Barcelona 2 - 0 Almeria: Review and Highlights

By: Isaiah | October 30th, 2007

Statshot:
Barca 2 - 0 Almeria (Henry 37′, Messi pen 80′)
Time of posession: 63%-37%
Shots on goal: 6-3
Corners: 11-0

This weekend was the Halloween party weekend here in los estados unidos and so, naturally, I dressed up like an idiot, drank with friends, and ended up watching a ton of football and soccer while hungover the next morning/afternoon. That’s just the way we do it here in this land of liberty and I wouldn’t have it any other way. So it was with great pleasure (as well as with a headache and some Gatorade) that I settled onto the couch with the TV tuned to some mudbowl game in Wembley Stadium while the computer let me watch my boys in blaugrana turned in a half-hearted (at best) performance against a game, if outclassed, opponent.

Almeria deserves a lot of credit for their pluck, while the lacadaisacal manner in which Barcelona approached the game should be frowned upon and outlawed. I try not to get too down on players, of course, because we can all phone in performances now and again (look at me, writing this at work, for instance), but man, if I’d never seen a Barcelona game and I tuned in for this one, I’d wonder what all the fuss was about. Whoever this Ronaldinho character is, I’d think, he sure gets a lot of attention for a guy who can’t seem to find any rhythm.

But there’s also a lot to be said about the initial lineup and how that can affect a squad’s entire performance. Here is the starting lineup: Valdes, Zambrotta, Puyol, Milito, Abidal, Toure, Xavi, Iniesta, Ronaldinho, Giovani, Henry. Note that Toure and Zambrotta started for the first time in more than a month, which would suggest that there would be at least some amount of time spent getting used to playing with each other. So there’s that excuse, which is really just an excuse, but it does make some sense, in the end. Or at least I hope so, since it’s the explanation I’m sticking to for now. It’s always hard to come off of injury, so we have to cut them some slack. And I don’t mean just Toure and Zambrotta, but rather the whole squad has to adjust when a single player comes back, much less two. That and Messi was no longer appearing on the right side; in his place was Giovani Dos Santos, a talented player, of course, but not Messi, who is just supremely influential at this point.

Speaking of which, let’s go back to Ronaldinho. What’s going on with him? What has happened? There are doubts creeping into my mind and I do not like this. I have stood by him steadfastly until now, when I saw him kicking the ball around in ways that reminded me of myself (albeit on good days): bad first touches, the inability to take on single defenders, and overly tricky passes that sailed beyond anyone’s reach. Because they didn’t have to dedicate two defenders to Ronnie, which became obvious very early, Almeria was free to cover more of the midfield and stifle the creative freedom granted Iniesta by the return of Toure. Gio can’t be expected to do more than he did, really, which was to provide pace and some passion to the right side, while Henry still hasn’t figure out that Barcelona requires diagonal runs into the box and quicker thinking when the ball is at your feet. More on that in a minute, though. It’s Messi, we’re concerned with, which is why we’re discussing Ronaldinho. There has been a lot of debate about whether or not Messi should supplant Ronaldinho in the squad, about whether Messi is better than Ronaldinho, and whether or not Ronaldinho should leave the club in January or next summer if the answer to the previous two questions is yes. Despite my growing doubts, Ronaldinho serves a very useful purpose on the left side of midfield. His vision is still superb†, he’s still obviously got the ball skills, but he’s forcing the issue thanks to media and fan pressure and, no doubt, personal pressure, rather than relaxing and playing the samba style that brought him to where he is today. Ronnie was switched to a center-right position when Gudjohnsen came on for Toure, who is no doubt not 90 minutes fit, and while he didn’t particularly disappear, his performance didn’t improve much. With Guddie playing a roving striker role behind Henry. Still, nothing seemed to be happening and the offense was as stagnant as it had been for the previous hour and change.

