Post-Match Review: Sevilla – Barcelona

Now that’s what I call love! What we witnessed tonight, and what we have been witnessing the past 2 matches, is what many used to call, the future of Barca. Well, the future has arrived, and what a fantastic outcome from our 3 home-grown forwards. We now have one last game to play (and to win) before we can call ourselves the Champions of Spain for the 2nd year running. At this point, I cannot say that both teams (Real Madrid and Barcelona) don’t deserve the title because they really do. No teams in the history of La Liga (or dare I say the world?) have battled it to the last day the way Barcelona and Real Madrid are. Sure, you can say Chelsea and Manchester United, but it wasn’t in this way. We have both broken the leagues point haul record and I doubt they will be broken again anytime soon. Focusing on us, we entered this match with our eyes on the goal. We needed this win, the whole campaign would have been worthless had we not collected these crucial three points. And that’s the mentality our players played with, the mentality that Guardiola instilled into them over the course of this season. Sevilla tried to play attacking football and look what happened to them. For those of us who watched the game, we were pleased with our team’s performance and know that it could have been 5 – 2 had our “future” taken their chances well. This game brings to mind another thing, a very dangerous state of mind. Complacency. Complacency nearly cost us the game today, no matter what we may say about the performance, what matters is the final result. Real Madrid have scored over 100 goals this season, but if they don’t win the league, does that matter? Up 3 – 0? Keep scoring goals till we’re 10 – 0 for all I care. The opposition should have no chance for a comeback; but more on that later. The line up was as follows: Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Maxwell, Busquets, Keita, Xavi, Messi, Pedro, Bojan.

The first half began with the rhythm we all expected (and with Dani Alves nearly bashing his former team-mate’s head). Our first chance came at the end of the first 2 minutes, with Alves racing down the flank to support Messi. Messi then set Alves up with a through ball but, unfortunately, the shot flew wide at goal. The move of the game (IMO) was when Messi quickly took a free-kick which resulted in Maxwell chipping a very smart ball over the defense. Calls for offside were made but there was none of it as Messi chested it down and pulled the trigger. BANG! 0 – 1. Silence in the Bernabau and from the performance it looked like we had one hand around the Liga trophy. It took until the 10th minute for Sevilla to get behind our defense but Valdes was there to collect the cross. At this point, we could see Guardiola giving specific directions to Alves. The effect was obvious as he raced down the right and unleashed a lethal curled ball that Palop JUST reached to deny Bojan the 2nd goal of the match. Bojan did have the last laugh, though, as Xavi made a wonderful pass over the defense for Bojan to simply shoot into the top corner. It was 2 – 0 and we were cruising.

The second goal calmed things down and decreased our urgency to score goals. Guardiola, on the other hand, was not looking very happy because his experience in these situations gives him a clear picture that anything can happen. The relaxation nearly cost us. Jesus Navas curled the ball into our box for Capel to head in, but it went wide. As an immediate response, Xavi unleashed a through ball to Alves who crossed it (rather powerfully) to Messi who was unmarked in the box. Messi just tried to curl it into the net, but the momentum of the ball was far too high and that resulted in it going over the cross-bar. On the other side of the pitch, Valdes was forced to make a crucial save to deny Fabiano. We could see how serious we were as Valdes started shouting and banging his foot against the post, like a child who wants candy! The second half resumed and to much of the same, they were down to 10 men soon after and we were controlling the game as if we were playing at the Camp Nou. At that time, our players new Real Madrid were facing a difficult task against 10-men Bilbao with a 1 – 1 score line. Messi missed another easy chance when Maxwell made a burst from the left and made a pass to Messi who was lurking outside the 6-yard box. Messi chose to shoot and almost grazed the post as it went out for a goal-kick. This was kinda identical to the goal against Inter in the San Siro.

In the 62nd minute, Messi had his shot from the corner of the box blocked. It fell to Pedro, who showed us how powerful his shots can be, and he fired it into the bottom left corner. We were 3 – 0 up and Guardiola showed his first smile of the game. 3 goals up, assured of the 3 points. Nothing can go wrong! Well that wasn’t the case because 8 minutes later, clumsy defending from Pique, Busquets and Puyol lead to a one-on-one situation with Kanoute in which Kanoute came on top. 3 – 1, and Guardiola was furious. What worse is that a mere minute or so later, a quickly taken free kick, in which our players were arguing was much farther away, left Luis Fabiano unmarked. He coolly slotted it past Valdes and Guardiola got off the bench partially nervous and partially furious.

At this time, Real Madrid had gone 2 – 1 up (after the roar from the Bernabau faithful at Sevilla’s 2 goals) and the match would end 5 – 1. As for us we chose to slow the temp and eventually the game ended 3 – 2. Messi scored his 32nd goal of the season, and his 45th in all competitions, leaving him a mere 2 goals away from The Phenomenon’s record. This leaves him in pole position to claim the Pichichi  title as well as the European Golden boot because I personally don’t see Higuain, Ronaldo, Rooney, Drogba and the likes.. scoring 5+ goals in their last games of the season.

Statistics show that we had 18 shots with 7 on target and Sevilla had 7 shots with 5 on target. They committed 23 fouls while we committed just 15. We dominated corners with 4 to 2. We also had more offsides, 5 to be exact, compared to their 2 offsides. Possession (need you ask?) was 69% to 31% for us. We were shown 6 yellow cards while they were shown 5 yellows and a red. Palop made 4 saves and Valdes made 3.

