LYNN – When you talk about the world of international soccer, perhaps the most well-known club might be FC Barcelona. The names that wear the Barca colors are world famous: Messi, Neymar.
The tradition of Barcelona dates back to the 1890?s as the club has become one of the most successful in European soccer history, recently winning a season treble (A La Liga title, the Copa Del Rey and a UEFA Champions League crown).
Saturday at Manning Field, a piece of Barcelona?s history came to town as the club?s veterans squad, made up of players who were part of the top level team at one point, played the Boston Braves in front of a small but boisterous crowd.
Those who braved the humid conditions were treated to a special display of football as Barcelona showed the panache and style that?s led it to the top of the world rankings numerous times as they defeated the Braves, 4-1.
Yes, the scoreboard showed that Barca won in rather convincing fashion. But for Braves captain Taso Nikolakopoulos, owner of John?s Roast Beef in Lynn, the visit by Barcelona to the North Shore was the culmination of a long-time dream.
?My job was to bring them here to Lynn,” said Nikolakopoulos, who served as the Braves? captain Saturday. “I told them that this was the place to come and we had a tremendous facility to use. This is such an honor.”
The roots for Barca?s visit to Lynnfield Thursday and to Manning Field Saturday were planted in 2003, when the Braves were invited by Barcelona to play in Spain. Ten years later, the two teams got together again in Barcelona to celebrate the momentous visit.
It was at that time that Braves? founder and president Spiros Tourkakis began laying the groundwork to bring Barca across the Atlantic to play on American soil.
?This was all Spiros? vision,” Nikolakopoulos said. “He started to work on this when we went over there three years ago and lost to them 3-2 in a game we thought we had. It?s been a process since then to bring everything together and to get them on the right schedule to be here.”
The hard work and dedication by Tourkakis and his team paid off as the teams played in front of a packed house at Lynnfield?s Pioneer Stadium last Thursday. Saturday, the crowd wasn?t as big at Manning but there was still plenty of energy in the bleachers as area fans were exposed to Barca?s talent.
One of the players on the Braves roster is Lynn?s Shawn Bleau, a former player and coach at Lynn English and Lynn Tech. He was injured in Barca?s 6-2 win Thursday and was unable to suit up on Saturday yet you couldn?t wipe the smile from his face on the field following the game.
?It?s been a fantasy to have Barcelona come here and play,” Bleau said.
The names on the Barcelona veterans squad might not be familiar to many soccer fans on the North Shore. But many of them reached the highest level of Spanish soccer and helped to train players like Messi and Neymar when they arrived to play for Barca.
?You don?t get to see this type of talent very often,” Nikolakopoulos said. “Almost all of them played in La Liga at one point and on the national team (in Spain) so they?ve played soccer at the highest level. And you can see it with the way they move the ball. It?s so much faster.”
There was still a game to be played around all the excitement on Saturday and Barcelona flashed its talents right from the start, moving the ball crisply on the ground.
They struck in the fifth minute as Francisco Moreno broke in alone and chipped a shot past Tourkakis for a 1-0 lead. The Braves had a chance to get even 15 minutes later when Andy Henderson, who played Division I soccer at Indiana, found himself alone in the box but Javier Estany dove to his right to make the save.
Barcelona?s dominance of possession paid off again in the 32ndminute as Felix Gutierrez ran onto a pass from the midfield and chipped a shot inside the right post to make it 2-0. Then in the final minute of the half, another long pass from the midfield found its mark as Javi