FC Barcelona 2 – 1 Real Sociedad: Barca Breaths a Sigh of Relief

By: kelsey | February 4th, 2012

A massive sigh of relief could be heard in the aftermath of tonight’s game not only because Barca managed to eek out the victory and remain within striking distance of Real Madrid in the league, but also, and more importantly, because Sergio Busquets’ injury was determined to be not too serious. Painful and ugly, yes, but according to the medical reports, Busi should be back on the pitch soon. Thanks be to the football gods.

A Hug and a Look of Relief

Match Highlights Reel

In one of his most adventurous starting line ups of the season, Pep put his faith in Barca’s youth along with a few of his best seasoned vets. He fielded Valdés in goal, Alves, Puyol, Mascherano, and Adriano, on the back line, Thiago, Cesc, and Dos Santos, in the middle, and Cuenca, Messi, and Tello up front. Pinto, Piqué, Abidal, Busquets, Xavi, Alexis, and Sergi Roberto watched on from the bench. On the other end, Real Sociedad started: Bravo, C.Martínez, Mikel, I.Martinez, Cadamuro, Markel, Aranburu, Pardo, Prieto, Ifrán, and Griezmann.

Just going for a little stroll across the pitch mid-match.

Nervy start from Barca at the beginning of the match has spectators doubting Pep’s decision to field a young squad, but not to fear, VV is here to bail the team out of danger, and the players quickly settle in. While Valdes is forced to make a few good saves in the opening minutes, Barcelona quickly capitalize on their chances at the other end. Messi supplies a magnificent ball to Tello, who clinically threads it home past the out rushing keeper. 1-0 Barca less than 10 minutes in.

Tello leading the way in an impressive starting debut

Barcelona plays the possession football we’ve all come to know and love for the remainder of the half though again the finishing is off and the team can not put the game away. Cesc, Thiago, and especially Messi, are wasteful in front of goal. Cesc goes for it from distance, nothing doing. Thiago and Messi give and go in the box, but the keeper kick saves away Messi’s shot from close range. Cuenca lays a great cross into Thiago, but his shot just putters harmlessly into the keeper’s hands.

Corners galore thanks to Tello’s bursts of speed around defenders who are forced to poke the ball out of play to stop him. Unfortunately Puyol, who was doing everything else from barreling up the midfield, to shooting, passing, and oh yes, defending, could not put away any of the crosses this game, and needless to say, no one else could capitalize off all the set pieces. Despite their dominance throughout most of the half, Barca go to the tunnel only up a goal.

Leaping Living Legend

Jitters begin again for Barca in the second half and never really subside. In the opening minute, Real Sociedad send a nice ball over Barca’s high back line and get past Masch, but Puyi quickly stuffs out the danger. Tello shows skills getting around defenders at the other end, but shoots straight at the keeper. Alves and Messi link up nicely, but no one is in a position to tap in Alves’ lovely cross.

Back in action in the Barca half, VV does very well to deny Griezmann a goal who beat Masch on the fast break. Griezmann again threatens, but Dos Santos does well to poke it away. Then the Barca onslaught begins again with renewed vigor. Messi and Tello connect nicely though Tello is barely offside when Messi tries to send him through then Messi wastes one of many good chances he has when Tello sends a lovely cross to him right in the middle of the box.

Pep pacing and pondering this new wasteful side of his superstar player.

At this point, the game has opened up considerably. Adriano sends a poor back pass off a corner that nearly gives Real Sociedad a fast break. Thiago gets it back going the other direction and sets up Messi beautifully with a lovely through ball. Messi gets around the keeper, looks at an open net, inexplicably pulls it back to get it on his left allowing the defender enough time to block his shot. Unbelievable that Messi would miss this sort of opportunity.

Identical looks of disbelief could no doubt be seen around the stadium as Leo misses an open net.

Barca continue to press and the strangeness of the cold night continues. Alves caps off a great forward run by passing to Cuenca, who nearly puts it away, but instead hits the crossbar. Rebound bounces to Tello who makes no mistake sending it into the far corner where it bounces off Dani’s chest and goes in. A brace for Tello, but wait, Alves is called offside on the goal line and the goal is disallowed. Dismay.

Thankfully Messi finally comes good on one of his chances minutes later. Dani sends a picture perfect pass across the box and Messi leaps up and one touches it past the keeper into the far corner. 2-0 Barca.

Let's do this the hard way and convert one of our more difficult chances, shall we?

Fans barely have time to finish celebrating the goal though when Real Sociedad capitalize off a defensive error on the other end. Thiago plays up slightly higher than he should in the back, loses possession to Griezmann, and he sends the ball through to Vela. In a one of one with Valdes, Vela slots it into the far corner cutting Barca’s lead in half. Game on.

