They’d just witness their team perform adequately enough to sneak out with a rough 3 points a kin to last season’s tour of San Mames. But that was last season and this is now and they’d be returning to Barcelona with a singular point – never mind relinquishing pole position to Real Madrid.

Guardiola, forever one to remain humble, would always remind everyone that things would not be as smooth as the historic treble winning season. While, most nodded in agreement to Pep’s words, they did so whilst still riding the wave of success and euphoria. They’d sort of agree with an impatient, ‘yeah yeah, we know. Till then, get on with the trophies and celebrations, mate’.

True enough. After all, Josep and his boys had proven that you can have your fat cake and eat it too. All three pieces of it.

But like Rijkaard found out, and as i’m sure Josep is all too aware, doing it all over again in a bigger and better fashion is a difficult task. It’s easier to turn water into wine, which coincidentally may or may not be a sufficient lubricant to keep those cogs inside Josep’s skull churning. And it’s no secret that they’re always churning.

As Saturday night turned into Sunday morning, Josep was no doubt sifting through thoughts deeper than the broad overviews that he had given in the post match conference. There he sat, lights and cameras pointed at him. His eyebrows attentively arched, noting his team’s lack of tension and pace after Dani Alves rolled in the opening goal from a sublime telepathic pass from Xavi.

Josep knew all too well that Athletic would insist more during the second half; Lamenting the sub par defending against the long ball lob that seemed entirely too simple to even create any immediate panic.

Yet, it seems a peculiar notion. The team scores from the most intelligent and complex methods known in football, but they count the same as the most fundamental of plays that they appear to concede from. Chygrynskiy lost out to Llorente, who created a well fashioned diagonal flick for compatriot Toquero to gauge the physics of the bouncing ball before knocking it far side past Valdes.

Perhaps it could’ve all been avoided in the first half. No doubt, 20 minutes in, things were looking well. Spaces were available in pockets between red and white striped men and a few chances could’ve and, dare it be said, should’ve been converted.

Messi once again showing an odd flashback to his days when he first was breaking into the squad as he was found wanting on a near one-on-one chance with Iraizoz. ‘Golden Boot’ Keita, threatened Athletic with his usual aerial prowess that saw the ball bobble achingly close past the post, and Xavi failed to use his foot rather than the side of his calf to settle in a glorious chance devised by Messi.

You see, by the last echo of the first half whistle it could’ve been game, set and almost match. Easy pickin’s for all the Spanish journalists. Job done in 45 minutes, just in time to anticipate Messi’s injury and type furiously on medical speculation and Inter / Real Madrid implications.

And to be honest, the fallout from the match appears to be more important than the match ever was.

By all accounts, Messi had a stressful stay in Purgatory – the time between ‘ouch, that hurts’ and the doctor finally telling you exactly how bad the ouch is. Marquez was cleared from H1N1 speculation and a few sighs of relief could be heard when news fluttered that Ibrahimovic may appear as soon as the Inter match- barring any complications.

Though no particular report could be found on the why Josep waited as long as he did to produce a substitution, at a time when his team lacked clarity and pace. Barcelona have drawn four times this season in La Liga and the Champions’ League. In all four, Josep had refrained from producing a substitution until the 76th minute – aside from the Osasuna draw where Marquez replaced Chygrynskiy in the 61st.

All very important stuff, especially given Josep’s insistence on looking forward and putting the weekend behind them. Circumstances, as he says, has put them in a bit of a tighter spot than usual. Circumstance, as he says, is why they’re one point behind Madrid – then again, Guardiola apparently cares not one iota about that until after the crucial Inter match.

Which all means, that the squeaks and metal-on-metal wails from Josep’s head is not about this past Athletic match. Fair enough, as aforementioned it wasn’t exactly a completely different performance that had previously seen Josep scuttle away with three points instead of one point in last season’s visit to San Mames. And with Barcelona about to dive into the deep end, there’s little point in wasting further words on what has passed.

You see, they don’t just hand out stadium nicknames like bits of corn candy on Halloween – well, unless you’re Guti, whose nicknames aren’t suitable for this PG-13 rated blog anyway. Particularly when the nickname happens to be ‘The Cathedral’. And that’s exactly the nickname for that bit of grass that Athletic Bilbao play on.

It’s a venerable pressure cooker, just not the kind you’d see Gordon Ramsey or Wolfgang Puck using. Add in 22 players, a bit of football, and several thousand sprinkles of fans and you’ve got yourself a tidy way to spend a couple of hours on a Saturday night.

The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao. Technically a more fitting sporting venue for Saturday’s match.

But over the past several years, Barcelona has acclimatized to the Basque pressure cooker…

Since 1999, Barcelona has notched 7 league wins out of 11 matches at the San Mamés. A pretty dashing record, most would reckon.

However, that pressure will get you in trouble if you’re head’s not on straight. Athletic always promise a lot of attitude and sweat for three points during nights in the San Mamés but it appears Barcelona have devised a reasonable formula to extract points and it largely involves doing the same old ; Establishing their brand of football and being unfazed by the hustle and bustle of the red and white striped men.

