Cup, Italy won the title. Italy is notorious for defensive football (they invented a style named catenaccio - which is Italian for 'doorbolt') and they were at their brilliant best in the World Cup. In the whole tournament of 7 games, they gave up just two goals, one a penalty kick and the other an own-goal. Defensive football was the reason that Italy won football's greatest prize.

Now to the other myth, the one that involves Messi. Messi's recent brilliance (two hat-tricks in eight days, four goals to knock out Arsenal in the Champions League QF) has made Barcelona seem more unbeatable then ever. It's the exact opposite. First, Messi is not the key to beating Barcelona. Stopping Messi is the key to not being blown out; those are two different things. Barcelona's heart, or for a better metaphor, brain is their two midfield wizards Xavi Hernandez and Andres Iniesta (who, not-so-coincidently are both starting midfielders on the Spanish National Team). These two players are brilliant, effortless passers, who hold onto the ball, trap opposing defenses and allow the other players, like little Leo Messi, to roam free. Messi's finishing brilliance also belies what really might kill Barcelona's chances to repeat, the fact that the rest of the Barcelona attack is nowhere near as good as it was last year. One year ago, Messi was still named the best player in the world, but he had two brilliant strikers to share the burden of scoring goals, Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto'o. Now, Henry is in coach Pep Guardiola's doghouse for his lackluster play, and Samuel Eto'o was essentially traded to Inter Milan (oh, the irony?!) for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has been a dissapointment. Last year, around this time the top-3 Barcelona scorers had about 90 goals between them, this year 72 with Messi putting in 39 of those. Messi is the Barca attack, and he needs Xavi and Iniesta more than those two midfield wizards need him.

Here is why I am picking Inter Milan to win. First, it sets up a comical finish to the season with coach Jose Mourinho in a Champions League final with a team that he has publicly says he doesn't like to coach (moreso that he doesn't like Italian Football and wants to return to either Spain or England), but moreso because they are the perfect team to beat Barcelona. Inter deploys two brilliant Brazilian defenders (yes, those exist), in Maicon and Lucio, plus has the wild card of 19 year old Davide Santon, a Italian defender that has drawn comparisons to Italian icon Paolo Maldini, and was great at manning up Christiano Ronaldo back in last years Champions League. Then, Inter has the forces at defensive midfield to bother Xavi, and with Iniesta being out, it only makes it easier to bother the brain of Barca's attack. The blueprint to beating Barcelona was forged last year in the Champions League semifinal when Barcenlona played Chelsea.

Chelsea, Mourinho's former club, undertook a most-Mourinho style plan when playing Barcelona at a time when Barcelona had more offensive ability than they do today. They frustrated the whole attack holding them scoreless over the two legs until the 93rd minute when Barcelona finally scored to secure a spot in the final. Chelsea came oh-so-close to beating a better Barcelona team, and Inter is essentially a slightly augmented version of Chelsea, coached by the one man crazy enough to employ what I jokingly called Chelsea's tactic of "having goalie Petr Cech just blast the ball dowfield at all times and make Barca go 100 yards again and again all night long" and do it for 180 minutes. Mourinho considers himself a genius, and if there is anyone that can gaemplan to beat Barca, it is him. Barca is beatable, Messi is stoppable (he is the best player in the world, but in my opinion he is not as important as Xavi or Iniesta for Barcelona, or is he close to being the best player since Maradone as some announcer said the other day). Inter is the team to do it, and it is all because of the "Myth of Messi".