FC Barca Blog

Common Man!! We Used To Play Together !

Review

You stare in awe as you watch the ball move from side to side, players moving on and off the ball and passing it in ways that make you think the trade is easy. It’s not.. We are (of course) talking about Barcelona, the team that has captured people’s hearts left and right, from Russia to China and from China to America, after having played their way to 5 titles in a single year with exhilarating displays of total football. But all is not well for such a team, because once the admirers sniff the scent of failure, or glimpse a slight case of under-performance, then all the admiration disappears and criticism appears. Such was the case for us after a 2 – 1 loss to a certain Russian team, but order was restored after half a dozen goals were thumped into the net of one Real Zaragoza. Consequently, a 2 – 0 win over Cultural Leonesa further erased doubts of our capabilities; however, it was not long before the critics returned to have the last word after Gerard Pique secured a draw for Osasuna in the dying moments of the game, leaving Barcelona with a 1 – 1 draw which was followed by a 0 – 0 draw with Rubin Kazan in Russian. A 4 – 2 win over Mallorca (again) silenced the critics and if there was any doubt remaining about whether or not we could exhibit the artistry of last season, a 5 – 0 win over Leonesa should have done it. But, alas, it was not to be because after the players returned from overseas to play against Bilbao, they secured a 1 – 1 draw which brought the doubts back, and allowed Real Madrid to leap frog them to first place.

It was unanimous that Barcelona were not to go far in this year’s Champions League, but once again; as before, the doubters have been silenced and a 2 – 0 win over the 10 men defense of Inter Milan has all but assured near qualification for us into the Knockout stages of the Champions League. In short, and without the formal terms: WE KICKED SOME ASS! I apologize for publishing this late but hey it’s not my fault none of you are sending me emails to write for this blog. Mourinho entered this match with one thing in his mind, draw. He was eager to get a draw so that he could guarantee first place until the next match day, so he sent out a big yellow bus and told the driver to park it right there on the lovely green patch in front of Julio Cesar.

Unfortunately, you don’t come to Camp Nou and expect to win without us playing like crap. It happened against Rubin and it wasn’t going to happen again. My biggest relief was Sneijder’s absence because this guy can be a nuisance at any given time. Messi and Ibrahimovic started on the bench while the biggest surprise was the inclusion of Eric Abidal who was supposedly  out for 3 weeks due to swine flu and injury. The Yaya, who was just out due to the flu, hadn’t recovered in time while Abidal recovered from both injury and the flu. Makes you wonder what genetic manipulation caused this to happen. Is The Yaya becoming mortal?

Guardiola rolled out a lineup that kinda spelt doom for me because nobody upfront seemed to have what it takes to unbuckle Inter’s belt and unzip their zipper. Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Busi, Keita, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Henry. That was the lineup that took the Camp Nou by storm, all 95,000 people that is! The game saw us thread together over 500 successful passes with an about 80% success rate! What’s even more impressive is that we dominated the game with 66% of the possession compared to Inter Milan’s 34%. I guess now Eto’o knows how it feels to play against a team that makes you chase the ball over and over again.

The Camp Nou faithful received Eto’o with applause all the way from the airport to the stadium. Unlike those ungrateful Inter fans who jeered Ibra when he arrived at the San Siro. We started the game (I never get tired of saying this ) attacking from the first minute. It took Inter about 10 to 15 minutes to group and get out of their half, as we were launching attack after attack. The only way for this game to open up was by a goal and our first goal came just 10 minutes into the game when Pique fired a flicked shot from a corner. Barcelona 1 – 0 Inter Milan, 10th minute.

We didn’t stop there, instead, we continued our 3 pronged attack with Iniesta all over the pitch. Iniesta somehow found his way through the defense and unselfishly laid it off for Henry who struck a low ball directly into Julio Cesar’s arms. Henry was later ruled offside. A mere 17 minutes after the first goal, the second goal arrived by way of Pedro. The move that led to the goal was probably the best move of the game. Xavi sent an astounding through ball to Dani Alves who was left unmarked on the right wing. Dani Alves lofted the ball high and Henry thought he was going to get to it. Instead it made its way to Pedro who produced a magnificent volley. The goalkeeper got his hands to it but it was way too powerful to be stopped and in it went to make it Barcelona 2 – 0 Inter Milan, 27th minute.

Astonishingly, Inter took 35 minutes to get their first shot. Something interesting to note is that that first shot allowed us to catch the first glimpse of Valdes all match! Sadly, the first glimpse of Valdes was due to a stupid mistake that nearly got them back into the game. Stankovic struck the ball hard but it was way over the bar, but that didn’t stop me from nearly getting a heart attack.

You The Man! Noo0o YOU The Man!!

Not much happened after that although Inter did seem to regain some composure in the second half. I think it’s mainly due to the fact that Guardiola loves to thrash teams in the first half and just allow his team to pass in the second. I’m totally for that given that we have El Clasico to think about . The first chance of the second half came for Inter as Maicon sent a ball that allowed Milito to make a run. Milito then passed the ball to Eto’o who was getting ready to fire his shot at Victor Valdes.. but Alves had other ideas when he came in for the challenge. Eto’o was left shouting and waving for a penalty but the referee was going to have none of it.

