The nickname of the Dream Team refers to the legendary FC Barcelona side put together by Johan Cruyff in the late 1980s that won four consecutive Ligas from 1991 to 1994 and brought home the club's first European Cup.
The term wasn't actually coined until the summer of 1992 after the Barcelona Olympic Games, when the all-star United States basketball Dream Team featuring Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird came and wiped the floor with its opponents to take the gold medal.
Johan Cruyff's FC Barcelona had just won its second consecutive Liga title and the club's first European Cup and for a couple seasons had been putting together some amazing football with accompanying results so the comparisons seemed obvious.
The Dream Team nickname seemed appropriate and stuck but the whole team building process had actually begun four years earlier with arrival of head coach and footballing legend Johan Cruyff accompanied by the charismatic Carles Rexach as assistant coach and the extremely likeable third coach, Toni Bruins Slot, at the start of the 1988-89 season.
Cruyff had arrived immediately following a major club crisis, known as the Hesperia Mutiny, and was in the fortunate position of being able to let most of the old squad and have the chance to build a new side almost from scratch.
Amongst the new signings were the tireless José Mari Bakero with his powerful heading ability, the skillful and intelligent Txiki Begiristain, the soberly effective Eusebio Sacristán, the astute and technical Guillermo Amor and the controversial and opportunistic Julio Salinas, who all became key players of a Barça side that would go down in history.
In fact, the only important players who remained from the previous line-up were goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta and English striker Gary Lineker, who was only to stay for another season as Cruyff played him out of position on the wing and then criticised him for not scoring enough goals.
With these new players, Barça's game improved almost immediately and success soon came in the shape of the European Cup Winners' Cup at the end of the 1988-89 season.
However, as far as the fans were concerned the main objective remained winning the Liga, which had been won that season by the legendary Real Madrid side, known as the Quinta del Buitre.
With La Liga in mind more signings were necessary so Cruyff let Lineker go and signed Danish midfielder Michael Laudrup and Dutch defender Ronald Koeman for the 1989-90 season.
This was a turning point for me in terms of my support for Barça and both Koeman and Laudrup are two of my all time favourite players.
I'd arrived in Barcelona in April 1988 so the Johan Cruyff's arrival at Camp Nou and the 1988-89 season was really my introduction to Spanish football.
Obviously, at the time, I didn't know I would spend the rest of my life in Barcelona and a combination of the excellence of the Quinta del Buitre and Cruyff's mistreatment of English hero Gary Lineker meant I could have easily ended up supporting Real Madrid.
The sublime elegance of Laudrup's football changed all that, though, and whilst not yet being a fully-fledged culer, 1989-90 was the first season I really paid attention.
In fact, I went down to Barcelona's famous Ramblas to buy a Laudrup shirt from one of
the souvenir shops and they were out of stock so I came back with a
Ronald Koeman shirt, which I still occasionally wear to this day.
However, despite the wonderful football, in terms of trophies, that season was a bit of a washout.
Real
Madrid's Quinta del Buitre won its fifth consecutive Liga title and
Barça only came away with the Copa del Rey trophy, which was something
of a disappointment.
With the signing of Bulgarian striker Hristo
Stoichkov at the start of the 1990-91 season, all the cogs of the Dream
Team began to click into place
Alongside the players already
mentioned, Jon Andoni Goikotxea was brought back from being on loan and
was crucial down the right wing formimg a brilliant partnership with
right back Albert Ferrer, who'd arrived on the first team through the
youth system.
The other FC Barcelona legend to make the step up
from the youth team was a young Pep Guardiola, who in time would be the
player who would translate Cruyff's complex tactics and put them into
practice on the pitch.
Although not yet named, this was the Dream Team that would go down as one of the greatest sides in the History of FC Barcelona.
In
the 1990-91, Barça went top after the second game and stayed there
until there until the end of the season, taking the title with a
ten-point advantage over Atlético de Madrid and eleven points over third
classified Real Madrid.
With incorporation of Mallorcan central defender, Miguel Angel Nadal, the 1991-92 season marked the side's coming of age.
On May 22nd 1992 at Wembley in the second half of extra time after 111 minutes of play, a Ronald Koeman free kick goal beat the Sampdoria keeper and FC Barcelona won its long overdue first European Cup.