With victory not yet secure, Pep replaces Dos Santos with Busquets to secure the midfield and help the backline as well as Abidal in for Puyol to give the captain some rest before Wednesday. Real Sociedad burns Masch and Busi almost immediately proves his worth dispossessing Real Sociedad in the box before a shot can be fired. VV awkwardly slaps away the ensuing corner and danger is averted. Carrying on an unfortunate trend for the evening on the other end, Messi wastes yet another glorious chance after Thiago sends a beautiful ball into him in the middle of the box.

Back in the Barcelona end, Busquets again bails out the defense making a sliding tackle to clear the ball away. Unfortunately, the attacker’s cleats slide over his upper shin gashing up the skin. Laying in anguish with looks of distraught on the faces of Cesc, Victor, and Pep, spectators fear the worst. Could the impact of the Real Sociedad player and the angle of the tackle have also caused a break, twist, or other serious injury?

Diminishing hopes for the rest of the season as Busquets is stretchered off the field…

The rest of the game passes in a blur with all thoughts residing with Busquets and the extent of his injury. Final whistle sounds and Barcelona leaves grateful to have attained the victory, and even more thankful to find out later that Busi’s injury did not jeopardize the rest of his, and the team’s, season.

RATINGS

Valdes – 8.5: strong performance overall making a few key saves to keep Barca ahead.

Alves – 7: good overall linking up with Messi on offense (needs to connect with others more) while playing a more defensive role than usual given the formation.

Masch – 6.5: good in the first half, and great tackles as usual, but out of position and beaten some in the second half to give Real Sociedad some chances.

Puyol – 8.5: great energy and leadership on the pitch, strong on defense and on his surges forward, el Capita deserved all the fans’ chants and the commentators’ accolades that he received tonight.

Adriano – 4.5: largely invisible this game aside from a few good passes as well as a few poor ones.

Dos Santos – 6.5: showed real promise, nervy at times, but involved throughout and generally did well in the difficult pivot role.

Cesc – 6.5: made good runs, and was involved in some of Barca’s best chances, but wasn’t as influential as usual perhaps due to fatigue.

Thiago – 7.5: good night for Thiago aside from the error that led to the goal, but otherwise did well filling in Xavi’s boots opening the field and creating chances on offense.

Tello – 9: MOTM! Great goal and should’ve had a brace, threatened all night on offense with great speed and good crosses, very exciting prospect.

Cuenca – 6.5: decent overall with a few great crosses, but gave away or was bodied off the ball multiple times, and sometimes held onto the ball for too long.

Messi – 7: always difficult to rate the best player in the world when he has an off night. Yes, it was unbelievable to see Messi miss some of the chances he did and sometimes he is a bit too selfish with the ball close to net, yet he still had a brilliant assist, and a goal, and terrorized the defense all night constantly threatening to score, so the night’s performance would be considered good if it were any other player…all I can say is I’m glad we have Messi, off form or no.

SUBS

Busi – 7.5: hardly played given how quickly he got injured, but made two key clearances while he was on the pitch.

Abidal – 5.5: not a great night for Abi with a lot of giveaways, which is very unusual for him.

Pique – 7: not on the field for long, but made a couple timely tackles and helped stabilize the backline.

Some Related Barcelona Posts:

Category: Barcelona, Highlights, Injuries, La Liga, Lineups, Messi, Review

« Liveblog: FC Barcelona vs Real Sociedad | Home | Calling upon the Camp Nou Gods & Cats: Barca VS Valencia CDR Preview »

Helge

That cat looks like a plush toy :D
And it was even faster than Tello. Must be fake!
Marc

That really was a nasty gash on Busquets' leg. You know the type of gash where you don't even see blood for a couple of minutes. When the camera showed him coming to rest and looking down at the cut, all you could see is skin peeled back enough to expose muscle tissue. Ouch! Cesc and Messi were immediately queezy at the sight. Oh, I hate those.

Let's hope Sergio's back within 2 weeks. That's a guy we cannot afford to lose. There is no back-up plan for the def mid post in my opinion.
kelsey

Agreed. In my opinion, save for Messi and Valdes, Busquets is the
last player we can afford to lose given the difference in quality between him
and those that would fill his role. Reports post-game said he may be back for
Wednesday's home game against Valencia though likely on the bench. Very
grateful if that is in fact the case.
belmonte

Please be precise - The horrible mistake, that led to the 2:1 was by Alves and not Thiago, the pass for Cuenca, who hit the crossbar, was by Messi and not Alves.
DJpegleg

So, the Real goal was actually Alves' fault and he was responsible for wiping out Tello's second and he outrates Adriano? Who gets a rating of 4.5? Man, that's simply harsh. The only Barca players who deserve that kind of rating are Cesc and Pique of late...and probably Alves tonight.

