LONDON — When most soccer fans think of Barcelona, they get weak in the knees over an offensive style that has become the game’s Platonic ideal.
In the spirit of Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, Barcelona, which plays Manchester United in the UEFA Champions League final Saturday at Wembley Stadium in London, displays a dizzying, short passing attack, controlling the ball for more than 70 percent of the game in some matches.
The game of keep-away forces opponents to exhaust themselves as they give chase and end up watching helplessly when a pass through a tiny seam in the defense connects with the magic feet of David Villa or Lionel Messi, who finish with lethal effectiveness.
But Barca’s dazzling attack disguises a high-pressure defense that smothers opponents as soon as they get the ball in a fashion that every other team in the world finds either too exhausting or too hard to play.
The reigning champion of Spain’s La Liga, Barca scored 95 goals in 38 Spanish league games this season, second only to runner-up Real Madrid’s 102. To watch Barca is to become hypnotized by 11 men in blue-and-red striped shirts seemingly standing around and tapping the ball from one to another until an opportunity emerges, a style known as “tiki-taka,” or “touch-touch.”
But playing Barca also means facing the soccer equivalent of a full-court press for 90 minutes, a prospect that makes the world’s best soccer players talk like scared children on Halloween night.
“They make it uncomfortable for you, even when you have possession,” said Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere.
Hristo Stoichkov, the former Barca forward called the press downright “frightening.” He said: “They are so quick that if you make a poor pass, or you don’t control the ball, they get possession really high up the pitch and you’re dead.”
Conventional wisdom suggests the match-up is a meeting of the world’s most dangerous attack against the stoutest defense. But Barca’s defense may, in fact, be the strongest part of its attack, and its high-pressure style is certainly as essential to its success as its prolific goal scorers.
Barca has, after all, allowed fewer goals than the Red Devils during Champions League competition this season (19 compared with 33) and fewer shots as well (237 against 417). Not only does Barca hog the ball, giving teams few chances to attack, when it does give up possession, it presses the other team’s back line so hard opponents can struggle to get out of their own half of the field.
According to Chris Hughton, the former Newcastle United head coach, the only way to overcome Barca’s pressing game is to outrun them, creating space to evade the battalion of tacklers.
“You’ve got to have good movement from your midfield players,” he said. “That will tire them out and gaps will open in midfield.”
For Manchester United Saturday, that means playing defenders who are comfortable with the ball, such as Rio Ferdinand, to negate the effectiveness of Barcelona’s pressure tactic with angled passes through the press.
“But,” Hughton added, “you need to be brave.”
