Undeniable champions

Ronaldinho nets his 50th goal in the league

Barcelona has done it again! For their latest game against Villareal in La Liga, Barça achieved more than 4 goals, more than a clean sheet and more than anything else, they’ve cemented their ability to score and STILL play beautiful football.

Final score: 4 – 0, Barcelona wins.

Early action
For this match, Barça sheds all her passivity and plays in an offensive formation of 433. Villareal plays it safe with the common 442 line up. The games starts with the visiting team charging forward like mad bulls (as usual). Within 2 minutes, Valdes got challenged to show his goalkeeping skills as Forlan darts near to goal. Again at the fourth minute, Valdes performs another save with a quick deflection. In the eighth minute, Barça makes the first shot on goal. Ronaldinho wins the ball and sends it to Deco who transfers the balls to Gudjohsen. But Gudjohsen was unable to convert it to goal

Access Denied
At the 15th minute, Deco tried a long pass from the opponent’s goalpost. It was the most amazing long pass and incredibly accurate for a long pass. Giuly picked up it’s trail and blasted after the ball. But alas! He was offside. Ronaldinho tried to set Gudjohnsen up for goal two minutes later but it was firmly denied by Barbosa, who IS indeed hungry. Hungry for some power goalkeeping, that is.

First blood!: Ronaldinho’s penalty kick

In the 34th minute, Gudjohsen was tripped by Cygan in the box. The referee, Lasa, awarded Barcelona a penalty kick. Ronaldinho was up to the task and he let loose a solid shot into the net. It was too much even for hungry Barbosa to handle. Later, Cygan was awarded a yellow card for unsportsmanlike behaviour. The sign Ronaldinho was making indicates that that was his fiftieth goal in the league for Barça.

‘Hand of God’ goalkeeping
A header from Gio van Bronckhorst nearly burst through to make the tally 2 – 0 before half time, but something amazing happened. Barbosa, in the effort to stave off the ball, leapt into the air and punched the ball over and beyond the crossbar. It was absolutely stunning. When I watched it, I went, “Oh. My. God.” Unfortunately, I cannot find any videos on Youtube to supplement this section, but do take my word.

Second half
The second half remained almost like the first half, but the Barcelona rhythm actually became stronger after the break. In my earlier reviews, I always lament that Barça tend to slack after the half half. Not in this match. Deco had a very near chance to score but it was dashed away by Barbosa.

Second goal: Header by Gudjohnsen

Ronaldinho had just sent the ball into the wall after a free kick. The ball sailed skywards from the impact. Meanwhile Iniesta finally was ready to get his boot into the scoring pool. He darted up and sent a shot from the right side of the field. But it was slightly offmark. Just then, Gudjohsen comes up and heads the errant ball into the net. 2 – 0.

Third goal: Scissors kick by Iniesta

Not content with his missed chance, Iniesta outdoes himself. A great cross from Zambrotta was converted to goal by Iniesta. Iniesta performs this amazing scissors kick with his right foot and the ball flew into the net, not unlike a Chinese kungfu movie. That was some neat footwork by Iniesta. This man just keep getting better match after match. This is his third consecutive goal in 3 matches.

72nd Minute Backlash
Almost in response to all the goals by Barça, Villareal steps up on the attack and attempts 4 consecutive shots on goal in one minute. In the 72nd minute Forlan tries an attempt on goal but was blocked by an alert Valdes. Barely seconds later, Marcos Senna who had assisted Forlan earlier attempted another shot on goal from the center of the box. Valdes deflects this shot quickly. But just as quick, Forlan gets up and attempts YET another shot from the left side which bounces off the post. The ball bounces off but Senna wins the ball quickly. He assists Franco who attempted a right footed shot on goal but he misses. The flurry stops only after Gudjohnsen was called to be replaced by Ezquerro.

This was the longest minute. With Villareal’s repeated surges to goal, it seem imminent that Barça would concede, but Valdes held strong. Kudos to him. Never seen him with a quicker reaction time.

Final flourish: Ronaldinho’s grand bicycle kick

This is the goal the left the entire Camp Nou waving their white handkerchiefs in solemn approval and respect for the awesome goal by Ronaldinho. Xavi, from midfield sends the ball to Ronaldinho in a long, decisive kick. Ronaldinho catches the ball with his chest. While the ball was still airborne, he swung himself around and with his right foot, performs a classy overhead bicycle kick which propelled the ball beyond Barbosa’s reach.

