Mourinho, Gaal chasing history

The story goes that Barcelona translator Jose Mourinho returned home one day, exasperated at the coach's methods. As he fumed, his wife calmly suggested that he should take up coaching. The rest is history. Today, in his biggest game, the Special One finds himself facing his guru, Louis van Gaal.
Last year, 109 million people around the world tuned their TV sets to watch the Champions League final.It was the first time that a single sport event had surpassed the audience of the Super Bowl (only 106 million viewers in 2009!), renowned for being the most expensive per-minute advertising slot on earth.
This year the expectation is no less than 170 million, as two teams, two managers, and the host stadium Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid prepare both, mentally and logistically, to stage this extravaganza. The stakes over which Bayern Munich and Internazionale of Milan will clash are bigger than ever; there is the prize money, and the glory of lifting not only Europe's most prestigious club trophy but also doing the treble for the season - each club having already won both, the Cup and League, in their domestic championships.
Both managers, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho, are also contending to become the third-ever managers to have won the Cup with two different clubs; van Gaal led Ajax to European glory in 1995 and Mourinho managed the feat with Porto in 2004. Interestingly, he had brokered his move to Chelsea in the run-up ; in fact, well before his players picked up their medals, Mourinho had taken his leave - emotionally at least.
There is much speculation that he may be about to do likewise, plotting a move to Real Madrid for next season. But, so far, his statements to the press are all about how much he wants to win this particular match on Saturday, "with these players and for these fans" . Until the final whistle blows, at least, we must think of him as an Inter man.
Van Gaal, for his part, was allegedly seen by Karl-Heinz Rummenigge dancing on table tops well into the early hours of Monday morning in a Munich nightclub. "I'm a party animal," he is claimed to have said, and after the German final last Sunday he is surely entitled to a little celebration: "We have the most points, the most goals, and the best defence... I don't think many teams win championships in this attractive manner. Thank you for letting me tell you this story."
Described as "easy-on-the-eye attacking football" , van Gaal's Bayern includes young German players as well as consummate international veterans such as Arjen Robben. The Dutch winger almost spoke with more praise for his fellow countryman than for his own manager in a BBC radio interview. "The philosophy at Bayern is the coach wants to win games by playing nice football," Robben said, contrasting the position with Mourinho's win-at-all-costs mentality: "He puts out a good team, it doesn't matter if it's done with nice football or not," he said of the Portuguese supremo whom he also played under at Chelsea some years ago.
Robben claims "back then we started to play more in this diamond without wingers, which is not good for me. The system changed a bit so I made my decision and left" .
He actually left for Real Madrid, where he will play this big decider at the weekend. And he is not the only Real Madrid player to be returning to what was once home turf - fellow Dutchman Wesley Sneijder too joined Real Madrid in 2007, and played there with Robben for two seasons. Both have made Holland's World Cup final list, so this weekend they will be facing each other one last time before packing their bags to once again travel on the same team bus.
One could hypothesise that being headed for the World Cup might fill players with confidence and a winning hunger. Bayern could be at an advantage, boasting as they do of six German internationals - Hans-Jorg Butt, Philipp Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Muller, Mario Gomez and Miroslav Klose - as well as Robben and the Argentinean Demichelis, whereas Inter's ranks are a more scattered selection; two fifths of Brazil's back five goalkeeper Julio Cesar, centre-back Lucio and right-back Maicon - mixed and matched with Argentina's excluded veterans Esteban Cambiasso and Javier Zanetti, and Walter Samuel who is going to South Africa.
But in truth, it is just as likely that the knowledge that this is the final performance of the season could put the fire in the belly of those not travelling any further after the weekend.
All in all, it should be a superb display of the two historically prevailing and contrasting football styles: van Gaal is a direct disciple of Dutch genius Rinus Michels, a creative thinker to whom we owe the concept of 'Total Football' , the most innovative and creative development in the game. Mourinho, who is in a sense a direct disciple of van Gaal, having been his field assistant at Barcelona in the late '90s, has in turn developed a more guarded and defensive style, likened to Helenio Herrera's - the anti-thesis of Michels if ever there was one. Whereas van Gaal favours the spectacular, attacking style reliant on talented wide players, Mourinho replied to accusations of having beating Barcelona this campaign by parking the bus in front of the goal: "We didn't park the bus, we parked the airplane," he said.
Mourinho's football may be mean, but in the cut-throat world of top competition he's a winner, and his players and fans will no doubt relish the millions of Euros the prize money will bring in.
Bayern cashed in big time last year with their Champions League performance (34.566m euros - Group Stage Fixed: 5.4m euros, Group Stage Performance: 3m euros, Round of 16: 2.2m euros, Quarterfinals: 2.5m euros. Market Pool: 21.466m euros) and both clubs are due a fairly big slice of the pie, as in addition to the prize money, finalist clubs get a cut of what's known as the market pool of TV revenue.
If last year's TV audience is anything to go by, we are about to watch one of the biggest commercial successes in modern entertainment. So let the show commence: two teams, two managers, one winner seeking to be crowned, and to be told "Thine is the kingdom, (the money), and the glory" .
MOURINHO VS VAN GAAL
Mourinho is all about shrewd tactics and defence, while Dutchman Louis van Gaal, with the luxury of having Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery in his ranks, is a sworn fan of beautiful, attacking football. Though Ribery is suspended for the final, van Gaal can still call upon the likes of Ivica Olic, Mario Gomez, Bastian Schweinsteiger and even veteran Miroslav Klose. Mourinho prefers the counter-attacking style and relies on the passing of Wesley Sneijder and the pace of Samuel Eto'o to catch the opposition unawares. Ironically, both the managers have a Barcelona connection. Mourinho rose up the ranks, graduating from translator to assistant, when van Gaal replaced Bobby Robson.