That Chelsea was a tough challenge ofc but it was not the Chelski yet. They had a good team, but not with an Abramovich as the owner. Pre-Abramovich Chelsea had a good team for some years, but yet again they were no fav for the CL or even should I say the PL title before Abramovich arrives.
About Valencia, as you see I always mentioned them among the top teams in Europe back then. But still, they were not that Almighty King-of-Europe that they could walk all over Barca like they did in the semi. That's what I'm saying about that Barca. They were ok, but with the 100s of millions spent it still was not good enough. The Gaspart era as the president of Barca was disastrous. See how it ended as well. I remember it enough as I hated it enough tbh.
And I'm not sure if Panthinaikos results in that sequence had much to do with what Greece has achieved in Euro2004. Seriously who could have thought Greece even go past the group stage, let alone winning the Euro?! That came out as a big surprise. Credit to them for what they've achieved, but the Greece example was a special case. They worked freaking well as an unit, their tactics responded perfectly, and they had pretty much the luck card on their side against Czech Republic in the semi to make the final.
Greece win is a mix of luck and of course rise of the level of football in Greece , it still remain a fluke but u can't achieve it with 11 idiots
as for Valencia .. look mate this a team that won la liga , UEFA cup and played the final of the CL twice.. losing to us in one of them... what do they have to do to be bigger than that ? everyone feared them ..
Look i don't know how old you were back than but it was in my mid 20's so i do remember them quite well
... well I was being facetious, but the 2002 team is the team that would cause havoc on the counter, espcially with Zizou directing traffic. would that Madrid team be able to press/track back though? because Barça would play keep-away and dare Makelele to hold the midfield down by himself.
It will be a fight for possession no pressure needed.. good luck with Zizou
Xavi would subscribe to that opinion in his own words
Figo vs Abidal ? well .. sadly we can't see those two vs each other ..
the 2000 Madrid team would cause us way more problems. before Perez, Del Bosque had freedom to express himself tactically rather than just pack his megastars into the team. the 352 switch he pulled in 2000 to buttfuck United at OT remains one of the great tactical masterstrokes. Fergie's never really recovered - he's been cagey against big teams ever since. the 2002 vintage would be suffocated by our pressing game and then no one would press us in turn.
anydangway, this whole "that era was stronger coz it had more great teams" is misleading. the first half of the decade looks more competitive because there were more teams at a top level. but were any of those teams absolutely top-level dominant? the closest would probably be Hitzfeld's Bayern, in terms of consistency. we know the players from that era are boss because we've seen their whole careers, whereas guys like, say, Cavani, are still in the middle of theirs.
anyway, it can be best summed by thusly:
when you have multiple A teams, everyone looks great.
that's what we had then.
but when you have one A+ team, all the A teams start to look like B teams.
and that's what we have now.
Well i tend to disagree i think the 2002 team was imperial maybe lacking a redondo beside Makalele only and Del Bosque still had the freedom to do what he want
I disagree about the A teams now.. show me any A team outside Real and Barca ? who is the superstar ? i mean that's the easiest thing to do to judge by that.. you know who will be the top 4 every year in the WPOY award.. the trio of Barca + CR..
We didn't know who will win it back than, yes the CL played the same role but you had Nedved,Henry,Rivaldo,Zidane,Figo,Ronaldo,Sheva?
Do you see Cavani winning it in the next 5-10 years ? or being a Ruud ? or even a Sheva ?
there is two A teams now , one B team (City due to big names staking not by their game - i don't thing Bayern is anyway as what people were saying earlier this season but we will see in the following stages ) the rest are D's at best
But i can point out to 8 A's back in the time .. you had players to fear in every team , i can't even point to a single massive star outside Real & Barca the same way i would say about Ruud about Nedved , About Sheva,Rivaldo
a