As a memorable touch to this very memorable goal, Ronaldinho strips off his jersey and flings it around like a lasso, all the while running and screaming around the pitch. Everyone leaps onto Ronaldinho and celebrates in a mad frenzy.

Then he was awarded a yellow card for excessive celebrations.

So…
Not much has to be said except that it was a BRILLIANT match with very little dry moments. And I didn’t know you couldn’t strip off your jersey during the match, much less know that it was a yellow card offence to do so! But it was brilliant watching this match. Precisely because the forwards were all so lively and effective today, the midfield effect wasn’t really felt in the game. Villareal’s performance was just totally eclipsed by Barcelona’s brilliant goals. Villareal, without Riquelme is a machine without it’s core. While the parts are added to make up for the missing core, the machine functions but never reaches it’s optimum capacity.

On a sidenote, the EPSN Soccernet review for this match is incredibly inaccurate and contains factual misreporting. What a disappointment and dip in standards! It mentions this:

This time Iniesta changed from provider to predator, finishing off a Deco cross with a fabulous scissor kick and thereby making up for missing a much simpler chance just minutes before.

It was not Deco that supplied the cross. It was Zambrotta. Refer to video if you doubt me.

Watch highlights on Valerie On The Ball!
What’s the point of reading reviews without being able to visualise them correctly? Valerie On The Ball is taking the next step in her match recaps and reviews. From now on, I will include videos for all goals and highlights (availability from Youtube). Currently, this is still in evolutionary phase, so patience everyone.

Source of report: Youtube, FC Barcelona, ESPN Soccernet

Barcelona still in Champions League

Iniesta weeps with joy after scoring.*

The match against Levski Sofia was a very important match for Barcelona. Losing it would mean they were almost definitely out of the Champions League. Drawing it would their fates would be decided by the result of the Werder Bremen – Chelsea match. Only winning it would secure their place in the CLs, for now.

As fate would have it, Werder Bremen beat Chelsea with a 1 – 0 score. But the Barça team did not disappoint, they won Levski Sofia with 2 – 0 thus ensuring they would be in to face Werder Bremen on 5 December.

Despite this match being a crucial match for the Blaugrana, it wasn’t a spectacular match. The entire match was fraught with a sense of cautious playing and a wait-and-see approach. The cold weather was probably another reason. The home team, on the hand, gave it all they’ve got. They swarmed time again against the Barça defence but a lack of big match experience and a lack of strategy thwarted all their efforts.

Barcelona held an unusual formation for this game. The formation was 4321. A defensive formation, said Mr. X. True enough, it was indeed a passive gameplay by Barcelona. The opponent had 4231. A similarly defensive approach too. Most minnow teams when up against offensive teams like Barcelona, they employ defensive stances, which may or may not work…. results occur in varying degrees.

Levski raring to go right from the start
Levski Sofia bared their intent to win or at best, give Barcelona a hard time right from the blowing of the whistle. Levski kept the ball to their side of the pitch by playing the passing game. They’re pretty good at the passing game too. Levski would rather get the ball cleared than let it to slip to their opponents. But during the 2nd minute, Deco shot the first shot on goal, perhaps trying to emulate the early 3rd minute goal in the earlier game against Chelsea. But the shot missed. Not to be outdone by the Blaugrana, Levski grabbed the ball upon re-entry and darted horribly close to goal. They missed.

First goal
Barcelona drew first blood in the fourth minute when Giuly seized the right cross from Zambrotta. Levski failed to intercept the ball in time. In my opinion it was a goal that should have not happened but too bad that Levski did not intercept the long cross from Zambrotta in time. Good for us, bad for them. Good for Giuly who seized the moment perfectly. If it were Gudjohnsen, he might have missed the chance for Gudjohnsen has a tendency to hesitate in the box.

Face-off
Later in the sixth minute, Gudjohsen was tripped and a free kick was awarded to Barcelona. Ronaldinho was unable to get the free kick into the net this time. Just two minutes later, Ronaldinho had his face mashed by a Levski defender. Ronaldinho looked visibly annoyed as he clapped a hand over his blinded eye. As though one fash mashing incident was not enough, Gudjohnsen had his face mashed too during a free kick scuffle in the twelfth minute.

