Barcelona 1 - 1 Real Betis - Review and Highlights

By: Isaiah | May 14th, 2007

It’s hard to imagine a shot selection as inviting as that presented to Barça on Sunday against Real Betis, but somehow the blaugrana - and specifically Samuel Eto’o - were unable to capitalize on a dozen open shots. Few of the chances went on goal, even, and that is just another sad detail in what went from a euphoric moment at around 2:45pm EST on Saturday to a pretty miserable Sunday afternoon. Whereas one moment I was enjoying Walter Pandiani’s momentous first-half hat trick, what seemed like a moment later I was yelling unprintable things as Rafael Sobis slipped the ball beyond Valdes’ legs and put Barcelona in second place.

So, the game. I missed the first 6 minutes, which meant only that, since I missed the joy of a goal (and Ronaldinho’s 18th of the season), I had a strange sense of impending doom hanging over my head the whole match. I think it was merely a vestige of the Madrid game (superb game, by the way, despite the result), but that feeling was rewarded with Sobis’ goal and my subsequent inability to do anything more than bitch and moan for about 30 minutes. I hate to be overly-melodramatic about it, but when Eto’o smacked that superb chilena straight into Contreras, I was pretty positive that it wasn’t our day. And that was early. Iniesta was playing so well in midfield, but his chances in front of goal just seemed destined to go wide. I rarely get to feeling like that during a game, but as it dragged on and both Ronaldinho and Messi were subbed off, it was as if Rijkaard was capitulating to some unseen force demanding that the league go to Madrid, at least for this week.

It’s not like Barcelona were bad. 62% of possession and 18 shots? That’s pretty good, especially since Betis only got 4 shots. The video posted below is basically a continuous reel of Barcelona’s misses. The mistake of the game was, of course, Eto’o’s excessive aggression in his tackle that led to Assunçao’s quick pass to Sobis and the Brazilian’s quick thinking to score. Ridiculous and inexcusable that Sobis, easily Betis’ most dangerous player after he subbed on, was allowed to run into the box unmarked with only 1 minute left in regulation. It’s those little slips that have put Barcelona in this position in the first place and more of those will put them not only not in first, but in 3rd. That difference is massive as it requires qualification to the Champions League and more games is not what Barcelona needs.

Questioning Rijkaard hardly seems like my place, but I am confused as to why Messi was taken off. He was creating chances after Ronnie went off (that move would be questionable too, but I was under the impression that he had taken a slight knock and wasn’t able to really play that well - his passing was off and his movement was pretty limited it looked like) and anyway, Saviola doesn’t get back on defense like Messi does so there was no real reason to put Eto’o out on the wing where he became ineffective as an attacking force. Eto’o did, however, show off his heart and desire to win as he tracked back and played defense (gasp!), it’s just that his frustration boiled over and led to a yellow card and Sobis’ goal. And that sucks because up until that point he was the only player vying for Man of the Match with Iniesta. Speaking of Andres, what was up with his finishing? Twice I was positive we’d have goals from him and yet: nothing. Ugh.

Anyway, the video: