I don't think in the last 5 years i've ever described a Barcelona match as an unmitigated disaster. Of course, there is a first time for everything. In probably the worst 45 minutes i've ever watched them play, Barca gave away a trophy to Madrid, losing 2-1 in the second leg of the Spanish Supercup.
Now, not everything is doom and gloom, as once we get over the two goals given up and a red card in the first half hour, it actually became an entertaining match. The two goals were absolute fuck ups on the center pairing of Mascherano and Pique, the latter whom continues to insist he hasn't lost a step over the last year. They missed their Captain dearly today and Higuain and Ronaldo both put balls past Valdes. Ronaldo's goal in particular (his fifth straight in game against FCB) made Pique look the fool and Valdes simply ran out of miracle saves for the day. Once Adriano got shown off for dragging down Ronaldo as the last man, a defensive switch finally got the game under control, and as the clock ticked towards half time, Messi scores an absolute cracker from a free kick to tie the aggregate at 4-4. Even though the score would hold through the second half, and Madrid takes the cup on away goals rule, Barca put up a hell of a second half fight. They kept possession, made some great runs, and had a handful of excellent scoring opportunities. Iker Casillas once again was the whites savior, making incredible stops when Madrid should have put their foot on the throat and killed the game up a man, but credit Barcelona and a real turn around from Mascherano who did everything he could defensively to make up for his earlier mistake. While the trophy would be nice, Barca is off to a great start in the league, 5 points ahead of Madrid (with only 36 to play!) and they can be proud of the effort they put in when everything was going backwards for them. Naturally, commentators and message board posters want Pep back, and Pique sold, but that's garbage. Both Barcelona and Madrid's newest summer signings made debuts as Song and Modric came on within minutes of each other, and while Song will have to wait a little longer for his first trophy, Modric is celebrating a trophy tonight after 15 minutes on the job.
Moving on, tomorrow is the group stage draw of the Champions League! Every year I make a pathetic attempt at trying to guess the completely (or is it?!) random drawing of the teams. Here is what my magic 8 ball came up with this year.
Group A:
Milan (ITA)
Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)
Paris Saint-Germaine (FRA)
Malaga (ESP)
Group B:
Chelsea (ENG)
Braga (POR)
Galatasaray (TUR)
Borussia Dortmund (GER)
Group C: (group of deathhhhhhhh, basically whoever gets Juventus will be considered group of death)
Bayern Munich (GER)
Manchester City (ENG)
Juventus (ITA)
Nordsjaelland (DEN)
Group D:
Barcelona (ESP)
Benfica (POR)
Anderlecht (BEL)
Celtic (SCO)
Group E:
Arsenal (ENG)
Zenit St. Petersburg (RUS)
Ajax (NED)
BATE Borisov (BLR)
Group F:
Real Madrid (ESP)
Shaktar Donesk (UKR)
Olympiacos (GRE)
Montpellier (FRA)
Group G:
Manchester United (ENG)
Valencia (ESP)
Lille (FRA)
Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)
Another update before the weekend once the real draw occurs, and my thoughts on it.
Mes que un club!
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
A nervy road trip.
Barcelona came out 2-1 winners on the road against Osasuna over the weekend. Osasuna took a deserved lead in the 17th minute, and nearly held on if not for some controversial decisions that fell the way of Barcelona.
Osasuna really gave FCB all they could handle, an early score, and they held out until nearly the end until Messi put a brace into the net and secured a difficult 3 points.
Tito saw his first sending off, as he was shipped to the stands in the 73rd for protesting a call. Shortly thereafter Osuasuna saw Punal sentr off following the first Messi goal for protesting a offsides non- call. WIth Osasuna down to ten mes, Messi was able to bag the winner. During the match, Puyol fractures a cheekbone during a set piece, but is expected to be available during this evenings second leg of the supercopa de espana.
Looking to tonights match up with Madrid, there have been more stats then usual being thrown about. Some of my favorites include;
-If Barcelona wins, they will take the first lead in the head to head record in nearly 80 years.
-Mourinho's Madrid are off to his personal worst start to a season ever, and the worst start to a Madrid season since the 1970's.
-Mou has yet to win a Classico at the Bernabeu.
Heading into Madrid with a 3-2 advantage will be critical to getting Tito his first trophy in charge of FCB. Madrid clearly haven't been their best, so I am optimistic for a Barca win. Hopefully by the next update. Barca will have another trophy in the cabinet.
Visca Barca!
Osasuna really gave FCB all they could handle, an early score, and they held out until nearly the end until Messi put a brace into the net and secured a difficult 3 points.
Tito saw his first sending off, as he was shipped to the stands in the 73rd for protesting a call. Shortly thereafter Osuasuna saw Punal sentr off following the first Messi goal for protesting a offsides non- call. WIth Osasuna down to ten mes, Messi was able to bag the winner. During the match, Puyol fractures a cheekbone during a set piece, but is expected to be available during this evenings second leg of the supercopa de espana.
