Valladolid - Barcelona: Review and Highlights (disgruntled edition)

By: Isaiah | November 2nd, 2007

Statshot:
Valladolid 1 - 1 (Llorente 16′; Ronaldinho 42′)
Time of possession: 37%-63%
Shots on Goal: 8-2
Corners: 4 - 11

Lineup: Valdes, Puyol, Marquez (Zambrotta 61′), Milito, Sylvinho, Toure Yaya (Gudjohnsen 70′), Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, Bojan (Giovani 74′), Ronaldinho

In case you thought I had forgotten to list the home team first in terms of shots, well, I did do that. Valladolid actually outshot Barcelona 4 times over. GolTV claimed it was 8-3, but whatever, it’s still a huge difference and it’s the main way you can tell that this game was the worst I have seen from Barcelona. Ever. To some that may be an exaggeration, that there must have been a worse performances because we drew 1-1, but I disagree. Getting beaten 3-1 at villareal is infinitely more stomachable than drawing 1-1 to the team who allowed the second most number of goals in the league. And it’s not even that because every dog has its day, it’s more than Appalachian State beating Michigan, it’s the lack of effort that gets me, that causes me to think of this game not as a point, as a well-earned draw for the minnows, but rather as a debacle for the big boys. You win some, you lose some, but you always try.

I wrote quite a few match notes while streaming the game, but I’ve found, when trying to think of how to organize all those random thoughts into a post, that I am not very interested in discussing this game. Most of what needs to be said has been said already in the comments to the preview, but I will expand on my thoughts on who played well and who played abysmally.

* Valdes was fantastic. A true bacon-saving performance. Just watch the video below for proof.

* Puyol was very mediocre at right back and simply mediocre at center back. He was directly responsible for Valladolid’s goal as Llorente beat him to the ball by winning the positioning battle.

* Marquez was subbed off in the 60th minute in favor of Zambrotta, but before that he was terrible. Now, I know that the defense was improving as the first half progressed, but Marquez was never really there tactically. Only his physical abilities saved the day from being a complete wash because he was able to recover a couple of times from bad positions. During the goal, Marquez was unable to find the ball anywhere even though a simple lunge on his part would probably have directed the ball out for a corner rather than in for a goal; instead he chose to play his man, who was well out of the play at that point.
*Milito was decent, but nothing more. He was neither the ball winner nor the pass disruptor he normally is, but he was also the best player in a horrendous backline.

*sylvinho was my first choice to replace the injured Abidal and I still stick by that, despite his obvious failings, which include the inability to track back after a long run forward, a prereq for going forward in the first place. At one point at the very end of the first half, as Sylvinho swept into the box with the ball and challenged three defenders at once, I wrote, “Sylvinho: pass the ball you asshole. You’re a defender. You with the ball in the box is not what I want to see” and I guess that tells you basically all you need to know. He’s not as good defensively as Abidal and he’s not as good offensively as he should be…Sylvinho was indirectly responsible for the goal by being well out of position and forcing Milito to cover his man rather than the middle of the field, allowing Marquez more freedom in his positioning.

*Toure had the best game of the back bunch, but wasn’t particularly impressive either. He controlled his section of the field fairly well, but wasn’t particularly effective in beginning the attacks as he was before his injury. I can understand that fitness may be a slight issue at this point, but if so, why was he starting? I’d like to see him go the full 90 from here on out, meaning no more switches for Gudjohnsen. It should be noted, however, that he was the one who passed the ball to Xavi, who then played it to Ronaldinho for the goal. He was forced to mark Sisi, whose presence and skills allowed Llorente to run wild on the out-of-his-element Puyol at right back because it meant there was a clear distributor and a clear winger with space. See the entry on Xavi for why the ball was on the right side in the first place.

*Xavi had a tough time in this game, covering the side opened up by Messi’s lack of possession and complete failure to mind his defensive duties. Xavi was forced to play in no-man’s land in order to counter Messi losing the ball while at the same time needing to play back to cover his normal man. This was made possible more by the fact that the ball was turned over in midfield more than by any tactical mistakes (the counterattack being much easier from 75 yards out than 130), but Xavi was also responsible for a large number of bad passes (notable exception being the fantastic turn-and-pass that created Ronnie’s goal) as well as his own defensive lapses. I’d give him a D if this were a class.

*Iniesta was one of the invisibles for much of the game, but is due more to the pressure applied by Sesma, et al rather than Iniesta’s lack of abilities. He fought gamely on, but wasn’t sharp in his runs and wasn’t was too negative in his passing. By turning the ball over a lot in the first half and being out-hustled throughout the game, Barcelona allowed themselves to lose their faith in their own ability to break down the defense with on and off the ball runs. Iniesta was perhaps the biggest culprit in that sense: he stayed at home and played the ball short and horizontally almost every time he touched it, being unwilling to shoot forward very often or even to pass the ball long to Xavi or Messi on the other flank. Part of this is the fact that defense was so bad that he had to stay home in order to keep large breaks from happening, but at the same time, Barcelona’s style is to control the game in the other’s team’s half, which they didn’t do.
*
Messi wasn’t there. Simply, he might as well have not played. He had one good run, which resulted in Bojan striking the post. Other than that, whatever.

*Ronaldinho had his best game in a while, I thought. For the first 35 minutes, he wasn’t really there, but when he switched to the middle of the field, he scored almost immediately and began to break down the defense a little. Had Messi been up to the task of feeding him, the team would probably have been off to the races pretty quickly; instead he was bounced back to the left when Bojan was replaced by Gio and he disappeared again. I blame that on the fact that a non-existent Gudjohnsen was playing the distributor role and a non-existent Messi was playing striker, providing a 9-against-11 game rather than the more fair 11-on-11 we’re used to. Ronnie ran at the defense and looked dangerous until Valladoid found out that they didn’t need to mark Messi with 2, so they switched that extra defender to Ronnie. Nice tactical change. Rijkaard, of course, countered, but his players weren’t really up for it except for the moment that brought the goal. Good to see Ronnie scoring and hopefully this is the start of a good run. But imagine if Ronnie and Messi both decided to play at the same time…wowza.

*Bojan had a very up and down game. He looked uncomfortable up front, but once he was switched to a high-left position, he began to show his skills. He hit the post once, but should have had a bucketload of goals; instead, his touch let him down, which isn’t something I expected to see and he was muscled off the ball. Phil Schoen stated, as Ronaldinho celebrated his goal, that Ronnie wasn’t going to let anyone out-muscle him when the ball is there to be won and that’s true. I think it was Phil Schoen that said, “Have they [Barcelona] had a striker like him since Stoichkov?” I think it’s al ittle early for that kind of statement. No offense to Bojan, but he’s 17 and Hristo was, well, Hristo F-ing Stoichkov.

Subs
*Zambrotta looked out of his element from the moment he stepped onto the field. He had a few good runs forward, tracked back, and promptly into what we used to call in high school “crazy legs.” He would just pump the ball upfield, or throw himself randomly around. Better than Marquez was doing, which was missing the ball completely and freeing whoever was nearest, but still, weird to see such a solid player being frantic.

*Gudjohnsen’s game can be summarized like this:

*Giovani Dos Santos came off the bench for Bojan and was promptly stuck in his own half for almost the entire time. It wasn’t really his fault and he came on at a moment when the rest of the team was giving up. He tried a little and then fell into that same rhythm, almost broke out of it, and then the ball was turned over and the game was done too.

There is actually quite a bit more to discuss, including the upcoming Real Betis game, but I’m not going to discuss it because I am going to go out drinking now instead. With my girlfriend. Who is real. And not imaginary.