Valdes saves
A couple of times Levski got too near to goal but Valdes was always there to save the ball in time. Sometimes when the defenders got distacted and Levski seized the chance to try to score, Valdes proves to frustrate their efforts. While Levski seems to finish rather poorly, running out of steam just before the goalpost, Valdes left no room for accidents.

Missed chance by Barcelona
Gudjohnsen fumbled a chance to score by hesitating for one second too long in front of the goal. He had gotten ahead of the defenders, should he had taken a decisive kick towards goal, he might have scored. But he dawdled and the defenders caught up and wrangled the ball from him.

Second goal
The second goal was from Iniesta, man of the moment. Deco had the ball and decided it was time to go for goal. But he missed by just a bit. Just as everyone thought the ball would surely be cleared soon, Iniesta burst right up and finished the goal in an extremely classy fashion. Once again, Iniesta left his opponents slackjawed as he danced around celebrating with his team. Iniesta has proved himself to have a sharp eye for finishing and a certain speediness and agility in his movements. In the days to come, watch this man, he will become an essential gear in the Barcelona structure, if not already a major gear.

Well, so what I think..
I did not watch the match to full time because I felt certain that another goal was not likely to happen. Rijkaard obviously told his players to play it low key and prevent overstretching themselves. That was being practical for Levski Sofia is hardly a team to bring out all the artillery for. The ball possesion was a mere 46% for Barcelona. They were hardly touching the ball yet managed to score two goals. A perfect showcase of watching waiting, effective goalscoring. There were barely any wasted movements from Barça. Levski Sofia was owning all the football teams in their own home league, but they’re still long way from becoming world class, apparently. Perhaps if they were in another group, they might have stayed a little longer in the league.

I was surprised at first that Chelsea lost to Werder Bremen. But upon reflection, I realised it wasn’t so surprising either. Werder Bremen won by a penalty and Chelsea was without Frank Lampard that night. But above everything, Chelsea no longer needed any points to advance to the knockout round, unlike Barcelona. They could afford to take it easy, play it slow.

For now, we are safe. The next match against Werder Bremen has several factors to our advantage. One being that the match will be played in Camp Nou. The support from the home crowd will be even more uproarious and passionate than usual, given the nature and severity of this match. The other being Rafa Marquez attaining his Spanish citizenship. This enables Barcelona to acquire another non-EU player for the senior squad. With our long list of casualties, another player for the flanks is most welcome.

Next match for Barcelona is against Villareal. This match looks to be a challenging one for Barça given that Barça has never won Villareal with a crushing victory before. One thing for sure, Barcelona will give it all they’ve got.

* I REALLY wanted to put a naughty caption like “Deco and Iniesta, what a sensational duo!” or “Deco tries to give Iniesta some much needed comforting”. But I’ll leave you all to wonder about that strange photo by yourselves.

Updates: Mrs. Ronaldinho is back from her shopping téte a téte. I will squeeze opinions from her to supplement the reviews again.

Source of report: FC Barcelona

For solidarity, més que en club

It is true that Barcelona is one of the richest clubs in the world.

Chelsea chose to display it’s financial muscle by purchasing numerous top flight players in quick succession.

This is how Barcelona chose to display it’s financial prowess: For the next five years, F.C. Barcelona will donate about one and half million euros annually to aid UNICEF in it’s humanitarian aid programmes. Thus Barça players wear the UNICEF logo on their gear.

View the promotional films for this landmark agreement.

Version 1

Version 2

Please follow the ‘Source of report’ link to read the complete details of this project.

This also serves as fantastic publicity for the Catalans. This gesture portray the club as a philanthropist club, earning much respect and acknowledgement from the world. There appears to be no precedent to charity acts by a football club of this magnitude. More people will support Barça, more money will be spent on Barça, more sponsorship deals will come a-knocking, thus enabling Barça to grow and share what the club gain exponentially.

Source of report: F.C. Barcelona

Controversy in Camp Nou

And finally, the long awaited Barcelona vs Zaragoza match review.

Ronaldinho finds his form again

Final score being 3 – 1, Barcelona wins.

This match would be best remembered as the match Motta got sent off, as the match Messi broke his foot, as the match Edmilson sprained his leg, as the match where right up to the ninetieth minute no one gave up trying to do the other team in.