Like other stadiums that double as pressurized cooking equipment (see: Sanchez Pizjuan, Calderon, Reyno de Navarra, and The Bernabeu), the key is to not flinch at the surrounding atmosphere and speedy impetus of the opposition because they’ll never forgive you if you do.

But this clearly isn’t a problem because Barcelona are in like Flint when it comes to success in San Mamés. So good that it’s all rather academic.

Sport.es recently posed a query on whether or not Barcelona fans and masochistic Madrid fans who visited the sport journal site trusted Maxwell in the absence of the Abidal – a man who has the perfect physical physique to dismantle many counterattacks but apparently not perfect enough to avoid injury.

A whopping 89% have given the thumbs up to Maxwell for the next three weeks.

After a bit of research, it was identified that the 11% who did not approve of Maxwell were all part of the Abidal family. All of them except for a certain Josep Guardiola.

So far, Maxwell has made 4 appearances as part of the starting eleven in La Liga. Granted, the Barcelona chapter for Maxwell’s career is quite early (or quite late, you truly can never tell) but you do wonder if his offensive fluidity could be put to a bit more use. Especially since Abidal’s offensive toolkit consists of breaking the 40 meter dash time as he sprints to the endline. An extremely devastating weapon if only he’d do it with the ball.

Unimpressed with Maxwell, Josep coerces left back extraordinaire Dalai Lama to come out of retirement for the remainder of the season.

And with key fixtures against Inter and Real Madrid upcoming, one wonders if Maxwell will tactically fit into the tinkering of Josep, who may prefer Puyol as Abidal’s deputy.

But I may be guilty of thinking ahead because during the entire thought process that went into creating this article, all 4 minutes and 33 seconds of it, I could not think of a convincing enough reason for Maxwell to not get the nod for the match at San Mamés, which included ruling out the possibility of successfully genetically cloning a left sided Dani Alves.

Aside from the underused Maxwell, there’s been a minor injury crisis in the locker room, no doubt the work of multi-thousand Irish fans who’ve all recently converted to Voodoo – and it certainly wasn’t to wish a certain someone good luck either.

Ibrahimovic maintains a strain in his left thigh, ruling him out for the weekend and casting a few clouds of doubt on his availability for the critical matches next week. Abidal has become the unfortunate carrier of the H1N1 virus, which may have also maligned Toure, who is suffering from symptoms and a complete diagnosis is expected before the match. This sees Jonathan Dos Santos sneak into the traveling troupe.

Additionally, question marks remain on whether the notorious Henry has the fitness to go three full matches with such regularity.

What seemed like a nice buffet of options to choose from several days ago has turned into a selection that’s noticeably smaller in size, weight, age, but not hair (Thanks, Puyol and Chygrynskiy).

All bets are off on the availability of 16 year old Iker Muniain for Athletic because you should all be rooting for him to recover his fitness and scribble his own name onto the first eleven, which likely won’t be happening. A peculiar player to look out for as time goes on. Iker currently joins Toquero, Llorente and Mikaelsson as the four players who are fitness pending for the match on Saturday night, but Toquero and Llorente may still get the nod from Caparros.

Now, given the handsome recent decade record of results for Barcelona at the Cathedral, most will be reserving their fingernails for the visits of Inter and Real Madrid. Except for Maxwell who may run out of fingernail real estate to nervously bite on by the time Josep names his starting eleven for Saturday night.

Predictions to lose money by:

• The Score: Athletic Bilbao 0 – 2 FC Barcelona
• The Scorers: Messi, ‘Golden Boot’ Keita
• Wildcard Bonus: Thierry Henry with two handball assists
• The XI: Valdes, Maxwell, Pique, Puyol, Dani Alves, Busquets, Keita, Xavi, Bojan, Pedro and Messi

We need another Zaragoza victory. We need to watch our team play and marvel at the pretty (and I don’t just mean Piqué), instead of seething over missed chances, wasted passes, and crosses that a few someones ought to be nailed to. We need to gather our wits, regroup, set a new plan and shake off the memory of the recent unfavourable results.

And Real Mallorca are coming for a visit. Tsk, tsk…

Sorry, guys! Nothing personal...

Last season, we played four times against Mallorca. The first leg, when they visited Camp Nou in January, was favourable to us by 2-1. Then we played the Copa del Rey semi-finals against them, beating them at home 2-0, and then getting away with a 1-1 draw when we visited Mallorca (thanks to Pinto and his Magical Ponytail). The last time we met them last season, we were nursing our Triplete hangover and allowed them to get away with a pretty meaningless 2-1.

Real Mallorca have won in the Camp Nou, though, more recently in that infamous 07/08 season, when they came back from a 2-0 to get away with 2-3 and the three points, thanks to Webo and Borja Valero, both of who will be on the pitch on Saturday.

Mallorca fans have chartered six planes to travel to Barcelona on Saturday; I don’t want to be mean, but I hope they fly back in a sulk.

