Column My Champions : Pep Guardiola and the birth of the false Nine

midnight is not far off on that spring day in Rome, as Guardiola turns Pep short of his team. He's looking for a moment of Contemplation and says, he would have to stop now, because, "I have achieved everything". Championship, Cup and Champions League victory, and all this in a season. That's about it.

Similar will go a couple of years later, Jupp Heynckes by the head as he finished his Triple with Bayern. But Heynckes has his 68. Celebrated the birthday of his career is a logical end. The Guardiola has only just begun. 27. In may 2009, he ends up in a 2:0 victory in the Champions League final against Manchester United, his first year on the bench. With just 38 years.

On Wednesday, the FC Barcelona again Manchester United, this time in the quarter-finals. Guardiola is no longer there but still present. Barça no longer staged, although the pure form of the once Guardiola introduced Tiki-Taka. The club has emancipated himself from the self-infatuation of the short-pass game and it is a new, tempo-rich System transferred. However, the magic is preserved and the influence of is without Guardiola's hard to imagine. More important, however, a different heritage, that of the club of his heart, eating away until today, and with it probably the best football player in the world.

Guardiola found the perfect Position for Messi

Pep Guardiola has invented for Lionel Messi, the Position of its unmatched quality, perfectly. As a striker, not a striker, because he can always fall back and attack in order for the active defense. Pep Guardiola makes Lionel Messi the false Nine.

Today, hardly anyone likes to imagine, how difficult for Guardiola to fall on the first days at the Camp Nou. He has a big name as a former national player and as a coach, but a novice, equipped with the experience of a season for Barca's reserve team. But the novice has strong self-awareness and clear ideas. First, he makes the world stars Deco and Ronaldinho know you don't like to look for new clubs that you fit in his System. With Samuel Eto'o, he can do nothing and keep him for a year. The Cameroon striker will thank him in the final of Rome.

heart and soul: Lionel Messi and Pep Guardiola.Photo: Alberto Estevez/dpa

Guardiola divides the playing field into mini-sectors, with specific instructions for each player, in which Situation he had where to stop. The implementation takes time. The first game in Numancia, lost 0:1, the second at home against Santander ends 1:1. The Fans are impatient with novices, many of them had wished for anyway, the Portuguese José Mourinho. In Marti Perarnau written biography of Guardiola, describes a knock, as in this Phase, Andres Iniesta at the door to the trainer's room. The silence midfielder says: "don't worry, Señor. We are on the right path. We will win it all.“

In the next game, there is a 6:1 in Gijon, and now Barcelona is no longer to stop. There are 20 matches in a row without a defeat and consequences. The back-round duel at the favorite enemy of Real Madrid, Guardiola Messi to be re-educated to the false Nine. Barça wins 6:2, Messi shoots two goals, and shortly afterwards another one at the 4:1 in the Cup final against Gijon. The trip to Rome.

in The final at the Stadio Olimpico has a Beard Pep Guardiola's hair, and Lionel Messi, nor Tattoos. It's Cristiano Ronaldo's last game for Manchester United before moving to Madrid. The Cupverteidiger imagines himself in the role of favorites, but on the court nothing is to be seen. After eight minutes, Samuel Eto'o, the abandoned, almost, twirling the Ball in from a tight angle to make it 1:0 in the right corner, past the surprised goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar.

Messi in a good, and a false centre-forward style

It's not the last unpleasant Moment for the long Dutchman. 20 minutes before the end of Xavi Hernandez from the right side, crosses into the penalty area. No Englishman feels a responsibility to them comes up, that Lionel Messi has in your back. The Argentine measures 170 centimeters, of the smallest players on the pitch, but he makes what makes a good striker, even if he is just a false. Messi screwed up, he seems to stand in the air, hits the Ball with the forehead, and lifts him over the regret of van der Sar values. 2:0, the game is decided.

United Manager Alex Ferguson bows to the opponent and congratulated with a compliment: "Barça kept the Ball the whole evening in his ranks, and if we had him, he was gone again quickly. You have enjoyed the football. This is a merit of Guardiola.“ And his Tiki-Taka. Pep Guardiola does not like the term, by the way, it appears to him to profane for his complex work.

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