I wasn’t sure we would get the Champions League final in Abu Dhabi. Seems like we don’t get all that much on TV, sports-wise, without paying lots of dirhams, and we didn’t do that with our TV package.

But we did get it, on three Al Jazeera sports stations, and it was fascinating to watch Barcelona play in their oh-so-easy 3-1 victory over Manchester United.

What struck me about them?

Well, let me back up a minute. I had started my evening by making the walk through a hot and humid night over to Al Jazira (the UAE football team; not the Qatar TV network) to see the league champs play Al Shabab of Dubai. Just because. I had the day off, and I will be working the final two nights of the Pro League season, and this was my last chance to see a game.

Al Jazira kept its league unbeaten streak alive by scoring in the 89th minute to salvage a 3-3 draw against a Shabab team that had played harder and, mostly, better. Certainly for a half, when Shabab led 3-1.

But an interesting phenomena there: Five minutes after the game was over, the stadium was empty. People were gone. Even the guys in the VIP seats. Gone. I’ve never seen 7,500 people leave a place so fast.

And I realized why: It was almost 10 p.m., and the Champions League final was coming on at 10:40 p.m., local time.

Anyway, if you’re crazy enough to sit outside in hot and humid conditions here to watch the UAE Pro League … and I can assure you, it was thoroughly miserable out there … you certainly must be a big enough “football” fan to watch the Champions League — and everyone was hurrying home to get in front of the TV.

So, anyway, I’m sure that nearly all Arabs in this country and most of the Western expats watched this game. (The Pakistans and Indians and Filipinos … not nearly as much.)

OK. Back to Barcelona.

What strikes me about them is their speed, quickness and precision on the ball. Watch them for two hours and see how many bad passes they make … how many times they turn over the ball … and you realize the answer is, “Well, almost never.”

Also, their short passing game is amazingly precise. If you saw the match, did you notice how often Barcelona was making four-yard passes inside the ManU box? Any other team in the world, you get that close, you bang it toward the frame, see what happens.

Barcelona has 11 guys with the technical skill to hold it, in traffic, and look for the shortest of  passes to guys making runs (if you can call a 10-yard burst a “run”) … to set up the even better shot.

And as the game went on, you noticed that ManU’s defenders didn’t even challenge Barcelona, on the ball, in the box. As if they knew it was pointless to try to take possession from Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, David Villa … even in such close quarters.

What ManU did was stand off a yard or two and  just wait for Barcelona to make a move, and hope to deflect or pick off a pass. It was incredible to see a team as good as Manchester United simply paralyzed by Barcelona’s skill on the ball.

And on those few occasions when Manchester United managed  to string together a few passes, it was fascinating to watch the pressure Barcelona applied. Everywhere on the pitch. They closed off the middle, then swarmed the touchlines, too.

How is that possible?  Because that is a team with quickness and speed to complement its technical skills. ManU must have felt like they were playing 11-on-15, so many blue-and-claret shirts were out there. I kept saying, “They need to reverse the ball” … but it seemed as if every ManU guy holding the ball had two Barcelona guys around him and had zero chance of a long pass to the other side — because they didn’t have time.

Like most soccer teams, several of ManU ‘s guys are not big. But their 11 guys looked like monsters compared to the shrunken, near-skeletal Barcelona players. Check out the photo of Sergio Busquets that The National ran. Have you ever seen scrawnier limbs on a world-class athlete who wasn’t a distance runner?

Even Barcelona’s “big” guys are reed thin. Pique, Abidal …

So, is that the way of the future? Whippet-lean guys who can hold the ball in tight spaces? Forget size and strength. Muscles and another four inches of height simply slow you down, and make handling a ball (way down there at your feet) harder and non-stop running more difficult.

Manchester United’s guys looked like oafs, compared to Bareclona’s waifs, and they tried to play a finesse game with Barcelona. They got smoked, predictably.

They would have been better off trying to muscle Barcelona, like Holland tried to do against Spain in the World Cup final). It might have been ugly, but they might have had a chance to win, if the referee had let some rough stuff slide.

(By the way, I loved that Hungarian referee. He took absolutely no guff and let the guys play. Barcelona didn’t even fake many injuries. Get his number and invite him to all big matches.)

So, yes, I am fascinated by Barcelona’s tactics and team makeup.

Is the first thing you do with a young player, now … tell him to go lose 20 pounds? Is tiny the new black? Is Barcelona’s technical brilliance and ability to run all night a function of small, thin men?

Sure looked like it in the Champions League final.