Real Mallorca have only played in Primera for thirteen years, and they are usually a mid-table team, sometimes plummeting to flirt with the relegation places, but this season they’ve had quite a good run of form and they are currently fifth in La Liga, just one point behind Valencia and the Champions League places. So far, they have only lost against Sevilla (which is no shame, as Real Madrid will tell you) and against Sporting (which is slightly more puzzling); they drew against Atlético de Madrid and Villarreal, and have beaten Liga-newcomers Xerez and Tenerife, and also Getafe and Valladolid.

They have a quiet, unassuming goalkeeper who just happens to be quite good (Dudu Aouate), a striker who doesn’t get any headlines, but who consistently scores goals (Webo) and a solid, hard-working team. Just the kind of set-up we’ve been stumbling against lately. They also have a patient manager who has managed to rebuild his team time and after time, after his key players have been lured away by bigger teams, and who only spent an amazing 400,000 euros on signings this summer (even less that new-boys-on-the-block Xerez; I’m not even comparing it with our own or Real Madrid’s spending, because I might cry); for more information on the admirable Gregorio Manzano, read this article and marvel. The man himself said this morning that they are “not going to go for the individual marking” and that “Barça can win without playing well” (may the Gods of Football, fickle creatures that they are, hear you, Gregorio).

Pep wants to hypnotise you into forgetting these last few days and his recent questionable decisions; or he’s become a zombie; or he’s trying to stare down the mic. It’s hard to tell with him.

So, what should we do, I hear you ask, throwing your hands up in exasperation. Well, I have just the thing. Leave Xavi on the bench. Now, don’t scream like that, I can hear you from here and you sound like little girls who are having their pigtails pulled. Listen to me: Xavi is tired; Xavi has been playing too much; Xavi is not playing at his best level and that reflects on the overall quality of the team (which doesn’t mean I blame him for anything, mind you). Without Xavi on the pitch, the team will have to reorganise themselves, get a bit more involved in the midfield, and will perhaps get out of the rut they have fallen into.

And it’s not as if we’re lacking quality in the midfield, even without Xavi. Super-Yaya has been, well, superb all season, and hat-tricking Keita is not a slouch either. Now that Thierry Henry and Bojan are both available to play on the left, Iniesta can step back and try to impersonate Xavi instead of Messi (he might need a few UV-ray seasons first, though).

I would keep Messi on the pitch, though, even after his underwhelming performances lately. His problem is not that he’s tired, and making him unhappy by benching him is not going to help with whatever is bothering him. Let him play and try his best; in the worst of cases, he’ll stun the Mallorca defenders by running into them repeatedly, and free Ibrahimovic to do his thing.

Is that Pedrito’s name you’re muttering under your breath? Yes, I know, he’s been fantastic so far this season. But I’d rather bring him in as a sub for whatever striker is achieving less during the second half; he tends to shine in those situations, and let’s not forget that he’s probably going to have to play a full match on Tuesday, on our second Copa del Rey date with Cultural Leonesa.

So, my proposed line-up is:

——————Valdés———————
–Alves—-Puyol—-Piqué—Maxwell—
——————–Toure——————-
————–Keita——-Iniesta————
—-Messi—-Ibrahimovic——Henry—

With Bojan to play for Henry if our Frenchman is still not feeling up to playing the full ninety minutes (honestly, we need to play Lil’Bo more in Liga matches), and Pedrito to come in during the second half to regale us with a goal or two, if he is feeling generous.

Like it? Think I’m insane? Is your faith on Perfect Pep wavering? Want to give up on football and take up knitting as a hobby? Unwind in the comments!

Red. An acceptable color to entice bulls with is also culturally used to celebrate own goals.

I’m sure the common understanding is that such an event is dangerous in a very unsurprising sort of way. After all, bulls have horns, bulls are big, and when they are running at you it’s not because want your autograph. And thus, you’d imagine that in its history, there have been more than its fair share of bull and non-bull related deaths.

What if you were to guess? Would it be 5? No, maybe 25? 31? Well…

According to the wonderful world of Wikipedia, there’s been a total of 15 deaths since 1910. 15. In nearly 100 years, that’s not too bad actually.

Now, I’m sure if the bulls really wanted to, they’d be capable of achieving a higher rate than that but can the same be said for their footballing counterparts, CA Osasuna?

Well, since earning promotion in 2000, Osasuna’s average league position is right about 15. You’ll have to excuse the extraordinary moment of 2005/2006 where they finished 4th, only to drop back into a more comfortable 14th the next season.

But a bit odd in some ways. The general consensus is that the Reyno de Navarra is a reasonably tough environment to play in. The fans are as anxious in the stands as they are in front of bulls and the conditions aren’t usually the greatest in terms of the pitch and in terms of being kicked in the ankle.

Yet, for all the passing notoriety – that honestly only comes up about once a year when your team has to go there and snag points – the general contribution appears to only go toward scathing escapes from relegation and mid table mediocrity.

So, theoretically, if you overcome the whole home-field advantage psyche you should be in the clear, right? Out with the three points and onto Russia, aye?

