Athletic – Barcelona liveblog

By: Isaiah | October 19th, 2008

Hey folks, it’s the liveblog:

The current lineup: Victor Valdés, Alves, Piqué, ~~Márquez~~ (Puyol 66′), Abidal, Victor Sánchez, Iniesta, Touré, ~~Keita~~ (Busquets 33′), Eto’o, ~~Henry~~ (Hleb 80′).

Athletic: Gorka Iraizoz (GK) , Iraola, Amorebieta, Aitor Ocio, Balenziaga, David López, ~~Orbáiz~~ (Gurpegi 77′), ~~Gabilondo~~ (Velez 76′), Yeste, ~~Garmendia~~ (Susaeta 62′), Llorente.

93′ Suseata almost gets on the end of a bad Toure back header, but Valdes grabs it…AND THAT’S THE GAME! 1-0, baby! SAMUUUU!

92′ Barcelona are playing possession ball, but Victor Sanchez turns it over. Schoen says VS is a center back…but he’s like 5′7″…Wiki lists him at 5′8.5″…

91′ 3 minutes of added time. Puyol sends a beautiful ball to Sanchez, who feeds Iniesta, who holds it up. Interplay between Alves, Sanchez, and Iniesta. Now Toure in on it.

90′ Eto’o gets a yellow for playing on after a whistle that I couldn’t hear either. I’m not sure that’s a very good call. Busquets is dragged down, but no yellow this time around. Damn.

89′ Eto’o all alone on a break, has to hold it up…Hleb, Iniesta and Sanchez are in on it now, but they lose possession and Busquets tries to chop down a player and gets booked for it.

88′ Phil Schoen: Victor Sanchez has had a good game here today. No, not really…I mean, he hasn’t screwed up, but that’s not a particularly good way of judging a good game or not.

87′ Now there’s a good run from Hleb, who has no real help and ends up losing it right to Iniesta, who bangs in a shot that is deflected off a defender. Athletic are trying hard, but Barcelona are doing well on counters right now.

85′ Hleb with his first series of touches…too fancy, Mr. Alex. He tries to Messi/Iniesta his way through some players and ends up losing it and fouling a guy. Great.

84′ Yeste cramps and stays down for a bit. That shit hurts, yo.

83′ Immediately Athletic threatens Barcelona’s net, but an Athletic player blocks a header the wrong way…Toure stays down for ab it and is off for treatment on his shoulder.

82′ HOW DID ETO’O MISS THAT? He didn’t even get that on target! Great ball by Iniesta, terrible finish by Eto’o. Didn’t even get it on target.

80′ Final sub for Barcelona: Hleb on for Henry. Great game, Titi!

80′ Great ball by Toure for Victor Sanchez streaking along, but VS’ touch fails him.

77′ A corner for Athletic and their final substitution: Gurpegi for Orbáiz.

76′ Velez comes on for Gabilondo.

75′ Alves is slashed down by Balenziaga on the wing, earning a yellow card. The resulting free kick is flicked clear by Athletic.

72′ A corner for Barcelona…how many is that? Seems like a ton, but Soccernet claims it’s only #4…

71′ Puyol’s first defensive play is to pick a player’s pocket about 30 yards from goal on the wing. Nicely done, Captain my Captain.

69′ Barcelona are starting to take this game over, little by little, but Athletic are still looking rather dangerous on the break. Pique clears a lame header. Henry, I have to say, is having a really good game. (Did you like that complete nonsequitor? I did.)

68′ Busquets is making his presence felt. I’m digging the kid now, who wasn’t too sharp for a few minutes, but is now on his game.

67′ The ball is stolen by Barca, Henry collects in the middle, flips it to Busquets, who feeds Iniesta, who skips a defender and then loops a ball in that is barely headed away from Eto’o by Ocio (I think) and Gorka has to tip it around the post to save an own goal.

66′ Marquez finally comes off in favor of Puyol. Abidal shows Puyol how we’re playing by winning a beautiful tackle at the edge of the box. Abidal is having a good game too.

63′ ETO’O GOAL!!!!!!! What a run by Henry, then a brilliant finish by Eto’o, who was hugging the shoulder of a defender. That goal is Henry’s. Ray Hudson has it right. What a thunderous strike, too, though, by Eto’o.

62′ Marquez does limp back onto the field as Susaeta comes on for Garmendia.

61′ Llorente and Marquez run into each other and it looks like Marquez turned his ankle when he landed on Llorente’s leg. Not sure what happened to Llorente, but it looks like an ankle injury as well. Both are limping rather heavily, Marquez more so. Puyol is warming up and there’s little doubt that Marquez goes out after a solid game.

59′ Athletic get a cross and it’s hardly dealt with well, but eventually it’s out after a Keystone Kops moment between Toure and Marquez that saw Marquez head the ball right into Toure, who was two feet away.

57′ Hleb is warming up again on the sidelines. I’d like to see Messi instead. Abidal does a little crazy winning of the ball. Iniesta grabs the ball in midfield — he’s really stepped up in the second half.

56′ I haven’t talked about the defense much, but Pique and Marquez are doing a great job against “the best player in Spain”, Llorente.

54′ Another corner to Barcelona, Busquets this time gets on the end of it, but his attempted shot/pass (who knows which) is way off.

