Valencia 2, Barca 2, a.k.a. “Keepers giveth and taketh away.”

By: Kevin | April 25th, 2009

Yes, this is a very strategic image selection, and one that marks a first: Gudjohnsen for Xavi was a difference maker in a match.

Yes, that’s right. Our very own Icelandic Monument, after hours of watching footy from a very good seat, comes in for a somnambulent Xavi and brings life to the side. And by the by, has anyone noticed that when Xavi goes for the scruffy look, he seems to have an off match?

Just asking.

I, for one, am NOT HAPPY with this result. I know that Valencia have been playing great and were at home, blah, blah, blah. We looked tired, and won’t be heading into an important match with a positive feeling. Messi and Iniesta played 95 minutes for a draw? And both goals we conceded were shit, and both squarely on the defense. Errors such as those could wind up being contagious, and we have to be razor-sharp for the next two matches. Now we’re reduced to hoping that Sevilla does us a favor.

This was a funky one, with much beautiful football from both sides, marred by two keepers who had “moments.” The quote marks are because GolTV watchers shouldn’t let Ray-Ray’s blatherings damn Valdes. It’s fashionable to slag our keeper, even more so than ripping on Hleb. But that second goal he could do nothing about, except castigate his dimwitted defense, who at any time could have just stuck a leg out, or tried a slide tackle, or done anything except let a man just waltz right through every last one of them to bang it past their helpless keeper. Think Caceres would have let that dude just stroll into the box, great pass notwithstanding? Not Hai Karate. No way.

But if you watch that first goal again, watch how Valdes is impeded not by the Valencia player, but by our very own Capitan, Carles Puyol. Yes, it would have been a simple take without that, Mr. Hudson. And yes, Valdes should have gone in stronger for it to at least punch it away. He also should have called off Puyol. Both are errors on his part. And who was fronting the guy who knocked in the goal?

Does it point to a bit of a lack of confidence in the keeper that Puyol even made the decision to go so aggressively for that cross, rather than leaving it for Valdes? Absolutely. Which means what?

Precious little at this point, but we’ll see tomorrow.

Meanwhile, we started with our “But what happens on the left” lineup of Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Keita, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Eto’o What I mean by this is what made the Sevilla match so effective was the multiple layers of danger. This is going to be a blasphemous argument, but we are a more dangerous side with Iniesta and Henry against teams such as Valencia, than Messi and Iniesta, off matches notwithstanding, and boy did Argy Bargy have a stinker.

Why? Because our attack works best when it creates width, which gives players such as Eto’o space to move into. Because Iniesta still tends to shade toward the middle of the pitch, we wind up using about two-thirds of the width on our attacks, making us easier to defend. And Iniesta works best off Xavi, where the two move and create space for each other. Busquets can’t do that. Neither can Keita. So Iniesta and Xavi wind up isolated, unless Iniesta moves toward the center to get the ball, which brings us back to that width problem.

Further, when Messi is having an off match, he tends to go all Don Quixote on us, running at the defense with the ball instead of realizing that passing is the one thing that never deserts a player. But even his touch was off today. Could it be that he benefits from more play instead of rest?

At any rate, Valencia must have breathed a sigh of relief when they saw the lineup, even as I’m sure we all said “Messi’s back! Yay!” The lineup made their tactic of flooding the midfield and contesting possession that much more effective without the width creating danger options. Their tactic was also helped by an off-song Xavi, it must also be said.

So the match started out drum-tight with very even play, as each side got a leg up on the other. We learned that Puyol is as fast as Villa, we learned that Busquets can be good in stretches, and we learned that Keita is coming into his own as a defensive mid. We also learned that Alves really is an excellent defender.

There were lots of long balls from both sides, lots of probing but no real scoring opportunities until Villa earned a bullshit free kick by running into Pique, falling down and crying for his mama. Valdes made a very nice save on the grasscutter. Nice of Pique to leap out of the way so that Valdes could have a clear view of the coming shot, right?

