Sevilla - Barcelona, first half live blog

By: Isaiah | March 3rd, 2007

The game is about to start and I’m getting pretty pumped. It’s the first game I’ve caught in a few weeks and it should be a good one. Again, my prediction is 1-1, but I’m hoping Barca can pull off another win and make this a truly wonderful day for me, sport-wise. Barcelona at Sevila! The first shot I see is a fat guy with his stomach sticking out of his shirt screaming and waving a Sevilla scarf. Going to be a long day…

Both Eto’o and Saviola on the bench to start the game, meaning I’m wrong, as always, about the starting lineup. Here are the starting lineups, starting with the home team:

Sevilla: Palop, ocio, Alves, Castedo, Dragutinovic, Correia, Navas, Poulsen, Renato, Kanoute, Kerzhakov.
Barcelona: Valdes, Marquez, Oleguer, Puyol, Gio, Zambrotta, Giuly, Iniesta, Xavi, Ronaldinho, Messi.

The action after the jump…

The game starts slowly, with Barcelona passing the ball around at the back a lot, maintaining possession but not creating chances…we’ll pick up the action when something actually happens…The teams are just feeling each other out right now, not really pushing it; neither team is playing a truly attacking formation, with Barcelona playing something akin to a 4-6-0 just as the GolTV commentators said…and now they’re talking about whether or not Eto’o adds anything to the Barcelona side. Is that really a discussion? Really? Didn’t hte Bilbao game prove that he is a great player and adding a great player to a great system is always a good thing. Or are they questioning Eto’o’s abilities?

6: We’re well into this game and nothing of note has happened yet. The ball has not made it into either attacking third except to go out for a goal kick on Barcelona’s end. Cagey, really, just trying to find some space, a way through the defense. The commentators aren’t even watching this game and it’s only the 7th minute at this point. Now we see something:

Sevilla cross into the box and well cleared by Puyol, no danger there. And we’re back to the passing game. It’s like Sevilla is playing a 4-5-1 even though Kerzhakov playing. Oleguer turns it over by missing the ball completely in his own third, but the thrown is sloppy and Barca get the ball.

9: Giuly on the wing into the corner, gives it Zambrotta who is playing on the right side, letting Gio play left. Zambrotta loses it out for goal kick. That counts as the highlight of the game so far.

10: Gio is going to have his hands full if Alves keeps getting free on that wing, but so far Gio has played well. The ball out for a Barcelona throw and the game might be opening up a little bit here as Sevilla start to attack. Marquez looks like he committed a hand ball and then Ronnie goads a player into fouling him with a nifty flick.

12: Messi is working magic in the midfield with a few sidesteps, but it’s not opening much up. Xavi shoots from distance into his defender. At least it’s a shot. Marquez runs forward and it’s turned over by Giuly’s poor cross. Alves and Iniesta play grab-the-jersey in midfield and Alves wins the throw for Sevilla. Commentator just said “looks like this could be 90 minutes of action.” So far, no action.

14: GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAL! Just as I say that Giuly collects in the corner and lofts a beautiful ball across the face of goal for Ronaldinho to head down into the bottom corner. Absurdly bad defending. Giuly was close to being offside; Ronaldinho just buried that wonderfully and we’re at 0-1! The commentators are sucking off Giuly and Ronnie like nobody’s business. Good header, for sure, but not “heavenly”. This game is going to open up now.

15: Kanoute tracks back to cover Ronaldinho, who does a few spins and wins a free kick.

16: It does look like Barça are playing 3 in the back with Gio and Zambrotta playing left and right wing midfield positions, respectively. Marquez is in the middle there, which is a good system to protect against Alves because Gio can pick him up in midfield rather than when he’s got a full head of steam. They show another replay of Giuly’s run and he looks on to me.

18: Sevilla are possessing well, but can’t really do much and now Messi takes the ball away and skips down the field a little. I still think the referees sport Wu-Tang Clan symbols on their sleeves. It’s hilarious every time. Sevilla can’t muster anything effective at this point.Ronnie can as he grabs possession after a long kick and Giuly has it on the wing, but he loses it very softly.

19: “They don’t score ordinary goals, do they?” Actually, Mr. Commentator, they do.