At kickoff Zaragoza imposed themselves on the pitch. The two teams are so similiar in playing style, if not the jerseys, at 200 feet in the air, they look like a team of 22 men playing the same side. Zaragoza and Barcelona both play in the fiery, offensive style.

Zaragoza spills first blood
The first half was tame in comparison to the explosive second half. The shocker came when Zaragoza defender, Gabriel Milito displayed some amazing reflexes and scored the opening goal. It was a corner for Zaragoza. Milito positioned himself just before Valdez and behind the Barça line of defence. When the ball glanced off his head, Milito appeared to head the ball but at the last minute, let the ball drop to his left foot and he kicked it into the net past Valdez. The proximity of the point of scoring was so close, Valdez could not have reacted in time. Despite Puyol’s best efforts to haul Milito down, the goal still happened much to Valdez, Puyol and thousands of Barcelona fans’ horror.

Zapater the Bruiser
Alberto Zapater of Zaragoza had a hand in giving Iniesta a large bruise on Iniesta’s shin, causing Edmilson to sprain his leg and worst of all, clashing with Messi resulting a broken metatarsal for the Argentinian. A brief summary of The Bruiser’s major clashes:

Clashing with Iniesta
Being a midfielder, Zapater would inevitably have a clash with Iniesta. But this clash was so impactful, Iniesta was flung from the impact like a flying ricesack. He rolled quite a while before finally coming to a stop. When he got up, Iniesta looked really bewildered. While it wasn’t really yellow card worthy, this clash gives us some indicator of The Bruiser’s brute strength.

Edmilson sprains his leg
Barely seconds after his clash with Iniesta, The Bruiser barrages on and goes head on with Edmilson. Edmilson was unable to break his fall properly and landed heavily on his leg. As Iniesta was recovering from his clash with Zapater, Edmilson remained motionless on the pitch, face twisted in pain. He left the pitch on a stretcher for a few minutes before returning. Later, he was replaced with Motta who would be an instrument of the red card controversy in the second half.

Breaking Messi
In the 20th minute, Zapater delivered a rough but fair challenge to Messi for the ball. Messi lost his footing in the skirmish and fell hard on his left foot before going down as Zapater danced away with the ball. Later he sat up and tried to stand, wearing a look of utter blankess on his face. He struggled to walk for a while. Two minutes later, Messi was filmed sitting down suddenly and yanking off his left boot. He then got up and left the pitch unassisted. Giuly replaced him. Replays showed that the impact from Zapater’s challenged may have been a factor in Messi’s accident.

Later in the match, The Bruiser was awarded a yellow card for another rash challenge on Deco and possibly for all his rough play too.

Barcelona levels
15 minutes after the ghastly slipup by Barcelona, Barcelona regained her graces through Ronaldinho’s head. Yet another corner for Barcelona. As the ball came in from the distant corner, Ronaldinho leapt up and headed the ball decisively into the large gap in the Zaragoza defence. The ball actually hit the pitch just before the net and bounced hard into the net. Zaragoza was dismayed at the hole in the defence. More embarrassing for them because Ronaldinho could afford to dish some flourish as he scored the equaliser for the Catalans.

Motta and the red card controversy
In the second half, towards the seventieth minute, Motta was embroiled in a tussle with Diego Milito (not to be confused with Gabriel Milito). Motta flung an arm and hit the CHEST of Milito. But Milito was caught on camera grabbing his FACE as he rolled on the pitch like an invalid. Referee Iturralde Gonzalez sought the advice of his IDIOT linesman Rafa Carrera. According to the commentator, this Rafa Carrera (spelling may be erroneous as there are few written records about this moron) is famous for ruling situations like this without analysing or considering the factors leading up to the incident at hand. The linesman ruled the Brazilian to have caused malicious hurt to Milito for whacking his face and Motta was issued a red card. Kudos to the referee for following his garbled advice too.

The entire Barcelona team went bonkers. Puyol, Ronaldinho and Deco cornered the referee and began yelling angry words at him. Meanwhile Rijkaard left his seat and went to argue passionately with the match officials. Motta stood away from the hullabaloo and kept running his hand through his hair. Even Thuram, who was on the bench, joined in the ruckus. Replay after replay after replay in every imaginable of the incident was aired. From some angles, it did look like Motta’s hand caught Milito’s face. But in the 90% of the angles aired, Motta’s hand CLEARLY thwacked into Milito’s chest. Milito’s ceremoniously grabbing of his face was pure bullshit and bad acting to excess.

