We care so little that even the club's official photographer has taken up nature photography.

So, since winning is not an pressing concern any more, why should Barça bother to do something more than turning up in their pyjamas tomorrow evening?

Well, for one, there’s the matter of the 100-point record. Ultimately meaningless, but hey, Barça have 91 points as it stands, three matches to play, and it would be neat to wrap this season nicely. And, secondly, there’s the matter of the players who need showing off. All signs point to the fact that the club will need to hold a massive summer sale once the transfer window opens, to get rid of excess luggage and to raise the funds for Neymar and a few other unadvisable purchases.

In a way, Valladolid, Espanyol and Málaga are the last opportunities for players to convince Tito to let them stay (or let them go nicely, no hard feelings). And if Tito, Zubi and Rosell have already decided to sell a few someones, then it’s a chance to make everyone look presentable in the eyes of scouts and sporting directors all over the world. Grab a comb, some shoe shine, and make sure your least-favourite player doesn’t have anything between his teeth. It’s show-time!

A pic that summarises well JDS' career with the Barça first team.

In good news, Valdés and Mascherano have been declared fit this morning, let’s hope that not prematurely. Even if VV really is pushing to leave this summer, as the rumours go, it’ll be nice to have him for a few final games. Barça fans owe much, much to him (including a fair percentage of their heart conditions, granted) and if you believe nothing else I say, believe me when I tell you that we will miss Víctor like Hell once he’s gone.

There’s nothing much to say about Valladolid, who are sitting in the middle of the table, with no shot at the European places and no danger of relegation. It’s unlikely they’ll put up much of a fight tomorrow, which is good because Barça aren’t in a state to go ten rounds with anyone. The best we can hope for is a relaxed, easygoing match with no injuries and no one making fools of themselves.

My proposed starting XI would be:

—————VV—————-
Montoya——Piqué—–Bartra——Alba
————–Song—————
——-Thiago——–Iniesta——-
—Alexis——Villa——Tello——

As we have no important matches in the horizon, we don’t need to rest anyone, so the likes of Jordinho and Piqué should be there to bring some gravitas to the Worst Defence Ever, while Montoya can take over for a Dani Alves who has yet to train with the rest of the team since his latest ‘discomfort’. And Tito has been giving lots of playing time to Song, whether because of Busquets’ injuries or because he’s showcasing him with the hope another team will make the mistake we did and sign him. Thiago and Bartra need, want and deserve more playing time, and upfront, the Three Amigos will have to get over themselves to make up for Messi’s absence. Cesc can come in as a ’super-sub’ and give us material for a few more jokes, or Tito can give a few minutes to a Barça B kid or two.

So yes, not a very exciting prospect, but it’s always a privilege to watch this team play… indulge now, because we’ll miss them once the season is over!

The guard of honor from the Atleti players

Probably one of the strangest matches of the season. Ten men and three injuries later (or “discomforts”/”precautions”, who can be sure?), Barça manage to stumble home and add three more points to their overall total. But most importantly – the league is ours! Barça didn’t win the league as a result of yesterday’s match (RM’s draw against Espanyol on Saturday did that) so it was rather anticlimactic, but still! Champions!

Tito sent out: Pinto – Alves, Piqué, Adriano, Jordi Alba – Song, Iniesta, Cesc – Alexis, Messi and Tello. I thought this was a slightly strange lineup. With the league secured, was there any need to start Alves, Piqué and Iniesta? Probably not. If you can’t send out the youngsters when you’ve already won the league, when can you? Can’t you hear JDS calling?

If you can be bothered to watch the highlights, of which there are few, here’s the video:

The match started off slowly, with the first shot of the evening coming from Falcao in the 8th minute. The match continued without much pace or urgency. Well, I guess you can’t really blame Barça. It was also particularly sunny too. I don’t know about you, but the sun always makes me sleepy. Even after half an hour, there wasn’t much to report on. That is, until Tello was brought down just outside the penalty box, fell down, rolled around a bit…then got back up. Yeah. That sums up the amount of interest most of us probably had for the first half of the match.

It took an injury to force Tito into taking Alves off the pitch. This is why you shouldn’t play your entire first team unless absolutely necessary – they can, and obviously will, pick up an injury. For what? To play 45 minutes of an extremely mundane match? Updates after the match indicate that Alves was taken off as a “precaution”. What that means, exactly, no one can be sure…

Atlético decided enough was enough and it was time to put an end to this half-hearted show. Falcao (who else?) scored in the 51th minute. Yet, no one was surprised. Falcao made his way past a defence that was running manically to get back into position – the phrase “headless chickens” springs to mind. Barça defence, you never fail to surprise me!

Busquets came on for Song in the 60th minute, followed by Villa for Adriano. Taking Adriano off is understandable, I guess; any longer and he would somehow manage to injure himself and actually, it looks like he “picked up a slight knock”. If you’re Adriano, a “slight knock” will put you out for a fortnight at least. Busquets for Song, though? Well…why? Shouldn’t we save that substitution incase someone else gets injured? No one else will get injured? Oh, okay! Wait a minute…

They're happy 'cause they're champions!

