It was a moment which summed up the night, hell, the season. Xavi Hernandez, surely the best midfield player on the planet at this moment in time, drifting effortlessly into space just outside the centre circle, and picking out the dynamic run in behind the demoralised Deportivo defence with the most measured of passes to put his team-mate clean through. Poetry in motion.
That would be wonderful if that team mate was Thierry Henry or Leo Messi racing clear of the defence, but in this case it was neither. It wasn’t even Samuel Eto’o or Bojan Krkic. It was the club captain. Carles Puyol. The most centre halfish of centre halves. And here he was cutting through the seventh best side in La Liga’s defence like the proverbial knife through Anchor. Frightening.
Puyol’s first touch took him slightly too close to keeper Daniel Aranzubia, but a deft touch took him beyond, until Aranzubia- out of frustration and desperation no doubt- stuck out a trailing leg to bring him down for a penalty, converted by Samuel Eto’o past stand-in keeper Juan Rodriguez to round off a 5-0 win that, if anything, flattered the visiting side immensely. The only shame from a neutral’s perspective was that the wild-haired skipper was not allowed the chance to get the goal his performance, well, his run anyway, merited. But goalscorers are goalscorers I guess, and Eto’o was never going to pass up the chance to net his 18th goal of a prolific, return-to-form, season.
Deportivo, as I mentioned, are by no means a bad side. They may not have the quality of their side of the late nineties/early noughties, with the likes of Diego Tristan, Djalminha, Fran or the phenomenal Juan Carlos Valeron, but their side is solid, well organised and in the likes of Rodolfo Bodipo & Andres Guardado, they have attacking players capable of springing a surprise. Just ask Real Madrid, who haven’t won at the Riazor in their last sixteen attempts.
All the more incredible then, was the manner in which Pep Guardiola’s side simply steamrollered their way through a side that, but for their head-to-head record with Villarreal & Atletico Madrid, would be occupying a UEFA Cup spot at the halfway stage of the season. Barça, put simply, were magnificent. On this kind of showing, there isn’t a side on earth that could live with them. Their team-wide mentality of passing, movement, effortless first touch, refusal to waste possession, and killer instinct in the penalty area is becoming almost ridiculous.
Barça have set new record number of points for the first half of a Liga season (50 from a possible 57), and are scoring at a rate of more than 3 goals per game. Since losing to Numancia in the opening league game of the season, Guardiola’s side have pretty much demolished anything unfortunate enough to get in their way, and in a style rarely seen in the modern game. Premier League observers often swoon at the thought of Arsene Wenger’s pass-and-move Arsenal side, but this side takes it to a new level.
They had opened up Depor within thirty seconds last night. Dani Alves, a right back who could lay claim to being one of the most devastatingly effective attacking players in the world right now, freeing Messi down the right, and the little magician’s cross allowed Henry to draw a smart block from Aranzubia with an instinctive first time strike from the penalty spot. Deportivo didn’t heed the warning, Eto’o jinking past four defenders cutting in from the left, before seeing his goalbound shot take a nick off a defender and slide wide of the far post. It was a matter of time before Barça opened the floodgates, and inevitably it was Messi who held the key.
For people who don’t watch La Liga, or Barcelona, it may appear that this Messi character is on the receiving end of rather too much hyperbole at the moment. After all, he is just a footballer at the end of the day. Only he isn’t, he is a genius. No player in the modern era- Cristiano Ronaldo aside- can dribble as effortlessly, at incredible pace, with the ball glued to their feet, yet still provide as consistent a final pass or shot, even in the tightest of spaces, and when usually being man marked by a hatchet-man defender as well.
His opener last night would have been stunning by anyone’s standards, by Messi’s this season it was almost expected from the moment he collected Xavi’s pass on the right touchline. Cutting inside the hapless Filipe with ease, he simply ran straight across the Depor defence on the diagonal before placing a beautifully steered left foot shot back across Aranzubia and in off the far post from the edge of the box. Andy Gray would have been applauding, Jonathan Pearce would have been exploding, Kevin Keatings on SKY simply announced “the little magician has done it again”. It said it all.
There were two further goals in the first half, Henry planting a rare headed goal past Aranzubia from a wonderfully flighted Alves cross, before Eto’o reacted first to bury a loose ball after the unfortunate keeper had kept out Seydou Keita’s flying header superbly. In between, Messi had at least shown us signs of being human by sending a free header woefully wide from eight yards, after that man Alves had again picked out a dream cross to top off a stunning run.
