Best Teams Ever bracket: Club soccer edition, Round 2
Welcome to the Best Team Ever bracket series, where the greatest of all time have their most dominant seasons stacked up against each other until we ultimately crown a champion in each sport. The tournament will be decided by fan vote, so be sure to submit yours below! Check out the first round of voting right here. The second round of polling closes at noon ET on Thursday, April 2.
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2008-09 Barcelona vs. 1994-95 Ajax
No. 1: 2008-09 Barcelona
Won Spain’s first treble
Earned six trophies total
Playing style ushered in new era
Certainly, this epic incarnation of Barca was Pep Guardiola’s grand arrival on the managerial stage, but it was also Lionel Messi’s first season cracking 20 goals. He got 38 in all competitions, in fact, and has never failed to score at least that many since.
No. 8: 1994-95 Ajax
Won Champions League and Dutch Eredivisie
Scored 106 goals in league play
Stocked with future stars at bigger clubs
The Champions League final may have been won by 18-year-old Patrick Kluivert, but he was hardly the only teenager to play for Ajax that day. Nwankwo Kanu was 18 as well. Clarence Seedorf had just turned 19.
2019-20 Liverpool vs. 2016-17 Real Madrid
No. 5: 2019-20 Liverpool
On pace to smash EPL points record.
Went a record 27 league matches before first loss.
Spent all but one matchweek in first place.
In a quirk of its scheduling, Liverpool somehow had to play in the Club World Cup and the League Cup on consecutive days. So manager Jurgen Klopp decided to send his under-23 team to play the latter instead, and did so again when an FA Cup replay was scheduled during the side’s anticipated winter break. The upshot was that, amazingly, fully 44 different players had made a first-team appearance for Liverpool three-quarters of the way through the season.
No. 4: 2016-17 Real Madrid
First Champions League/La Liga double in club history
Collected four trophies in all
Scored two or more goals in 52 matches
A lasting irony of this side of Galacticos is that when they were truly at their apex, they bought almost nobody for a few years in a row. Before this season, their only major acquisition was Alvaro Morata, to offer some depth to the striker position.
1998-99 Manchester United vs. 2007-08 Manchester United
No. 2: 1998-99 Manchester United
First and only treble in English history
Lost four games total all campaign
At best in pressure-filled moments
The amazing thing about this treble-winning team is that it didn’t have a dominant goalscorer in its squad. No player broke 20 goals in the Premier League. First-string strikers Andy Cole and Dwight Yorke had 17 and 18, respectively – supersub Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had 12.
No. 10: 2007-08 Manchester United
Won Champions League and Premier League
Avoided defeat in 13 Champions League matches
Cristiano Ronaldo scored 42 goals in all competitions
In the shadow of a young Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Carlos Tevez, it’s easy to forget about this side’s utterly dominant backline of Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and, um, Wes Brown. But between the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup, they gave up just 30 goals in 55 games.
2014-15 Barcelona vs. 2012-13 Bayern Munich
No. 6: 2014-15 Barcelona
Became only European club to win second treble
Scored 175 goals across all competitions
Knocked Man City, PSG, Bayern, Juventus out of Champions League
In the inaugural season of the MSN front line (Messi-Suarez-Neymar) the three scored an astounding 122 combined goals. And the rest of the squad put together? Just 49.
No. 3: 2012-13 Bayern Munich
First German treble winner
Won Bundesliga by 25 points
Only three losses in all competitions
Here are some records this Bayern side broke: Bundesliga points total, adding 10 points to the old mark; biggest Bundesliga lead, putting up nine more points than the previous biggest margin; most league wins, gaining four more than the old record; conceding just 18 goals, three fewer than Bayern’s old record; and a goal difference of +80, 16 points better. The numbers beggar belief.
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