Except for one particular problem.

You see, while there’s only been 15 deaths in just about 100 years, there’s also been countless minor and perhaps not-so-minor injuries. It’s estimated that each annual Running of the Bulls accumulates 200-300 minor injuries. The kind you and i say ouch to and oogle at the tender swollen skin but don’t bugger off and die from.

What’s even worse is that when you’re stuck with a boatload of similarly half insane mates avoiding bulls in old municipal corridors… someone’s bound to trip, fall, run into, collapse onto, and whatever else have you.

So just imagine that. You’re almost at the end of the 840 meter run, your legs are burning but you’re feeling confident that you can accomplish a fantastic feat. And just then you step on your bloody shoe laces and fall. Breaking skin from the contact on the ground and walloping your knee hard enough to make you cringe your teeth.

Bulls or dogs? You decide. Either way, they don’t have to worry about tripping over shoe laces.

Well, if you’re having trouble getting your imagination to function you can just pop in the replay of the recent Osasuna vs. Barcelona match.

Thirty seconds away from a hard earned win. One broken Mexican defender and one unfortunate deflection later, 1-1. A bloody draw. The proverbial shoe lace trip just as things were looking peachy.

Yes, a more vicarious Messi, or at least a proper consequence for maiming a streaking Ibrahimovic could’ve stuffed the match well and proper but it wasn’t as if the team’s play was lacking offensive impetus – it was just a matter of when. The tension was there from the start. It was evident, as passes were drilled to teammates and there certainly weren’t any feet of cement.

Josep and his boys knew that Osasuna were going to hustle and pressure until their lungs burned and while there were certain occasions where the urgency waned, the control and dictation of pace was naturally Barcelona’s. Yet a goal still looked unlikely. Minor chances came and went, Messi’s shots were blocked, Iniesta got stuck in thoughts a few times and finding Zlatan never appeared as easy of a task as it always does when playing in the familiar Camp Nou.

Yes, the newly shaven Chygryinskiy didn’t have the most stunning of matches. You could even say that he hasn’t had the most stunning of debuts for Barcelona and no one would lash their tongue in angry disagreement but let’s be honest here, a bull has more testicles than Osasuna had serious goal-bound chances. It was nominal, but that doesn’t mean that they weren’t willing to try. Oh no, Aranda and Nekoum were more than ready to connect quick passes and certainly did so on a few occasions while the ol’ rifle Pandiani seemed to be on a smoker’s break.

Regardless, a goal is a goal. Whether it was Gerard Pique slicing it in or God himself wearing a Osasuna kit whilst knocking in a goal… It was to be celebrated as their own. “It is frustrating especially as it was so late in the game, but these things can happen“, lamented Josep after the game.

Josep’s anguish as Camacho does his best bull impersonation

And that’s where it really hurts. Not the walloped knee from the shoe lace trip, nor the physical fatigue of having just sliced in an own goal at the 93rd. No, it’s a regrettable hurt, the kind that you analyze in hindsight looking for any little variable that could’ve been altered but the stinging sensation from a bruised pride and ego can’t be covered with a band-aid.

You can find solace in the fact that it was one of the 200-300 minor slip ups that happen to everyone as they run the gauntlet on any given season and so far, Barcelona has had one less slip up than the rest of the competitors.

This, sensation…I’ve never felt it before…it feels like the exact opposite of pleasure.

Unless. . .

WE START OLEGUER THIS WEEKEND!

And he will do the Oleguerinha. The skills. The death defying tackles. The goals. Maddening. Alas, he plays for Ajax now, and is too busy winning games for them. But that’s okay, because we play Zaragoza this weekend and look to rectify the mistakes of our yesterday. Thierry Henry, the aforementioned Alves, Milito, Chygrynskiy are all recovering from their respective injuries.

Since we played all of our big guns against Rubin Kazan and lost. I would go deeper into this, but it has already been excellently covered and any further commentary will be nothing but repetitiveness in a less glamorous display. Kind of like watching Barcelona play, and then tuning in the next day to watch an Arsenal game.

I’m sure Pep, who has been greatly humbled this past week is out to prove everyone that he is going to show us all how to get it done. La Liga, to some, is more important than the Champions League (I don’t know which one Pep holds in higher regard). Me thinks he has yet to fully grasp that the eleven starters on the field he puts out there are not the same players that FIFA 10 may have you believe, even though on some occasions we may put up FIFA type scores. And although those much cursed FIFA internationals are over, the lads are still feeling the affects of them, having only been back with the squad a week. I like to keep my previews short, so I shall delve right into the nitty gritty of the fixture.