20: Kanoute receives the ball at the edge of the box on a cross that slipped through the Barcelona defense, but he can’t control it. It looks like Ronaldinho has move up to play solitary striker, which may not be his best position, but you can’t argue with the scoreline right now.

21: Dani Alves has a horrific haircut. Disgusting, really. It’s like a fat mohawk: Mr. T without the chains… or fighting ability. Kanoute runs over Puyol and looks to stamp on Marquez’s boot and Rafa is still down. Apparently it’s worth mentioning that Kanoute is a Muslim. Who cares? He scores goals; he can be wikken for all I care, he’s damn good. Edmilson is warming up on the side now, but Marquez will probably be back. He’s being tended to on the sidelines.

23: Wait, Christopher Columbus was just given credit by the commentators for producing Ronaldinho because he set sail from Sevilla, thus discovering Brasil and creating, supposedly, the situation for producing joga bonito. Right. I’m sure that’s what Christopher Columbus was all about: scouting.

25: The ball squirts through the Barcelona defense, but Kanoute can’t reach the nifty cross and it goes out for a Barcelona throw. A few seconds later there’s another, exactly similar play except this time it goes out for a corner, which Valdes easily collects. Bad corner.

27: The game has slowed again. Alves has it on the wing, but it’s turned away, he recovers, AND WHAT A SERIES OF MOVES, he nutmegs three players, but his shot is weak and easily saved by Valdes. Not too dangerous of a chance.

28: and on the other end there’s a penalty and a red card for Sevilla as Ronaldinho was taken down in the box after an awful back pass that Ronnie got on and was clearly taken down from behind in the box. Good call, good card and Barcelona can take charge. It’s Ocio who’s off and that’ll be a blow in the back for Sevilla.

29: Ronnie lines up the penalty and…SAVED! What a save! Not that a great of a penalty, but Palop got down and saved it. “Despite all reports, Ronaldinho is made of carbon just like the rest of us.” Funny. Still Sevilla have 10 men. The penalty was down the middle and Palop got it with his feet. Better keeping than I had thought at first.

32: Ronnie has it in the box again, but there’s no one trailing for his cut back. Absolutely no one else within 20 yards for him to give it to. Messi stood and watched. Alves went down with a silly attempt at diving, but the ball was long gone and no one was watching. Giuly is called for offsides, but it was hard to tell. Oleguer is nutmegged, and Marquez clears it for a corner. Cleared off the line! What a header and Iniesta is there! The clear out becomes a shot from Renato who gets injured in the process of sending his shot wide. I don’t know what happened, but he does look to be in pain.

33: This injury break gives the commentators a chance to pontificate on instant replay. It looks like Renato hurt his knee and he is hurting. Things could go from bad to worse for Sevilla if Renato can’t make it back. He’s on the sideline now and looks like he’ll be subbed off. He’s hurt.

35: There’s a game on, boys, shut up about instant replay. Or don’t…

36: Marti comes on for Renato. “Nothing against Renato, but of the players they couldn’t afford to lose, Renato was problem the one they could afford to lose the most.” What does that even mean anything? Barcelona aren’t pushing it anymore, they’re just hanging out, it looks like, waiting for halftime. Ronnie is happy to be running up front, though, it’s just that he’s getting nothing from the midfield who prefer to play it back.

38: Alves breaks a run, pass it to Kerzhakov, who turns wonderfully, shoots, AND SCORES. GOAL! WHAT A GOAL! 1-1 against the run of play! What a shot and there was nothing Valdes could do about that. Barcelona will have to press to get a win now, which is good for viewers if they like good football.

40: Zambrotta breaks a run, but Ronnie has no support after he receives the ball and has to turn back. How does Messi keep posession? He wins a free kick in a dangerous area just outside the corner of the box. Ronaldinho’s kick is saved comfortably by Palop who was in a good position.

42: Zambrotta goes down in the box, but he went down too easily to win a penalty. Marquez wins himself a yellow card and he looks pissed, which he’s right about. Weak foul, but the resulting free kick is about 40 yards *high*…bad miss by Kanoute.

44: Sevilla are doing well with fewer players and they’re putting more pressure on Barcelona than when they had 11. But Barcelona are looking more dangerous in the midfield and it looks a matter of time before they grab a second. They have the whole second half, after all, to take care of business.

45: Halftime. 1-1.