Addendum: Barcelona appealed against Thiago Motta’s red card successfully, thus he was able to start for the match against Mallorca.

Gabriel Milito gets sent off
Saviola, who came on the pitch for Gudjohnsen managed to break through the Zaragoza defence and attempted a shot on goal. Gabriel Milito went mad (literally!) and attacked Saviola, dragging him down onto the pitch. He was sent off promptly. No arguments about that.

Barcelona bares her fangs in fury…
The Catalans were obviously burning with anger over the ridiculous decision for Motta. Even the commentator was awed by the sudden ferocity in the Barça ranks as the team moved in unison to secure a resounding victory in the drawn out game. Time and again Zaragoza charged at the four defenders but the Barça defence never swayed. Even the erratic Victor Valdez saved shots that would have made Petr Cech impressed. Puyol was like a man with nothing to lose. The way he took on the oncoming Zaragoza player was jaw dropping. He literally flung himself forward and wrestled the ball away from the player. He was clearly very basal in behaviour, but Puyol has always been capable push defending to the limits. Marquez was exceptionally elegant tonight. He takes most of his kicks sideways, like a dance. Zambrotta bared his dark side as he delivered a forceful tackle on a Zaragoza player near the line. He was lucky the referee was too busy staring at other things.

Saviola was awarded a free kick in the 85th minute. As usual, Ronaldinho take the free kick. He sent the ball whistling into the air with his right foot. Just as ball looked to fly wide, it curled in a perfect arc and entered the net at the top right corner. The commentator enthused about the perfection of the free kick and said this, “And the keeper is just a spectator!“.

It was so true. Every single Barça person just burst into joy on the pitch. Ronaldinho gave a fierce embrace to Rijkaard and they were soon engulfed by the other players. Valdez was SO happy, he just flung himself on top of the pile of celebrating bodies. The pressure of the moment gave away and everyone went crazy with relief and happiness.

…and goes for the kill
In stoppage time; 5 minutes was awarded, Saviola scored the third goal for the night. As I did not watch the match live but I recorded it, my recording stopped before the stoppage time was played out, hence there will be no indepth reports on Saviola’s mighty efforts. Sorry.

All in all, Barcelona played magnificent tonight against a team well-matched to them. Zaragoza is like Barcelona only more Neanderthal. I’m glad we beat them soundly with some of Ronaldinho’s best crafted goals since his form dip. At least the injuries did not occur in vain. This match is his match.

Preview of upcoming matches
The next match against Levski Sofia is a must win or Barcelona will be in serious risk of being elimnated from the CLs at group stage. Quite a joke being title holders of the previous season. As for the upcoming La Liga matches, we’ve already played against the top four teams of the La Liga table. Safe to say, the hardest part is probably out of the way. The remaining matches should not require too much nailbiting from the Barça supporters. No one should be losing sleep over it.

Source of report: F.C. Barcelona, ESPN Soccernet: match details, ESPN Soccernet: Interview with Deco

Blaugrana still top the table

And here is the latest review of the latest match. YES, I still owe this place the Zaragoza, but here’s the report on Barcelona vs Mallorca.

Final score: 1 – 4, Barcelona wins.

Overview
The match opened a at comfortable pace with neither side having any chance on goal. Most of the playing was confined to the midfield (rare for Barcelona) and at the first defensive line. Neither team was taking lead. Despite the seemingly boring conditions, it was anything but.

Watchers of Barcelona would know that it is rare to see so much action in midfield in a game with the Catalan giants. Most of the time we just see them breaking defenses and scoring, or defending furiously against the opposite team. I’ve always lamented about the midfield being Barça’s weakest link.

Tonight’s action against Mallorca has proved me wrong. This match shows that in times of need, the Barça midfeld is more muscular and versatile than imagined.

The Mallorca defence, one of the most touted and resilient defence in the La Liga, was impressive. But to me, did not really live up to all the bells and whistles. Their record sheets revealed that while they scored the least goals (just 5 times), they also conceded the least goals in the La Liga. That, my friend, are very interesting statistics, making this game no walk in the park.