With that, lets take a look at the ratings.

Team: 6. A 10 was on the cards had they kept that clean sheet. You cannot be complacent in such important fixtures. Solid for 2/3 of the game but a moment of madness can flip the game in the opposition’s favor. As it turned out Pedro’s goal was the difference. The team cannot afford to underestimate any opponent even if they were 6 – 0 up because history shows that if a team can score 3 goals in 10 minutes then any team can do that. Overall solid performance at the back in the final nail-biting 20 minutes.

Guardiola: 7. Perfect, genius, mastermind. All those words come to mind when you think about the way he let those boys get on the pitch and play their game. Was very active with his instructions and the most crucial ones were to Alves which exposed their right flank’s weakness. Loses the perfect 10 for disrupting the balance of the game by bringing Abidal on. The dude was injured and took a few minutes to get into the game, by then the damage was done. The idea was good, they were 10 men down and their left flank was exposed to bring on a faster left-back; however, it unfortunately backfired.

Valdes: 7. Well aware of what was at stake and was furious each time Sevilla got close to his goal. Made a wonderful save when we were 2 – 0 that could have change the course of the game. Was not at fault for any of the 2 goals because he was let down by his defense. In the face of 2 world class strikers one cannot blame the goalkeeper if he didn’t make the proper saves. Overall, was comfortable for 75% of this match.

Alves: 10. My man of the match. Never tired from making runs up and down the right flank. Tonight he showed why he is the best right back in the world on his day. Never failed to make the best of the situations and made some wonderful crosses and through balls. Instructions from Guardiola allowed him to get behind the back line a few times as well. His link up with Messi and Xavi was superb as well as with Pedro. In the crucial stages of the match, he made a run all the way to the left just to keep the pressure on while the team got back into position.

Pique: 6. Did not have a lot to do and seemed very comfortable with the ball at his feet. Those long passes to Maxwell and Bojan are priceless! Loses points, though, for falling asleep when he could’ve stopped the attack that lead to the first goal from the midfield instead of drawing the opposition to our box. Solid game overall.

Puyol: 6. Many be bashing our Capitan right now. Saying he is past his best (media -.-) but you cannot take one faulty mistake and turn it into a “he’s done” situation. Made some excellent tackles on the left while covering for Maxwell and it’s a shame he wasn’t able to get that tackle in on Kanoute. Would’ve made a pleasurable tackle to watch Muahaha.

Maxwell: 7. Very active on the left and it seems that he has become our first choice left back instead of Abidal. Deal of the season dare I say? He struggled at the beginning of the season but he now plays with the philosophy that we want our left backs to play with. Pass and move pass and move, which resulted into a perfect-inched lofted assist to Messi.

Busquets: 6. The dude falls too much. I wonder how somebody playing in such a solid role (the DM) can fall that much. Maybe its his high center of mass. Busi, like Pique, had a solid match without a lot of problems; however, he could’ve done more to avoid that first goal.

Keita: 7. I was worried that he was injured but thankfully he got back to his feet and played the full 90. Weaved the strings silently in the background and provided us with that physical, solid play that we lacked in the previous years. The dude attacks balls in the air like there’s no tomorrow!

Xavi: 8. Xavi-dependency? Naah, the dude is just awesome. Playing with an injury and got hacked down a few times, he was a tough choice with Alves for MOTM. His assist to Bojan was perfect and his 20 eyes never failed to miss a player on the run.

Bojan: 6. His movement shows us what we’ve been lacking with Ibra on the pitch. The formation 4-1-2-1-2 seems to work when he is on the pitch with Messi and Pedro. His lack of experience showed when he missed his chances but time will make up for all of that.

Pedro: 7. As always, never fails to disappoint. Perfect in attack and active on the defense. The dude finally learned how to optimize his speed for better results. At a time when he used to run around in circles for no definitive purpose, he now conserves his stamina and makes breaks that gets him beyond the opposition’s back line. What a hell of  a right footed shot that dude has.

Messi: 8. Another candidate for MOTM simply because he is the one who gives us our spark. The reason Xavi, Iniesta, Maxwell, Alves etc.. have enough space to maneuver and pick their passes to the millimeter is because of our little Argentine. He drags defenders with him so that other players have enough space to move around. Excellent game from our little Pichichi.

Substitutions:

Abidal for Maxwell: 5. Didn’t get into the game quickly because of his long spell out and was caught off-guard when Sevilla decided to take a quick free kick that lead to the second goal. Pulled himself together late in the game though.

Toure for Xavi: 6. Didn’t have enough time to make an impact, but was brought on to slow down the tempo.

Jeffren for Bojan: Incomplete. Run around and be pretty, son.

We are now in pole position to clinch our 20th title ever. We just have to overcome one last hurdle: The relegation threatened Valladolid. It’d be nice to see us celebrate the title on the Nou Camp pitch in front of 98,000 fans. We have 96 points so far, a record! 94GF, 24GA with a goal difference of +70. We have equaled our record goal difference of last season and hopefully will exceed it come Saturday. Next up Valladolid.

Visca el Barca