Barca have become so ‘boring’!

For the haters, it is becoming boring, and for the faithful, it’s just romance as Barcelona continue to reach new heights and set new records in Spanish football. It’s boring in a sense that people expect Barca to win every game, and indeed the Catalan giants go on to do exactly that, and before we realize, they could be on the way to set a new league record—something they’re achieving in some style, probably never seen anywhere in the history of the beautiful game. Pep Guardiola’s team will be looking to make history today [Saturday] against Atletico Madrid when the league leaders go for a Spanish record 16th straight league win.The champions, led magnificently by Fifa World Player of the Year Lionel Messi, tied the record of 15 straight wins set by Real Madrid 50 years ago against Hercules last Saturday, a victory which also allowed them to stretch the lead over their closest rivals, Madrid to seven points. After the routine 3-0 win over Hercules, ironically the only team to take all three points off the champions in this campaign, Guardiola, described the record in the similar modest fashion as he always reacts to his achievement as Barca coach. He said, “To share 15 straight victories with Di Stefano’s Real Madrid is something that makes us very proud,” Barcelona coach Pep said. “That it hasn’t been done in 50 years shows just how hard it is to achieve.” And with their current form, only the hardest of pessimists would bet against Messi and co setting a new record, which appears, it could stretch to way beyond just 16 matches. Because Barcelona have become so ‘boring’ by winning every game, they could go on and set a new Spanish record that other teams would find just to impossible to break—even when you think of impossibility being nothing as Adidas people like to remind us with their ‘Impossible is Nothing’ slogan. On the other hand, Atletico, despite standing a whopping 28 points behind the league leaders, appear t have enough in them to cause an upset, not like the one Hercules did in the second if the season [because that was a real upset], but still a win for any team other than Barcelona at Camp Nou is very much considered an upset in the last couple of seasons. As for Barca’s eternal rivals, Real Madrid, they know they can ill afford to drop points over the second half of the season to keep the pressure on the run-away champions. Jose Mourinho’s side looks to bounce back from last weekend’s shock defeat at Osasuna, if you like to call it that, against Real Sociedad on Sunday at the Santiago Bernabeu, where the home team has not dropped a single point this season. It’s hard to take, especially for the Madridistas but Mourinho’s team has already been written off in some quarters as far as their title hopes are concerned, especially with a seven-point gap to recover. Yet Barcelona can add further weight to the notion that the current team could be the best in Spanish football history. With Messi, who has scored 37 goals in all competitions at the helm, Barcelona are on course to break all kinds of league records this season such as season points total, victories in a season, goals scored and fewest conceded. The Catalans have won four straight against Atletico at the Camp Nou, where the later last achieved success five years ago, and I don’t see anything changing, least with Barcelona’s current ‘boring’ run. nku78@yahoo.com