Well, it’s fine, Adriano always gets injured, I thought. Alright, it’s not really fine, but it’s expected. Lets continue the match with no more drama! Or…not. Messi walked off the pitch, apparently injured too. 3 injuries in the space of about 60 minutes. Wonderful. And totally normal and acceptable. Messi left the pitch, Barça had no available substitutions, leaving the rest of the team to play with 10 men for the remainder of the second half. Yes, really. 0-1 down, 10 men, no Messi. Just as well Barça didn’t need the points…

But all was not lost! If the first half was a snooze-fest, the second half made up for it with its flurry of sudden activity. Alexis, on the receiving end from a pass from Cesc (okay, yes, he did something!), scored Barça’s first in the 73rd minute. The Giant Asparagus (that’s Courtois), as named by Ade, watched in frustration. He then took his shirt off to show another shirt with a message wishing his mother a happy mother’s day (aww!) and was promptly shown a yellow in response. Woops.
The second goal came around 7 minutes later. Tello took a shot, which was blocked by an Atleti defender, but he picked up the rebound, passed it on to Villa who finished the job and scored. Although on watching the goal again, it seems Villa’s shot deflected off one of Atleti’s players, Gabi. But hey, I’ll take it. 1-2 is a pretty good result, when you consider that Barça were half asleep for the majority of the match, and, oh yeah, they were playing with 10 men for almost 45 minutes.

The celebratory t-shirt lists the entire squad, in case you had forgotten.

This match was hardly vintage Barça, but nevertheless, the win was a bonus and bumps up their total number of points. However, the starting lineup certainly raised a few questions. Many of you have already mentioned it and it was very evident that this wasn’t the right starting lineup. Alves has now played 26 consecutive matches (La Liga, CdR, CL and NT matches), and for 24 of those matches, he played the full 90 minutes. Yet, Barça have a young right back who goes by the name of Montoya, who is in desperate need of minutes so he can develop. The league has been won. Where’s Montoya? Well…he didn’t make the squad. Tito? Tell me why! What has the poor boy done? Maybe there’s something going on that we don’t know about, but one thing I am sure of – playing Alves was a very poor decision. Same goes for Cesc and Iniesta – Cesc did his best invisible man impression and as for Iniesta, I think he could have/should have been rested. Finally, Messi certainly should have played. It doesn’t look like he’s over the injury he picked up a few weeks ago, because, well, he’s hurt himself again. It’s not completely disastrous because it’s almost the end of the season, but it’s very easily avoidable.

Anyway. What’s done is done and the issues of squad rotation and fitness can be dealt with for the coming season…I hope. In the meantime, lets celebrate the Liga win. It certainly hasn’t been without many difficulties along the road and I’m extremely proud of this team for pulling through.

Enjoy it, guys!

The official website will be showing a live stream of the street parade at 6.30pm CET/5.30pm BST today. Make sure you tune in!

If the league were about hugging instead of football... we'd be in the same position. Huh.

And you can trust it’s going to be difficult. Playing Atleti is always difficult for Barça. Even when Atleti have not had their best season in years and Barça aren’t hobbling to the season’s finish line, they always manage to put Barça through the grinder.

Tito has decided to take the whole squad to Madrid, in case Barça do manage to carry it off and win La Liga tomorrow, but that doesn’t mean we actually have enough players. We heard that Abidal was training with the team this morning, only to be disappointed two hours later when we were informed that he’s out with a small muscle tear. Valdés, he of the Mysterious Left-Foot Discomfort, is out not only due to discomfort in his left-foot, but also a muscle spam on his left calf. The Barça medical staff have neglected their duties so much that players are getting injured twice over now!

Seriously, it’s getting ridiculous. A few seasons ago, there was a marked improvement in how players trained and were treated for injuries; Messi was the best example for this, as having Juanjo Brau follow him around the world resulted in a drastic decrease in how often he got injured. But whatever it was, it isn’t anymore. The current Barça medical staff thinks our players are so amazing that they can be relied on to manage their injuries themselves. Messi wants to play on one leg? Let him! Xavi wants to shred his tendons on meaningless matches? Full steam ahead! Puyol puts his knees through a blender, then decides to have a not-tomorrow-but-tonight surgery? Ah, good old Puyi, you know him, he’ll be back when he sees fit, probably sooner than he should.

Abidal, seconds before a Barça physio stepped on him and injured him.

Obviously the medical staff must listen to the players, who know better than anyone where and how much it hurts, but some authority wouldn’t come amiss. Or, at least, something more reliable than throwing a set of dice when asked about recovery times; “discomforts” these days can see a player return after two days or disappear for months and months (has anyone heard anything about Puyol?). Some things, like Adriano and His Amazingly Fragile Hamstrings, are out of the read of all medical expertise, but surely things can be done better than they have been this season.

