Times change, but Barcelona is still the best team in the world according to the English striker Wayne Rooney. The Manchester United player claims that even though years go by, the team managed by Luis Enrique can still brag about their dominance in football after ten years.
Both teams will meet again as part of the International Champions Cup in North America. The 29-year-old player still remembers losing to Barcelona in two Champions League finals (2009, 2011).Rooney claims that his team gave it their all in those games, but that still was not enough to beat the Catalan side.
"To be so close to winning [the competition] and to lose twice against Barça is hard to accept, sometimes you just have to put your hands up and admit the better team won the game," Rooney said with humility ahead of their next game.
While Pep Guardiola was the manager to start setting up Barcelona's dominance, the job done by Luis Enrique has been able to keep the team on top and win the treble last season. While Lionel Messi is their biggest star, the incorporations of other players like Neymar and Luis Suarez make them a threat to anyone.
"It's a different way of playing -- they're defending a little bit deeper and not going and closing down teams the way they did and they're hurting teams on the counter-attack," Rooney added.
In 2011, the Red
"Barcelona are a fantastic team and, after Real Madrid winning the Champions League [in 2014], they wouldn't have liked that and they've come out again and been incredible really."
The game will take place in Santa Clara, California. Barcelona won their first ICC game against Steven Gerrard and L.A. Galaxy 2-1. Manchester United is also undefeated after two games with America and San Jose Earthquakes. This could be their first big test of the pre-season before facing PSG a few days later.
