Barcelona 1 - 0 Getafe: Review and Highlights

By: Isaiah | May 28th, 2007

Well, Barca got revenge, at least in part. Still tied with Real Madrid on points, but trailing on head-to-head. The big story is, of course, Ronaldinho getting a red card late in the first half for kicking Belenguer square in the little guys. The red was deserved, I think, but there were such serious flaws in the refereeing throughout (for both sides) that it was impossible to get a flow going and the amount of hacking and slashing was absurd. Getafe were more guilty, but Barcelona was certainly not squeaky clean by any stretch of the imagination. I commented to my buddy A.M. somewhere around 30 minutes into the game that there would definitely be a red card at some point, but I expected it in the second half and to be against Getafe as they were the ones kicking the tar out of Barca’s players from behind. Ronnie’s reaction, albeit wrong and not something I’d ever condone, was at least understandable-ish when considering the fact that Getafe hadn’t taken their cleats off his ankles for 40 minutes. Still, a mental lapse and it could change a lot of things in the last 2 weeks. Espanyol are looking that much tougher to beat already and no one has been injured in their international duty yet.

As for the game itself, it was pretty exciting from start to finish. I arrived at Phoenix Landing in Cambridge right before van Nistelrooy put away Real Madrid’s third goal and ensured at least one more week on top of the league for the merengues. Barcelona, then, were required to win to really stay in the title hunt and they did, 1-0. Ronaldinho scored after 2 minutes and the chances kept flowing for Barcelona throughout. Even after Ronaldinho was sent off, they had chance after chance throughout and should have won by several goals. Instead it was a tight finish with a lucky break or two for Barca.

It was fantastic to see Barcelona pressing throughout the game, or at least until their legs wore out, but that they couldn’t press their obvious advantage to the end was another reminder that Barcelona is thin off the bench. And now, with Ronnie out, they’re even thinner. However, they obviously have a couple of other solid players who can hold the team together while he’s out. There’s a backlash from the Barcelona press over the refereeing, of course, especially since Real Madrid’s first goal was helped out by a handball (and Sport points out that had a yellow card been handed out, the pichichi, van Nistelrooy, would be missing for the all-important game in La Romareda), but if every handball on earth were called, perhaps Brian over at the Liverpool Offside would be singing a different tune these days…That and Barcelona are going to appeal the red card in hopes of a Beckham-esque reversal, though I highly doubt anything will be rescinded.

Messi and Eto’o played well enough, but failed to form a true attacking partnership, with the former committing the sin of failing to pass at the proper moment, choosing instead to forge ahead with a few powerful but ultimately useless runs when passing would have put Eto’o in on goal where he’s reportedly quite lethal. Not that he showed that with his finishing though. No one could find that final placement and that was the difference between me biting my nails and sucking in air in little spurts now and then rather than ordering up another round and casually enjoying another romp like at the Vicente Calderon. Not that I expected a 6-0 drubbing, but 4-0 would have been about right for how much better the blaugrana played than their faux-Madridista opponents. Angel Torres, I hope your season crashes and burns.

There’s a break now, regardless and we’ll have to see whether or not this cools Madrid off a little. Zaragoza still don’t have their UEFA Cup place wrapped up as they lost to Sevilla (meaning that Sevilla are still techincally in the title hunt) and that could be trouble for Madrid, but we’ll have to wait for the final results before freaking out. So, without league games to talk about, there’s not going to be any end to the transfer rumors in the press. I’m not much for following them, but if any actual purchases happen, I’ll let you know as best I can.