Colleagues for four years, direct rivals for two and, on Friday
night in Prague, the coaches and creators of the most captivating managerial
clash in football raise the curtain on European competition proper for the
2013-2014 campaign.
Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich face Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea tomorrow night
at SK Slavia Prague’s Eden Arena in the first European Super Cup Final to be
held away from the Stade Louis II in Monaco since its conversion to a
one-legged affair in 1998.
That year, a low Gus Poyet drive was enough to hand then-Cup Winners’
Cup holders Chelsea the crown at the expense of Real Madrid. Bayern, meanwhile,
have yet to add the accolade to an otherwise complete cup collection, despite
three previous attempts.
Although both clubs boast a roster featuring some of the finest
footballers on the planet, while Bayern carry the well-deserved, if unofficial,
tag of ‘Best Club Side in the Game’ following last season’s treble under Jupp
Heynckes, the duel in the dug-out takes top billing.
Mourinho first met Guardiola at Barcelona in the mid-nineties when assistant
coach and player respectively but, regardless of their time together in
Catalunya, there has been no love lost in the years since and, by the end of a
Champions League clash in 2010, which saw them lock horns for the first time as
opposition managers, the two were at loggerheads.
On that occasion, the Portuguese’s Inter Milan outfit triumphed over
Pep’s Barcelona at the semi-final stage. Mourinho had emerged victorious from
the first battle but the war was only just beginning, as he was to return to
Spain to manage Real Madrid that summer.
Throughout his career, master of mind games, Mourinho, has consistently
rattled opponents and deflected attention from his players with pre-meditated
verbal prods at his targets, polarising opinion but producing positive results
for his teams. And, in 2011, he seemed to have succeeded in his trademark
wind-up routine once more, provoking Guardiola by referring to comments his
rival made after Madrid's victory in the Copa del Rey Final a week
earlier.
Guardiola had noted that his side had been close to winning - had a goal
by Pedro not been ruled out for a close, but correct, offside decision,
described by the coach as "the linesman's good eyesight", the
Catalans might have taken the trophy.
"A new era has begun,” claimed Mourinho at the time.
"Until now there were two groups of coaches. One very, very small
group of coaches that don't speak about refs and then a big group of coaches,
of which I am part, who criticise the refs when they have mistakes – people
like me who don't control their frustration but also people who are happy to
value a great job from a ref.
"Now there is a third group, which is only [Guardiola], that
criticises referees when they get decisions right! I am not asking the referee
to help my team. If the referee is good everyone will be happy – except
Guardiola. He wants them to get it wrong."
The usually calm and courteous Guardiola was sufficiently irked to turn
the air blue in response. As he took his seat in the press room at the
Bernabeu, he said: "As Mourinho has spoken so candidly about me and spoken
about me by name, and using tú [the informal form of you], then I will do the
same." Guardiola then enquired which of the gathered cameras was
"Mourinho's camera" before launching forth:
"Tomorrow at 8.45 we will play a match on the field. Outside of the
field, he has won the entire year, the entire season and in the future [it will
be the same]. He can have his personal Champions League outside the field.
Fine. Let him enjoy it, I'll give him that. But this is a game. When it comes
to sport we will play and sometimes we will win, sometimes we will lose.
"In this room [Real Madrid's press room], he is the chief, the f***ing
man. In here he is the f***ing man and I can't compete with him.
But, as it transpired, his team could certainly compete on the pitch and
duly won the second leg of the tie, en route to winning their second Champions
League and third straight La Liga title under Guardiola’s command.
Mourinho himself rose to the challenge and responded with an all-time
record La Liga points total in 2012, as Madrid were crowned champions before
Guardiola’s resignation that summer had seemed to bring a sad and sudden end to
the Jose-Pep battles.
Yet, a year on and with both on fresh shores overseeing new charges, the
fates have conspired to pit them against one another once again in the Czech
capital. Guardiola holds the upper hand in the head-to-heads with Mourinho,
winning seven, drawing five and losing just three of 15 showdowns with his Portuguese counterpart.
As for the side-show on the field in front of them, both clubs have made
significant signings in the summer. Bayern sensationally signed Mario Gotze
from Bundesliga rivals Borussia Dortmund and lured Thiago Alcantara from
Barcelona to augment last term’s all-conquering squad.
Chelsea, meanwhile, have splashed out on Willian and Andre Schürrle,
with a deal for Samuel Eto’o – a player who has won the Champions League and
league titles playing for both Guardiola and Mourinho in the past – rumoured to
be close to joining from Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala.
Given
the formative nature of both managers’ latest tenures at their new clubs, as
well as the fact that each are still busy imprinting their styles and ideas on
their new squads, any result on Friday evening is unlikely to provide an
indicator of their long-term chances of success in their new roles. Indeed, Mourinho
has been quick to point this out pre-match, whilst also adding that he was
unsure if Bayern would be as good as they were last year, seeing as they are under
new management.
In
Prague, he will hope his playful prophecy to be accurate, as Chelsea look to
make amends for a thrashing by Atletico Madrid in last year’s edition of the
competition, in which Columbian striker Falcao ran amok about their backline. At
the same time, Guardiola will be expecting his team to do his talking for him
out on the field, as he takes what will perhaps be seen as his biggest step in
his tactical and cultural integration into the Bavarian way of life.
MAK
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