The second half didn’t need to be anything special; Deportivo’s players wore the look of a team that had been told at half time that they would be walking back to La Coruña in their kit, whilst Barca’s were content to stroke the ball around like a footballing Harlem Globetrotters.
Watching Xavi Hernandez in the form he is in at the moment is like watching a coaching masterclass, pass, move, receive, pass. Never wastes it, never lets the ball get away from him, never over-hits the killer ball, never telegraphs his pass. He is a joy to behold.
With Messi ahead of him looking like producing a wonder-goal every time he gets possession, Alves behind him effectively doing the job of two players, and Henry & Eto’o laying to rest the ridiculous claims that they couldn’t play together, Barca are simply unstoppable.
They picked up another couple of goals before the end of course, a slick team move eight minutes from time ending with Henry steering Xavi’s cut-back into an empty net from close range for his second of the evening, and his eleventh of the season. Then came Xavi & Puyol’s piece de résistance in the dying seconds, and Miguel Angel Lotina’s side were almost happy to get out of the Camp Nou and begin their walk home.
It is Numancia- the only side to beat them this season- next in the league for Guardiola’s men, as they look to begin the second half of the season the way they finished the first. And on this showing, you would be a fool to bet against Pep’s boys.
@dave stopher, they will ruin your beautiful EPL, because the merchants buying the other teams hoping to use them to clear their personal debts will panic and run away leaving the fragile league and Teams in the mess…
As you know, while every team in the EPL has a price so anyone (just anyone) with some money can come to buy and rule, Barcelona is priceless for being a fan based club with unlimited string of talents from age 6 to age 36…
I doubt all EPL teams can generate in 5 years as many youth players as Barcelona every year, Your EPL rub more Barcelona youth products than they produce.
To evaluate a league you need to be more open to see all the aspects involved, not only one or two good results.
And its also nice to check how successful were the best EPL “stars” when they moved to la liga, and how did it went in the opposite sense.
@Ruud van Nistelrooy, Its not that you made one mistake…I am really trying to make an effort to pick one thing right out of all what you said…sorry…
@RVN
how can you keep homegrown talent in your list that is evidnce as to how barca BUYS all the stars? surely that is a contradiction? arent they raising these kids to be stars?
@RVN
Again, you got owned!
@dave stopher
Well, it is obvious that Barca will change all EPL team to be super defensive..
@RVN. I’m trying to understand your point. I guess it wasn’t the whole thing on the list of such you obviously let your own bias corrupt your judgement. Let be real for a sec. I’m biased pro Barça your Biased Pro Madrid. But don’t assume that just because I’m a cule I can not remain objective, can you? So if your point a that Barça doesn’t get as much heap as Madrid About signing big stars than I would argue this: Barça like most big clubs does buy “stars” as of lately there have been 2, Alves and Henry in the last 3 years. Ronnie became a star at Barça, Messi was bought at an extremely young age when no one knew of him. He is the result of our youth system, Iniesta,Xavi,Bojan,Puyol, Busquets, all are the result of La Masia. In a typical starting line up; Valdes, Alves, Marquez, Puyol, Abidal,Yaya, Xavi, Busquets,Iniesta, Eto’o, Messi 6 are La Masia products. That’s more than 50% of our startng line up. You might ask, ” why put Busquets in and drop Henry, just to make a case?” No! I believe this all be the standard starting line up when Iniesta is 100%. Now let’s look at your Team. Casillas,Ramos,Pepe,Heinze,Gago,Diarra(1)(2),Sneijder,Guti, Robben, Raul. That’s 3 players compared to Barça’s 6.
Now it’s true that Barça is not hammered as much for buying players as much as Madrid is. But I argue that it’s because Barça depends more on home grown talnt than Madrid has for many years. Wich is funny because The Castilla produces pretty good players. Madrid spends more money as evidenced by Isaiah’s post than Barça.
Additionally justbecause someone likes a team such as ManU or Liverpool or Barça and not Madrid does not mean they are Bandwagoners. Such as being a Madrid Fan does not preclude you from being one. If I misunderstood your point than we all did. And either we are all idiots or you are not explaining your self well or don’t have a good argument.