In any case, we have enough players. Cesc is back from suspension, Thiago needs to be given more minutes, Messi is ‘almost’ back to full fitness, and the few matches left this season are the perfect opportunity to showcase those players we hope to get rid of during this summer’s transfer window (*insert your own unrealistic list of names here*). Which, of course, may backfire on us, like Villa’s performance against Betis, which likely shaved five millions off his asking price.

A reasonable starting XI is:

————–Pintocalypse————–
Alves——Piqué—–Bartra—–Adriano
————-Busquets—————-
——–Xavi——-Iniesta————
—–Pedro—–Villa—–Alexis——–

With Messi to come in in the second half, when it’s evident that Barça can’t tie their shoes without him. Adriano can erase, with a good fullback performance, the memory of how bad he is as a CB and help us sell him this summer. Bartra can do what he did against Bayern, except hopefully without the awful result. At least one of Thiago and Cesc should start, but knowing Tito, they won’t. This should be enough to have a good match against Atleti. Hopefully Simeone (unlike everyone else) will have some hopes of his team winning the Copa Del Rey final and will rest some players, to make our job easier.

It's Iniesta's birthday! The future is bright, and pale, and going bald!

Not so long ago....

NOW: The only five players not for sale under any circumstances, according to MD.

No, we don't believe selling the entire team with the Camp Nou cat thrown in as a free gift is the right solution.

I'm confused. How exactly do we solve our acute center back shortage by selling Puyol & Masche?

Maybe we ought to think about this a bit.

Austerity or supporting the sporting project by buying right? Austerity of course. Is this a trick question??

Who'd have thunk it?! Exhausted players carrying injuries apparently don't play quite as well as their non-exhausted uninjured selves.

I'm not so sure about Pique's idea of practicing holding Alba from running off to the front.

.

Maybe I should just play 85 minutes of every game instead of 90. Pace myself like Tito says.

"Son, you're clearly not aware that Barca's defensive strength is directly proportional to total center back hair length"

You mean we can rotate and use all that insane talent on the bench? Why didn't anyone say so before?!

Rest and taking care of tendons is much too overrated.

Are you sure you used the same magic 8 ball reserved for team injuries? And it told you that you could play?

]]> http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/of-transfers-form-and-key-learnings.html/feed 0 http://barcelona.theoffside.com/la-liga/la-liga-review-fc-barcelona-4-real-betis-2-a-messi-in-shining-armour.html http://barcelona.theoffside.com/la-liga/la-liga-review-fc-barcelona-4-real-betis-2-a-messi-in-shining-armour.html#comments Mon, 06 May 2013 14:17:03 +0000 Ade C. http://barcelona.theoffside.com/la-liga/la-liga-review-fc-barcelona-4-real-betis-2-a-messi-in-shining-armour.html Three points and the 2012/2013 Liga title is so close I can smell it! Those are the nice things we should focus on, because if we focus on the actual football played by our lovely team, well, then things get depressing.

You know it's bad when Piqué's decision to sacrifice his beard to the Football Gods isn't the worst part of the evening.

Tito chose Pinto, Alves, Piqué, Adriano, Jordi Alba, Song, Xavi, Iniesta, Alexis, Villa and Tello. With VV and Pedro unavailable due to “discomfort” and a stomach bug respectively, and Messi and Busquets just coming back from injury, that was as close to our best XI as we could get… and isn’t that an awful thought? Anyway, a must-win match is apparently no place for people like Thiago, Bartra or Montoya. Because, why give chances to the youngsters, huh? Especially after they have already proven themselves in difficult circumstances. Nah, better to keep testing the (very suspect) durability of Xavi’s tendons and how much Adriano can fail at being a centre-back before he breaks.

We barely had time to set down our drinks and quiet our grumbles before Betis scored. No, scratch that, we didn’t even had time for that. It took one minute and twenty-nine seconds for Pabón to make idiots of our defence and open the scoreline.

''You there! Try to make people forget about our defence!''

One of those days, huh? Well, that’s OK. Back to the days when conceding an early goal was an integral part of the Barça experience. Ride the adrenaline boost and grab an early equaliser, it’ll be like it never happened!

Alexis obliged before 10 minutes, with a good run and a stumbling header to cap an Iniesta cross. 1-1. Power down the alarms, swap the red flag for a nice yellow one, and tell the Real Madrid fans in the corner to stop celebrating.

Or not. Because Barça didn’t calm down and start administering the match prudently. Barça continued to stumble drunkenly all over the pitch, misplacing passes and giggling, “hey, guys, watch this! Oops!”. In the frequents shots of Messi on the bench, we could see him with his hands covering his face, watching the game between his fingers like a kid watching a horror film, particularly when David Villa had the ball; Guaje had a terrible first half, missing at least three goals so easy that a shambling Frankenstein monster made up of the worst parts of Bojan, Alexis and Fernando Torres would have scored them.

Villa demonstrates how we all felt about Villa last night.

But Barça kept shooting in the general direction of the Betis goal, and statistically, one of those shots had a good chance of going in. Tello hit the crossbar, raised our hopes… and then Betis scored again.

