Postgame aka. wow

By: Iggy | September 20th, 2009

Let me say this real quick: We kicked ass!

No really, that was absolutely amazing.

Our starting XI had a few surprises
——————Valdes———————-
Alves—Piquenbauer–Chygnasty—MaxwellHouse
——-Xavi——–Busi2.0——-Keita———-
–Messi——–Ibracadabra——–Henry——–

Everyone came out as if their lives depended on this game, before even a minute had gone by Henry had rocked the Atleti crossbar with a longrange missile from outside the box. One minute later Ibra scored with a clinical finish off of an incredible pass from Busquets (credit to Valdes and Maxwell for starting the play).

The second goal was a piece of class from Xavi and Messi with Messi chest trapping the ball behind the Atleti back four, juking the goalie without touching the ball and pushing the ball into an open net. Then Ibra and Messi combined to give Keita a sitter that he just had to tap. You’re getting an idea of the level of domination that we saw in this game. 4-0 by the 40th minute.

And the trouble started. Busquets, who had played far beyond what anyone expected of him made a mistake and headed the ball back between the CBs and we had our first goal against. Blame for this one has to fall squarely on our canterano, but hey, he’ll bounce back next game…I hope.

The second half was a break. We took our foot off of the gas and Atleti improved and we had a so-so half which was still enough for Messi to score another one and for Atleti to get a second. Iniesta came on for Xavi and Pedro came on for Ibra so that Henry wouldn’t make a scene.

Good win, Great Game

Player ratings

Valdes 6 Meh Both goals were more defensive errors, maybe he could’ve done more, maybe not. A decent game.
MaxwellHouse 8 Complete I heard people tout him as an Alves for the left. They were right. He might not cover as much ground, but he feels more efficient, amazing game from him.
Chygnasty 7 Simple Never tried to do too much, never got caught doing too little. He kept it simple and was solid at the back. Good eye Pep.
Piquenbauer 7 Good Not one of his best games, he maybe could’ve done more on Atleti’s 2nd goal, but he was good, and we can overlook a mistake in a 5-2 win.
Alves 8 Hectic Ran. a lot. Also finally scored off of a fk, and a rocket of a fk at that. Pushed forward very well considering the fact that he didn’t have to go back much.
Xavi 8 Clockwork He might never look like he’s that important but he keeps everyone ticking when he’s on his game. Just another day in the life for our 2nd captain.
Busquets 5 Unfortunate Made a mistake that cost us our first goal and he never seemed to get over it. We’ve seen him do better.
Keita 7 Strong Helped hold the midfield together and found the time to score one too. His strength kept everyone on the same page.
Henry 6 Faded Had a great shot off the crossbar and then slowly disappeared. He still hasn’t hit the same form he had last year, I’d like to see Pedro or Bojan at that spot.
Ibracadabra 8 Effective Nailed his finish on the first goal and covered huge stretches of the field. He got back more than I thought he would and had a great impact on the game.
Messi 9 The Best Man of the match. He outplayed everyone.
Subs:
Iniesta 7 Rusty He hasn’t played in a while and it showed, but he had enough time to leave some details of his quality.
Marquez 7 Testimonial Didn’t really have to do anything, but he held his position well. It’s good to have him back because we’ll need all the depth we can get.