Racing de Santander 0 - 0 Barcelona: Highlights and commentary

By: Isaiah | August 27th, 2007

Naturally I didn’t get to watch this game as it wasn’t broadcast here in los estados unidos, but I did get to read some hot off-the-presses commentary in both the English and Spanish media and that was fantastic. I was planning on going to Nevada Smith’s for the game, as a special treat to myself on a decently humid day in the city, but that wasn’t to be, so maybe next time.

The score suggests it wasn’t that great a match and I’m betting that’s a correct sentiment as the only word I’ve really seen used to describe Barça’s squad is “lethargic.” Perhaps that’s true, but they didn’t lose, though they would have were it not for Victor Valdes’ impassability. Iker Casillas demonstrated his flair for absurd saves in the Madrid derby (according to highlights, of course) and maybe Vic felt he needed to showcase the skills Luis Aragones continually passes up for the national team. He did and that was nice of him, I think.

I was almost right about the starters, but Rijkaard continues to amaze/disturb me with his willingness to pick Oleguer over, well, anyone else. A hungover and jetlagged Rafa Marquez would be better than Oleguer, I think, but maybe Rijkaard thinks differently. Or apparently he does since I doubt Rafa was in either of those two states.

Valdes
Zambrotta, Thuram, Oleguer, Abidal
Xavi, Toure, Iniesta
Messi, Ronaldinho
Eto’o

Abidal and Toure both got their league debuts as starters, which is cool. The glaring absence is, really, Deco. I’ve now come to reconsider my favorite starting lineup to include him at the expense of either Xavi or Iniesta. Deco did sub on during the game, for Toure, and I can’t really tell you if that made the team better or worse, defensively. I’d like to say worse because of how I imagine it would affect defensive positioning, but Deco is such a good ball control player that he can disrupt counter attacks simply by keeping the ball when most would lose it. I guess that’s the general principle of not playing a defensive midfielder (which is a debate on the Real Madrid Offside page), but I’d still prefer to see Xavi off and Deco on, if only for a game or two to see how that works. Especially if he links up well with Henry in the later stages of games.

Speaking of “Titi”, he subbed on for Leo Messi in the 62nd minute (league debut), 7 minutes prior to Deco’s introduction, and 15 minutes before Marquez came on for Zambrotta. And only Henry was on the field before Ebi Smolarek got a straight red card for this tackle on Abidal. I think a straight red was justifiable there as Smolarek went in studs up and quite late, with Abidal completely unable to defend himself. There was probably little malicious intent, but it was a rash challenge, so off he goes.

That Barça was unable to capitalize on the fact that Racing were down to 10 men for the last 22 minutes of regulation is kind of absurd. They dominated posession (76%-24%), but weren’t able to turn that into many shots. Henry got close, striking the far post with a sizzling shot, but only 2 other “shots on goal” were recorded, one of which was a tame little tapper by Deco. Racing actually outshot Barça 5-3, which is pretty unacceptable, though a statistic that I think will be more in the blaugrana favor with the return of Milito next week and then Puyol sometime next month.

I suppose it’s good to note here that the Spanish press competely overreacted to Barcelona’s draw. Is Valencia also out of the race? Good lord, the season is 38 games long, not 2. RM aren’t even the top dogs in the league, as that distinction goes to Sevilla, for their 4-1 drubbing of 39 man Getafe. If Barcelona is finished, then Almeria and Mallorca are going to be in the Champions League next year since they’re 2nd and 3rd. Murcia would be in the UEFA Cup and RM would be in the Intertoto. Right. Barcelona even got a point, people! They’re in 11th after a single jornada, not last after 8 games. All right, no one thinks they’re out of it, Isaiah, calm down. Sorry.

Check out man-of-the-match Valdes in this video linked by thoughtful reader Ciaran: