Barca 0, Chelsea 0, a.k.a. “For the absentees.”

By: Kevin | April 28th, 2009

I’m a little frustrated and disgusted by this one. Football is a game of inches at times and really, we were feet away, held in check by a Chelsea side that had absolutely no interest in doing anything more than defend. And why should they? We’re at home. It’s our job to take it to the visitors.

I just wish that we’d had a whole side with which to do it. Iniesta came to play, and had he had attacking collaborators, he could have been quite the difference maker. As it was, things boiled down to a series of missed opportunities, inches in the football game of life.

Did anybody really believe the comments of Hiddink that he wouldn’t come out to play defensive football? Hope not, because that would have been stupid. But we’ve seen defensive sides before and been able to break them down. This, however, felt like Man U last year. Lots of possession, most of the match played in their end, and nothing to show for it.

Of course Chelsea are going to play the way that they did. They will at home, as well, because of the different mindsets of the leagues. The English fans only care that their sides win. Liga fans wouldn’t mind if their side lost, as long as they played beautifully. Demanding that Chelsea come out to play football would be like asking someone to put a gun to their head and pull the trigger. They would ask you, “Why would I be so stupid?” Cowardly? Yes. Effective? Yes. Tactically sound? You bet, because now they get to decide the tie at home, against our damaged back line.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. Guardiola rolled out a lineup of Valdes, Alves, Pique, Marquez, Abidal (as predicted), The Yaya, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Henry and Eto’o. As soon as we saw the Chelsea lineup, particularly Obi Mikel in midfield, it was clear what was going to happen: Nothing.

And yet, we let nothing happen, by not coming at them with a full attacking force. Only Iniesta and Henry (of the forward attackers) really came to play today, and the latter spent too much time isolated, waiting for the ball to come his way. When he did, he was dangerous. And Iniesta was, as he has been for the last 4 or 5 matches, a lion. His runs, his dribbling, his aggression, his strength on the ball were to be admired. I said that he would be the difference maker, but I presumed that Messi and Eto’o were going to show up.

Didn’t happen.

The match opened tight and nervous, as Pique was a little off with some early passes, but the defense played confidently, knowing from the Chelsea lineup that they would essentially get a day off today. And with Alves spraying corners all over the place and Messi seeming to be sleepwalking, what real reason was there for Chelsea to be concerned?

We spent a lot of time dwelling on the ball, which played right into the hands of the Chelsea defenders, and didn’t switch the field as often as we customarily do. We had some half chances in the first half, most notably a great Abidal pass for Henry that found him in space, but nobody ran down to help him. Eto’o arrived late, but by then Henry was surrounded by 4 Chelsea defenders. He got the corner, but everyone is more than happy to concede corners to us. We had a run of scoring off corners during the salad days, but not of late. And so it went.

We had midfield control, but the ball pressure that unsettles opponents and creates chances wasn’t there. And that’s fine, because Guardiola had our lads playing a bit tight as well, I’m sure with not conceding on a counterattack in mind.

And I know that everyone loves him. So do I. But Messi was shit today, at the wrong time on the wrong stage. He had Bosingwa, coming off a hamstring injury playing on his off foot, at his mercy. All he had to do was what he does. Easier said than done, right? Players have off stretches. Messi’s is coming at a bad time for us.

There was very little real ball movement, and Eto’o was disgruntled, because he knows how bad he was today. Rather than our customary live wire, who at least facilitates the offense when he isn’t scoring goals, he just trotted around, stone-footed a few balls, faciliated the offense a bit, but was mostly selfish and distracted. For him to not pass to a wide-open Henry for the best chance of the match for us, was criminal. He also ignored a wide-open Xavi on a previous attack.

People can say what they want, and defend Eto’o if they want, but it should have been 2-0. Period. All he has to do is slide the ball over to a wide-open player. And the defense wasn’t even playing Eto’o to pass the ball, because he’s looking at the goal, and that’s all. So no worries, right? Play him to shoot, cut off the angles that he has to make moves, and Cech makes the pretty easy save.

There are three ways to beat a side that has parked the bus:

Set pieces: We have the suck at those of late, and free kicks aren’t threatening anyone except folks sitting in the second balcony, so forget about that one.

Individual brilliance: Not going to happen against a well-drilled, physical and resolute side such as Chelsea.

Ball and player movement: When this happened, we created chances. We just didn’t do it enough. Messi made runs, and Bosingwa got help, which is when we usually start pinging the ball around. But Eto’o wasn’t moving right, and Messi didn’t seem all that interested in dishing.

And so the tie moves to Stamford Bridge, and anyone who thinks that Chelsea is going to come out and play football is out of their minds. They’re thinking, “Play for penaties, and put our hopes on Cech against Valdes.” Why not? Coming out to play means that you sacrifice a defender for an attacker, probably Anelka, and suddenly holes open up for players to exploit. Hiddink knows that. Chelsea played exactly the kind of match they were supposed to play. First legs of Champions League ties are always tight, and this one was no exception. As I said in the preview, it could be 0-0, 5-0 or anything in between. It ended up 0-0, and most importantly, we didn’t concede.

