Copa: Barcelona 1 - 1 Valencia (Deification Edition)

By: Isaiah | February 28th, 2008

The game came down to the hands of a man Ray Hudson screamed was a “black jungle cat” and yet another late, late, late heroic strike from Xavi. If not for Timo Hildebrand’s freakish ability to tell where the ball was going and his absurd luck, the game would have been 4-0 or even 5-0. Instead, it’s 1-1 thanks to Villa stabbing in and both Milito and Puyol failing to cover him. The only save Valdes had to make during the day and he didn’t make it. You have to give Valencia credit for trying valiently even though they were outclassed throughout the game by the ball movement Barcelona was able to generate.

First Xavi, then Eto’o, then Messi all fired into the packed Valencia defense in a rapid-fire recap of the entire game. And it was only the seventh minute. Ray Hudson was calling for Timo to be named Man of the Match in the 8th minute, which is stupid, but, in retrospect, was accurate nonetheless. He had a couple of bobbles, but nothing that gave Barcelona a second chance at the ball. It was at that moment in the 7th minute, though, that I had a vision of what the rest of the game would be like. And until Xavi stuck his boot out and that ball slipped in somehow my premonition was coming true. I was sagged on my couch for most of the match, occasionally yelling at GolTV for being “ass faced bastards,” whatever that is. They’re the ones who had the crap feed. That girl was pretty attractive, but I got really sick of seeing her cut in whenever Barcelona had a chance on goal.

Despite my malaise (partly caused by a stupid head cold, partly caused by my premonition of a Valencia win), I found myself awed by Barcelona’s playing. That they didn’t score is attributable more to Valencia’s skill and luck than to any misfiring on their part. While the “killer instinct” was not on display exactly, I thought that of the last three games, this game was the best performance by the blaugrana. It just happened to be that Hildebrand and his packed defense were able to survive, somehow, for 93 minutes. Celtic was a fairly dominate performance, of course, but it wasn’t 29 shots to 1. That Valencia scored that one is not a knock on Barcelona, really, simply because anything can happen in that one-off kind of moment. 29 shots, sure, that’s a lot and you have to make sure more than just 1 goes in, but sometimes Lady Luck is ~~off cavorting at a nightclub somewhere in Jersey and my girlfriend doesn’t come home until after sunrise because Daniel “kept buying drinks!”~~ not on your side. In my opinion, Sport’s dismissal of the team’s efforts as no better than a 7 out of 10 is both ignorant and insulting. While Sport is not a brilliant newspaper by any means, they generally understand the ins and outs of particular games and I usually agree with their assessments of players. Not this time around. A 7 for Messi and Eto’o? Are you fucking retarded?

Here’s the complete list of players and their ratings, according to Sport: Valdes (5), Zambrotta (5), Puyol (6), Milito (6), Abidal (6), Xavi (7), Toure (6), Deco (5), Messi (7), Henry (5), Eto’o (7), Iniesta (6), Bojan (6).

Hey, Sport, fuck you. Toure and Bojan got the same rating? Toure played what was probably his best game for Barcelona yet and he got a 6? You’re a bunch of idiots; not only that, but Xavi, Messi, and Eto’o all played the same game? Morons! Xavi was good, but Messi and Eto’o were pouring it on from beginning to end. Back to Toure, though: he built attacks, defended against them, and also shot. Remember that run from the edge of Barca’s box until he shot at the edge of Valencia’s? Yeah, you do, because it was awesome! Best run ever. And he only gets a 6? I gotta take blood pressure medication cause of you, Sport!

Regardless of what happened immediately after they were put on, Rijkaard (who I do not have to call Frank the Tank because of the draw) made the right moves in his substitutions. At the moment when Bojan was trotting on, I wondered if it wasn’t better to let Iniesta settle for a few minutes before throwing out that other sub, but there was nothing wrong with it, really. The goal just made Ray Hudson and Phil Schoen babble stupidly about it being a mistake, which it clearly wasn’t. The moves I would have made, brilliant manager that I am, would have been to exchange Deco for Iniesta and Henry for Bojan. And it might have worked out a bit better had Bojan not taken a knock right after getting on. He seemed to be limping after his collection of collisions with several players three times his size (that could be anyone), but still made some impressive moves along the side. Anyway, no criticism of Rijkaard’s in-game plan, but he did gamble prior to the game on his team putting away several of those 29 chances. When they didn’t, his decision to leave Ronaldinho and Gio out of the squad became detrimental to putting on fresh, attacking legs. I understand full well that Ronaldinho needs rest, that Iniesta needs rest, and I don’t necessarily believe that it was a mistake to put out a starting lineup without them, but I do think it’s a mistake to limit yourself tactically like that. After Iniesta and Bojan went on, there were no attackers left on the bench. I get that Edmilson and Thuram were defensive replacement possibilities, but Edmilson should have been Ronaldinho simply because if necessary, Iniesta and Xavi can tag-team the middle of the field defensively, but Edmilson cannot be an offensive force. So why bother with him in a restricted lineup like that demanded by the Copa del Rey?

Whatever, we played an awesome game. It was a start-to-finish game, with incisive passing from the start and it makes me excited to continue watching this team. Now if only Rijkaard would stop looking to Rafa Benitez for startling lineup advice and actually pick a consistent starting 11, we’d be set. I know players get tired, but Ronaldinho should be playing right now, not relaxing in the stands.

Woohoo for us, for the fact that the game on March 19 in the Mestalla will be insane and fun. But between now and then we have a game at Atletico, home against Celtic, and then home against Villarreal. Holy shish kabob!