TiVO warning -- if you don't want to know who won the European Champions League final, click off this diary.
The champions of La Liga in Spain -- F.C. Barcelona -- have won the most coveted club team title in the world. Capping off a season that may have been the most impressive by any team ever, Barcelona thoroughly whipped the defending champs, England's Manchester United. The final was 2-0, but that score-line doesn't indicate how decisive this triumph was.
The first 9 minutes belonged to Manchester United, and produced three great chances for their young star, Cristiano Ronaldo. However, Ronaldo was unable to beat the goalie, Victor Valdes, and the Red Devils had nothing to show for the early dominance. After that, it was all Barcelona. On their first foray into United's end, Africa's greatest talent, Samuel Eto'o totally schooled Man.Utd. defender Nemanya Vidic, stepping past him and blasting a shot that squeezed inside of goalie Edwin van der Sar.
This goal really broke the will of the English side. From that point, the Red Devils failed to really threaten. Each time Wayne Rooney came down the wing, his efforts were rebuffed by the Catalan team's captain, Carlos Puyol or the former United defender Gerard Pique. Ronaldo, infamous for his petulance, showed his frustration by repeatedly fouling, before he was eventually shown a yellow card for an unnecessary shoulder charge into Puyol as the ball rolled out of bounds. Rooney and Ronaldo were both called for a number of offside infractions -- further evidence of their frustration at the English's side inability to crack the Spanish team's surprisingly tough defense.
Finally, as time was slipping away from the defending champs, a poor clearance by defender Patrice Evra allowed Xavi to collect the ball unmolested. He crossed to the young Argentine sensation Lionel Messi, who was similarly unmarked. Messi's fadeaway header beat the United goalie and put the game out of reach.
Messi's goal was a fitting capper to the long campaign, as Messi combined with Eto'o and French superstar Thierry Henry to produce an incredible 98 goals among them over the course of the past year. With one game still to play in their Spanish season, the trio may yet hit the century mark. They have been the most prolific trio in anyone's memory, as they shredded defenses across Spain and all of Europe. The 21-year old Messi will probably claim awards as the world's greatest footballer this year.
The win completes an unprecedented Spanish triple for Barcelona -- the first team to claim the La Liga crown, the Copa del Rey tournament title and the European championship. It is also sweet revenge for last year's Champions' League semifinal loss to Manchester. Despite missing three of the starters on defense, they were able to shut out the only team that might have a comparably fearsome offense.
Still, it was a stunning win for Barcelona, a team that was fortunate to be in the final. They had been outplayed for much of their semifinal against Chelsea. The referee waived off 4 penalty opportunities against Barcelona, including two obvious handballs. In the dying seconds of the game -- in added stoppage time -- and facing elimination -- Barcelona was able to score the decisive goal, despite being a man down. It was a controversial win in the semifinal, but no one can deny that, today, Barcelona was the best team in the world. They will be remembered as one of the greatest club teams ever...possibly, even the best ever.