Barcelona vs. Malaga aka: Ibra!

By: Iggy | September 27th, 2009

After WWII America had “I like Ike” and now I have “I like Ibra”. Join me if you’re as happy with him as I am.

He didn’t start, but replaced an injured Henry (28′) who was underperforming and still needs to find the groove he hit last season.

Starting XI
———–Valdes———–
Alves–ElCapitan–Chygnasty–Abidal
—Xavi—BigYa—Keita—–
Messi——Henry——-Mr.Pedro

Where was Ghostface!? I don’t know, but LordPep should know.

The team didn’t look as good as other times either, a combination of an off day and Malaga’s physical play took our boys out of their comfort zone. A special mention to the referee Ferreira Delgado for letting Malaga run rampant on our players and another mention to Weligton for being a dirty [expletive deleted].

It wasn’t the kind of game that we like to play and it showed, too many missed passes, unseen runs and other small mistakes added up but the win speaks volumes about the team’s attitude. Ibracadabra came in and showed that he can be a busbreaker and I don’t know if he’s even in full form yet…scary.

The first half was…well it wasn’t spectacular but we got through it (scary moment when Chygnasty got beat but nothing came of it). With Henry injured, I still don’t know for how long, we’ll see Pedro covering his spot, and I’m okay with that. On a more tactical note, Alves was practically a midfielder for this game and he did a pretty good job of it too, maybe knowing that he doesn’t have to go all the way back is helping him.

Our second half was more of the same, with Malaga’s pressure keeping our team on its back foot. What’s worse, Chygnasty picked up a knock (out for 3 weeks) and was replaced by Piquenbauer. While that’s definitely not a step down, we’ve already had some questions as to squad depth and these injuries really aren’t helping. But Pique didn’t care, he said “screw it, I’m Pique and I’m a CB that scores goals!” and he did just that. Thank you Pique! And that was our second half.

Enough time to look at BigYa back in a game (thank you Pep), and prove that this is a team that can win when the opposition plays rough.

Player Grades

Valdes 6 Bored I’m pretty sure if we played without a goalie we might not notice it. But it’s good to know that he’s between the posts, even if he didn’t have to do a single thing.
Alves 6 Frustrating He played to a higher level, but he makes a show out of fouls to the point that it takes away from my opinion of him (feel free to yell at me for it)
Chygnasty 6.5 Almost He’s getting used to the system and you can tell he’s a good player, but he had a little too hard of a time covering Malaga’s forwards.
ElCapitan 7.5 Solid A great low-risk CB is the best thing we could hope for, he might not score goals like Pique, but dear God he can set the tone for a game.
Abidal 7 Consistent! Had a solid defensive game and even pushed forward with some success, hopefully he’ll keep playing like this and dispel the doubts that I admit I had about him at the end of last season.
BigYa 7 Angry He seemed to suffer from the ref’s poor calling and ended up with a yellow card, Pep was smart to sub him off. Was consistent and smart with the ball at his feet
Xavi 8 Engine The metaphor gets overused but it’s so true, he keeps the team going and when he plays like he did, you know we’ll win.
Keita 6.5 Integrated It’s official, he understands the system perfectly, while he may have been a little off, he’s smart enough to play through it. The fact that he’s big and strong is good too.
MrPedro 8 Motivated He knows this is his chance to show that he can replace Henry on the wing in the next few seasons, if not now, and if he keeps playing like he did tonight, I’d like to see him on the field.
Henry 5 Disappointing We saw him play much better last season.
Messi 9 Wow Many positive adjectives.

Subs:
Ibracadabra 9 Busbreaker We needed someone to open Malaga’s defense and he came through. I like Ibra
Piquenbauer 8 Great He played ridiculously well and even found time to score while he was putting the lockdown on Malaga.
Busi2.0 7.5 Confident I think he’s never felt nervous on a soccer field, he has an aura of veteranness(it’s a word now) that was incredibly useful in this game. We’re lucky to have him

Hasta La Victoria! Barça!!