Ten seconds can go a long way in the quarterfinals of the Champions of the year of the pandemic, without an audience, in a depressurized, aseptic atmosphere, not very stimulating for players who have dedicated their lives to the adrenaline that produces the maximum competition. At eight seconds from Bayern-Barça, Busquets decided to play the first possession of the tie with a left-handed pass to Messi. On the tenth he saw the ball roll at half a meter like someone watching a seagull flying on the beach of Castelldefels and, attentive to the cut, David Alaba put his left foot, padded the ball and with a touch he gave it to Pulisic.
Barça took ten seconds to lose possession, the lever that in its best days allowed it to move games. Alaba stole it, the player who gave the most passes in the game (57) after Piqué (74) and Thiago (61). The man who has transformed Bayern into the most regular team in Europe. With all that that means in this time of upheaval.
The son of a Filipino mother and a Nigerian father, he was recruited at the age of 16 from the Austria quarry in Vienna. He debuted in the Bundesliga with 17 and the impression that he projected offered no doubts. He had an extraordinary category, he gathered power and endurance like 400 runners, he was elastic, coordinated, and he possessed the left foot of a virtuoso. As a winger he lifted the 2013 European Cup under Jupp Heynckes, but it wasn't until his meeting with Pep Guardiola that summer that he began to move into the third dimension of football.
Persuaded that Alaba had a vocation as a midfielder, the Spanish coach began to use him as a false midfielder. When Bayern were deployed in attack, their mission included a battery of activities impossible for an ordinary full-back. First defend; second, to accompany the play as a point of support on the band, widening the field and dribbling his opponents like a winger; and finally venturing into the midfield when the steering wheel opened to the left, a circumstance that forced him to play 360 degrees associating with everyone and giving each pass the right pace. Like a Swiss Army knife, Alaba displayed side, end, and flywheel tools as needed. From his area to the rival area. Each of his weapons showed the superior criteria of a footballer whose potential transcended the appearances of his exuberant physique.
"He is one of those footballers who has gone unnoticed despite the impressive qualities he has," said Doménec Torrent, who was Guardiola's assistant, two months ago. Bored with being treated like a full back, Alaba lost energy in recent seasons. When Bayern fired Niko Kovac in November to put Hans-Dieter Flick on the bench, the new coach rushed to move the card that would transform everything: Alaba from the side to the axis of the defense.
The team got up immediately. The lines were coordinated, the pressure was raised, and the plays were put together from a precise first delivery. Since Alaba plays in the middle of the back, Bayern have only lost two games and drawn one of 34. Taking advantage of the obvious impact of a client who ends his contract next year, his agent, Pini Zahavi, also raised the bar: asked for 20 million gross per season. The threshold that only Lewandowski and Neuer exceed.
Fearful of losing him, the club's president, Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, met with Alaba and told him what he later revealed on Sky: “David is the black Franz Beckenbauer. He is the first player since Franz - with whom I had the privilege of playing - able to take the reins of the entire team from the center of defense. He has developed the same character. For a while we have lacked a boss behind us. Someone to set the tone. He has done it. "
David Alaba is the only defender who has reached the semifinals without being dribbled. If he puts a stop to Lyon's counterattacks tonight, he will lead Bayern to the Champions League final.