Pep will play all of the big guns, but I, like Ramzi, think that Xavi needs a rest. He has been nearly absent, showing signs of fatigue. And if Alves’s overuse (granted, we all thought he could be abused physically and take it) is any indication, without some R&R&R (rest, relaxation and rotation) of our biggest stars, we’re going to need a nurse on a more consistent basis. Alas, I can hope Pep will use all of his resources available (Keita, midweek anyone?) to put a dent in the “oh-no-we-haven’t-won-in-two-games-the-world-is-coming-to-an-end” swirls that the media is having a circle jerk about. Alas, my predicted line-up for this weekend:

Valdes
Puyol – Marquez – Pique – Maxwell
Toure
Iniesta – Keita
Messi – Ibra – Bojan

Alves is out with injury of course, which means that our stalwart behemoth of Catalonia will occupy this right flank with his various forays up the pitch. This leaves the woefully out-of-form Marquez in the Middle with DJ Pique! in the center, and for our attacking options, of which we will need in the absence of Alves, Maxwell to start to give Abidal a break. Also, we hardly saw any attacks develop from the left against Kazan, without the dependability of Henry in making those runs we falter easily, and without Abidal’s uncanny ability to disrupt counter-attacks we would be in deep shit a lot more often from that side. Puyol is adequate in getting forward, so this will provide some nice balance for us.

The steady hand, or fist of Yaya will control the middle as always, allowing for Iniesta and Keita to attack! to their heart’s content. Keita especially we’ll need to get in the mixer in the box, as his delayed runs are most effective, especially with the opposition always looking at Ibra and Messi. He also brings that grit, rough and tumble attitude to the midfield, something we’ll need for the physical play Zaragoza are sure to bring. This is also a chance to give Ghostface an opportunity to play Xavi’s role of distributor and facilitator. I know I know, he’s the slashing darting one, and he will do that, but he will do so will great effectiveness me thinks.

Get Bojan, our wee lad some action. He needs to be consistently involved for him to have confidence, which we have already seen to be occasionally lacking. Motivation from the competition of Pedro and Jeffren makes me think Bojan will put in an inspired performance if given an opportunity, a goal? We shall see. Big Bird in the middle will do his thing, as will Messi. Messi to be taken out in the second half though in favor of Pedro, so he can get some rest, as he has looked jaded recently as well. This will happen of course, after he scores a goal similar to this one:

Our opponents, Real Zaragoza sit currently 13th in the table. Their marquee signing of the summer, Jermaine Pennant is also going our chief concern defensively. I have always rated him to be a good player and look for him to give us some trouble down the wings, especially with Maxwell’s, well, how shall we say. . .problems defending? DJ Pique best be on his toes ready to help at a moment’s notice. Also, a member of the old guard, Roberto Ayala (yes he’s still around) is keeping watch over his team that he captains, and Javier Arzimendi, the 6 foot 3 inch counter-part to Ewerthon (I like this guy, but he usually comes off the bench, had to get a mention in) will be ever dangerous from corners, and he also drifts out wide, only to dart back inside, a potential area of concern for us. DJ Pique’s great positional awareness though I’m confident can neutralize Arzimendi. We can look to a starting XI for Zaragoza to look something like this:

Carrizo
Pulido – Ayala – Pavon – Paredes
Pennant – Gabi – Aguilar – Babic
Arzimendi – Ewerthon

Ponzio picked up a red card in the 2-2 draw against Racing Santander, and thus will be unavailable. Racing also like to empoly a 4-5-1 with two holding midfielders, so that is also a formation we may see used this weekend. I think both are equally likely, but 4-4-2 being the standard formation of the world, I went ahead with this here one.

All in all, I expect us to carry the day, with goals from Bojan, Keita and Messi. A 3-1 margin is in order I believe, and we’ll get the proverbial monkeys off our backs for the time being. Most everyone will get a much deserved rest as well during the week with the Copa del Rey starting, so there is some promising news to look forward. Visca Barça!

And we got completely and totally *owned*.

As it is, I’m not entirely dissatisfied with the result, to be honest. Valencia played a damn fine game last night, and Barça… well, Barça didn’t. Sure, we weren’t *bad* (I don’t think we’re constitutionally capable of it at this point), but we were far from last season’s Pep Show Boys.

This draw gives us a valuable point in one of the toughest fixtures we have this month, and it keeps us at the top of the table for yet another week. Moreover, it gives Pep the perfect chance to tear the team a new one and get them out of the rut that was starting to show against Almería before the international break. Guardiola is not going to be pleased with us breaking that lovely run of victories we had going on and no doubt he is going to give some lectures and make some changes for this week’s games against Rubin Kazan and Zaragoza.

“Now, now, little one, don’t cry, someday I’ll let you score, alright? Just not today…”

The lineup last night was Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Abidal, Yaya, Xavi, Keita, Iniesta, Pedro and Messi.

Guardiola played Iniesta for the injured Henry, after all doubts on his fitness had been dismissed by the great match he played on Wednesday for Spain, and he placed Messi (for the first time in the starting XI after returning from international matches) in Ibrahimovic’s place, bringing in Pedrito to play on the right (Zlatan was reported feeling pain in his knee, after the match against Albania, and Pep didn’t want to risk it). We were without two of our star strikers, and half the team was tired and jet-lagged, but it looked good on paper nevertheless.