And this is where Messi steps in. Metaphorically, sure, but mostly literally; in the 75th minute against Almeria, Messi entered for Ronnie and the game livened up immediately. Messi is having one hell of a run, it must be said, and even coming off the bench he’s excellent. Messi has become the best player on Barcelona through his ability to run at defenders, to cause a defense to shift to his side in order to attempt to contain him. It’s like watching Ronaldinho in the the 2005/06 season, only Messi doesn’t have an absurdly prolific striker in front of him; he has no Eto’o right now and so the team remains beatable. The only thing he has going for him is that the rest of the squad is a star-studded affair, with no gaping holes. Ronaldinho is a good compliment to him, able to create at times, able to provide both the crucial pass and excellent deadball shots. Remember that last year Ronaldinho was maligned in the press even as he contributed 21 goals to the Barca cause, a fact that would have been huge news had it not been for a second place finish in the end. We tend to over-analyze when things are going badly, but we also tend to forget that players are human, especially when they’ve shown inhuman qualities as Ronaldinho has and Messi is currently showing. It has to be remembered that Ronaldinho never truly operated alone up front as he led the team to Champions League and La Liga glory, but rather worked supremely well in a partnership with Eto’o and had the same connection with Larsson as he did with Sammie. That he and Messi are incapable of this sort of on-the-field relationship is natural: they’re both midfielders. They combine well enough, but they will never produce the quantity of goals a midfield-forward combination would produce and with Henry failing to produce the runs I’m sure he’s capable of, it’s hard to imagine a consistent free-scoring system truly working. There is certainly a lot of potential, but until Eto’o returns fully fit and in good form, Barcelona fans must be content to win by 2 goals, sometimes cheap goals, sure, but 2 goals nonetheless. And they must be content to watch Ronaldinho flounder around just a bit, threading balls a little wide, a little high, trying to force the action a bit too much, a bit too often. He’s trying to create on his own, trying to show that he hasn’t lost his touch or a step, but that is causing him to do just that.

And what of those two goals? Were they cheap? Sure, they were, but the first, the one poached by Henry, was so close in terms of offsides that it’s impossible to tell. I’ve reviewed the clip several times, albeit on YouTube, and can’t tell. The keeper touches the ball at one point and throws everything off, making it hard to see if Henry was on when the ball rebounded around and who it rebounded off of. It looks like it hits Gio, but even at that point, it’s hard to tell if Henry was offside. I’d say yes, personally, but it was so quick, so close, and the linesman was on the wrong side of the play to see the ball clearly. Since it definitely hit off the keeper first, there was some confusion as to who hit it towards Henry (Gio, but perhaps another deflection off the keeper); you try telling me, definitively, that he was off. Especially as it came right after several bogus offside calls, the most recent of which, 60 seconds prior, cost Henry a goal that no one would have claimed wasn’t legit. The best part of the first goal, though, was Henry’s celebratory slide. I had wondered aloud a couple of weeks ago while watching a game with my girlfriend (yeah, I have one; we play D&D together and think about how great it would be to be a woodland elf‡) if anyone ever face-plants when they did the knee-slide towards the flag. Turns out that yes, it happens. Ouch. More embarrassing than painful, though. I laughed out loud at the time.

The second goal was bullshit. I’ve always been a big anti-diving guy and Gio’s tumble in the box to earn a penalty was nonsense. He stretched his leg back, hooked Bruno with his arm, and went down. Sure, he was being jostled a bit from the side and behind, but that’s what your elbows are for, so keep em up and get to that ball. Don’t fall when you’re clearly in the better position. If it was a foul, it was a foul 15 yards before and instead of calling trash in the box, call the foul outside of the box and let a freekick decide the match, not a blatant dive. In my opinion, though, it wasn’t a foul at all. Bruno was holding position and they were both fighting for the ball. No foul whatsoever. I’m so disappointed in Gio for this; really, I am. It’s disgraceful and he has a lot to do to make up for it, in my eyes. I hate diving and for the most part Barcelona have been above that for the last several years (isolated incidents have occurred, of course) and I’d hate to see that change. That FIFA doesn’t control diving more aggressively is a shame and I’d personally like to see players fined, suspended, or at least yellow-carded after the fact. It’s hard for the ref to tell in live action, but in a post-game environment that already includes a review to see if there was any violent conduct, why can’t we review diving as well? It makes me sick to watch this clip of him falling over. Such a talent, beat his marker, there was some good physical play, and he falls over because he might not get to the ball. I think he would have gotten to the ball and flashed in a cross if he hadn’t fallen. I’d rather this be a 1-0 scoreline with me moaning about how Barcelona barely squeaked one out against Almeria of all people (9th in the league!) instead of being embarassed. The penalty, scored by Messi, was very well taken and allowed Barcelona to coast the rest of the way. It makes him the early-season pichichi with 7, one above Kun Aguero. Another thing, Marquez committed a foul in the box a few minutes before Gio’s dive and that was a real penalty. Ridiculous reffing in those two, game-defining instances.