The midfield is strong
After all the terrible news of the injuries of Messi and Saviola, no one can doubt that Barcelona is under fire. Forced to relinquish his usual lineup and focus on a slightly different style of play, Rijkaard shows that he knows his men well indeed.

Barcelona had solid passing today. Despite only 57% of possession, we seldom lost the ball to Mallorca in passing. The midfield was ever ready to for a chance on goal. I’ve never seen the Barça midfield so alert, so aggressive. But it wasn’t all wows and whistles. After Mallorca scored their lucky goal, the Barcelona side began to dissolve into a mess. Against a stronger team, Barcelona would have been knocked out of their 3 points long ago. Complacency is still something Barcelona yet to prove to rid themselves of.

Mallorca and Barcelona defence
In the first half, Mallorca kept the ball firmly in the midfield with their players scattered in front of Valdez. In fact, most so-called impressive defences have like 8 players blocking the goalpost, not for Mallorca. While I missed the starting lineup diagram, an educated estimated of the number of defenders used were 3 and 2 more midfielders that are lean more towards defensive duties.

Not that the Barcelona defence was any weaker. Early game, Puyol showed why he’s captain of the top team in the La Liga. He singlehandedly took on Jankovic of Mallorca when he tried to breach the Barcelona defence. A neat interception to the ball and Puyol sent the ball safely away from Jankovic. While it was a mere interception, it was done so elegantly, not even Jankovic could have found fault with Puyol. Some interceptions peformed are so vicious and laden with evil innuendo, it just makes the defender look overly defensive and insecure. Not Carles Puyol. The Barça captain was not as sunshine-y as he usually is but he is very much on form, do not doubt that.

Deco, marked man
Another point of interest in the match was Deco. In the Zaragoza match, Deco was the uglyman of the show for deliberately throwing himself on the pitch in exaggeration. Ok, it just means Deco was acting. I’m a hardcore Barcelona supporter and I have no qualms saying that about Deco. Tonight, Deco continues his walk in the dark side as he delivers an average performance. No tricks from him today, but almost as though the other teams in the La Liga hate him for he had done in the Zaragoza match, he was marked harshly. Or maybe because Messi isn’t on the pitch and they have no one else to mark. Deco was involved in numerous fouls against Mallorca. Not that he had a hand to getting them into flak…. The final straw came when a Mallorca defender challenged Deco with a vicious slide to his legs. He was sent off because he already had a yellow card earlier. No smiles from Deco ‘Winnie-the-Pooh” today.

No effort needed to score
All of the Barça goals were achieved so effortlessly, I begun doubting the Mallorca defence, or rather the Mallorca keeper in particular. In the first goal, Gudjohnsen had the ball at his feet from Deco and it LOOKED like the keeper had snatched the ball from his feet. But Gudjohnsen had the ball magically glued to his boot and he skipped over the keeper like a lamb and tucked the ball into the unguarded net. Mrs. Ronaldinho and I burst out laughing when we saw how Gudjohnsen did his little skip.

The second goal was also by Gudjohnsen. Iniesta had supplied a neat pass from midfield, spying a space between two Mallorca defenders. The ball found Gudjohnsen. The keeper of Mallorca, Toni Prats, seemed to have his eye on anywhere but near the goalpost. The second goal was scored because he was not at the net. It was too easy. So easy that even when the camera was on Rijkaard, he displayed on visible emotion. He returned to the bench in an elegant stride.

Bliztkrieg by Iniesta
The third goal was by Iniesta. This is the goal of the match. Ronaldinho had just done his magical weaving skills and had ALMOST got through the last line of defence before Toni Prats. But he faltered the ball start to bounce off tangent. Then out of the nowhere, a flash of colours and the ball was shot into the net. The next thing we see is little Iniesta getting crushed to death by the rest of the Barça team. From another angle, I saw Iniesta dart between the Mallorca defence just as Ronaldinho was addressing the final defender. The moment the ball was off from Ronaldinho’s boot, Iniesta took charge and shot to goal from the right side of the goalpost (keeper’s view). He was SO fast, Toni Prats stood no chance of saving it. By now, he looked incredibly cross and was sitting on the pitch, hugging his knees, like Messi in the previous match.

