[robzilla]

Im not a full time soccer fan, but from what Ive seen they are pretty impressive. Xavi, Alexis and Messi pass the ball to each other while 8 guys chase them around. They make defences look pretty bad.

[DwightShrute]

yes

[EaglesPhan36]

You either love or hate their style. All I know is Leo Messi is probably the best pure goal scorer I have ever seen. Guy doesn't play but 35 minutes or so today and nets two goals in the Copa Del Rey. Guy falls out of bed in the morning and scores goals, might be the best of all times.

[robzilla]

You either love or hate their style. All I know is Leo Messi is probably the best pure goal scorer I have ever seen. Guy doesn't play but 35 minutes or so today and nets two goals in the Copa Del Rey. Guy falls out of bed in the morning and scores goals, might be the best of all times.

I know. As soon as he stepped on the pitch today, he was owning big time and made it look effortless.

[EaglesPhan36]

What is awesome is he's only turning 25 this year ... oh yeah and he had the flu heading into this match. Unreal talent.

[ThaWoj]

much better than those faggy real madrid boys thats for sure

[MendozaLine]

Last years team is probably the greatest of all time.

[FourLengthsClear]

AC Milan team from the early 1990s is the only team that can compare IMHO.

It's a different game now though and no one has really found a way to combat that ticky-tack passing game they have. Everyone talks about Messi and he is a brilliant player but Xavi and Iniesta are just unreal in the midfield.

[gregm]

Pele with brazilian national team in the 1970s but you cant compare teams like Barca with other periods. The fields, the conditioning, the money involved in european soccer, everything is better. Barcelona still need to catch Madrid in La Liga but they probably will.

[baskets]

US teams of 2010, 2006, 2002, 1998 and 1990

Brian McBride probably the greatest of all-time. Had time for sex with Landon Donovan during half-time and then would go out there and score 5 goals in the second half. Look for the US to win their 6th world cup in Brazil.

[ferndog]

One of the best for sure. When you can make Man U look silly in the champions final last year and a few weeks ago make the team Santos from Brazil look silly in the club championship then you are probably pretty good.

[MARVEL]

Yeah, its one of the greatest in recent memory. Some of the real madrid teams from the 90s and early 2000s were filthy too. Messi is a beast. He is still very young too. He has an amazing feel for the game.

[Jimmy0607]

Top 3 for sure but then again you can say the same about the team from 09 that eon it all or the one frol last year

[allin1]

If they don't win anything this year would you still say they are the best of all times? It's just a matter of time until someone breaks them... but it might take a while...

I know they are a great team to watch and that the following video is not so relevant but still, some real madrid fans will probably like it

All I know is Leo Messi is probably the best pure goal scorer I have ever seen. Guy doesn't play but 35 minutes or so today and nets two goals in the Copa Del Rey. Guy falls out of bed in the morning and scores goals, might be the best of all times.

If Messi is so great why doesn't he show it with his national team?

[RubberKettle]

Probably, but they're still a bunch of Hollywood cheaters.

[JK]

Barcelona from last season was the best soccer team of all time, no doubt. I saw thousands of soccer games in my life but never saw any other team on their level. 5:0 vs Real Madrid was pure magic.

[cro]

i like Ac milan with van basten in the 90s better

[VegasInsider]

The short is yes. Barca is one of the Top 3 squad's ever assembled and they're still rolling along. When you have players like Messi, Xavi, Villa, Alves, Fabregas, Adriano, Alcantara, Iniesta etc....they're going to be tough to beat in the long run. They'll beat Real and claim the domestic title again and most likely make it to the CL Final again.

[RubberKettle]

IMO the most important player for Barcelona is Xavi. Yeah Messi puts the ball in the net, but Xavi is the pass master. Guy completes a Godly percentage of his passes. He is probably the best passer of the ball I've ever seen.

Only team I can think of that would rival them is the Brazil team with Pele and Garrincha because they never lost a game while playing together. Tough to compare the different eras.

Its difficult to say if Barcelona will win everything again this year, but they are the favorites.

[Goat Milk]

the club teams are way different now.

there's no competition.

barcelona is easily the greatest team in history and its not even close. their team is basically spain national team + the best player in the world (messi) and one of the greatest of all time already.

best forward in world - messi
top 5 winger in world - inesta
best midfielder in world- xavi
not to mention several other top 20 players in the world on their team

[cro]

It's very close, it's debatable if they are the best.


http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1956/...-barcelona-the

[JohnAnthony]

The short answer is: yes.

The full answer is: yes, but it's not so hard to get to that level when you (and Real Madrid) are the only two teams in the league that get at least 20% more from TV rights, regardless of performance or previous standings.