Looking to tonights match up with Madrid, there have been more stats then usual being thrown about. Some of my favorites include;
-If Barcelona wins, they will take the first lead in the head to head record in nearly 80 years.
-Mourinho's Madrid are off to his personal worst start to a season ever, and the worst start to a Madrid season since the 1970's.
-Mou has yet to win a Classico at the Bernabeu.
Heading into Madrid with a 3-2 advantage will be critical to getting Tito his first trophy in charge of FCB. Madrid clearly haven't been their best, so I am optimistic for a Barca win. Hopefully by the next update. Barca will have another trophy in the cabinet.
Visca Barca!
Friday, August 24, 2012
El Classico Supercopa de Espana!
It's like a drug. I just can't go very long without a Classico. Barcelona came out on top of this match, Tito's first Classico victory, and they take a 3-2 result (which coulda/shoulda/woulda been different) back to Madrid to try and win Villanova his first trophy as head man.
Despite only two-ish competitive matches this year, Barcelona look different under Tito, but the same. Still the tiki-taka, but they seem to have an edge now, they aren't afraid to run with the ball, especially the likes of Alexis and Tello. Last nights match saw a number of Barca shots from around 20-25 yards, a rarity under Peps watch. I think this year they will lose some of their ridiculous possession stats, but will find more shots, shots on target and possibly goals, if that's possible.
Iniesta was man of the match by miles. As a supporter of US Soccer I tweeted (@BarceJeremy4Gov) during the match that I wish just one USMNT player had the first touch of any of these guys (exception, Victor Valdes last night). It's almost not fair that Barcelona has two of the best dribblers on the planet in Iniesta and Messi, the best passer on the planet in Xavi, and an entire squad whose first touch never strays. Alas, I humbly submit that someone must like this team, so I will carry that burden.
The most interesting stat to come out of the latest Classico is that since 'The Only One' has been at the helm in Madrid, they have allowed 100 goals in 119 games. 25 of them scored by Barcelona.
Barcelona perhaps had a peek towards their match on Saturday, away to Osasuna, as the match wore down and Valdes made the sort of mistake I had hoped he was over with two years ago. A simple backpass during a counter attack got caught in his feet, Di Maria poked it away and with 5 minutes left, what could have been 4-1 became 3-2. It's the nature of the beast, and a moot point should Barcelona take the trophy next Wednesday, but a 1-0 Madrid score gives them the trophy and leaves us Barcelona fans already thinking what could have been. Granted we cannot expect Tito to win 15 some odd trophies in 4 years, or win 12 in a row the way Pep did, but this cup should have been wrapped up, and instead there will be 90 nerve racking minutes to play at the Bernabeu.
Puyol, who was pulled early in the Sociedad game, did not play at all in the Classico, hopefully it is not a health concern. Fabregas notched his 50th appearance for Barcelona last night, coming in as a sub. Pedro played his ass off, and got his hand stepped on hard enough to warrant a bandage, I suspect he will be given the weekend off and perhaps giving Tello or David Villa a start on the wing.
Visca Blaugrana! Onwards to Pamplona for Osasuna, who have had a good run of nearly 14 years in the top flight, and have seen improvement in the table each of the last 5 years, finishing 7th last season.
Despite only two-ish competitive matches this year, Barcelona look different under Tito, but the same. Still the tiki-taka, but they seem to have an edge now, they aren't afraid to run with the ball, especially the likes of Alexis and Tello. Last nights match saw a number of Barca shots from around 20-25 yards, a rarity under Peps watch. I think this year they will lose some of their ridiculous possession stats, but will find more shots, shots on target and possibly goals, if that's possible.
Iniesta was man of the match by miles. As a supporter of US Soccer I tweeted (@BarceJeremy4Gov) during the match that I wish just one USMNT player had the first touch of any of these guys (exception, Victor Valdes last night). It's almost not fair that Barcelona has two of the best dribblers on the planet in Iniesta and Messi, the best passer on the planet in Xavi, and an entire squad whose first touch never strays. Alas, I humbly submit that someone must like this team, so I will carry that burden.
The most interesting stat to come out of the latest Classico is that since 'The Only One' has been at the helm in Madrid, they have allowed 100 goals in 119 games. 25 of them scored by Barcelona.
Barcelona perhaps had a peek towards their match on Saturday, away to Osasuna, as the match wore down and Valdes made the sort of mistake I had hoped he was over with two years ago. A simple backpass during a counter attack got caught in his feet, Di Maria poked it away and with 5 minutes left, what could have been 4-1 became 3-2. It's the nature of the beast, and a moot point should Barcelona take the trophy next Wednesday, but a 1-0 Madrid score gives them the trophy and leaves us Barcelona fans already thinking what could have been. Granted we cannot expect Tito to win 15 some odd trophies in 4 years, or win 12 in a row the way Pep did, but this cup should have been wrapped up, and instead there will be 90 nerve racking minutes to play at the Bernabeu.
Puyol, who was pulled early in the Sociedad game, did not play at all in the Classico, hopefully it is not a health concern. Fabregas notched his 50th appearance for Barcelona last night, coming in as a sub. Pedro played his ass off, and got his hand stepped on hard enough to warrant a bandage, I suspect he will be given the weekend off and perhaps giving Tello or David Villa a start on the wing.
Visca Blaugrana! Onwards to Pamplona for Osasuna, who have had a good run of nearly 14 years in the top flight, and have seen improvement in the table each of the last 5 years, finishing 7th last season.
Monday, August 20, 2012
New beginnings.
Another season kicked off on Sunday, as Barcelona played host to Real Sociedad. It marked not only a new beginning of a La Liga season, but a number of changes in the club. There was minimal turnover this summer at the player level, as Seydou Keita, Kerrison, and Henrique left the club, but Barca made a splash in the transfer market, bringing in Jordi Alba from Valencia for $14M, and just today putting pen to paper for Alex Song ($19M), the next in a long line of Arsenal players who have come to the Camp Nou in recent years.While Alba has looked fantastic during the preseason and during the 5-1 opening win against RSO, I question the signing of Alex Song. His role is as a defensive midfielder, but he tends to get caught forward far too often, and Arsenal have allowed the most strikes of any top four EPL clubs for the last number of years. I'm not sure if he is meant to replace Keita, or the place of Mascherano who seems to be permanently set to play center back in a regular rotation with long time and more often injured Captain, Carles Puyol, and younger, although in having a bit of a career dip, Gerard Pique. In either case, it appears as if Song was specifically requested by new head coach Tito Vilanova, and is his first attempt to move out from under the long shadow of his predecessor.
The new man in charge, former Guardiola assistant, Tito Vilanova is the biggest change at the club this year. All reports of Vilanova point to the idea that he is even more of a tactician than Pep was, but isn't as experimental with rotations and shape as his predecessor. Tito's regular season debut was a smashing success, with Barcelona running over Real Sociedad 5-1 on Sunday evening. A thumping header by Captain Puyol opened the scoring less than 4 minutes into the game, and set off a flurry of goals with Sociedad equalizing before last seasons Pichichi and Balon D'or winner Leo Messi scored twice in 4 minutes to stretch the lead to 3-1. Long injured David Villa returned after a 8 month layoff, missing the Euros by finishing the scoring near the end of the game, with a fitting tribute to his fans after his goal.
This Barcelona has all the same parts as last years squad, but perhaps it's the sharpness of coming off a summer break, but this team looked deadly. The darting runs were fresh, the tiki-taka sharp, the one-twos turning into three-fours. Tello looks especially sharp on the wing, and is making an early argument for a starting position in a crowded field of forwards. If early indicators mean anything, this team should be the most enjoyable to watch in some time. When Pep walked away in May he felt that perhaps the team was stale, and needed a new spark. Vilanova seems to have provided that spark, but the first real test comes against Real Madrid on Thursday in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup. Madrid looked out of sorts in their draw against Valencia, and will need to be much better to earn their first trophy of the season.
The new man in charge, former Guardiola assistant, Tito Vilanova is the biggest change at the club this year. All reports of Vilanova point to the idea that he is even more of a tactician than Pep was, but isn't as experimental with rotations and shape as his predecessor. Tito's regular season debut was a smashing success, with Barcelona running over Real Sociedad 5-1 on Sunday evening. A thumping header by Captain Puyol opened the scoring less than 4 minutes into the game, and set off a flurry of goals with Sociedad equalizing before last seasons Pichichi and Balon D'or winner Leo Messi scored twice in 4 minutes to stretch the lead to 3-1. Long injured David Villa returned after a 8 month layoff, missing the Euros by finishing the scoring near the end of the game, with a fitting tribute to his fans after his goal.
This Barcelona has all the same parts as last years squad, but perhaps it's the sharpness of coming off a summer break, but this team looked deadly. The darting runs were fresh, the tiki-taka sharp, the one-twos turning into three-fours. Tello looks especially sharp on the wing, and is making an early argument for a starting position in a crowded field of forwards. If early indicators mean anything, this team should be the most enjoyable to watch in some time. When Pep walked away in May he felt that perhaps the team was stale, and needed a new spark. Vilanova seems to have provided that spark, but the first real test comes against Real Madrid on Thursday in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup. Madrid looked out of sorts in their draw against Valencia, and will need to be much better to earn their first trophy of the season.
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