Barca's troubles of this season were beautifully described by La Liga when they announced the Team of the Season". Not even a single Barcelona player made the cut. The Champions Atletico Madrid as expected, dominated the line-up. They have Courtois, Godin, Luis, Juanfran, Koke, Gabi and Diego Costa in the line-up. Real Madrid have three players in the line-up in the form of Ronaldo, Bale and Ramos. It's been some time since Lionel Messi has missed out on the Team of the Season.
It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
In the end it was impossible for this to continue. From the heights of driving their fans to ecstasy with their performance in the field Barca has come a long way. There were too many occasion where one simply felt that the team was merely going through the motions. Even though we were so close to winning the League, we have indeed given up at many occasions. So there was no way Martino could have survived this, there is no point in surviving this. At Barca, how you win matters most, more than how much you win. The way we were playing in recent weeks turned the table completely on Martino. As a matter of fact, we weren't exactly winning also! So that didn't do him any favour either.
As widely speculated, FC Barcelona has confirmed the appointment of Luis Enrique as the First Team Manager for the next season. The two year deal would see him manage the club till the end of 2015-16 season. But then whether he will continue or not will depend definitely on the success of next season. This announcement was just a mere formality. Everyone knew that Luis Enrique would take over after Tata Martino announced his departure following the La Liga loss to Atletico Madrid. A day before Luis Enrique has announced in a press conference his departure from Celta de Vigo. Long before that there were serious speculations about him taking over from Martino, especially a very much publicized secret meeting between him and Barca Sporting Director Zubizarreta. It is believed that Luis Enrique is the Sporting director's pick.
Highlights from FC Barcelona's match against Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou on Saturday. The draw meant yet another instance of the title decider on the last day being ended up in a stalemate. Nice to see Camp Nou rising in standing ovation for the La Liga winner.
Atletico Madrid were not to be denied, their fairytale season continues, they have fought for this like no other team. They just had to win this. In a match which could be dubbed the best final ever or the best final we all have witnessed, Atletico prevailed. They didn't have to win this and the 1-1- draw was more than enough for it. In the preview to the match I have written about the possibility of Atletico breaking down physically, make no mistake - they did! They lost Diego Costa and Arda Turan, their two best players early in the first half, they appeared like not knowing what to do, they went behind when Sanchez scored. It was all turning against them, that too in the final game of the season. But a number of times this season, they found that inner spirit to drive them back into the race and the Godin header clearly described this team's motto "Fight till we Die".
