Barcelona 2 - 1 Deportivo La Coruña: Review (Don’t Ignore the Overlap Edition)

By: Isaiah | December 11th, 2007

I know it’s late and I know it’s coming on the final Champions League matchday, but I promised a review and a review is what you’ll get. At least it’s better than some meandering post about whether or not Ronaldinho’s latest on-field conversation with Rijkaard suggests he’ll be moving to Chelsea come January. Shut up, Sport, you’re a bunch of windbags. And, hopefully, this is a non-spam-creating post, unlike the ones before it.

So it was the return of the injured Eto’o and Deco, who have been billed, here and elsewhere, as the saviors of the Barcelona season. Interesting, then, that it’s the man who has been there all along, the man who works day-in-and-day-out doing the little things that go unheralded who saved the day. No, I’m not talking about Señor X, but rather the little see-through man himself, Andres Iniesta. Regardless of what you thought of Ronaldinho’s nice penalty or Xavi’s tap-in, the first goal was created by the little squirt, Iniesta, via his dribbling skills in the box. It’s his ability to pass that allows him to use his dribble so affectively, really, and he does so with reckless abandon most of the time. He is my choice for Man-of-the-Match, without question.

He was everywhere, playing both offense and defense for 90 minutes. It was rare to see a move start without him and even rarer to see it end without his contribution; the fact that he was involved on both ends of most moves is a testament to his abilities. That he is overshadowed by most of his other teammates, yet continues to contribute at a world class level every game, is a testament to his lack of ego and his devotion to the team and club. I wrote in my match comments that he deserved the MoM by the 40th minute, right as he won the penalty that turned the game from feeling of doom to having a sense of inevitability: Barca would win and win well, regardless.

Depor played hard and played well, but their lone goal came on their first attack, facing a side suddenly aware that it had no central defensive midfielder. Not that it makes the goal count less or makes the defensive failure any less of a failure, but it does suggest that Barcelona is getting used to, in fact taking for granted, Toure’s presence in midfield. Xavi and Iniesta had momentary brainfarts that allowed Guardado to waltz freely through the middle of the field and give the ball to a full-speed Cristian, whose shot was pretty hot, beating Valdes to the back post. I thought the replays showed Valdes could have saved the shot, but YouTube is not allowing any video footage, so I guess we’ll never know.

And then, of course, Xisco missed a gilt-edged chance when he was left alone in the box by an off-side trap that worked about as well as the first release of Windows Vista (zing!) or a Segway reversing out into traffic. Dude, I’m the next Bill Simmons!† Xisco really, really should have made it 2-0, but instead lofted a weak ball over the bar that Valdes had covered anyway. It’s called trapping, Xisco. You’ll learn.

There was a bit of bad luck for Barca and Eto’o in particular in the 22nd minute, when Iniesta won a free-kick about 25 yards out and Ronnie fired it into the box, where it was blocked by the keeper, fell to Eto’o twice, then to Puyol, who could only manage to dribble it back to the keeper. It should have been 1-1 and an in-form Eto’o would have put the shot away without a moment’s hesitation, which is what allowed the defense to close him down as much as it did. Sylvinho played a fairly decent game, especially when you look at his previous contributions. An argument could be made that the goal was his fault (Cristian was on his side), but I don’t think Abidal would have closed down that shot either. Sylvinho was making strong runs up the side and combining well with Ronaldinho, whose heel flicks were superb most of the day; his workrate too, for that matter.

We missed Abidal when defending the counterattacks, but for the most part, Sylvinho covered well. Speaking of the Frenchman, he had gastroenteritis, which is why he didn’t appear against Depor. In fact, it’s unlikely he’ll appear against Stuttgart as well, but that’s probably for the best, with Valencia coming up this weekend and 1st place guaranteed regardless of the outcome (and it should be noted that Stuttgart is out regardless, but they might be playing for some pride).

One of the major themes of the game that I noticed — I’d like to say hi to my buddy JC in Nicaragua! Hey, JC! — see how weird that was? Well it was just as weird when Ray Hudson did a shout out to someone in New Mexico thanking him/her/it for “the kind words.” Is there no end to how weird Ray Hudson can be? I mean, I’ve heard him do shout outs to his buddies before, but they were always people he knew in person…until now. Whoever that was, I hope you know you’re a very lucky person. Ray Hudson likes you. And probably writes you lots of gaudy emails about his little baby Bojan.

Back to the point, which was that Barcelona is starting to get into a rhythm, I think. It may not quite show in the scoreline, but Eto’o’s impact on the game was huge. He was inches from scoring a couple of times and millimeters from creating scoring opportunities for others. He and Ronaldinho’s connection hasn’t been severed by all his time off and I expect big things from Eto’o-Iniesta as well. What was strange was that I saw few instances of Eto’o and Messi playing together. Eto’o needed to create a little space for him by swinging out to the right like he does to the left whenever Ronaldinho or Deco get the ball in the middle. That draws a defender away and allows for more runs. Guardado and Felipe did as good as job as I’ve ever seen in keeping Messi down and he still should have scored (but didn’t thanks to a great tackle by Coloccini).

Deco wasn’t himself, but he’s just getting back from injury and it was surprising how good Eto’o was. Both should play for 45 minutes against Stuttgart, just to get them some more playing time, especially with Deco suspended for the Valencia game (or I think he is, nothing official has come out, but by my tally that’s 5 for him). If he is suspended, it might have been a good call for him to get himself a yellow card by mouthing off to the ref because this way he won’t miss El Clasico by getting a yellow against Valencia. However, if it was his 4th and not his 5th, that was a stupid, stupid move. Of course, Soccernet has him listed as having 7 yellow cards, which is definitely not true because he hasn’t served a suspension. Regardless, he wasn’t up to his usual standards, but I expect his form to come around soon.

Xavi’s goal was a well-executed team goal, starting with Messi holding the ball up and then playing Puyol down the line, who hook the ball over, Bojan swept in at the near post, but couldn’t get a foot on it, the keeper, distracted by Bojan, couldn’t grab it, and Xavi had the easiest of goals: side-footing home with no one around him. Of course I yelled loud and long and probably cursed Real Madrid roundly (just for good measure), and immediately decide the name of this post would include “Don’t Ignore the Overlap”. Great ball by Messi to start the move, awesome work rate from Puyol on the right, where he switched after Zambrotta was replaced by Deco.

I feel that’s all there is to say about the game. Solid performance coming from behind, but sort of silly to let that happen. No longer the best defensive record at home, but still the best overall. Visiting the Mestalla next weekend will be a stern test for both clubs. No preview of the Champions League game because it’s not much of a game — Stuttgart’s manager called it a friendly — so I’ll gear up for a general preview of what’s coming against Valencia and then, oh baby, it’s time for El Clasico. Oh yes it is.

† Or Tuesday Morning QB if I said things like “Durr, the Cactus Wrens!”…I’ve wasted so much of my life reading terrible NFL editorials! Such tragedy…Though I tend to like Bill Simmons when he doesn’t talk about Boston-area sports.