Now, when the time came to play…

Valencia played damn well all throughout the first half. Damn, they played miles better than us. They stifled us in the midfield, defended well and were damn fast when the time came to set up a counterattack. In fact, only luck, skill and a linesman who was a bit of a stickler, kept Pablo Hernández or Juan Mata from scoring; if that had been Villa, instead of his younger and more inexperienced teammates, Valencia would have scored before halftime, maybe even more than once. Valdés had several opportunities to show off, and he took each and every one of them, including a minute of “going goalie” (the footballing equivalent of “going postal”) after an episode of shoddy defending that didn’t have any consequences thanks to Keita’s last-minute intervention.

Our problem was that we were getting owned in the midfield. Valencia’s four defenders and three midfielders (Miguel, Navarro, Dealbert, Bruno, Albelda, Mathieu and Banega ) converged on anyone wearing blaugrana who so much as dared to touch the ball and didn’t let them do anything with it. Xavi was less than his usual majestic self, Messi wasn’t there (honestly, did any of you see him last night?) and Pedro was nervous and no match for Miguel. Iniesta, on the contrary, looked classier than ever, but the ball just wasn’t getting to him.

And damn, they breed them fast in Valencia, don’t they? As soon as they stole the ball from us in the midfield, Bruno, Albelda or Banega lobbed it nicely across the field, and there went Mata, Pablo H. and Silva haring off after it, more often than not getting away with it. A couple of close offside calls, some good saves from Valdés (and if it’s me saying this, you can take my word for it, they were *good*) , and Piqué and Puyol’s consistent capacity for being at the right place at the right time, plus the inexperience of the two young valencianistas, kept Mestalla from starting a somewhat-deserved celebration.

On our side… well, we had some chances too, during the first half. Two, to be exact. A really nice opportunity by Iniesta, which César cleared very well, and something of a chance by Keita. But two chances in forty-five minutes is not really something to be proud of, is it? Messi was uncomfortable playing as a false “9”, and after some twenty minutes, he tried switching places with Pedro, moving to the right to be closer to Dani Alves. This helped a little, and after thirty minutes or so Barcelona looked a bit more like the team which spoiled us for other clubs last season, but the spark just wasn’t there and Valencia were determined to continue what they had started so well.

Cruel though it may seem, I saw a bit of hope for us after Silva started feeling pain on his side after knocking down Puyol (yes, you heard right, little Silva fouled Captain Caveman and sent him crashing to the ground… the Canarian is *good*!), but he got over it and the first half finished with Valencia recovering the control of the match.

So *that*'s where you were hiding all throughout the match, Leo...

Luckily for us, Valencia slowed down a little in the second half and stopped making so many nerve-wracking counterattacks, no doubt exhausted after their wonderful performance during the first forty-five minutes of the match. Instead of Silva, Mata and Pablo Hernández, the names coming up were Banega, Albelda and Bruno, who effectively kept our team bogged down in the midfield.

The ball simply wasn’t getting anywhere near to where it could be a threat to César. The seven valencianistas who Unai Emery had placed there to stop the blaugrana attack were effectively swarming the Barça players who took the ball, and with Xavi slower than usual and Messi nowhere to be seen, it was down to Touré Yaya, Keita and Iniesta to try and break down the wall. A couple times we were close to getting there, and as the minutes passed and Valencia started showing the effects of the high-tension game they played during the first half, Barça once again started resembling Barça, but it was too little, too late, and Valencia were far from dead.

Xavi got one of his wonderful passes to Pedrito, who didn’t stumble with his own feet, but his nemesis of the night, Miguel, saved that nice shot on goal. In revenge, Pablo H. tried a cheeky shot from his own half that Valdés tipped just over the net after a few seconds of culés everywhere holding our breath. The referee summed up his odd approach to the night by ignoring a foul on Dani Alves after everyone had stopped the game, thus giving Silva a golden opportunity that Valdés snatched away in a wonderful display of cold blood.

Near the end, Pedrito got a reprieve from Miguel’s incessant marking when Bojan came in his place, and soon after that, Xavi made way for Busquets, but the match was too broken for those changes to make any difference. Touré Yaya, a man Barça is lucky to have, had the best chance a couple of minutes before the end of the match, but César, though far less providential than Valdés, was no less good at his job.

In the end, Barça walked away with a feeling of relief. It wasn’t pretty and we probably should have lost, but we got a precious point and we’re still at the top of the table.

After the match, Pep remarked that “the draw isn’t a failure” and cheerfully predicted that “we will lose many more points in what’s left of the season”, but he was his usually optimistic self in front of the press, congratulated Valencia on a match well-played and came to Messi’s defence, saying that “he played well and connected well” (really, Pep? Did you watch the same match I did?). Piqué, talking to all of us who always expect Barça to win, sternly told us that “we didn’t lose two points, we earned one” and Dani Alves conceded that the result was “fair, even though we had better chances, but weren’t accurate” (”better chances”, Dani? You do realise Barça weren’t the guys playing in white, don’t you?).

No, Pep, don’t clap, you’ll only encourage them to keep playing like that… and stop shaving your head, pretty please!

