Barça are about to kick off a new season as Champions of Europe. Their return to the top guarantees that every club will be gunning for them. Can they maintain being the hunters or will they become the hunted?
As the old saying goes, “it’s good to be the king.” Barça are the kings again and today, they kick off the new season by facing Sevilla for the UEFA Super Cup. Last time these two clubs in this Final marked the beginning of the end for Rijkaard’s Barça era. Luis Enrique will now get to experience what Cruyff, Rijkaard, and Guardiola had to face after winning the Champions League as Barça managers.
The pressure is already on to win the remaining three cups for the sextuple; UEFA Super Cup, Super Copa, and the FIFA Club World Cup. However, the bigger challenge is trying to repeat as Champions League winners. The more demanding challenge would be trying to win back to back trebles. The club has the players to pull this feat but will it happen is another question.
Since Euro 2016 will take place this summer, the domestic fixtures will see the club play twice a week quite often unlike last season where sometimes Barça enjoyed 6 or 7 days of rest between matches. This season will take a toll on the players so rotation will be a must to keep players healthy for all three competitions again. Abidal’s battles with cancer and Neymar’s recent mumps situation should also serve a caution that anything is possible when it comes to player’s health. Coaching staff and players have to watch out for themselves on and off the pitch.
When you’re on the top, everyone wants to take you down. Barça will have many clubs gunning for them and the coaching staff and players will have to try their best to thwart their efforts. Today will be the first step in a long journey of playing football with the bullseye on their backs. They have surprised us before so they deserve our faith and hopefully they reward our faith with more titles by taking it one game at a time.
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