Barcelona best team in the world

At the heart of the plot is Coach Josep Guardiola i Sala, who is often called Pep and whose only experience guiding a team was one season with Barcelona’s third division squad. When he was chosen to replace the Dutchman Frank Rijkaard, making him the Spanish Primera Liga’s youngest head coach at 37, many were hard pressed to see the rationale.

The question gained urgency after the team scored only one goal in Guardiola’s first two games in charge — a loss and a tie. But then, his cure for the team’s ailments seemed to kick in: Barcelona won 15 of its next 16 league games (the other was a tie), scoring 48 goals. With a little more than half the season to play, it is on pace to surpass the season-high 107 goals set by Real Madrid in 1989-90. The team enters the winter break with 41 points, its most ever at this stage, leaving second-place Sevilla 10 points behind and rival Madrid, last season’s champion, 12 points back, a lead no team has overcome to win the title.

“This team has the possibility of being one of the best in Barca history, ranking with the best of Cruyff, if it can sustain it,” said Carles Rexach, a retired coach and a former assistant to Johan Cruyff.

Cruyff led Barcelona from 1988 to 1996, when along with four league titles, it won its first European Cup (now the Champions League) and erased Barcelona’s stigma as second fiddle to Real Madrid.