Come the 53rd minute, we were supposed to add one to our tally when Alves, who was so energetic on the right, made an accurate cross to Xavi who headed it powerfully into Cesar’s hands. That wouldn’t be the last time that Julio Cesar would stop Xavi from getting his name on the score sheet as he would then, soon after, save the free kick that was taken by Xavi. After a few shots at each end, the match ended as it did after the first half, 2 – 0, which meant that because of Rubin and Dynamo’s draw, Barcelona would go top of the table by 2 points.

Highlights

I am extremely proud at the way we came into this match with the aim of winning it from the start. Even without Ibrahimovic and Messi we were able to enforce our total football and dictate the tempo of the game from start to finish. I’m hoping that we can replicate our form in El Clasico, and this time with Ibrahimovic and Messi because God knows how much I want them to be back to their top forms. Messi seemed to be back in the match against Bilbao but sadly, somebody kicked him in the face .

Ratings

Team: 10. That was just a brilliant display of attacking football. The way they dictated the game and the way they made Inter Milan look like some team coming from Brazil for a friendly match was priceless. Coped well without the likes of Ibrahimovic, Messi and The Yaya and proved time and time again why Barcelona is labelled as the best team in the world. Not because they win, but because they win with style no matter who is on the pitch!

Guardiola: 8. Loved the dude and everything he did, knew how to tactically enforce the team despite the various absentees and has been giving Pedro the chance to shine over and over again. Loses these 2 points for the substitutions he made in the dying moments of the game. He should really start subbing earlier

Valdes: 5. The 5 is practically because he really had nothing to do all game. It would’ve been the default seven but he loses 2 points for nearly costing us the game. What do you mean costing us the game? Well if they scored from that mistake they would have definitely made it back into the game one way or another.

Alves: 8. Was on fire, won most of the balls (actually, I think he won all of them ) and was a rock at the back. His forward runs were a joy to watch and made those dangerous crosses that he is known for. Truly gave Dunga some food for thought after eclipsing Maicon in terms of attacking and defending.

Pique: 10. Piquenbauer strikes again. He says he doesn’t think he should be compared to him, but if this dude keeps it up he’s going to be our top scorer one day . One thing to note that in Puyol’s 11 years with the Barcelona first team, he has scored 7 official goals. Pique has only played 2 seasons with Barcelona and has 6, yes SIX!!

Puyol: 7. Was solid, really really solid but he did give away a silly foul. Got booked when he could’ve avoided it, these cards don’t seem important right now, but we all remember why we had to shuffle our squad in the final last season.

Abidal: 10. Abidal’s game is summed up by this: Me vs. Maicon. He showed Maicon who’s the boss and made an effort to send him back to where he belongs. He gets a 10 because of his genetics. He got cured from swine flue AND a knee injury before the Yaya .

Busi: 8. Perfect match, if you just forget about his silly dives! Showed that he was up for the task at hand (which was replacing the Yaya.) although nobody can really replace the Yaya. You need to stop diving and you should soon be getting 10’s .

Xavi: 10. Our maestro was at it again, controlling the gears and pulling the strings and levers of our well-oiled machine. Loved the through ball to Alves and made a nuisance of himself when it came to corners and free kicks. Nearly got a goal as well .

Keita: 8. Invisible. That’s all I have to say, you don’t notice what he’s doing but he’s doing it and could’ve capped off with a goal.

Iniesta: 10. I never give out 10’s this often but this dude deserves it. I’m not a fan of him playing on the left, but Guardiola seems to have found what makes him tick because he was all over the pitch, from left to right and from right to left. Kinda gave me the sense that we had a false “Messi” on the pitch. And did you see that dribble! Wow.

Pedro: 9. My man of the match, and not because he scored the winner, but because he is proving to be a super-sub. Yep, you heard it right, this kid is only 22 years old and although he was a late bloomer (compared to Messi and Bojan) he is on the form of his life. 10 goals this season !

Henry: 6. Didn’t make an argument to why Guardiola should start him as a central striker. Was slow on the ball and lost a few challenges as well. Has some shots on goal and if it wasn’t for his fatigue (and misery ) he would have definitely made it on the score sheet.

Substitutions

Bojan & Maxwell (for Pedro & Abidal respectively): Incomplete. They didn’t have enough time to make the slightest impact on the game. Bojan seemed livelier than Henry was in the CF role and paved the way for Henry to make his famous runs down the left side. Maxwell, well, was Maxwell and did what he does best: When in doubt, boot it out!

Johnny: 8. What? An 8!!? But he came on later than both Bojan and Maxwell.. why did they get incomplete? Well it’s simple, Johnny boy here impressed me so00o0o freakin’ much that I couldn’t note give him an 8. Heck! I’d give him a 10 if he was on a little bit earlier. His form against Cultural was awesome and he showed what he’s capable of with his slick movement and passing. The next Xavi/Iniesta/Guardiola in the making folks.

Standings

As you can see above, we’re back on top of the world! With 2 wins, 2 draws and a loss, all we need is one more point to ensure our qualification. If we draw the next match and and Rubin wins, then we qualify as second. If we draw and Rubin loses we qualify as 1st. If we win, then we’re first and screw the rest of the matches . I’m so happy that we got that out of the way, and now we can focus on the next match. The mother of all matches! EL CLASICO!! I will be providing special coverage today (Friday), tomorrow (Saturday) and on the match day (Sunday) about every aspect of this wonderful game. Be sure to keep checking back for the latest here on FCBB.

P.S. We are in real need of some writers to help with this blog. If you think you have what it takes send me an email to henry@fcbarcablog.com with a piece of your writing and your details.

Until Then ;; Visca el Barca!!