08.07.2010 12:06
Record breaking Barça presence
Vanessa Forns
There can be no doubt that the Barça seal has much to do with the Spanish team’s success at this World Cup, and that was clearer than ever against Germany. No fewer than seven of the starting eleven were FCB players.
Wednesday night was a historic day for football, with Spain reaching the World Cup final for the
first time ever. But neither will it have gone unnoticed that manager Vicente del Bosque used a
massive seven Barça players in his starting line-up, something unprecedented in this tournament so
far.
No team has had so many players from one club in a World Cup semi final for forty years. It
was the third time that this has happened at this stage of the tournament. In 1934, Czechoslovakia
played the semi final with seven players from Slavia Prague, and in 1970 Uruguay started with the
same number from Nacional.
Two eight-man precedents
Only twice has a team ever started a World Cup game with more than seven players
from the same club. That was Uruguay again in 1970, when they played one game with 8 players from
Nacional of Montevideo. The other occasion was 1986, when the USSR side once played with eight
players from Dynamo Kiev.
All picked apart from Valdés
Against Germany, all of the FC Barcelona players in the squad started apart from goalkeeper
Víctor Valdés. Puyol, Piqué, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Pedro and Villa were all on the pitch,
although it must be stated that FIFA still officially regard the latter to be a Valencia player,
even though he has been confirmed as a Barça signing for the new season.
Barça style and goals
With such a strong Barça presence in the semi final, Vicente del Bosque was clearly
content to let the team play the way so many of them learned at La Masia. But not only is the
playing style reminiscent of the famous FCB philosophy, but every single one of the goals scored by
Spain so far have come from Barça players. Villa has been on target five times, while Iniesta found
the net once against Chile and Puyol was on target last night to send Spain into the final.
International press takes note
The Josep Guardiola influence on the national side has not gone unnoticed beyond the borders
of Spain. ‘The New York Times’, for instance, noted that there was a huge number of
players from what it considers the best team in La Liga, el FC Barcelona. ‘The
Telegraph’ also commented on the phenomenon, while also highlighting that the goalscorer,
Carles Puyol, is a Barça man.
Seven Barça players at 1994 World Cup
This was not the first time that FC Barcelona has supplied seven players to a Spanish starting
line-up. It also happened 16 years ago in the United States under Javier Clemente for the quarter
final against Italy, when the team featured Zubizarreta, Ferrer, Abelardo, Nadal, Sergi, Goikoetxea
and Bakero. Spain lost that game 2-1, and Julio Salinas also came on as a substitute for Sergi in
the 60th minute, meaning eight Barça players were used in total.