And then it happened: Abidal decided to try on the Xavi hat as he controlled the ball, made a little run then dished an excellent feed to Eto’o who fed Messi a setup ball, which went back to Iniesta for a little spacemaker before he served Messi, who slotted it through to Iniesta with the keeper to beat. I rather imagine everyone was screaming “Shoot it, Ghostface,” but don’t forget that he was in the box, so the force field was in effect. So he dished back to Messi for the sure thing.

It was a beautiful, beautiful goal rooted in ball and player movement, leaving the Valencia defense scrambling to catch straws that were blowing past them in the wind as ball and player moved even too quickly to foul. And now I go to my notes, which read: “The next goal is critical.”

I know. Duh, right? But the next goal would dictate how the rest of the match would go, since we play much better with a bit of a cushion. And then it happened. A corner kick that should have been easily dealt with became a ball bounding around the box that was slotted home for the 1-1. I’ve already explained how it happened, but the reason it was such a disturbing goal is because our Lay’s Potato Chip defense can rarely have just one.

But it will be a long time before they give up a more infuriating goal than that second Valencia tally, because the absolute worst time to give up a go-ahead goal is right before the half. Yet we did. The man with the best chance to stop it all was Keita, who just sort of half-heartedly lunged at the Valencia attacker, and the rest of the defense just stood there, splay-legged, and watched it all happen. It’s a safe bet that the tongue-lashing from Guardiola was severe, and it should have been. Being a team doesn’t mean letting someone else do it, it means doing it for your teammate.

So it was 2-1 at the half, and the question was how would we respond? Well, not very well, really, as Valencia continued to make it an even match, and whenever we’d start to take control, they’d start fouling to disrupt momentum, or a pass would find the wrong player as we were spraying balls all over the place, trying long passes to create space rather than incisive runs coupled with give-and-gos. But the former lets defenses set up while the latter (as we saw with the first goal) just guts them.

Oh. Yes, Messi should have gotten the penalty call for his foul on Silva. But he didn’t. Lucky for us. And if Villa is onside, a scrambling, clumsy Puyol gives one up for sure. But that’s life in the big city, right? Breathe a sigh of relief, and move on.

Much of the problem in the second half was linked to the lack of movement coming from the center of our attack, because Xavi had the cruds today. This meant a lot more command/control-type work for Iniesta, which means that he’s dicking around in midfield instead of doing what he does best, which is driving defenses crazy.

A crucial substitution came with the addition of Thierry Henry, who suddenly gave us the width that instantly made the attack more dangerous. We were creating chances, having more of the possession and beginning to press. It would even have been 2-2 a lot sooner had he passed the damn ball to Messi instead of trying a crappy little roller right at the keeper. Who did he think we were playing, Sevilla?

Then came the next astute substitution, which was the Icelandic Monument for Xavi, which brought movement and aggression out of the center of the park for us. Gudjohnsen was on fire, passing and moving, running into the box, going for balls and making aggressive movements.

And then came what for a while in Valencia will be known as the free kick from hell, which Busquets went for like the little terrier that he is, forcing the ball to bound back out to Henry, who softly lob-volleyed it home for the 2-2.

That goal was also the key that made us start looking like ourselves again, as we kept possession and had a lot of close moments, including one pass into the box that, were Gudjohnsen just a bit faster, would have been for the win. But that’s how it goes in this game that makes us all so crazy.

There was speculation that Silva would be the big difference between this match and the last, and he was. The play from him was very impressive, and almost killed us a few times. Watching Villa for a full match, however, makes me glad that we have Eto’o. Hope we don’t make that trade/buy.

And here we go:

Team: 5. They weren’t here today. They just weren’t. Most of the guys, with a few notable exceptions such as Iniesta and Abidal, were playing as if they were trying to conserve energy for Tuesday and that home cookin’. Midfield control comes from effort, and that second goal for Valencia was just shameful. Truly, truly shameful.

Guardiola: 7. Loses points for not having the lads ready to play, gains them with incisive substitutions that turned the match around, and almost won it.