A great Rubén Pérez shot beat Pinto and Barça went into half-time behind on the scoreline, again.

Was Messi going to have to make his appearance to save Barça’s bacon, at home, against Betis? Apparently so, because he started warming up as soon as the second half started.

I want to say that Barça were more focused on the second half, that they understood the fragility of their situation and the fact that losing this match would turn our Liga certainty into wobbly Liga hopes, but no. The passing was still sloppy, the defending was miserable, and the most exciting thing was watching the slow-mo close-ups of Messi warming on the sidelines.

Until Villa scored, thirty seconds before being subbed out. To a Dani Alves cross, Barça once again equalised from a stumbling header, leaving the field ready for Messi to come in and leave his mark.

Two minutes later, Barça were given a free-kick. “Oh yeah, we’re soooo good at these,” we muttered sarcastically. And bam, Messi scored with a beautiful rocket that went snugly into the top right corner of the goal. “Well, it’s not like he does that often,” we said after we finished celebrating.

3-2 would have given us some breathing room if the thought of Barça going for 30 minutes without conceding hadn’t been so difficult to visualise. Messi tried to give us some calm with his second great set-piece in a row, but he hit the crossbar, and it was only Adriano’s Shambling Mound defending that prevented a Betis equaliser moments later.

Super Messi defeats his archenemy, Giant Banana.

The fourth goal, though Messi’s again, was one of those team goals that are so lovely to witness: Dani Alves, Iniesta, Alexis… they all helped build it up. And with the scoreline at 4-2, breathing again became a possibility. And making subs too: Thiago came in for Alexis, sending Iniesta into the wing.

Messi missed the opportunity to score his first hat-trick as a sub with an excellent Giant Banana Adrián save in the last minute, and will have to content himself with having scored 6 goals in his 4 Liga matches as a sub.

It was a rather poor match by Barça, particularly in defence, and that we had to bring Messi in to resolve it is bothersome, but a win is a win is a win. We’re one step closer to winning La Liga and being able to rest key players, play youngsters, and relax while thinking about the fixes needed for next season (no, firing everyone and starting from scratch is not a good idea).

Barcelona 4-2 Real Betis Highlights por goalsandsoccer (via @SpheraChannel)

Pinto: 7,5. Could have done better in the first Betis goal, could have done nothing in the second, had a couple of good saves.
Dani Alves: 7. Great night for Dani the Right-Winger, not-so-good night for Alves the Fullback.
Piqué: 5. I’m grading him entirely on the appalling decision to shave off his beard. Well, it’s not like he did any defending to rate him on!
Adriano: 5. One good block. Countless moments of bad positioning. But hey, he didn’t get injured this time!
Jordi Alba: 4. Squirrel needed a nap, squirrel took a nap during the match. You can’t blame adorable woodland creatures for following their instincts!
Song: 5,5. Bad back-passes, lack of speed, no forwards vision… he usually does better than this.
Xavi: 6. Why play him? Why not rest him? Thiago could have done just as well, and had more energy.
Iniesta: 7,5. As always, Don Andrés brought the touches of class.
Tello: 7,5. No wonder the Camp Nou chanted his name; it was a relief to see someone being all energetic and purposeful.
Villa: 5. His one goal barely makes up for the horrible first half and terrible misses to which Guaje treated us last night.
Alexis: 7,5. He joins Iniesta and Tello in the exclusive “actually did something” club; some good runs, a good goal, and some earnest defending.
Messi, as usual, gets a shower of cookies and legos for being the team’s saviour. And Thiago proved he should have been given more playing time, again.

Super Pinto will use his Super Powers to fly away from his archenemy, the Barça Back-Four.

Next match is on Saturday, against Atlético de Madrid, and Barça have the chance to win La Liga then… though it’s unlikely, if they keep up this poor form. For now, let’s spare a thought for Tito, who is going to New York for a check-up and coming back in time to prepare the Atleti match.

Today is Cesc's birthday! Happy birthday!

“Leroy Jenkins”, I hear you say. “What does this have to do with Barça? Looks like the folks at Barca the Offside have well and truly lost it.”
Well, if you’ve never heard of Leeroy Jenkins before, here’s the video, watch it! And once you have, you’ll understand why it relates to Barça – I hope. My point is, we’ve suffered a huge defeat (thanks, Bayern!) and now is the time for our players to throw caution to the wind, get back out there and GO FOR IT!

Except, you know, Barça’s version of throwing caution to the wind is allowing JDS on the pitch for a few minutes. But, umm, that’s something?

Contrary to what some of us might think, there is life after the Champions League (at least, I think there is), and Barça need to come out fighting. The sooner the league is wrapped up, the better. I don’t think any of us can handle another defeat, or a draw, for that matter. That said, the end of the season is approaching, and now certainly isn’t the time for a sudden dip in form. I don’t think that will happen, but it’s important that Tito rotates the squad effectively and allows the younger players to play. It’s very obvious the likes of Xavi, Messi and Alves need to rest, so with that in mind, here’s a potential lineup for tomorrow:

Pinto – Montoya, Bartra, Piqué, Adriano – Song, Iniesta, Thiago, – Tello, Villa, Alexis.