RVN,
Since you wish it, here is my response to some of your points:
1) The point appears to be that Barça has bandwagon fans at the moment. I would agree with that statement. There probably are a lot of bandwagon fans choosing to follow Barça, but the fact also remains that Barça has the largest base in the world at over 160,000 members. Many of those members are in Spain, of course but there are those, like me, who are in other parts of the world and grew into their Barcelona-loving world through other means than the 05/06 CL or the fact that RM are the “bad team” these days. That doesn’t invalidate your point at all, though, because, in the simple statement that Barça, like all good teams, has bandwagon fans, you’re quite right. And Barça just happens to be the best team in the world right now according to most people (whether they’re right or not, that’s the impression you get by reading articles such as this one, right? And the masses will be swayed by that a lot)
2) RM are the “bad guy” in the press right now. Since about two years ago when Barça went into “deep crisis” I’ve maintained the position that it is nonsense to consider a club that is in the Champions League spots in a major league in Europe to be in crisis. I believe that Real Madrid is only in a crisis insofar as the press is concerned; the club itself is, I believe, in a fairly good financial situation despite its expenditures thanks to its global branding — something that Laporta has changed recently and really done a magnificent job of doing.
When I was growing up in the Midwest USA, the only Spanish team you really ever heard about was RM because their brand was globalized on a massive scale along with their CL successes and the burgeoning market of ESPN-broadcast CL games. Barcelona, then, became a major force in the CL over the last few years, just as RM’s fortunes in Europe fell off a bit. Barcelona, then, has been able to capitalize on a growing market in the US and Asia by being successful at a time of great expansion in viewership thanks to the aforementioned ESPN coverage. RM has been successful the domestic league over the last few years, but this success doesn’t reach as wide an audience as the CL success that Barça has enjoyed.
The matches against Chelsea and the later against Arsenal and ManU (especially the final), I’m sure raised the profile of the club to lofty heights that it wouldn’t have otherwise been able to achieve.
However, because Real Madrid have not won the CL or really come all that close, they are considered by many to be the second light of Spain. In a world where the media thrives on one-or-the-other, fight-to-the-death storylines, only one team from Spain can really be on top at a time. Note how rapidly the English media dismisses “would be title challengers” despite the fact that they’re only a couple of points behind, just so that they can play up the Benitez-Ferguson “mind game” nonsense.
The same is true of RM-Barça, a very passionate rivalry that the media is able to focus on, regardless of whether or not there are shades of gray that should be dealt with. RM is not pure evil and Barça is not pure magic (nor vice versa) by any account, but if your criteria is “bad” and “good” then you are going to label one as one and the other as the other. That’s what the media does and that’s why one should rarely listen to what the media says without considering what they’re saying.
Marca and Sport are opposite sides of the same coin and their hysteria should be taken with a grain of salt. Marca was anti-Calderon, but is pro-Florentino Perez; each paper has its allegiances (as any of the Berlusconi-owned papers/media in Italy, for instance) and that colors their view of things.
There are other reasons, though, than exposure and European success that RM is considered the “bad guy” in the media. One of the reasons is that Calderon was never the politician Laporta is. Calderon was sneaky, squeaky, and a real nutjob, but Laporta, who is probably all 3 of those things as well, is more adept at taking failures in stride and not letting himself run at the mouth. I don’t have any great love for Laporta (I have very, very little, in fact), but I have to admit that he’s a good president in terms of marketing and staffing.
Calderon gets all the blame for what is really a systemic failure within RM in terms of youth production and transfer policy. Mijatovic is, in my opinion, the most responsible person for the failure of the transfer policy to truly bear fruit. While I can’t say there wasn’t success in some sense because RM did win the last 2 league titles, it is clear to me that RM has not effectively consolidated the sporting visions of the hierarchy and the coaching staff. Mijatovic believes in big names regardless of their utility within a system — and he seemed to want the system to adapt to the players — while Schuster wanted players that fit the system he had in mind.
Juande Ramos, then, has arrived and his scheme has been adapted more to the players, which is perhaps the only move that makes any sense and was one that the obstinate Schuster was never going to make. But still, there is an air of desperation and bewilderment coming from RM and Mijatovic (the latest being the signings of Lassana and Huntelaar despite the UEFA rules allowing only one to be signed up for the CL). The egos running rampant in RM are no different than the egos in Barcelona, but they’re all running in different directions, where as they’re all running stride-for-stride in Barça at the moment (and I stress that, at the moment). The media has picked up on this frenzied atmosphere and certainly goaded it along for headlines and readership, but that’s the nature of the media culture we’re in. It was like that for Barcelona last year, with Sport and EMD screaming endlessly about Laporta needing to get out and Rijkaard smoking pot and staring into space and blah blah. Same with the Madrid-based press now. It’s a cyclical process and the focus will shift back to Barcelona soon.