Here’s my overall opinion of the team (be prepared for some heavily subjective grading, I can’t be impartial when it comes to my boys):

Valdés: 9 The MOTM. And this is from me, part of that vocal minority who thinks we deserve a better goalkeeper, but damn, VV was in fine form last night, especially on the one-on-ones with Pablo H.

Piqué: 8,5 The only thing this man can’t do well is dress; fantastic positioning, really nice clearances, and there was a moment, late in the second half, I honestly thought he was just going to run the length of the pitch and score (he’s done it before).

Puyol: 7,5 Sure, he made a couple of mistakes, and he is slower when compared with Piqué, but he made some crucial tackles, was always in position, and put in their place all those youngsters who tried to get one past him; Mata particularly suffered from his hard work.

Alves: 4 It was not Dani’s night; there were no traces last night of the Steel Hummingbird we had as a right-back last season, and his attempts to shoot on goal were laughable, to say the least. He deserved the yellow he got near the end of the match, too.

Abidal: 5,5 He’s improved a lot, Eric has; solid on the defence, though a bit slow in the attack, he combined nicely with Keita and Yaya when he could and made Pablo H’s life just that little bit more difficult.

Keita: 6’5 Another player who has improved a lot from last season, he played as well as the Valencia players let him and had a couple of nice attempts at goal; it was a good idea of Pep to play him tonight instead of Busquets.

Touré Yaya: 8,5 Our Tower of Strength was magnificent last night, as usual; one of the few blaugrana players who refused to lose the ball to the Valencia midfield, and who got it back when he did, he also made a very nice attempt on goal that almost got past César.

Xavi: 4,5 Harsh though it may seem, Our General was not himself last night; bad passes, no playmaking… and this time he didn’t even have the excuse of nasty marking, as he did against Almería, so I’m going to blame Del Bosque and the international break.

Iniesta: 7,5 He’s fully fit and full of class, even if he couldn’t do much due to the ball not getting to him much; our best chance at goal came from his boots and it’s just nice to have him back, because it really does make a difference when he’s on the pitch.

Messi: 3 Where was he last night? Have the Argentineans replaced him with a clone? He had exactly one shot on goal and a couple of runs, and even the passes from Iniesta died when they got to his feet.

Pedro: 4 Poor dear was nervous and Maduro Miguel (I meant Miguel, got my Ms confused, thanks to Martijn for pointing it out!) totally and completely owned him; he’s not ready for this kind of games, and you could see in Zlatan’s face he was not happy with his substitute either.

Bojan (for Pedro, 76’): 5 He was better than Pedro, but I don’t think he touched the ball more than two or three times.

Busquets (for Xavi, 79’): 5 He was lucky to come in when Valencia were starting o get tired and Barça could play a bit more, but he did nothing particularly worth of admiration.

OK, I’ll admit I’m a bit disappointed (I was expecting a pretty, vibrant match, which I got, but also lots of goals and a Barça victory, which I most certainly didn’t), but I also have to admit the result was fair. Let’s just hope we shake off this funk by Wednesday, when we return to the European fields, this time in Russia.

He didn’t start, but replaced an injured Henry (28′) who was underperforming and still needs to find the groove he hit last season.

Starting XI
———–Valdes———–
Alves–ElCapitan–Chygnasty–Abidal
—Xavi—BigYa—Keita—–
Messi——Henry——-Mr.Pedro

Where was Ghostface!? I don’t know, but LordPep should know.

The team didn’t look as good as other times either, a combination of an off day and Malaga’s physical play took our boys out of their comfort zone. A special mention to the referee Ferreira Delgado for letting Malaga run rampant on our players and another mention to Weligton for being a dirty [expletive deleted].

It wasn’t the kind of game that we like to play and it showed, too many missed passes, unseen runs and other small mistakes added up but the win speaks volumes about the team’s attitude. Ibracadabra came in and showed that he can be a busbreaker and I don’t know if he’s even in full form yet…scary.

The first half was…well it wasn’t spectacular but we got through it (scary moment when Chygnasty got beat but nothing came of it). With Henry injured, I still don’t know for how long, we’ll see Pedro covering his spot, and I’m okay with that. On a more tactical note, Alves was practically a midfielder for this game and he did a pretty good job of it too, maybe knowing that he doesn’t have to go all the way back is helping him.

Our second half was more of the same, with Malaga’s pressure keeping our team on its back foot. What’s worse, Chygnasty picked up a knock (out for 3 weeks) and was replaced by Piquenbauer. While that’s definitely not a step down, we’ve already had some questions as to squad depth and these injuries really aren’t helping. But Pique didn’t care, he said “screw it, I’m Pique and I’m a CB that scores goals!” and he did just that. Thank you Pique! And that was our second half.

Enough time to look at BigYa back in a game (thank you Pep), and prove that this is a team that can win when the opposition plays rough.

