Barcelona 5 - 1 Levante (Holy Balls Edition)

By: Isaiah | February 25th, 2008

Squashed between several big matches in the Champions League, Copa del Rey, and even La Liga itself, was a little visit from old Levante. Any thought that Barcelona would have a post-Celtic hangover was dashed early, then reignited for lack of anything better to talk about midway through the first half by the asinine GolTV commentators, and then like an Old Testament plague Samuel Eto’o descended on the Levante goal box and devoured all crosses that arrived at his feet. And even one that arrived somewhere along his shin.

Holy balls we were good. Some commenters have suggested in a previous post that despite the convincing scoreline, Barca was not as good against Levante as they were against Celtic. In at least one tangible way this is true (24 shots in the Celtic game as opposed to 21 against Levante) and I tend to agree that the intangibles point to this as well, seeing as the idea that Levante is even remotely as good as Celtic is ludacris, to say the least. The display put on in front of Celtic Park crowd was one for the ages and one that not even two goals could really tarnish.

Would the scoreline at Celtic Park have been different were Eto’o, Ronaldinho, and Messi all put on the field at once, like they were at Levante, but instead of backed by Xavi, backed by Deco? And this is the Deco that we saw play against Celtic I’m talking about, not any other Deco who has shown his face on the field lately. I think it would have been different, more lopsided; the dam would have burst and the goals would have rained in. There is little negative to say about the performance against Levante — even the penalty was pretty much a fluke and you could tell that Zambrotta stepped it up afterwards, feeling the need to make up for what he’d just done.

Let’s talk Xavi, quickly, just because he’s a hot topic. His first half display was good and he certainly deserved his start and certainly deserved to retain his spot on the field for 90 minutes. His heel pass to Messi was genius, really, and I definitely yelled “Xavi is back!” right after the goal, because, you know, Messi had never gone anywhere, so why yell anything about that? And Xavi had scored his 5th goal of the season earlier off a ball that wasn’t designed for him, but goddammit does he have a nose for loose balls these days. And thank god.

However, Xavi’s second half was not as good as his first and it was a little disappointing to see him retreat into his shell. Tactically it was a good move on Rijkaard’s part and Xavi played well in his deep-lying midfield role, shooting balls around the perimeter like everyone else. I thought it strange, though, that Toure was the one pushing up instead of Xavi; I wanted to see Xavi pushing the envelope, really forcing his way forward, so as to better recover his form. That’s just the striker in me coming out, though. Goals and assists make the heart sing. And singing hearts win championships.

Well, at least hearts that aren’t confused by a bizarre refereeing decision. I saw replays of that Getafe goal, of course, and I can’t figure out what the hell was going on any more than the Madrid players could. I returned from Nevada Smiths in time to see that the score was 0-1 with 10 minutes remaining and I yelped with joy apparently loudly enough that the woman looked into the room and said “Madrid is losing!?” with a hopeful look in her eyes. She’s a keeper!

Back to Barca: Regardless, Xavi’s playing well, but I would start Deco against Valencia because Toure is the Rock of Gibraltar combined with the Juggernaut. And he can pass! What a sublime flick to Messi for Eto’o’s second. What a great play.

I’m finding it hard to think about this game on any level other than “Damn.” because, well, damn. We really cleaned their clocks, though the game wasn’t even close to fair. Levante hasn’t been paid in months and Barcelona is, well, getting paid a ton and starting to really click. It must be heard enough to never get any respect from anyone. At least Derby County gets paid.

As The Great Phil Ball wrote in his weekly column, “[Things] look to be tipping Barcelona’s way, now that there are a mere two points separating the [top] clubs. Madrid look all nervy and frail, and the Catalans on a roll. Even Ronaldinho is smiling again, and Messi is simply confirming the fact that he is some kind of extra-terrestrial force against which no earthly armoury exists.” You’re goddamned skippy, general. And with Valencia in turmoil, hopefully we can steal a huge win against them on Wednesday (preview tomorrow!).

Ronaldinho did look good, if not spectacular. His vision is back to what it once was, but his finishing is as shameful as mine in my indoor league (and boy is it shameful). I can’t believe Ronnie missed that shot. No, seriously, I don’t believe it. 6-1! Yay…Good to see Ronnie back and clicking with everyone; let’s just hope Rijkaard has the nerves to keep Henry on the bench for a bit and let Samu do his thing. And I’d like to point out that Eto’o has played in 8 league games so far (7 starts, 1 substitute appearance) and he’s scored, you guessed it, 8 goals. Hot damn.

I realize this hasn’t been the best review, but I think it is sufficient to say that I am all woohoo and stuff. I’m super excited for what we’re going to put on display against Valencia, though I’m less excited about the prospect of Henry returning. I’d like to see the lineup we started with against Levante, but switching out Sylvinho for Abidal and Xavi for Deco. Then we’d be money in Gringots. I’m totally coming home early from work to watch that shit live! Yeah!