Pinto will take Valdes’ place, as he is out of tomorrow’s squad due to a foot injury. Tomorrow is the perfect opportunity for the likes of Montoya, Bartra, Thiago and Tello to step up and take on some responsibility. I think we’ll see Piqué and Iniesta because, well, we don’t have many players to replace them right now. Abidal at centre back is a possibility, but I believe he had some trouble with his calf this week and it’s not quite clear whether or not he’ll play. Messi and Busquets took part in training today but I think they need to be rested because, unlike with our centre backs, we do have players who can play in their place instead. Song was actually very impressive against Bayern on Wednesday and was one of the few players who looked like they believed, so I’d like to see him tomorrow instead of what is probably a not-quite-fit-yet Busi. Apparently Cesc is suspended for tomorrow’s match (he’s played enough matches to pick up 5 yellows? Well then)…how unfortunate?

Betis are currently in 7th place with 49 points. Their away record hasn’t been particularly impressive, although they did score a manita against Grenada a couple of weeks ago. Against Barça, they probably won’t pose much of a threat, although with Pinto in goal, anything can happen. If the likes of Montoya, Thiago and Tello play, we should have a fast paced match with the amount of energy they’ll bring to the pitch. Don’t be surprised if Betis score once (with Rubén Castro being the goalscorer) but I think Barça will win this 2-1. I know that’s not a very optimistic prediction, but ultimately, Barça just need to get the job done tomorrow and rest their key players.

Tomorrow’s match kicks off at 8pm BST, 9pm CET. See you there & Visca Barça!

''Pride. Barça.'' Words we need to remember in the bad times and the good.

It’s an awful result, I’m not going to argue that. I expected something better; maybe not a miraculous comeback, but certainly a more equilibrated result, a goal or two for the home side, maybe even a win to soothe the sting of the first leg. That 7-0 aggregate scoreline it’s going to haunt our dreams for a long time to come. But is it the end of the world? Is the sign to toss out our coach, half the squad, and the philosophy that’s brought us to the point where reaching the Champions League semifinals is disappointing?

Tito played VV, Alves, Piqué, Bartra, Adriano, Song, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Cesc and Villa. No Messi, that’s the first (and only) thing most people noticed; after insisting on playing a half-injured Leo since the quarterfinals against PSG, Tito finally (finally!) benched him, to the confusion of pretty much everyone. It could have been a decent tactic, since surely the Bayern defence must have planned to focus on neutralising Messi, and he could have been a great super-sub in the second half, but alas, it wasn’t to be.

Against a solid, well-organised team like Bayern, Barça had the options of defending in numbers and hoping for the best, or throwing caution to the winds and go on a kamikaze run for goals; we don’t have the ability, which other teams do, to fold out of a defensive stance to start a counterattack, then fold back just as quickly to defend if the attack fails. It’s one or the other with this team, and while usually we can get on by conceding a lot but scoring even more, this wasn’t going to fly by such a good Bayern. With the four goals of the first leg weighing on us, Barça went for the defence-centred option, and can you blame them? Conceding early on would have been a disaster.

Lahmi is as confused as the rest of us about Pedrito's abilities.

Is there much to say about the match itself? Ugh, don’t make me re-live it. Deprived of half (or more like two-thirds) of our best back-four, without Busquets’s calming presence in midfield, and with no Messi to do magic, it was actually an encouraging sign when we got to half-time with a precarious 0-0 scoreline. Not a win, but we hadn’t been steamrollered. Yay? Barça was defending like they hadn’t done all season, and they even managed a small spell or two of pressure, forced a save or two out of Neuer, gave us a itty-bitty glimmer of hope. It wasn’t enough to overturn the first-leg scoreline, but maybe it was enough to eke out a win and a small measure of consolation.

Unfortunately, this small measure of tranquility came at the expense of absolutely everyone (except for Villa, who set camp by Neuer and desperately hoped for a chance) pitching in to defend; even Cesc (!) was seen tracking back, folding into the midfield to bail out Xavi (who was bailing out Song). By the time the second half rolled around, the Barça players were exhausted, while Bayern still had plenty of energy left over from patiently toying with the blaugrana hobbits for forty-five minutes.

And then Robben scored. Ugh.

There was a small burst of wounded pride by Barça after that, a sort of “godsdamnit, if they can score, so can we” determination. Tito brought in Alexis for Xavi, effectively pushing back Cesc to the midfield where he’d been playing anyway, and fresh-legged Thiago for Iniesta. That’s as attacking as it gets when Messi is in no position to play. Curse Bayern for dabbling in the arcane arts of “defending” and “not letting rivals stroll into the final third as if they belonged there”! And curse Barça for being unable to attack and defend at the same time!

But score Barça did… in VV’s goal. Seriously, Football Gods? What has Piqué ever done to you? First Shakira, then his hair, now this.

''Maybe I should just get up there and score myself, the way this is going.''