Player Grades

Valdes 6 Bored I’m pretty sure if we played without a goalie we might not notice it. But it’s good to know that he’s between the posts, even if he didn’t have to do a single thing.
Alves 6 Frustrating He played to a higher level, but he makes a show out of fouls to the point that it takes away from my opinion of him (feel free to yell at me for it)
Chygnasty 6.5 Almost He’s getting used to the system and you can tell he’s a good player, but he had a little too hard of a time covering Malaga’s forwards.
ElCapitan 7.5 Solid A great low-risk CB is the best thing we could hope for, he might not score goals like Pique, but dear God he can set the tone for a game.
Abidal 7 Consistent! Had a solid defensive game and even pushed forward with some success, hopefully he’ll keep playing like this and dispel the doubts that I admit I had about him at the end of last season.
BigYa 7 Angry He seemed to suffer from the ref’s poor calling and ended up with a yellow card, Pep was smart to sub him off. Was consistent and smart with the ball at his feet
Xavi 8 Engine The metaphor gets overused but it’s so true, he keeps the team going and when he plays like he did, you know we’ll win.
Keita 6.5 Integrated It’s official, he understands the system perfectly, while he may have been a little off, he’s smart enough to play through it. The fact that he’s big and strong is good too.
MrPedro 8 Motivated He knows this is his chance to show that he can replace Henry on the wing in the next few seasons, if not now, and if he keeps playing like he did tonight, I’d like to see him on the field.
Henry 5 Disappointing We saw him play much better last season.
Messi 9 Wow Many positive adjectives.

Subs:
Ibracadabra 9 Busbreaker We needed someone to open Malaga’s defense and he came through. I like Ibra
Piquenbauer 8 Great He played ridiculously well and even found time to score while he was putting the lockdown on Malaga.
Busi2.0 7.5 Confident I think he’s never felt nervous on a soccer field, he has an aura of veteranness(it’s a word now) that was incredibly useful in this game. We’re lucky to have him

Hasta La Victoria! Barça!!

I’ll get the weekend game though.

No really, that was absolutely amazing.

Our starting XI had a few surprises
——————Valdes———————-
Alves—Piquenbauer–Chygnasty—MaxwellHouse
——-Xavi——–Busi2.0——-Keita———-
–Messi——–Ibracadabra——–Henry——–

Everyone came out as if their lives depended on this game, before even a minute had gone by Henry had rocked the Atleti crossbar with a longrange missile from outside the box. One minute later Ibra scored with a clinical finish off of an incredible pass from Busquets (credit to Valdes and Maxwell for starting the play).

The second goal was a piece of class from Xavi and Messi with Messi chest trapping the ball behind the Atleti back four, juking the goalie without touching the ball and pushing the ball into an open net. Then Ibra and Messi combined to give Keita a sitter that he just had to tap. You’re getting an idea of the level of domination that we saw in this game. 4-0 by the 40th minute.

And the trouble started. Busquets, who had played far beyond what anyone expected of him made a mistake and headed the ball back between the CBs and we had our first goal against. Blame for this one has to fall squarely on our canterano, but hey, he’ll bounce back next game…I hope.

The second half was a break. We took our foot off of the gas and Atleti improved and we had a so-so half which was still enough for Messi to score another one and for Atleti to get a second. Iniesta came on for Xavi and Pedro came on for Ibra so that Henry wouldn’t make a scene.

Good win, Great Game

Player ratings

Valdes 6 Meh Both goals were more defensive errors, maybe he could’ve done more, maybe not. A decent game.
MaxwellHouse 8 Complete I heard people tout him as an Alves for the left. They were right. He might not cover as much ground, but he feels more efficient, amazing game from him.
Chygnasty 7 Simple Never tried to do too much, never got caught doing too little. He kept it simple and was solid at the back. Good eye Pep.
Piquenbauer 7 Good Not one of his best games, he maybe could’ve done more on Atleti’s 2nd goal, but he was good, and we can overlook a mistake in a 5-2 win.
Alves 8 Hectic Ran. a lot. Also finally scored off of a fk, and a rocket of a fk at that. Pushed forward very well considering the fact that he didn’t have to go back much.
Xavi 8 Clockwork He might never look like he’s that important but he keeps everyone ticking when he’s on his game. Just another day in the life for our 2nd captain.
Busquets 5 Unfortunate Made a mistake that cost us our first goal and he never seemed to get over it. We’ve seen him do better.
Keita 7 Strong Helped hold the midfield together and found the time to score one too. His strength kept everyone on the same page.
Henry 6 Faded Had a great shot off the crossbar and then slowly disappeared. He still hasn’t hit the same form he had last year, I’d like to see Pedro or Bojan at that spot.
Ibracadabra 8 Effective Nailed his finish on the first goal and covered huge stretches of the field. He got back more than I thought he would and had a great impact on the game.
Messi 9 The Best Man of the match. He outplayed everyone.
Subs:
Iniesta 7 Rusty He hasn’t played in a while and it showed, but he had enough time to leave some details of his quality.
Marquez 7 Testimonial Didn’t really have to do anything, but he held his position well. It’s good to have him back because we’ll need all the depth we can get.

Hasta la Victoria! Barça!!