3) Barcelona is as star-studded as RM, why don’t they get reviled as purchasers of big names? One of the reasons for this is what I mentioned above: Barcelona has a system that it runs and it buys players to fit that system rather than buying the biggest name on the market. The one exception to that that I can think of off the top of my head is Thierry Henry, who should never have been purchased if he was going to be a winger. I think that his purchase was a big middle finger to Samuel Eto’o from the Laporta administration, but it turned out that Eto’o still had the goods to keep his central striker role or at least a good enough relationship with Rijkaard to maintain his place. Other than that, the purchases made were made with specific roles in mind: Keita and Hleb to shore up the midfield role opened up by Deco’s departure, Yaya as a DM, Alves as a right back for the departing Zambrotta, Abidal for the left to replace an aging Sylvinho, and Gudjohnsen to replace Henrik Larsson.
All these changes, while substantial and costly, come from a concerted effort to fill in the gaps in a team. It appears, from the domestic form, that this was successful; Real Madrid do not appear to have the same scheme or capability to come up with the right players at the right time. And, again, I argued against Henry and Hleb at the time and I still maintain that they are not perfect fits, but they are proving themselves very capable of carrying the flag for FCB when it’s necessary for them to do so.
In a sense, yes, FCB is as star-studded as RM in that they have an approximately equal number of stars. However, RM has not produced a superstar from within its own ranks in several years (every since Casillas). Barcelona in the last 5 years alone has produced Iniesta, Messi, and Cesc Fabregas as legitimate superstars (Messi and Cesc obviously have higher profiles, but Iniesta is very rapidly climbing the rungs of the European hiearchy).
I believe that there is major talent within the RM structure, but it is not properly exploited. Barcelona’s system, on the other hand, is exploited by dozens of clubs around Europe every year (especially considering the laws that in Spain don’t allow a player to play with a full professional contract until a couple of years after they’re allowed to do so in England — thus Cesc and Pique jumping ship, among others; no doubt it’s happened to Madrid as well).
I fail to see how the failure of RM’s purchases to become integral, long-term members of the squad (Drenthe, Saviola (arrived on a free), Robinho, Baptista to name a couple) causes those players to suddenly be dropped from the list of star players RM has or has had on their roster in recent years, much less says anything at all about Barcelona. If RM has no star players, as you have suggested, that is RM’s fault for not bringing them through their canter or of getting long-term, solid players such as Yaya rather than flash-in-the-pan players like Cassano who are more headcase than player. Remember Cassano? I do.
Hopefully this answers some of your questions/concerns.
RE: Andrew M
Thank you, I had not realized that. I am glad that you have brought that to my attention.
RE: John
Seriously? I mean, really?
RE: tutomate
Funny, because the next post by Isaiah seems to provide a well-thought analysis of my argument. Maybe try reading that before you try to act like I’m calling aevery Man U or barca fan a glory hunter and every madrid fan a saint. Also, most of what you seem to be arguing with me about depends on perception. I’m sorry for even bringing it up.
RE: Isaiah
Well, that was sure impressive, and I don’t think I can argue with that, for the most part. I think one could argue against the statement that barca has the largest fanbase. You do bring up many good points regarding Calderon and the youth systems. And you seem to agree with me that Real remain the “team to beat”, yet you also claim that Real are “second light”. My problem is purely that I don’t think such a double standard is fair, regardless of the reasons. You are also correct that it is mostly a matter of what the press says, but I am trying to say that people are being influenced by this to a far too high degree, which I think you can agree with. It’s also kind of a blanket statement to claim Barca buy players because they need players as opposed to those pigs Real Madrid. I would disagree with you on that point, but I hardly think it’s something that would be worth arguing. I would prefer not to argue over my much-criticised squad lists. To clarify, I never said Real had no stars. And I would prefer not to remember Cassano.
In my defense Isaiah is a brilliant guy. I attend his blog regularly. http://www.barcelona.theoffside.com Great place. But maybe you forgot what you wrote already. Comment 14. Here you reiterate what your concern/point is, to wit, its not fair that barcelona are not criticized the way madrid is for buying players. Than you list players. When some one responds as I did to said argument you state that, such was not your point as you did in comment 48. Then you go on to say that you did not put much effort on the list. After being told that Raul was a product of Atletico and was bought by your club at 15 and messi at 11.And I won’t even mention your first post notonly is it factually in accurrate butit speaks of a FIFA 09 conspiracy againts Real.
I say that with all do respect. I hope Real Madrid gets up and conteds the title next season. And I hope they beat Roma and an English team to prove La Liga’s worth only toloose to us in the semi’s
Visca el Barca!