52′ Corner for Barcelona…the ball falls at the top of the box to Toure who KILLS a ball, which slams into Busquets (I think). I hope Busquets survives.

49′ Hey look, Busquets draws another card…this time against Orbaiz. Marquez then gets a yellow card for a pretty crazy tackle that was all ball and then the man. Bad yellow.

48′ Iniesta gives Victor Sanchez a chance to become an instant hero, but VS puts it over the bar, though not by much. Damn!

47′ Well, we’re back. Nothing much going on, as of yet, except a few silly fouls in the middle.

Halftime thoughts: 1) I’ve seen all of these GolTV ads 100 times before. 2) We’re looking stagnate in the midfield. I can’t actually tell where Victor Sanchez is supposed to be playing, so I’m not sure if he’s doing his job or not — regardless, he’s a bit invisible. Toure is a man in the middle, but Athletic are using the wings a lot more. 3) Hudson needs to get off of Llorente’s nuts. 4) I want to see Messi on for Victor Sanchez.

45′ A long, long ball over the top is barely pulled away from Eto’os scorching run. Man, what a close call there for Athletic. It was either what happened or a full-blooded one-on-one between Samu and Gorka. Henry, playing on the right, weasels his way to the corner, but isn’t able to get a corner out of it. Goal kick and it’s halftime.

43′ Ocio almost scores an own goal as Dani Alves finally gets a solid cross in. Instead it’s a corner…And Gorka has to make a diving save on an Eto’o flicked header! On the resulting throw in, Gorka cracks Ocio in the back of the head while punching the ball away.

39′ Busquets gets his first touch and immediately draws a card against Amorebieta. Nicely done.

38′ Athletic gets another half chance, but Garmendia can’t do much with it. He’s the guy going up for the ball with Puyol in the preview.

37′ Dani Alves shoots a rather poor ball through the box and right to Gorka. Henry was sorta there…mostly not. Alves is not having a great game so far.

35′ Eto’o has a golden opportunity, but Aitor Ocio does fantastically to block the left-footed shot. It was 2v2 and Gorka didn’t even need to move. Damn! Vaya ocasion as they say.

35′ The game has definitely slowed down. Athletic are doing a very good job in the midfield…are we missing Xavi that much or is Athletic doing that good of a job?

31′ There’s a scramble in the Barca box, but it’s cleared without any real problems, despite what nonsense Hudson has been blathering about Llorente’s almost goal.

30′ Keita may or may not be all right; Hleb is warming up. Athletic have quite a bit of possession compared to what we’re used to as blaugrana fans…Kieta is staying off, but it’s Busquets who comes on for him.

28′ Henry backtracking? Lord, I’ve seen everything now. (And yes, I know he routinely backtracks, especially compared to most #9s.) And there it is again, 30 seconds later. Keita is injured. Replays

27′ Brilliant run by Iniesta, but the final ball is an inch off from getting through to a cutting Henry. Man oh man this SPF45 kid is getting better and better. And Andrew, see how much better I’m getting at identifying players from my own team?

24′ After a series of corners, the ball is finally cleared out. It looks like Dani Alves is playing more in the middle than on the right side of defense…almost as a midfielder. And of course, jsut as I say that he drifts off to the right. Nice.

22′ Llorente falls after a tiny touch from Keita and it’s a freekick from about 30 yards out…Off the crossbar! Man, they are really on it with the freekcicks…doesn’t look like Valdes had that one at all.

21′ A shot over the bar from Iniesta from about 25 yards out. Not a bad chance at all.

19′ Man, Llorente is getting maaad love from Phil Schoen and Ray Hudson. What the hell? “With the departure of Dani Guiza, he may be the best player in Spain.” What?

18′ Athletic break and Victor Sanchez covers at the back post to kick it out for a corner.

17′ The game has bogged down just a little in the midfield, but the ball is still going all over the place, which is nice to see…Keita now goes down with a little knock and stays down until the ball is kicked out. The replay doesn’t show anything…

15′ Toure gets a nice little smack to the back of the head and stays down for a bit. It kind of looks like he’s wasting time with 15 minutes gone. Guardiola is chilling on the bench, chewing away on his gum.

13′ Marquez takes a freekick out wide and it amounts to absolutely nothing as Hleb tries to whip the ball into the box.

11′ Victor Sanchez makes his first appearance with a foul in midfield. Welcome, young one.

10′ Henry shanks a ball he really should have gotten all of and the ball is out for a goal kick. They show the bench quickly…Bojan, Messi, Puyol…wow.

8′ Eto’o fires in a good shot after turning his man, but Gorka is equal to it and the ball goes out for a quick Athletic counter, during which Llorente is called for offsides. Ray Hudsons says Llorente could play for any club in the world.

7′ I’ve decided that it’s time to start drinking as Keita, of all people, is caught offside…Keita? The drink of choice right now is Trader Jose’s Dark.

5′ It’s already a running game as Athletic look like they’re out to play. The ball is mainly on Barcelona’s defensive end, which is weird. A couple of half chances turn into nothing for Athletic.

4′ Barca are playing Eto’o in the middle, Henry on the left, and a random assortment of players everywhere else. Eto’o nearly dispossess the keeper, but the ball trickles out before he can reign it in.

3′: Alves gets beaten and takes down a player at the edge of the box….And Valdes with a GREAT save to start this one off!