Top of the Table and Never Looking Back…Maybe.

By: Isaiah | March 12th, 2007

Whereas for most of Europe, silly things tend to happen now and then, in Spain “now and then” seems to mean every weekend. Take this past weekend for example. Barcelona and Real Madrid started off the big boy games with a down-right awesome 3-3 draw that verged on being utterly spectacular (and no doubt would have been had Oleguer not been sent off) and just when I thought Barcelona were going to slip 3 points behind Sevilla, Nastic beats them! 1-0! What? Otherwise, anyone who was anyone who wasn’t Atletico drew. That other team from Madrid beat Deportivo 2-0.

To be honest, only four of the 10 games (8 of 20 teams) had a winner. All that statistic really means is that Atletico are now better set to make a run at a Champions League spot should their city rivals at the Bernabeu slip up, while the rest of the league remains exactly the same as it was, with the exception that Barcelona made up the difference in points between themselves and Sevilla to regain the top spot.

The thing is, it’s not that they did it, but really how. In his weekly column, Phil Ball discussed the game in his usual, brilliant way, but he does fail to highlight just how good a game it really was until the 44th minute. There was no end to either Barcelona or Madrid’s creativity and willingness to push forward until Oleguer got sent off for being a numbskull and crashing around the pitch like a loon even though he’d already picked up a cheap yellow. That’s not my refereeing gripe (I did disagree with the first one he got, but that doesn’t excuse him from being stupid later); I really disliked that Sergio Ramos, who I dislike, didn’t even get a card for deliberately hacking down Ronaldinho. I even wrote down at the time: “If Oleguer gets a yellow for his foul on Guti, Ramos gets a red for his deliberate attempt to take out Ronaldinho” and yet 23 minutes later it was Barcelona who were down a man.

I know Barcelona don’t always play the least physical game, that Puyol and Márquez are more of the seek-and-destroy type players than the face-up-and-defend type, but they generally play pretty cleanly and they’re not swiping at ankles very much (Márquez, for one, is known to go sliding in a bit hard at times, but he usually picks up a yellow for his troubles and that makes sense). Madrid, however, often looked to be going for legs. Diarra, I think, was the only player that didn’t seem to be scything people down and he was the one who got a yellow card for what I thought was a pretty good play on his part. I didn’t understand what fouls were yellows and what were merely free kicks and I don’t think the players really ever had a sense of it either until late when everyone was too tired to really charge in defensively. It did make for some disjointed moments (and 46 fouls evenly split between the teams), but for all that fouling and bickering with the ref, there was still a natural flow the game that was undeniably a result of all that had come before this second Clasico of the year. Absolutely amazing stuff and I still can’t get over just how great a game it was.

It’s not that the second half was bad, far from it, but the first half was proving to be one of the most entertaining games of the year and Oleguer ruined it. Neutral fans worldwide must have been thrilled by Guti, Messi, and Ronaldinho, who were all playing at a spectacular level. The front lines of all the teams were great, though the defenses were pretty much crap. But that definitely made for a fast-paced game where everyone was moving rapidly and the ball was just going from end-to-end. 2-2 at halftime was completely unexpected, though the way in which Eto’o was able to create space so often was not. Valdes and Casillas were brilliant, especially the former, and it was only because of their heroics that it was 5-5. Eto’o had two one-on-one opportunities he couldn’t put away thanks to Iker and van Nistelrooy had three shots in rapid succession that I was very, very surprised didn’t go into the back of the net. Real Madrid did well to dominate for much of the second half, but the substitutions Rijkaard made were timed to perfection to utilize the fact that Madrid were subbing on attackers to try and get the winner rather than defenders to protect a lead they should have had much earlier (see Robinho for Raul; Capello neutered Madrid’s attack by putting de la Red on for Guti and that is what allowed Barcelona the space to create their third goal).

First the bad: The defense. It was terrible. That’s all I’m going to say about that because everyone who saw the game knows it’s true and those who didn’t see the game can just look at 3-3 to know very little defense was created.

The good that I saw from this game:

1. Messi: I don’t agree with Phil Ball that Guti beats out Messi for player of the game because Messi was creating a lot of his own moves and surging through the Madrid defense for the whole game while Guti sort of gave up after Oleguer left and was more content to bomb balls forward rather than he was in the first half when he was murdering Barcelona with his runs and clever diving. Anyway, Messi moved beautifully without the ball, which was in evidence on his first and third goal; on his second he was merely lucky in his position, though his shot, which I thought at first was going to sail over, was struck with a ferocity I always forget he capable of that it just zinged into the net. His shooting power is phenomenal, really and he rarely fails to deliver at least one absurd blast from distance every game. He also moved fantastically with the ball and reaffirmed himself as “the new Maradona” which is like saying “the new Michael Jordan” and really doesn’t mean a damn thing other than “he’s really good” because there will never be another Maradona or another Jordan.
2. Ronaldinho: I basically had a “oh my god Ronaldinho is back” spaz attack when Ronaldinho and Eto’o combined and only Casillas’ excellent positioning kept Ronnie from scoring and allowed Messi to grab his aforementioned canon-blast of a second. Very John Arne Riise of him, if I may mention such names so recently after the CL letdown. I was very impressed with Ronaldinho throughout the match, though he labored a bit in the second half, which is understandable given that his team was down a man and everyone on the field was quality. I see some really great games coming up for the team if Ronaldinho continues to play with such wonderful ingenuity both on the left and up front where he was surprisingly more effective.
3. Eto’o: In many ways, Eto’o was the lynchpin of the first half for Barcelona and his substitution, though judicious on Rijkaard’s part tactically and kind of thoughtful if Eto’o really isn’t 100% healthy, certainly hurt the team’s attacking ability. Samuel was very good in the first half, showing a natural understanding of Ronaldinho’s movements that allowed for greater fluidity than I’ve seen in Barcelona’s movements in a long time. The seeds of this were planted against Bilbao though I remarked at the time that it would be a bit excitable to expect him to make the leap to his previous form immediately, he is looking better and better and certainly it didn’t hurt that this was El Clasico and not merely lowly Bilbao.
4. Iniesta: There’s never much you can say about him, but he’s always good and I could deal with him keeping that up. I just feel that despite the fact that I have nothing really specific to say about his performance, he earned himself an honorable mention.
5. Valdés: Wonderful keeping despite letting 3 in. Not his fault the penalty was awarded (rightly or not; technically it was a foul so I can’t argue it, but that would mean the foul on Ronaldinho at the very end was a penalty too because it was also technically a foul) and no one ever has a good chance of stopping Ruud from the spot. On the first the defense failed him and on the third Sergio Ramos got the better position and shoved Puyol out of the way. I highly dislike Sergio Ramos. I thought I should repeat that because it’s true. He and Raul, I dislike. I’m not even sure quite why I dislike Ramos, but probably because he’s merengue and is vice president of the Real Madrid Stupid Hair club (president: Guti, little-one-in-training: Gago). Regardless, Valdés saved the game for Barcelona in the second half when Madrid was outplaying them. Great stuff, Victor.

YouTube is down for a moment, so I can’t link any videos, but I’ll post some tomorrow when I’ve had a chance to watch them and pick the cream of the crop.