Something is wrong with Cesc (probably just worn out) and Pique (too much Shakira or perhaps believing the hype and forgetting he still has to work) because both have been fucking AWFUL for a while now. And now Alves is recently divorced and probably enjoying his freedom a little too much.

A real fan needs to keep the faith, I agree with Ade, but a real honest fan needs to call it like it is...
kelsey

Alves certainly made mistakes, but he linked up with Messi repeatedly on offense and had a glorious assist for the game winner. Where was Adriano? Not sure how he deserves a higher rating as he seemed largely absent on the pitch.

Totally disagree with you on Pique and Cesc. Both were great last game against Valencia. Last night Pique was on the field less than 10 minutes and I do not recall anything he did being "fucking AWFUL", the opposite in fact. Agree Pique has been more inconsistent this season and his form has dipped, but I don't think you're giving Pique nearly enough credit for what he does right. And Cesc definitely looked fatiqued last night, which comes as no surprise, yet he still managed to create great chances on offense (which Messi should've put away), help control the midfield and get back on defense. After Xavi, and Iniesta, Cesc's our best attacking midfielder and I'd be willing to bet quite a number of premiere teams would line up to sign him if he ever left Barca again so I think the "fucking AWFUL" lately tag for him is pretty absurd as well.
Natasha

Pique's performance has taken a downturn because of Shakira? Pique and Shakira are both professionals and I very much doubt Pique is wandering the pitch for 90 minutes thinking he'd much rather be with her than playing for the club he's been with pretty much his whole life. The sooner people stop painting Shakira as this evil woman who's ruining Pique's football career, the better.
As for Alves - yes, he he has recently separated from his wife of many years whom he has two children with and if anything, that's more likely to have a detrimental effect on him rather than "enjoying his freedom" too much. Both Alves and Pique are grown men and are likely able to leave their emotions and issues behind them before they enter the pitch.
DJpegleg

I wasn't blaming Shakira the woman, more Shakira the lifestyle. Pique is a professional, one who, unfortunately has regressed and has gone from being the heir apparent to Puyol to a liability on the field. He is currently our sixth best defender. What happened?

Alves didn't start the other day and the rumor had it down to Alves breaking curfew. You are mistaken if you think that any professional, from athletes to accountants to acupuncturists, are above their "emotions and issues" when working. And if you are out late carousing or whatnot, how could that NOT effect your performance?

Ronaldihno was a professional and a star for the club who was moved, so the anecdote goes, not just because he was spending too much time enjoying the lifestyle, but because he started taking a young Messi with him...

Of course these things impact your play, whether you are an adult or not, whether you are a professional or not.
Natasha

I think it's unfortunate that people are jumping to the conclusion that somehow Shakira is to blame for his performance as of late. He might be fatigued, he might be taking his starting position for granted or maybe, and I hope this isn't the case, he's not as motivated as he has been in the past.

I think top athletes (or a surgeon, or anyone working in a high pressure environment) are much more likely to stay focused and in control than an accountant and yes, a lot of them are able to put their emotions to one side and focus on the match in hand. Footballers are prepared to go out there and play for 90 minutes and it's not "just a job" to them. Top athletes are very mentally strong but yes, if they're enjoying the high life too much and partying every night, their performance will certainly suffer. However the majority of players will always value their career much more than the lifestyle that can come with it. If Guardiola feels any of the players are not focused on the game, I don't think he'd hesitate to sanction them for it.
Mumbi01

Regrettable there is something in what you wrote - Cesc is not to recognise. Perhaps his physical condition is not what should be. Very much agree with your asessment of Alves' performance in this game. Personally, I think Alves is widely overestimated. Horrible, how many balls he loose every game, but strangely nobody seems to realise it. And this was a very silly way, he spoils Tellos second ...
Pkj

But Alves never spoilt Tello's second...watch the replays,the ball had already crossed the line when it hit Alves, he was just unlucky to be there.
Marc

Correct. The goal should have stood because it did in fact cross the line before hitting Alves. Definitely a referee howler.
Kageglantz

Alves also missed a very good open chance on the right, spraying it past the far post.

Tello's willingness to take on defenders was at least briefly contagious -- Cuenca did it (once) as well. That's something we miss in Iniesta -- he ghosts by people and breaks down defenses. Alexis tries as well, but is less frequently successful in tight quarters (he's better in an open field, which he doesn't get all that often with Barca).