This
was the day that has gone down in history but for me June 7th, when
Barça won the what is known as the first Tenerife Liga, is more important
for me because after having followed the side pretty closely for four
years since the start of the 1988-89 season, it was the day I lost my
heart to FC Barcelona and became a full-blown culer.
In those
days, I lived on Carrer dels Cecs de Cugat in the Sant Pere, Santa Caterina i La Ribera neighbourhood of
Ciutat Vella and used to watch the football at the long gone and much
missed Bar López on neighbouring Neu de Sant Cugat.
We used to call the bar Santi's because it was run by a father and son, who were both called Santi.
Santi
Senior supported Real Madrid and Santi Junior, who I had become close
friends with, supported Barça and they had two televisions so whenever
both Madrid and Barça were playing at the same time, if you positioned
yourself correctly, you could watch both matches simultaneously.
That
night I sat in such a position with little hope of satisfaction because
Real Madrid had been top virtually all season and just had to beat
humble CD Tenerife.
If they did as expected whatever second
placed Barça did against the much more demanding Athletic Club de
Bilbao, they would win the Liga title.
As expected Hierro put Real Madrid 1-0 up after just 8 minutes and then Hagi scored the second 20 minutes later.
Quique
Esteberanz got one back for Tenerife and even with Real Madrid 2-1 up
at half-time, La Liga began to look a little shaky because with
Barcelona were beating Athletic Club in Camp Nou and given their
superior goal average a draw in the Heliodoro Rodríguez would hand them
La Liga.
In the second half, Real Madrid's Villaroya got sent
off and a few minutes later Tenerife not only equalised in minute 76 but
went 3-2 up in minute 77.
The bar went wild and for another
nailbiting 20 minutes, we watched as Barça culminated their 2-0 victory
over Athletic and Tenerife held on to their 3-2 advantage.
La
Liga was ours, Santi and I went to Canaletes to celebrate and I woke
some time late the following afternoon not only with a dreadful hangover
but also as a diehard culer.
The level of excellence continued the following season and unbelievably finished the same way.
Real
Madrid again had a one-point advantage over Barcelona at the top of the
table and once again had to face their nemesis Tenerife in the final
game whilst Barça played Real Sociedad.
Nobody thought it could
happen again but it did and Barcelona beat Real Sociedad 1-0 while
Tenerife beat Real Madrid 2-0 and handed Barça the Liga title for the
second consecutive season.
For the start of the 1993-94 season,
Cruyff signed the brilliant Brazilian striker Romario de Souza and
brought young defender Sergi Barjuan up from the B team.
The
presence of Romario, briliant though he was, disrupted some of the
equilibrium because in those days you could only field three foreign
players.
Cruyff tended to favour Romario, Koeman and Stoichkov,
which meant that Laudrup spent too much time on the subs bench and the
relationship between the Danish midfielder and the Dutch coach suffered
irrepairable damage.
FC Barcelona took the Liga title again
against all odds when Deportivo de la Coruña, who once again had been
leaders for most of the season, were only able to draw with Valencia,
with the missing of a last-minute penalty by Djukic thrown in.
Meanwhile Barcelona beat Sevilla 5-2 in Camp Nou to take the Liga title.
In
many respects, apart from the wonderful football, one of the reasons
why the Dream Team became so legendary was that the Ligas of 1992, 1993
and 1994 were all decided in the last game and in the case of the last
Liga in the very last minute.
However, later that season
everything was to come to an end when in the Champions League final just
three days later on May 18th, FC Barcelona were thrashed 4-0 by a
magnificent AC Milan.
I remember watching the game with friends
and realising the dream was over and when an annoyed Michael Laudrup
decided not to renew his contract and signed for arch-rivals Real Madrid
another nail had been driven into the coffin.
Zubizarreta,
Goikotxea and Salinas also left the club at the end of the 1993-94
season and Johan Cruyff decided to rebuild the side by bringing a clutch
of young players known as the Quinta del Mini onto the first team.
The
team never really clicked and Cruyff staggered on for another couple of
seasons without any success until with relations between the Dutchman
and president Josep Lluís Nuñez worsening, a half-time dressing room
spat towards the end of the 1995-96 season between Cruyff and the club's
vice president Joan Gaspart led to his dismissal.
Assistant
coach Carles Rexach took over the reins of the team for the last two
seasons but it was not only the end of an era but also the end of a
friendship between Cruyff and Rexach that had gone back to their time as
players together in the 1970s.
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