Bugger it all, said every Barça fan in existence, which unfortunately seemed to include most players and Tito. Coming back from a six goal deficit with a team full of secondaries? Forget it. Let’s just hope the next twenty minutes pass quickly. This moment, and not before, was when the general exhaustion and lack of inspiration hit us the hardest. There was no spark to mount a doomed comeback, à la Real Madrid from Tuesday. I think this was the worst bit, what’s made so many culés so angry, the moment when you could see Barça players throwing up their hands and admitting defeat.

‘Barça, Pride, Barça’, said the pre-match mosaic on the Camp Nou, but even pride won’t take you all the way, all the time. Barça players were mentally, physically, obviously exhausted, and playing against a superior opponent. Müller scored? They didn’t even have the energy to shake their heads, let alone rally for a consolation goal. The last 15 minutes were an exercise in hoping it couldn’t get any worse.

I don’t have the heart to rate the players this time. Suffice to say that I think most did the best they could, given their circumstances, in the face of a superior rival; some, like Xavi, need a serious stretch of rest and recovery before they regain their form; some, like Bartra, impressed me favourably; some, like Song or Cesc, did better than my admittedly low expectations. No one can be singled out for blame or praise. They lost, as they have been winning, as a team.

Sore losers... oh wait. (via @robbro7)

Defensively, it’s hard to fault this team; in spite of what the scoreline suggests, Barça defended much better across both legs that they’ve done in La Liga lately. But that’s all they had to give. And I want to get angry and blame them and throw things at them, but how much can you demand from a squad that’s been giving everything for the last five years? They’ve been playing at the highest level for five seasons running, taking part in all competitions for club and country, playing two matches a week for nine months a year, overcoming unreasonably bad luck in injuries, illness, and the competition of every other team in Europe. At some point, something’s going to give and someone’s going to put their hands on their knees and admit they need a breather.

Does this slump come at the worst possible time in the season? Well, yes. I’d take a hundred Hlebruaries not to see our players flagging in the all-important April stretch, but if we could program players to fail only at “reasonable” times, we could also program them all to be Puyols and Xavis and Messis, and never get injured, and where would be the fun in that? Our players (and coach) are humans. They are exhausted, and they messed up after months (years) of doing very well. Now is the time when we as fans need to decide whether to ditch them or stick by them, not when everything is rosy and trophies are stacking up.

Free hugs for everyone. Come 'ere, you lot.

And for the alarming amount of people asking for Tito’s head: he’s basically had only half a season to prove himself so far. No, I don’t agree with all the decisions he’s made, before and after his return, but if you signed a player, watched him play a couple of months, saw him laid off by injury for several months, then judged him by the first handful of matches after his return, everyone would give you the stinkeye for assuming that’s the best he could do.

Yes, of course we need to make some changes to the squad. Of course we need new signings. Of course some players are going to leave. That doesn’t mean throwing out the bathwater, the baby, the bathtub, and all the plumbing in the house. Barça fans, more than others, tend to overreact the moment there’s a setback. Take a deep breath. Borrow a cupful of perspective from the cute neighbour. Hopefully this loss will force Rosell’s hand and make him reconsider his awful transfer policy, as well as show Tito clearly what parts of the team need reinforcement (the defence!) and what needs tweaking (the Messi-less attack!). It’s not the end of the world. It’s fixable. Whether it will be fixed or we’ll spend all our money on another unnecessary midfielder is yet to be seen, but it can be done. And we can discuss transfers and signings after we’ve won La Liga and once the transfer window opens.

I know we’re all upset, and yes, this is a space for discusson and sharing your opinions, but let’s all take a deep breath before posting a comment, alright? I know it’s liberating, but suggesting that we chop up Tito and half of the squad into bits, make sausages out of them, and then use the proceeds from the sales to buy half of Borussia Dortmund isn’t going to take us anywhere. (can you tell I’ve been watching Hannibal?)

And remember… La Liga is within reach. Now it’s the time to stand behind the team. Win, lose, and even when Cesc is playing, VISCA EL BARÇA!

Image by: George Christakis

Thrown to the lions’ den at the Coliseum to entertain the crowd. With audience hailing the melodrama of the unfortunates, screaming their terror and trying to roll themselves in their arms seeking survival for another minute, hoping for a miracle to come true and for their prayers to wake up the universal clemency to show its life-saver mercy. But in vain.

Not Baldo Hiram, though. He ran into the arena, whipped his eyes all over the place till he found  his target, a weakened node in the fence. Jumped there, pulled that stick and before landing back on his feet, for the audience surprise, he raced toward one of the lions seeking a combat.

It was a battle with predictable outcome there. The voice of spontaneous instinct preached the songs of retreat. Yet, Baldo refused, and even got the lion confused. Poking the Lion’s eye with the stick while the monster hammering his claws on Baldo’s head, the son of Hiram scattered on the sand half conscious. While feeling the countdown of his heart’s fading beats, he saw through the fog of his sight the lion standing right there with bleeding eye, unsure whether it is smart to approach the lifeless body in front of him. At the background, the crowed were chanting his name, out of all the victims of that cruel night. He can’t be sure, but he almost noticed one tear or two on the cheeks of that beautiful woman sitting in the third row. And with a smile, he swore to himself that this life exit was way better than being immortal.

