Amazing. Fantastic. You may supply any superlative you like. It was a Champions League final we all wanted and deserved.

(That is to say, unless you were rooting for Manchester United, but someone has to lose.)

A final without diving, refereeing controversy, or any bullshit getting in the way of pure, unadulterated, world-class football. The problem for Manchester United is that they are very good, while this Barcelona squad is all-time great. There’s no sin in losing to this Blaugrana team, not when it controls possession from the 10th minute on and all three of its forward players (Pedro, Leo Messi, and David Villa, in that order) score.

Man U. were on the attack early, taking the match to an FCB backline playing without its captain Carles Puyol and Javier Mascherano playing out of position again as a central defender. Barcelona started its fulcrum and machine movement about 10 minutes in, and the pinpoint pass Xavi made to find an open Pedro for the first goal was gorgeous — beyond Michael Carrick, slipped in, and back of the net. 

The Red Devils responded, though. Ji-Sung Park was pressing early all over, and then Carrick, Ryan Giggs, and Wayne Rooney collaborated on a very nice strike by Rooney to level it up, as Victor Valdes had no chance on it. From there, Barça settled into its tiki-taka passing as defense, looking for holes, while United tried to find space to counter for the rest of the half. It looked like a precarious balance as the halftime whistle blew.

In the second half, the floodgates opened. The movement of Andres Iniesta, Pedro, Villa, & Messi with Xavi working service started wearing out Fabio & Patrice Evra (the latter just victimized in horrible ways), allowing Dani Alves to push forward more. And then, it was the Magic of Messi: 54th minute, he just broke both of Evra’s ankles for an amazing strike that went past Edwin van der Sar like a bullet. It got even better the more I watched it on replay. Just devastating.  

Sir Alex Ferguson may have waited way too long to make any changes on the pitch, as David Villa put in the third with help from Messi just after Nani came on to replace Fabio, who’d been cramping up. Much like two years ago, the Scot seemed to have no tactical change or adjustment to make. Javier Hernandez was oddly ineffective, neutralized by the taller Gerard Pique and Mascherano, with serious help from Sergio Busquets — and with Dimitar Berbatov not even on the bench for the match (which will earn Lord Ferg a lot of questions), no suitable attack sub up front.

(It’s no secret Ferguson has preferred Hernandez to Berbatov in starting roles, and I get it because he works better with Rooney. But to not even have Berbatov on the bench? It’s either a fitness problem or something behind the scenes.)

Carles Puyol came on in the 88th minute, purely so the captain could be on the field; Xavi handed the armband back, but a classier gesture took place after the final whistle blew, and you can see it in the picture from the Yahoo Sports gallery: Puyol gave the armband to left back Eric Abidal, whose return from a cancerous growth on his liver is nothing short of miraculous given that the surgery was in March. Abidal played the full 90, and was the first to lift the trophy as Barcelona won 3-1.

I am one of the first to be willing to poke holes in certain types of mythology, and FCB’s general ethos it likes to put out there compared to its current method of doing business (ruthless, as all of soccer is these days, and we all remember the first leg of the semi against Real Madrid) is perfect to be pricked with a few pins here and there. But the quality of the football they are capable of putting on display makes you want to throw all cynicism out, because we got to watch some all-time greats do what they do well and top it off with classy gestures toward their own and their opponents.

It’s enough to make even the most hardened cynic say “Mes que un club, indeed,” and mean it, at least for the afternoon.