Betis 3, Barcelona 2, a.k.a. “We were done, what happened?”

By: Kevin | March 29th, 2008

Shhhhhh! We have this super-secret picture of Frank Rijkaard, taken just after today’s match.

Is he the goat? Yes. Unequivocally. I run a section at a major metro news daily and I tell my staff, “We succeed, and I screw up.” That’s Management 101. To sit on the bench and watch your team self-destruct like that….to not make ANY reasonable response when it was clear that the match was in the balance? I dunno. Get yourself ejected, throw stuff, call somebody’s mama a ‘ho, do something. He just sat there in the corner, looking as if he were going to cry, and wondering about real estate prices in the next city he’ll be coaching in.

When your team plays as glorious a first half as we played, a manager has a gargantuan problem: Convincing the lads that it isn’t all over. We played like it was, and let Betis back into the match. As Iniesta and Abidal watched Edu head in that first goal, I started flashing back to all the other famous giveaways, and this was sure as hell starting to look like another one. The goals all came from things that didn’t happen in the first half. Dos Santos, in for Krkic, lets a pass get away and rather than fighting for the ball and trying to come back as Krkic does, he just kind of stands there and watches the guy make a pass. Eto’o, whose first touch has been shit for the past few matches, lets a pass bounce away, directly to a defender who makes a lovely outlet pass that is finished with, it must be said, a world-class strike. Zambrotta gets hung out to dry, letting in a cross that two players stand and watch an opposing player head into the net. Abidal says “Hey, they haven’t called anything else today,” mauls a player and voila.

When Casto was busier than a one-armed paper hanger in the first half, making save after save, I started getting a little queasy. When Betis came out and began playing like they had some cocoanuts in the second half, and we began sashaying about, passing the ball around and not even trying to make some mojo work, I began to get really worried. After the first goal, I just sat, stunned, waiting for the bus to back up and finish it off.

So, let’s be positive here: Nobody died. The sun is out. It’s finally showing signs of springtime here in Chicago. My new bike is really cool. And life goes on.

In the first half, we were spec-freakin’-tacular. We opened with Valdes, Abidal, Thuram, Puyol, Zambrotta, Xavi, Yaya, Iniesta, Krkic, Eto’o and Henry, and we were gods. Clockwork Orange all day. The movement….the passing….the beauty. Two goals really should have been four, but credit some fine keeping from the Betis lad, Casto, thrust into the cauldron of this match.

Everyone was everywhere, and this match was done. Stick a fork in it. All over. “Kxevin was right,” I starting thinking. “Put the boot in, then play defense for the second half and go home.”

So, Kxevin was half right.

At the half, though it seems counter-intuitive, Rijkaard should have been in their faces saying “You punks think this match is over? You left three damn goals out there on the pitch, and I want them back right freaking NOOOOOOW! Bastards!”

What he probably said was “Hmmm. Lovely day, isn’t it? Nice match. Let’s finish it off and go home.” Then everybody started thinking about the Champions League match on Tuesday, and resting those legs. And suddenly…..

Hey, Villarreal could still lose. The Evil Empire could still lose. Then we’ll be right where we were when we started this day, thank the Blaugrana gods.

No, no, NO! Let’s not even think about third place.

We won’t do player ratings for this match, because I’m bad at math, and would have to do all sorts of division and multiplication, not to mention weighting to make 8s into 0s and figuring out a reasonable final score.

People will say that the defense stank, and lay individual blame at the dancing feet of varied and sundry players. You can’t. This was a management hoseoff. In the same way the Betis coach made the two subs that turned this match around, Rijkaard did nothing. Gudjohnsen? Dos Santos? Ain’t gonna happen.

Let’s be patient, watch how the rest of the weekend unfolds, and convene later. \mm/