I've selected 16 single-season teams to be placed in a hypothetical "Ultimate Champions of Champions" tournament with the only stipulations being that 1) multiple iterations of essentially the same team cannot be used and 2) each season can only be represented once.
Without further ado, let's meet our contenders.
I'll now divide the 16 teams into four pots according to era so that each of the four round-robin groups has a blend of teams from various generations.
As per Random.org, these were the results of the draw:
Group A: Real 60, Milan 90, United 08, Real 17
Group B: United 68, Juve 98, Arsenal 02, City 23
Group C: Bayern 74, Barça 92, Barça 09, Chelsea 10
Group D: Ajax 72, Liverpool 84, Milan 07, Bayern 13
Let's now look at how I believe each group would play out. All matches will be deemed to be played on neutral territory.
Group A:
Real 60 / Milan 90
United 08 / Real 17
Real 60 / United 08
Milan 90 / Real 17
Real 60 / Real 17
Milan 90 / United 08
1) Milan 90
2) Real 17
3) United 08
4) Real 60
Group B:
United 68 / Juve 98
Arsenal 02 / City 23
United 68 / Arsenal 02
Juve 98 / City 23
United 68 / City 23
Juve 98 / Arsenal 02
1) City 23
2) United 68
3) Juve 98
4) Arsenal 02
Group C:
Bayern 74 / Barça 92
Barça 09 / Chelsea 10
Bayern 74 / Barça 09
Barça 92 / Chelsea 10
Bayern 74 / Chelsea 10
Barça 92 / Barça 09
1) Barça 09
2) Barça 92
3) Chelsea 10
4) Bayern 74
Group D:
Ajax 72 / Liverpool 84
Milan 07 / Bayern 13
Ajax 72 / Milan 07
Liverpool 84 / Bayern 13
Ajax 72 / Bayern 13
Liverpool 84 / Milan 07
1) Ajax 72 (head-to-head)
2) Milan 07
3) Bayern 13
4) Liverpool 84
Some big group-stage casualties - none bigger than United 08 and Bayern 13 who ended up in the two toughest groups. United 68, meanwhile, took advantage of what was on paper a much more open group and even managed a draw in the derby match against City 23.
As might be expected, a lot of the older teams simply don't hold up anymore when plugged into a more modern metagame. That being said, shoutout to Ajax 72 and Milan 90 - I fully believe their playstyles and tactics would be just as effective today as they were during their glory days.
Now for the quarterfinals:
Milan 90 vs United 68
City 23 vs Real 17
Barça 09 vs Milan 07
Barça 92 vs Ajax 72
Milan 90 vs United 68
With all due respect to the Red Devils' first-ever European champion side, this would be a blowout. The Rossoneri's 1990 iteration would keep United's iconic "Holy Trinity" attacking core of Bobby Charlton, Denis Law, and George Best firmly in check. Milan's backline featured legends such as Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, and Alessandro Costacurta - more than enough to keep United's attacking threat at bay.
On the other end of the pitch, United would simply have no answer for Milan's attack. Spearheaded by Marco van Basten and supported by fellow Dutchmen Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard - arguably the original "regista" - Arrigo Sacchi's team would likely make short work of the finest team to come out of England throughout the 60s.
City 23 vs Real 17
Although the prospect of such is tantalizing to say the least, this match would be so much more than a gunslingers' duel between Erling Haaland and Cristiano Ronaldo. With intriguing individual matchups all over the pitch, markedly different tactical approaches, and a slew of all-timers on each team, this is the standout fixture of the four quarterfinal matches.
It was a close call indeed, but ultimately I went with Real 17 because during the years of their Champions League three-peat, Los Merengues were quite simply on another level during knockout rounds when the pressure was at its highest. In a similar scenario and with the skill gap being relatively small, it's this factor which for me swung it in Real's favour.
Barça 09 vs Milan 07
You might be wondering why I went with the upset here. Well, there were two key factors which led me to pick the second of Carlo Ancelotti's two Champions League-winning Milan teams over the Treble-winning Barça side helmed by Pep Guardiola. The first is the setup. Milan played a variant on the standard 4-3-3 in which Clarence Seedorf and Kaká would start as a number 10 tandem but could move deeper or head out wide as necessary. It's this flexibility which makes it a hard counter to Barça 09's iconic tiki-taka.
Additionally, to me there is no better manager when it comes to adapting to opponents' strategies than Carlo Ancelotti. In fact, Ancelotti got the better of Guardiola in the 2022 Champions League semifinals with Real Madrid against Manchester City despite heading into the fixture as a slight underdog. With both those points in mind, I've picked Milan 07.
Barça 92 vs Ajax 72
The original goes up against the "cover version". The "Dream Team" of Barça 92 has a tactical profile that can be directly traced back to the "Total Football" of Ajax's teams from the 70s. Thus in away, this can almost be regarded as a "mirror match".
All things considered, I would take Ajax 72. In its era, this was a team stacked to an almost unfathomable degree. The sheer star power provided by Johan Cruyff, Johan Neeskens, Ruud Krol, and others would be just too overwhelming even for the Blaugrana's 1992 roster that was so dominant in its own right.
Now we'll move on to the semifinals.
Milan 90 vs Real 17
Milan 07 vs Ajax 72
Milan 90 vs Real 17
Both these teams met in the group stage; that match finished in a draw. This time around, in a single-elimination knockout match, I would take Real to win it and advance to the final. As mentioned before, the Real Madrid team of that era seem to step it up a notch in knockout match situations.
Not only that - while absolutely true that in the quarterfinals, Milan 90 easily handled United 68's prolific front three, Real 17 take it to another level. Yes, they might have been able to cope with Real's own front three of Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gareth Bale - but that doesn't account for the support they'd receive from the likes of Toni Kroos and Luka Modrić. Ultimately, under this kind of pressure, I would have to go with Real 17.
Milan 07 vs Ajax 72
As was the case in the quarterfinals, the strategic match-up favours Milan, since Barça 09's tiki-taka playstyle was simply the evolution of the 70s Ajax "Total Football" concept. The only difference between that match and this one is that Barça in 2009 had more star power than did Ajax 1972, thus tilting the scale further in the Rossoneri's favour.
While I wouldn't say that this would be a one-sided match, I do think that it would nevertheless be relatively clear that Milan would emerge victorious. With all due respect to Johan Cruyff and the crew, there's nothing they can do about being hard-countered like this.
And now, the final:
Real 17 vs Milan 07
This wasn't a difficult decision at all. Real Madrid 2017 clear AC Milan 2007 in just about every department. Defense? Attack? Tactics? Level of play under pressure? Star power? This team is too loaded, too skilled, and too clutch to go down at this point.
Now that we have our tournament champ, let's take a look at their credentials.
La Liga and Champions League double. Second year of a Champions League three-peat. Won the league with 93 points and 106 goals. Had reigning Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo on the roster as well as a slew of all-time greats like Gareth Bale, Casemiro, Raphaël Varane, Karim Benzema, Toni Kroos, Sergio Ramos, and Luka Modrić. Coached by Zinedine Zidane who even in his abrupt coaching career established himself as a legend on the other side of the touchlines as well. And already lauded by some experts as the greatest team ever.
At this point, I believe it's safe for me to say it:
Real Madrid 2017 is the greatest club football team of all time.
No comments:
Post a Comment