It must be said, however, that I did almost concede a heart attack, when Marquez’ inexplicable giveaway required some goalkeeping excellence from Valdes who, it must be said, sucks, right? Many in this space might not consider him Barca standard, but his play today, when called upon, was exceptional.

We have a big, fat problem in the away leg, however, in that our back line is two men down, Marquez due to his season-ending injury, and Puyol, thanks to a lack of circumspection. Yes, Captain Caveman will go flying in, as that is the only way that he knows how to play. Which is unfortunate. I’m a lot more confident in our back line with it whole, than with Caceres in there. Thankfully, Chelsea won’t really be playing to exploit that back line.

Whew!

Team: 5 We didn’t, as a unit, do what was needed, which was exactly what we’ve been doing all season. Instead we played drum-tight, almost as if afraid of making the error that would lead to the away goal. That makes defense pretty easy.

Guardiola: 7 Did the best he could almost, and rolled out the best lineup he could. I also liked his substitutions. Gudjohnsen would have meant that he was settling for the 0-0. Krkic and Hleb meant that he was still going for it. But it is inexcusable that he allowed Henry to be so isolated, without making sure that he became part of the offense. We could have, and should have, found ways to exploit the attacking superiority of Henry and Messi. We did neither reliably.

Valdes: 9 Exceptional match, and that man is the sole, solitary reason that it’s 0-0 headed to London, rather than 0-1. No, he didn’t have that much to do today, but what he had to do what critical. He deserves as much credit as he gets brickbats when he screws up.

Alves: 5 Another barely adequate effort from our hummingbird, who was spraying crosses all over the place, and hasn’t gotten near the net on free kicks. He didn’t really have to defend all that much, but didn’t do that with the recent style and effort he’s been showing of late.

Pique: 9 Loses a point for tentative early play, but what a match after that, exceptional in every way. Route One footy just wasn’t going to happen, as he calmly dealt with every aerial threat.

Marquez: 5 Don’t mean to kick a man when he’s down, but he had a 5-minute stretch of truly awful play that began with the errant pass, then another errant pass, then a foul on Malouda inside the box but past the end line, thankfully. His injury makes the Milito absence even more painful.

Abidal: 9 Exceptional match today as one of the back line folks who realized that Chelsea weren’t going to attack, so he didn’t need to fret that much about defense. Worked into the attack very well, and still controlled his side of the pitch, and then some.

The Yaya: 10 Spectacular match from our man-mountain, from winning and controlling balls, to tracking back on defense. He was ready to go today, despite being in a verrry cranky mood.

Xavi: 9 Our general is back, everyone. He didn’t have the influence that he usually does, because his attackers weren’t doing with the ball that which they usually do. Unfortunate. But every decision that he made was smart, and that sliding recovery of the ball in the second half typified his effort.

Iniesta: 10 He was Don Ghostface out there today, tilting and windmills and trying to make a difference. What a match again, and it’s too bad that it went to waste. His balance on the ball and passing dexterity continue to amaze me.

Messi: 4 Sleepwalking on such a grand stage doesn’t make sense. He had that initial good run against Bosingwa, then seemed to just be content with little darts here and there. He’s allowed to have a bad stretch, but we’re also allowed to call him on it.

Henry: 6 He was willing as an attacker, and should have been used more. But he also has to demand the ball, rather than standing out there on the left and pouting. Didn’t make the pitch-wide contributions that he usually does, either, in making midfield efforts to win the ball back, playing defense, etc. But we weren’t playing at attacking side, either.

Eto’o: 3 Between his stone feet and constantly taking passes with his back to the defense, he played himself into being a bad attacker and facilitator. And as I said above, he had two chances to pass to wide-open men. Such a critical match is the wrong time to go selfish on us. Yes, he’s a striker, and that’s what they do. But he’s made those passes before, so why not now? The Xavi and Henry runs would have resulted in tap-in goals. And he did nothing elsewhere on the pitch.

Substitutes

Puyol (for Marquez): 6 Solid, but should never have given up that yellow, particularly in light of what he knows about our defensive situation. I expect more from our Captain.

Krkic: 5 Made something of a difference with his energy, but he has to convert that header, that close to goal. Or at least get it on target.

Hleb: incomplete I know, I know, he missed a scoring chance. But he didn’t, really. He’d just come on and hadn’t really done all that much, got a lucky deflection and found himself in the box. But defenders were right there, as was Cech. It would have taken a special effort to score there, which won’t stop people from lambasting him for being crap, I’m sure.

Next up is the Clasico, and the players should be fresh for that one, since a few key players were running around as if they were saving themselves for that one. We’ll see in a few days, won’t we? The Liga is in the balance, frankly. Win and we’re in. Hell, even draw and we’re in. Even a loss isn’t the end of the world, except psychologically. It just can’t be 3-0 or more, because then the EE has the head-to-head goals tiebreaker against us, should it come to that.

And we’ll see about next Wednesday.