Deportivo La Coruña 1, FC Barcelona 3, a.k.a. “Not as easy as it seems”

1-3. It’s such a pretty score, isn’t it? Not quite a 2-6 ‘chorreo’, but it speaks of control, of domination, of power, with perhaps one unfortunate distraction to allow the rival a bit of consolation…

Ha! Nothing further from the truth. Deportivo La Coruña made us suffer for those three points last night, led by a goalkeeper in a state of grace (Aranzubía, whose reflexes even Casillas should envying at times) and a wonderfully solid defence (Lopo, Colotto Filipe Luis and my latest crush, a Manuel Pablo that held back an agile Thierry Henry, a youthful Pedrito and even our amazingly acrobatic Ibrahimovic).

Our starting XI was Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Abidal, Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta, Messi, Ibrahimovic and Henry, while Deportivo rolled out Aranzubia, Manuel Pablo, Colotto, Lopo, Filipe Luis, Antonio Tomás, Sergio, Adrián, Juan Rodríguez, Guardado and Mista.

The three Barça protagonists of the night. Guess which one is the villain that will be burned in effigy in Canaletas at the end of the season if he keeps this up (clue: he has creepily bony knees).

Barça started out well, fighting for possession against a Deportivo that was better at the back than in the midfield. We weren’t really creating many chances, but Mista and Adrian, who were ‘working’ the Dépor attack in the absence of Riki and Lassad, barely ever saw the ball (and then, they were usually offside). Puyol was good, but Piqué was magnificent, and watching them together reminded us of the reason why, in the almost 1,000 minutes those two (I’m going to call them Puyiqué, now, since Cameron has his Xaviesta) had played together, Barça had not conceded a single goal.

After a first few minutes in which the match looked like it could go either way, Dépor retreated to their fantastic stronghold of a defence, leaving Barça the ball and the initiative, but putting up a spirited resistance in the back and trying out counterattacks whenever possible. Aranzubía flew to stop one of Ibrahimovic’s patented ninja kicks (what he does is much more acrobatic than a simple chilena), a precious ballerina move from Messi, and another occasion that came from one of Alves’ much-maligned crosses.

It was a rain of opportunities for Barça, and just like that, in what seemed like the natural progression of the match, in the 26th minute, after a flurry of shots that even Aranzubía was hard-pressed to keep out, Leo Messi scored. Barça was dominating, Barça was winning and not even our hideous radioactive mango away kits could detract from the beauty of the night.

Playing like he played last night, it seems almost unfair he was given a Golden Ball and not a Platinum one...

Remember those matches last season, when we scored once, then before you had time to catch your breath from shouting, scored again, and then again, and before the first half was over you started thinking, “OK, boys, cut it, that poor goalkeeper has now enough nightmare fuel to last him for a couple of seasons”? Well, this wasn’t like that at all. Sure, Ibra had the opportunity to make it 0-2 before long, but Aranzubía knew just where to put his hand, and the match was far from over.

And then came Busquets. I’m not even going to try and find excuses for him this time. It was a horrible, horrible back-passing header, of the kind he likes so much to make, and Adrián’s daring in running away with it caught Puyol, Piqué and Valdés by surprise. Deportivo 1, Barça 1 and Riazor was a storm.

It didn’t seem fair, because Barça had been doing so well until then and Dépor had been barely holding on, but we had the consolation of knowing that we had the control of the match and it was only a matter of time until we made up for that mistake.

And time passed… and then it was half-time and we were still drawing… and more time passed, in the second half, and Deportivo were not only holding on but actually dreaming of getting those three points, coming at us with Mista and Guardado and Adrián (and then instead of Adrián, Juca), and Puyol and Piqué were barely enough to stop the tide.

At the other end, Aranzubía was showing off like mad in the rare occasions when his wonderful defence (have I told you about a man called Manuel Pablo?) let Messi or Ibrahimovic through. Henry was doing OK, but not good enough to shake off Manuel Pablo’s Puyol-like hold on him, and Iniesta wasn’t doing anything particularly spectacular. Xavi had his hands full keeping order in the midfield and making sure Busquets didn’t do any more harm, and Messi seemed to be more concerned with passing to Ibra than with scoring.

I’d exchange both Busquets and Chygrynskiy for one of Manuel Pablo’s legs (either one, I’m not picky). He taught Henry some tricks last night that had nothing to do with hands...

Pep seems to have learnt (a little) from past mistakes, though, because he didn’t wait until the 80th minute to make some changes. Youthful, exuberant Pedrito (our little lucky charm) came in for Thierry Henry at the 70th minute, and his presence on the pitch was the signal for a strange dance to begin at our attack. One minute it was Pedro-Ibra-Messi, then Pedro was on the right, Iniesta on the left and Messi dancing around, and then Ibra was on the left and I just stopped trying to keep track of the changes in position. The Dépor defence (especially a man called Manuel Pablo, I don’t know whether I’ve mentioned him yet) didn’t seem fazed by this, though, and kept their order against all comers.