For a week now, the whole argument was whether it is possible for FC Barcelona to survive in the Champions league or not. We all killed our time arguing about it without answering the most important question there: Does it really matter? Or to make it clearer, should that has any impact on how FC Barcelona approach this game? If not, then why bothering wasting time and energy on this.

Because when you get into a battle of any kind, you play your heart out to get the best out of it. Or else, withdraw and save the effort. FC Barcelona players should get into this game as they should always do. Play for the colors they represent. Play for their names. And most importantly, play for their wounded pride. Like kids playing on the streets, always want to walk over that other boy in the game regardless of the fact that there is no cup to deliver at the end of that childish match. You play to express your excellence and to try to exceed your own expectations before others. You compete to feel complete.

So allow me not to get too much into FC Barcelona’s chance in this game. As I always tell the players in the team I coach, I can always accept a loss but will never accept to be defeated. Two completely different things.

We are all aware this team is full of scars. The squad generates lot of debate about re-engineering the system and reconsidering labor force in hand. But that’s the discussion of the day after tomorrow. Tomorrow it is all about sending the right message. We are ill, but we are not dead.

Most importantly, this is a game where you insist to hang by the last hair of glory possible to earn respect and avoid irreversible regret. Who knows, maybe the gods of football decide to use their sense of humor and you find yourself at the end of the match “almost made it!”. And that’s when the “what if…” and “Had I given a bit more…” hell of thought capture your soul for a long, long time. Nothing more ruining than regret, and doing your ultimate best is the only vaccine against it.

I will talk no tactics for this occasion, we already debated all the points for the season (Alright maybe I’ll not resist doing so on twitter). Just remember that, by Messi’s help, it is possible for Barca to score twice in the first half. That’s game on. And I will ignore the question whether Barcelona can deliver a perfect night in defense. If they ever needed it, it is now.

The Game Changer

Match Highlights

With the return leg against Bayern looming, Tito rested Iniesta and Messi, who is still not fully fit, but otherwise went with a strong starting side playing VV in net; Dani and Jordi on either side of Pique and Abi in the back, then Song filling in for the injured Busi alongside Xavi and Thiago in midfield, while Pedro, Alexis, and Cesc, deputizing for Messi, started up front. Pinto, Bartra, Adriano, Villa and Tello kept Messi and Iniesta company on the bench. On the other end, Athletic started Iraizoz; Iraola, Ekiza, SanJose, Aurtenetxe; Gurpegi, Herrera, De Marcos; Susaeta, Aduriz and Muniain.

The Maestro leading ball play on the pitch though unfortunately not wardrobe choices...nice daisy dukes, Alexis!

In the opening stages of the match, Athletic looked the stronger side pressing Barcelona deep in their own end. Less than ten minutes in, Athletic had a great chance to go ahead when Herrera sent an inviting ball across the box, but it was just out of Aduriz’s reach. Slowly, Barca found their rhythm and Alexis nearly capitalized on some beautiful tiki-taka by the Barca midfield, but the luckless winger hit the post yet again this season. Xavi, orchestrating as usual, set Pedro up minutes later, but his puny shot failed to trouble the keeper. Xavi then decided to go it himself shortly thereafter, and sent a great shot from distance just wide of the net.

Tito trying to understand why Pique and the Barca D resemble Swiss cheese at the back when trying to clear crosses out of the Barca box

On the other end, Athletic responded immediately. After Barca lost the ball in midfield, Aduriz easily beat a slipping Pique in the box and sent a beautiful cross to Susaeta to tap in at the back post. No chance for Victor. 1-0 home side.

Barca picked up the speed and movement, but couldn’t find an equalizer. King Abi sent a wonderful long ball to Alexis, who did very well to find Pedro in the box, but Pedro’s touch failed him again. Not a good night for Pedrito. Then the Barca D was caught napping at the very end of the half and were lucky not to see themselves down two goals when de Marcos sent an inch perfect pass to the onrushing Aduriz, but his free header at goal went off target, much to Barca’s relief. Half ended with Athletic ahead a goal.

King Abi

At the start of the second, Adriano replaced Abidal out of precaution due to a right calf overload. Hopefully it’s not serious as Barca can ill afford to lose yet another defender to injury. Barca kept the pace up in the second, but appeared no closer to scoring until Leo came on for Xavi after close to 60 minutes played and boy, did he make an impact. Always nice to have the best player in the world waiting in the wings. And better yet, Leo looked much better, and more like his old self, against Bilbao then he had against Bayern on Tuesday, actually accelerating and dribbling past players when he wanted. If we have any hope on Wednesday, it no doubt rests on Leo’s shoulders and fitness.