Valdes: 7 Can a keeper give up two goals and still have a very good match? Yes, because he did everything that he could, right, including a number of exceptional saves. If he doesn’t have a face full of Puyol, he probably at least punches that corner away. The second goal, he was just dead to rights.

Alves: 6. Excellent defense, not so excellent offense, and I’m beginning to wonder if he should be taking free kicks for us when he does. He was much better at Sevilla. But his defense was bull-strong at key moments.

Pique: 9. Damn, what a show from Lank. Passing, heading, turning playmaker, covering for the entire back line, you name it. What a bargain he has turned into.

Puyol: 5. Started out very strong, then seemed to lose the fire. Sometimes his zeal to make plays draws him out of position, which makes everything break down. It’s the one argument for the Marquez/Pique center: Marquez stays home, knowing full well that he can’t do what he would like to think that he could. Hmmm.

Abidal: 8 An exceptional match for a player still getting his match form back, and his work on the run-up to the goal was simply delightful. The GolTV dimwits didn’t give him any credit for it. Not sure if any folks on the liveblog did, but I will here. He’s also more active on offense, which is never a bad thing.

Keita: 7. Another good match. He seemed a little disheveled because of the Xavi clunkiness, but he’s playing with more and more confidence as he understands his role in our system, which is to be an intelligent attacker whose principal task is midfield control.

Busquets: 6. I think he holds the ball too long. It draws fouls, but disrupts attacks. Also, when we were all singing his praises, remember how aggressive he was with his passing and forward runs? I want that dude back. Love the effort on the Messi free kick, to force the error that made it 2-2.

Xavi: 4. He is too crucial to our offense to have the kind of match that he had today. Again, Hleb should be a viable option for that role, or for the Iniesta role as Ghostface slides over into the Xavi role. Bummer ’bout that. But his movement was off, his control was off and his passing was off. The casualty was our midfield control. It didn’t exactly help him that his partner in crime, Iniesta, was off being a left winger, either.

Iniesta: 8. Our little magician picked up right where he left off against Sevilla. His sole flaws were some Messi-itis, leading him to keep making a run instead of passing the ball. We win through ball and player movement, not through one-man assaults, which just plays into the hands of the defense.

Messi: 5. Speaking of one-man assaults, right? He was running at four defenders, who simply formed a diamond around him. Did he stop to wait for support, did he pass the ball back, thinking “Sheeeit, if 4 dudes are with me, then it’s 9 on 6. Party time!” I’ll spare you the suspense. No.

Eto’o: 5. He was pressing really hard. You could see both he and Villa thinking about the pichichi, to their detriment. He was moving very well, like a live wire, but the service to him was woeful, which was another casualty of the Xavi Effect. As a central attacker, if the ball isn’t coming at him from center, it’s pretty hard for him to have an effect except as creator of chaos. Problem was he had the stank when he did have the ball. His shooting has also been off of late.

Substitutes

Henry (for Keita): 8. Instant offense. Even if you rip on him for not passing instead of trying that weak-ass across the goal mouth shot again, and I did above, the width that he brought to the offense was awesome. We instantly became dangerous, and life got better for Iniesta and Messi, as well as Eto’o.

Gudjohnsen (for Xavi): 7. The Monument tore it up today, with run after run into the box, and effort. I found myself wishing that the sub had been made earlier, frankly, given the effect that he had on the match. But he has to learn that he can’t make runs with the ball. He isn’t that kind of a player, really.

So right now, it’s 7 points, and will remain thus if Sevilla does the business against the EE tomorrow. It was a hard-earned point from a difficult match against a team with not that much to play for, really. Whether they’re third or fourth they still have to play their way into Europe, so why not go all out against us, as they did. But it could potentially cost us. A lot. We’ll see on Tuesday.

Now, here’s an interesting question for the class. Would it have been better to roll out a defensive lineup and go for the draw at Valencia, knowing that even if we’d lost and the EE won, a win in the Clasico would pretty much do the trick, given the relative ease of that last part of the season, or should Guardiola have played to win?

When everyone’s done castigating me for the ratings, you can discuss.