[RonPaul2008]

Who cares about soccer?

[SlowNsteady]

Who cares about soccer?

The entire world does you ignorant American!

[baskets]

Xavi?

Get the **** out of here. You take away Messi and they would've won nothing. NOTHING!!! Then you wouldn't even have this conversation.

[allin1]

Xavi?

Get the **** out of here. You take away Messi and they would've won nothing. NOTHING!!! Then you wouldn't even have this conversation.

If that would have been true, then Argentina should have been far better than they are. The facts tend to show that without Barca's style of play, Messi would have been NOTHING because he is not that brilliant with his national team.

[RubberKettle]

Spain won something with out Messi, and Barcelona is pretty much the Spanish national team

[CasperSky]

As the last game with Espanyol Barcelona (1-1) proved that Barcelona is not the best team.
Yes, they have a great game but focused more on ball possession rather than scoring. I prefer Real Madrid attitude towards attacking.

[justin81]

Barca is the best if they don't play a fukken 3-5-2 like tonite in derby.Nobody knows how, when and what to play. Messi, Xavi and Iniesta are completely useless. They must return to their own penalty box almost every time to get the ball or defend to support BS 3 players defense line.
They are killing machine with their 4-3-3 or 4-5-1, call it whatever you want, for me it's the second option. Everyone knows what to do. I don't have idea why they messing with that BS 3-5-2, it was working 15-20 years ago when the peace of game was much slower. Even 3 defenders of class of Puyol, Abidal or Pique cannot stop the attacks of today's strikers.

[tenbas]

LOL, people implying that Messi is not good because he doesn't win everything with national team. Enjoy your delusions.

[allin1]

LOL, people implying that Messi is not good because he doesn't win everything with national team. Enjoy your delusions.

why do you go from one extreme to another? of course he is good but he is not the best in soccer history as some say and he is not the only reason why barca are so good. nobody said he was't good... where did you get that from?

[showtiime]

Pep plays the 3-5-2 to get the extra body in midfield because he believes they dictate play even more like that, he only really started toying with the formation when Fabregas arrived, I agree why not just stick with the tried and tested 4-3-3 that won has won them 12 out of a possible 15 trophies since Pep took over, but sometimes things work wonderfully some days and fall short the next.

Now, it's debatable whether they are the greatest team of all time, but you show me a team that is close to them in the current era since Pep took over in 08, it's not even close, people ragging on Messi, saying he doesn't perform up to his high standards in the Argentinian national team, and that his style of play is more suited to the system barcelona employ, that may be true, but with Xavi & Iniesta you have 2 guys that can play passes with their eyes closed, you take players of that quality away from someone and of course the shoe will not fit quite as well, regardless of the replacements.

Have you seen Ronaldo play for portugal? What's the excuse for his displays for the national team? Of course he is much more selfish on the ball but the fact is; he and Messi are marked even heavier when they play for their national teams as apposed to their respective teams in La Liga.

[FindTheLock]

it's not only about being marked heavier when they play for their national teams. Messi gets put in a different position when he wears his Argentina colors, and is asked to create chances with his passing ability as opposed to being the pure striker that he is for Barcelona. The thing that makes Messi so great even for Argentina is how well he passes the ball unselfishly. It's not his fault his countrymen can't put the ball in the net as well as he can.

[showtiime]

Yeah, that is another reason not covered, you would think with the talent they have available up front they could be great, I mean they have a plethora of forwards / strikers that most countries could only dream of, you really have to wonder why it just doesn't work with Argentina. They 'should' be there at the business end of Euro 2012, but in reality, their performances in Copa America were less than inspiring, drawing 0-0 with Columbia and the inability to find the net regularly throughout the tournament has left a sour taste in most fans of Argentinean football.

Let's dig a little more here, when Messi drops deep for Barcelona, he has Xavi and Iniesta breaking beyond him; with Argentina, it's Banega & Cambiasso, now Cambiasso has hardly shown much over his career to suggest he likes getting forward to score, the pair are decent holding midfielders, but hardly possess the intelligence and movement of Xavi & Iniesta, when they get the ball attacks break down, as it does with Teves & Lavezzi, while both are great players, no one would mention them as your typical team man, too much dribbling, solo efforts, you then throw Messi in the mix and it has him on a different rhythm to the rest of the team, there is sometimes where you can see Messi's frustration when a player gets shut down and instead of electing to pass they try to maneuver between 3 defenders and lose the ball. This happens all to much at Argentina, and the fluidity of their play is reflective of this.

[gregm]

May is a long way off but this years squad doesn't look like the greatest club ever. The money involved is ridiculous in these European clubs, but I am still not sold yet on all these accolades, especially on the away matches. Poor showing today