A quick aside before moving on: the Soccernet match report includes the line “Jeers echoed around the ground as Barcelona struggled to break down one of the weakest teams in the league,” when talking about the first half of the game. That single sentence pissed me off and it should piss off anyone with any sort of inkling as to what this game, this league, and this sport is all about. How can Almeria be considered one of the weakest teams in the league if they entered the day in 9th place out of 20? That is absurd. Sure, they’re not free-scoring, they’re not deeply defensive, but after having played Valencia, Real Madrid, and Barcelona in their opening 9 games, they have a goal differential of 0. They’ve won 3 times, drawn twice, and lost 4. Even after this loss, 2-0 at the Camp Nou, they’re in 12th place, one point behind Sevilla. And they’re one of the weakest teams in the league? They’re above 8 other teams, which is almost half the league and includes Athletic Bilbao and Depor. Hmm, I seem angry today. I just hate the concept that a small team is necessarily weak, especially if they’re recently promoted. FCB’s official site’s match report is titled “A good result against a good team,” which, while silly in terms of considering Barcelona’s performance, is at least respectful of Almeria.

On to the defense now. The game started with Zambrotta on the right, Puyol and Milito in the center, and Abidal on the left. By the end of the second half, that back four looked ragged, though not because they were being tested or exposed by Almeria’s forwards (did they have forwards or just forward-minded midfielders?), but rather because Puyol went off at halftime in favor of Rafa Marquez and Abidal got crocked just before halftime when an Almeria player fell on his ankle in a rather painful-looking way. And Abidal got charged with the foul during the incident, which is funny, in a sense. But he hasn’t trained with the rest of the team since this week (Monday and Tuesday) and is questionable for Thursday’s game against Valladolid. Puyol seems fine, especially in this interview with Barca TV, which is a very level-headed interview. The defense played well, even with two returnees. It was obvious from the start that Toure’s presence in the middle of the field was forcing Almeria wide rather than allowing them down the middle. Because of Zambrotta and Abidal’s speed, Barca was able to pressure any wing runs and thus better defend any balls that were pumped into the middle. Almeria got a couple of chances this way, but only one open header and it was from a tough angle. There was also one turn-and-shoot chance, but Valdes was easily able to cover thanks to Puyol’s pressure on the shooter. Milito had an invisible game, for the most part, but that’s a good sign as his name was never called negatively either. When Toure went off there was adequate pressure already on Almeria to allow for what the GolTV commentator called “a risky move.” In fact, I thought it was a very smart move, taking off a recently injured player in favor of a player who did so well against Rangers only a few days before. While Gudjohnsen wasn’t able to make any real impact in this game, that is more a testament to the lack of cohesion in midfield and Almeria’s pressure rather than any lack of skill on his part. He was moved to three different locations during his 27ish minutes on the field, which is hard for anyone to get used to.

And finally, to the mighty mites, as they say. Iniesta and Xavi were decent; not particularly good, certainly not bad. Iniesta played with the ball in the back a little much and generally refused to let Toure truly boss the defensive midfield area. Part of that may have been Rijkaard’s orders, part of it may have been him being used to doing so. Xavi was somewhat invisible, like Milito, but not in any detrimental sense. He provided some balls, appeared forward sometimes, but was most useful in stifling forward movement by Almeria. Really, I just didn’t notice him much, so I have little to say about him.

Overall, it was a crap performance, but Barca deserved to win. They had several shots on goal that could have gone in, while Almeria were lucky to get close, really, with the exception of the penalty-that-should-have-been. The team is facing another “easy” game on Thursday, against struggling Valladolid, but never underestimate the power of a team with nothing to lose. More on that tomorrow, of course. For now, let me leave you with the highlights, gracias a YouTube.

†The American Heritage Dictionary defines superb as “Of unusually high quality; excellent,” which certainly defines Ronaldinho’s ability to see cross-field like no other player.

‡Not really.