Villareal 3 - 1 Barcelona: Review and Highlights (Finding silver linings edition)
By: Isaiah | October 22nd, 2007On Saturday afternoon I was completely prepared to watch Barcelona dismantle Villareal and dispell any thoughts about how out of form Barcelona is on away days, but then unthinkable happened: transmission of the game was cut, Villareal won, and Deco left left with a muscle injury that will keep him out for 5 weeks. Crap. And then the Cowboys beat the Vikings and the Red Sox completed another ridiculous comeback in the ALCS. What a weekend.
But there are silver linings! Real Madrid lost to Espanyol 2-1 at Montjuic and sweet baby templar knight Bojan Krkic Perez scored his first goal for Barcelona, making him the youngest-ever league goal scorer in blaugrana history. The pass that made it 2-1 at that point came from Messi and it was a beauty (see the highlights below), but it wasn’t enough to overcome what appeared to be two soft penalties against Abidal and Milito. The first Villareal goal was just bad defending on Puyol and Oleguer’s part, but what is even more telling, and troubling, is that the third goal was created because Puyol utterly and completely failed to deal with Guille Franco. Guille Franco! You’re joking, right? That guy totally sucks (said in my best Monarch voice). Except he was the one who created the first goal with a pretty nasty backheel that released Cazorla in the box. [Update: I think it was actually Pires that juked Puyol so badly in the lead up to the second penalty.]
That sort of set the tone, apparently (I didn’t see it cause of the aformentioned broadcast block), because Cazorla’s goal was in the second minute. Wow. Senna scored the first penalty in the 13th minute, Bojan hit one back in the 25th minute, and then the scoreline was completed in the 34th minute with another Senna penalty. Incidently, Valdes got pretty close to both penalties, but was unable to save either.
There have been some comments on my preview post for this game suggesting that the game was an embarrassing loss, while others have countered that, well, that it was not. I am firmly in the camp that not only is the loss not embarrassing, it’s good for the league and the game in general. Not that I ever root for Barcelona losing, but when life gives you lemons, take tequila shots. Even if you’re not having the greatest time watching your team lose, at least you’re drunk.* The thing is, losing to the third placed team in the league should never be an embarrassment, as they’re the third placed team. If it’s ever embarrassing to lose in professional soccer, it’d be something akin to ManU losing in the first round of the FA Cup to a beer league team, assuming ManU started their first string…and assuming beer league teams are allowed into the FA Cup.
It’s not embarrassing to lose to Villareal, a team that has a solid record in the league and, because of the victory, has more points than the team it defeated. That Barcelona is in 4th place now behind leaders RM (19 points), second place Villreal (18 points), and third place Valencia (18 points) is more a testament to the value of the league than to the weakness of Barca. And, if you really think about it, Barca have played lights out for the last few weeks without several prominent starters thanks to injury. If any other team on earth can lose Zambrotta, Toure, Edmilson, Eto’o, Marquez, and Ronaldinho and then be embarrassed to lose to the third place team in their league, I want to know what that team is and how I can make them illegal because they’re ruining my favorite sport. And all of this happens away from home. It’s not even like this happened in the Camp Nou; it took place at the Madrigal.
Still, I’m surprised at the starting lineup. Perhaps it was merely a function of post-international fatigue (after all, players like Gio and Ronnie had to travel from the other side of the Atlantic in order to play), but as Abidal stated, fatigue is no excuse. And since the fatigue will not stop for some time now, Barcelona better get used to playing tired and still getting resultes. They’re back in action on Tuesday (tomorrow) against Rangers in Scotland; check back soon for a preview of that game.
For now, the highlights from Saturday:
*The Offside does not condone the excessive consumption of alcohol. Unless we’re invited.
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Tags: Barcelona, Bojan, Deco, Highlights, Injuries, La Liga, Lionel Messi, Real Madrid, Review, Team News, VillarealSubscribe
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Comments
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ironically isaiah, i was drunk when i mentioned it was a bit embarrassing. so i guess those tequila shots made the lemons a bit more sour.
actually i think i’m just spoiled because my colts seemingly never lose (knock on wood tonight) and barca is more star studded than they are. which brings me to my issue that even our sub-optimal starting 11 should be able to muster at least another goal from a sometimes great, sometimes shaky (see: at osasuna) villareal defense
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“If any other team on earth can lose Zambrotta, Toure, Edmilson, Eto’o, Marquez, and Ronaldinho and then be embarrassed to lose to the third place team in their league, I want to know what that team is and how I can make them illegal because they’re ruining my favorite sport. And all of this happens away from home. It’s not even like this happened in the Camp Nou; it took place at the Madrigal.”
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A quick note on Ronnie’s absence - It wasn’t implicitly fatigue that ruled him out on Saturday; Ronaldinho, along with Madrid’s Robinho and Baptista, failed to make it back to Spain because of “flight delays” following a night of well pressed drinking and debotchery. Gutsy move for all of them - Robinho being somewhat out of favour due to his moodiness; Baptista distancing himself even further from the possibility of making the occasional starting XI, and of course Ronaldinho - who has already been under plenty of fire for his late night antics. It’s interesting: Ronaldinho’s career seems to be, at last, following the trends of Ronaldo, paunch and all.
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I had previously decided to only read the headlines concerning the “Lio en Rio” (Mess in Rio) as Marca was calling it, especially since it seemed to be only about Robinho, so I know relatively little about the situation. I figured Ronnie was somehow involved, but I also know that when I made the trip from the US to Germany one fine day a year or so ago, the time change definitely threw me off ridiculously so that I was a bit jet lagged for a couple of days. So that makes sense to me, especially if drinking were somehow involved. Still, the official reason for Ronnie being left out was travel fatigue so I’m sticking with that.
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Messi should have been the guiding light. His energy is unreal. Henry is still a mixed bag for me. Pires said that Barca isn’t using Henry properly, but he should have enough talent to fit into Barca’s movement-based scheme, rather than waiting to be fed passes, then falling down at the least amount of contact. If Toure is in the side, neither Villarreal goal happens. GolTV finally aired the match on Sunday afternoon. Messi and Abidal were lions. Everybody else looked dead. Deco won’t be as much of a loss as people think. Look for Iniesta to rock the house.
Meanwhile….Drogba? He isn’t happy in Chelsea, and he’d be the kind of striker that Barca thought they were getting when they signed Gudjohnsen. I’ll even blaspheme here and say sell Ronaldinho now, and use the money to lock down Bojan and Giovani, then use the rest for Drogba.
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While I care very little about Barca, any man that makes a Venture Brothers reference in a post has my eternal respect. Well done sir.
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As long as we can agree about the Venture Brothers thing, we’ll be friends. Venture friends. And I’m going as The Monarch for Halloween this year and my lady is going as Dr. Girlfriend.
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