By the way its no wonder why SOME ManU fans hate RM lokk what they tried to do with Ronaldo. A product of ManU, yes i know he was from Sporting but Ferguson has made him into hat he is!
Re: RVN
Yes RVN.. Really. Seriously.
I don’t agree that Barca is the best team on the planet.. As far as the best team is concerned that is definitely AC Milan bcoz they have the best side with a great combination.. and the way they play soccer is really amazing and they play like the Brazilian national side.. small passes and very attacking side.. dudes Milan is the best
Well there you have it, Mack has spoken.
RVN, fair enough on the squad lists thing. I shall mention it no more.
The part about RM being a second light was in a sentence mentioning that it’s the perception of many, rather than factual. Perception is skewed because, as you have said, and I agree, people pay too much attention to the media and, indeed, debates like these.
At the moment, Barcelona are the “team to beat” because of their relative position in the league, the domestic cup (with or without the 0-0 draw at Espanyol), and their dismantling of a fairly weak Champions League group. Whatever the term “team to beat” means, it is being applied to Barcelona based simply on current form. The team to beat in the Spanish league was definitely RM last year, as evidenced by their title. Again, whatever that means.
Regardless of whether or not any cule like myself can come up with excuses as to why Barça failed to regain the title last year, the fact remains that Barcelona failed to do so. The same is probably going to be true of RM this year, unless Barça unravels in record-breaking fashion while Real Madrid somehow muster one of the greatest second halves in history. Thus, I think, the term “team to beat” is used. If you can beat us, you’ve got something to crow about, I suppose.
I would like to clarify about the fanbase: I believe it is a fact that FCB has more paying members than any other club in the world. Perhaps I am wrong, but that is the impression I’m under, thus my statement about fanbase. Whether or not this means FCB has more fans in general than RM probably depends on whether or not you include the bandwagon fans or not. I care, in a sense, which one is more popular because I want my team to be more successful, but there can be no doubt whatsoever that RM is a major club both in Spain and throughout the rest of the world.
I do think there will always be a sense of “we have to beat RM to have a good season” coming out of Barcelona because of the history and the rivalry. That doesn’t mean that Barça fans feel inferior to their RM counterparts, merely that it’s a true rivalry and that success against the opposition is gratifying. I believe that many RM fans, if they really think about it, don’t consider their season a true success if they don’t defeat Barcelona at least once.
One thing is for sure, though, Barça are playing lights out in the league right now, well in the Copa even with the B team on the field, and we’re looking forward to our clash with Lyon. I am confident we can beat anyone on the planet on any given day, which while arrogant and self-serving, is certainly the right way to feel when you have a record like ours. Would we beat everyone? No, of course not, but the confidence is there and I’m sure that we would beat the majority of the top teams. We’ll never know, though, as I described above, saying that the CL is not a good test of who is the best team in Europe, unless, as Ramzi said, Porto was the best team in Europe the year they won the CL.
RE: tutomate
Actually, my point is that there is a double standard regarding Real Madrid and Barcelona, in proving which I unsuccessfully tried to use those lists. Thank you for your concern.
RE: Isaiah
I don’t think that I can disagree with what you have said, and in fact I must thank you for saying it, but I feel that maybe I should clarify what I meant by “team to beat”: not to imply that Real Madrid are better; rather the frequent perception that Real Madrid are the most successful club in Europe, as supported by “statistics”.
RVN you are welcome and I thank you as well. There my be a double standard I personally could detect it do to my Bias, if there such a standard. I respect your opinion.
Hey, I admit I’m biased as hell too but I was just saying that it does no good to say that one is not biased.
Celtic-Rangers anybody?????
hello. i love you. can i play for you barca?
BEWARE BARCA they are the team to beat at this moment in time, but if Mourinhio ends up against them with Inter, thy will get beat by hi negative, defensive anti-footballing tactics. PS Man United had a goal wrongly disallowed against Porto in that game, so they shouldn’t have won.
@BD condell
I’ll take the bait…
I don’t agree that celtic is the best team on the planet.. As far as the best team is concerned that is definitely Rangers bcoz they have the best side with a great combination.. and the way they play soccer is really amazing and they play like the Scottish national side.. small passes and very attacking side.. dudes Rangers is the best
do i need to say more?
(i had some help from the pros in the composition of this post)
if rangers were better than celtic,SURELY they would be top of the table wouldnt they?
@duffman90
read comment 59 then read my comment. it was totally in jest. although i do support the gers
@Duffman and andrew M: Didn’t mean to start anything!!
too late now BD,its on!nah just kidding
how come messi looks 40?
@BD no worries, i am just being silly.