...we all know where the ball ended up

After creating a few other good chances for teammates, Leo decided to take it himself and created a wonder goal going around multiple defenders right outside the box and somehow finding a narrow path through to slot it into the corner of the net. One all thanks to the Argentine.  Meanwhile, somewhere in Madrid, Cristiano began bawling.

Expressions read more of surprise than salutations when Alexis manages to find the back of the net

Then in no time at all, Leo helped send Barca ahead.  Pique sent a great pass to in form Dani, whose great cross was headed down by Messi to Alexis. Alexis settled and put it into the back of the net.

Unfortunately, Barca could not maintain the lead as Bilbao showed renewed signs of life after Llorente came on close to 80 minutes in. The big Basque man got supplied the ball in the center of the box at the end of regulation, and his double markers were unable to cover Herrera when the ball fell his way, and Herrera sent the ball low into the corner of the net outside the reach of VV.

Final whistle sounded minutes later with the game tied at two all.

RATINGS:

Valdes – 5: Frustrating night for VV. No chance really on either of the goals and didn’t otherwise have all that much to do.

Alves – 8: Again showcasing why he is one of the best in the business. Great work rate covering the wing, and set up the second goal.

Pique – 5: Nervy sometimes, good others. Need him to be more of a leader at the back. One on ones on the wing definitely proving to be Pique’s Achilles heel as he easily got beaten on the first goal. Has the ability and vision, just needs to retain focus for the entire 90 minutes and work some on one on ones.

Abidal – 7: Strong presence in the first half, definitely brought some stability to the back line.  Also had the occasional very nice long ball which was a good chance of pace for Barca.

Alba -6: Good game overall winning most of battles on his side, and tackling effectively. Difficulties on the goals.

Xavi – 7: The master orchestrator as usual; hopefully he will feel fine for Wednesday’s match. We obviously need him.

Song – 6: Effective at keeping counters at bay and clearly thrives off a more physical game though inconsistent at times during the match.

Thiago – 7: For nearly any other team, Thiago would be a regular starter given how comfortable and confident he is on the ball, and given his abilities to create. Both a blessing and a curse for him he plays with some of the best midfielders in the world.

Pedro – 3: The word worthless comes to mind but that’s not kind. Let’s go with ineffective. I really like Pedro but yesterday was not his day. He was either invisible or his touches were off. Work rate was fairly good, but that’s about the only positive thing I can say.

Fab – 5: Good, not great. Cesc did fairly well as a creator, but went through spells where he was hardly involved at all.

Alexis – 7: Very lively looking and overall a very solid game for Alexis, but why oh why can he not stay on his feet?

SUBS

Adriano -5: Fine playing out of position, nothing special.

Leo – 9: MOTM, unquestioningly so.

Iniesta – N/A: Little to no impact on the match; hate to say it, but Iniesta just hasn’t looked great lately. Exhaustion perhaps?

Picking ourselves up

Before I start, if you are here expecting to see some sort of champions league we are sorry for ourselves story or some angry rant about the end of Barcelona’s era as a football power in the universe, please look away now.

However, if you’re interested in reading how Barcelona can win their 4th league title in 5 years, by all means please come in.

After that result in midweek that won’t be discussed, Barcelona have a chance for some emotional redemption when they visit the lovely San Mames. A win for Barcelona and a defeat to second place Real Madrid (playing 3rd place Atletico Madrid) will clinch the league title for Barca. San Mames always proved to be a very difficult ground for Barca over the years, so this is by no chance a walk in the park.

Athletic’s season has been nothing short of a disaster. Rather than fighting for top four finish and a champion’s league spot, Athletic were fighting for their La Liga survival all season. They took a very big step in securing their position in the league with their 1-1 draw with Deportivo last weekend. However, with exciting players like Munian, Susaeta, Herrera, and De Marcos, Ahtletic are not a club to ever be written off.

With one eye on the champions league game on Wed, Tito Vilanova will have to make changes to the lineup for the game. The squad that traveled to Bilbao were: Valdes, Pinto, Alves, Pique, Fabregas, Xavi, Iniesta, Alexis, Messi, Thiago, Dos Santos, Bartra, Pedro, Alba, Montoya, Adriano, Abidal, Song, and Tello.

Tito’s biggest decision would be whether he should field his strongest 11 and secure the title, or keep the strongest, and available 11 (looking at you angry squirrel Alba) fresh for the fightback on Wednesday against you know who. Personally, I believe below is the starting line-up we should see:

Pinto – Montoya – Bartra – Song – Alba – Dos Santos – Thiago – Cesc – Tello – Alexis – Villa.

David Villa should not play more than a 60 minutes, because we need him for Wednesday, with Pedro replacing him. Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets, Messi, and Alves, should not be shown the way to the stadium if it was up for me. Alba is already suspended for Wed’s match, Adriano injury history is world record beater, and we will need all of Abidal’s experience in center back against the Germans.

Match prediction:

Don’t think we will wrap the league this week, but we’ll get a step closer. But Barcelona will definitely end their era with the league title for sure.

Athletic 2 – 2 Barcelona

Dos Santos scoring both goals for Barca! (We can all dream can’t we?!)