And then it happened. Not thanks to the lovely collective game for which Barça is so rightly complimented. Not thanks to one of those rounds of endless passing, of virtuoso circulation of the ball, that is our trademark. No, this was a one-touch, one-touch from Pedrito to Messi, and from Messi’s head to the back of the net and suddenly, at less than fifteen minutes to the end of the match, when we were firing up our calculators to see if this really meant that Real Madrid would catch up with us, we were winning again.

And because we were winning, suddenly we were not the limp team that had allowed Depor to regain possession and initiative, but we re-discovered that we were Barça, the team with which mothers threaten goalkeepers when they don’t want to eat their vegetables. We fired back up and went on the attack again, stealing the ball from the deportivistas, who were starting to lose faith and energy (except this guy, I think he was called Manuel Pablo, who was really magnificent up until the very end).

And then Abidal, who had been doing so well in defence that he even had some energy to spare to go in the attack, fed Ibra a pass that our Swede blasted to the back of the net with as much elegance as sheer raw power. 1-3 and the culés watching could barely believe that ten minutes before we had been (rightly) fearing that we would lose, and not undeservingly. Keita came in for Iniesta and he had it to cement that ‘Golden Boot’ claim he has been working on, but Aranzubía was once again divine, and there wasn’t time for Busquets to do any more harm before the ref was calling the proceedings to an end.

Pep promised excitement and he delivered, here getting tackled by Juan Rodríguez.

It was a good match, though. And it certainly delivered all the excitement that Pep had promised (and more!). Deportivo was a worthy rival that played to its strengths and that had the chance to do what Real Madrid, Inter and so many others couldn’t. We have to stop Busquets from playing making such silly mistakes and conceding goals from stupid moves when we don’t concede them otherwise, but all in all I’m satisfied with the team.

“Depor had one and a half shots on goal,” said Pep after the match. “We were back to being what we have been, what we are, but wasn’t enough for us in the first half. We didn’t deserve to go 1-1 into halftime.”

“It was more or less what we expected,” said Deportivo’s Lotina later. “We made a great effort, but it’s not easy to resist like that for ninety minutes and Barcelona beat us in a very good way.”

And now, for my favourite part of this, my wonderfully subjective grading, based in equal parts in footballing skills and good application of hair products!

Valdés: 6. He had a couple of good moments, but it wasn’t as if Dépor required him to do much; and when they did, he made a rookie mistake against Adrián. The fault of that goal lies more with Busi than with him, but still… the best thing he did was to change from the unflattering grey kit of the first half to the nice aqua one of the second.

Alves: 7,5. Good defending, great attacking and, for once, his crosses weren’t all over the place.

Puyol: 8. Not as providential as he was against Real Madrid, but solid; couldn’t do much against Adrián in the Dépor goal.

Piqué: 9. Splendid; more than solid on the defence, dangerous a couple of times in corner kicks, had only one slip in concentration and Puyol shouted at him enough for that.

Abidal: 7,5. He was doing so well at defending when he had to, that he even tried his hand at doing a little crossing and passing, and from thence came the third goal.

Xavi: 8. He had the unenviable duty of babysitting Busquets in the absence of Yaya. I liked seeing him play alongside with Iniesta, though, and he made of the midfield an uncomfortable place for deportivistas.

Busquets: 3. Busi can’t keep making those mistakes, he’s not a youngling just out of La Masía anymore; honestly, bring Yaya back to the starting XI and leave Sergi warming the bench until he learns how to behave like an adult.

Iniesta: 7,5. He left his visionary goggles back at home, but even playing as a mere mortal he is so much more than just good; seeing him associate with Xavi again was great.

Henry: 6,5. He’s getting better, but not for long; he was winded by the time Pedrito came in his place, and Manuel Pablo pwned him several times.

Ibrahimovic: 8,5. He tried and tried and tried again, in every possible way, and he was rewarded with the great third goal and with being tied with David Villa for the ‘Pichichi’.

Messi: 10. Divine. Wonderful. Not only because of the two goals, but because of everything he did. His selflessness in trying to pass constantly to Ibra possibly deprived him of a couple of good opportunities.

Pedrito (70’): 8. Our little lucky charm didn’t get to score this time, but he was quick and lively enough to give Messi the cross for the second goal and be a pain in the Depor defence.

Keita (88’): 7. In the five minutes he got to play, he had one shot at goal that he could have netted with a bit more cold blood, but anyway, he was good.

Guardiola: 8. He fielded a perfectly good team and came in with the substitutions at more or less the right time. I don’t understand why he was making Chygrynskiy warm up for a good slice of the second half, though (that perverse infatuation of his with the Ukrainian shows no sign of receding).

Here, have some highlights too:

So I am happy and in good spirits for Wednesday’s match against Dynamo (which I dearly hope Busquets gets to watch huddled under a blanket in the back of the bench). We got 9 Liga points in barely seven days, the infirmary is deserted, we are 5 points (and several levels of class) above Real Madrid (albeit with a game more on hand) and we have the chance to ensure our participation in the Champions League and beat our hated derby rival before leaving for Dubai and the Club World Cup.

Smile, culés, and remember: visca el Barça!

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Category: Barcelona, La Liga, Review, Team News