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Futbol Club Barcelona is based in the Spanish city after which it was named. This team, known by its fans simply as Barca, has always been consistently popular ever since its inception in the 1890s. One of its most popular periods was during 1988 when former Bara player Johan Cruyff returned as club manager and assembled the Dream Team.
The "Dream Team" was only dubbed as such after the Barcelona hosted 1992 Olympics, after the US Basketball team. Cruyff's squad was composed of Pep Guardiola who is the current Barcelona coach, Txiki Beguiristain, Jon Andoni Goikoetxea and Jose Mari Bakero from Spain; to those he added Brazilian Romario, Dutchman Ronald Koeman, Bulgarian Hristo Stoichkov, Romanian Gheorghe Hagi and Dane Michael Laudrup.
Cruyff lead the Dream Team to for La Liga titles on the trot between 1991 and 1994; They defeated Sampdoria in the 1989 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final and the final match of the 1992 European Cup at Wembley Stadium with a famous Ronald Koeman free kick goal. In 1990, the Dream Team won a Copa del Rey, followed by the European Super Cup in 1992, and three Supercopa de Espaa.
Sometimes people debate the reason's for the Dream Team's successes. While there was a wealth of able talent no one's ego seemed to get in the way, as is often the case. They all kept their egos under control, whether through their own control, or careful management by Cruyff.
Barcelona's supporters quickly fell under Cruyff's spell when he first joined the club in the 1970s, quickly announcing that he could never have played for real Madrid thanks to its links with dictator General Franco.
Naming his son Jordi, a Catalan name, could only have added to his attraction in the city. Cruyff was named European Footballer of the Year in his first year with FC Barcelona and helped them win La Liga for the first time in fourteen years, defeating Real Madrid 5-0 along the way on their home field at Santiago Bernabeu Stadium in Madrid.
Cruyff earned a reputation for his style of play learnt while still playing with Dutch team Ajax. His style of play was called "total football" and allowed players to move into vacant positions on the pitch when their team mates were out of position. This effectively maintained the organization of the team yet allowed all players to play all positions. This inevitably trickled down to his players and allowed them to function as a cohesive, winning unit.
To this day supports still look back on the Dream Team with fondness. While some of the glory was recaptured under Frank Rijkarrd, he didn't quite live up to some expectations. However, Pep Guardiola, who replaced him, has easily met up to expectations although his relatively short time as coach has yet to claim as many titles.The Dream Team is an era that is looked back on fondly by most Bara supporters and when Frank Rijkaard took over as coach for a while it seemed like he had assembled a new Dream Team. However, the hopes of the supporters were never met and despite some notable successes, Rijkaard was eventually sacked to be replaced by one of the Dream team, Pep Guardiola who has had considerable success since taking over.
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