Ezquerro makes his mark
At full time, Santiago Ezquerro, a backup Barcelona striker scored an unapologetic left footed shot to the bottom right end of the net. Ronaldinho set Ezquerro for goal in a manner so effortless and natural. Either they’ve been practising moves together or Ronaldino has an innate ability to match anyone’s style. Ezquerro played in the true Barcelona style, swift and sure. Once again, Toni Prats was left seething in his own embarrassment.

Conceding an unneccessary goal
During a freekick in the 70th minute for Mallorca, the ball had caught the wall, but the rebound did not it flying off too far. Eager Mallorca players were crouching so near to the goal. By then Barcelona had already scored two goals and thus were a little too slack. The defenders were near not near enough, leaving only Valdez to guard the goalpost. Víctor Castaño of Mallorca was SO near to the goalpost, it really did not require much of him to send into the goalpost. Valdez reacted too slowly.

Valdez, the on and off guy
Sometimes I feel that Victor Valdez’s performance is so erratic. While his style is not assertive and secure like Petr Cech, he does have his own signature style of saving goals. The only gripe I have against him is his reaction time. Sometimes, it is just half a tick too slow. During this match, Mallorca VERY nearly scored another goal. The reason it did not happen was because it flew wide. But had it not, we would have conceded again. Valdez had lept to attempt to save the goal just too late. Unnerving.

Overall
I’d say it is an easy match for Barcelona. Based on the Valerie metre of scoring: 1 goal is a win. 2 goals is a good win. 3 goals is a beating. 4 goals is a thrashing. 5 goals is a devastation. 6 goals is a destruction. Hence for tonight’s game, it is safe to say Barcelona thrashed Mallorca.

Highlights from the Barcelona team
- Messi has left the hospital.
- Motta’s red card from the Zaragoza match was withdrawn
- Barcelona still tops the La Liga table

So, Zaragoza?
Definitely by this week.

Source of report: F.C. Barcelona, ESPN Soccernet

(Mrs. Ronaldinho is currently on a holiday, her insights will not be featured in the next match review).

Sick, injured Barcelona

It is times like this, I really want to throw objectivity out of the window and weep with relief. Doctors have declared Messi’s surgery to be a success and he should recover in three or so months.

Barcelona does seem kind of cursed with deaths, injuries and key players having to serve international duty. But despite it all, Barcelona holds her head up high and manages to fight her way up to the top of the Spanish table. This could easily be the toughest season in recent years for us to face but we will prevail.

Anyway, I still owe this place the Zaragoza review. Been busy with work and I have not had time to review the second half the match. I am relieved to be able to say that Messi’s injury isn’t a result of foul play by Zaragoza. It was just his bad luck that his foot just gave way after the collision.

Meanwhile, please continue to come back time to time for updates, or you can subscribe to my RSS feed by getting an aggregator. Valerie On the Ball uses Bloglines.

Source of report: F.C. Barcelona

Messi breaks his foot

Lionel Messi broke his foot in the match against Zaragoza. He will be out for three months.

AW CRAP.

This Zaragoza match stinks of controversy.

Source of report: F.C. Barcelona

Gunning their way through

When I saw that it was Arsenal vs Liverpool of the EPL, I had to watch it. Afterall, both Arsenal and Liverpool were once in the running for THE Club I was seeking to support. And they were neck to neck too. Those were fun days… Anyway, enough reverie. Back to present and I present the scores.

Arsenal vs Liverpool: 3 – 0

It is a score that would make any Gunners’ fan proud. And they played well too.

Steady Toure ignites trail of goals for Arsenal

The match kicked off with Liverpool playing strongly. They had an impressive defence, alert forwards and an attitude raring to go. Arsenal, on the flip, had a loose defence, sloppy midfield and overeager forwards. It did seem like the match was in Arsenal’s disadvantage due to several factors. Lehmann was out with a sore throat leaving Almunia to hold fort. Rosicky was out with an injury and substitute Flamini started.

Denied Goal #1
Van Persie kicked off the night of denied goals by handballing the first goal. From the first look, it wasn’t clear that it was a handball. When he charged up to the net, Reina suddenly ran past Van Persie screaming and gesturing. At that juncture, Van Persie had slotted the ball into the unguarded net. But the referee immediately booked him for a yellow card. I was a little baffled too and thought he was booked for dissent. But later, during the match recap at half time, the scene was replayed from a different angle and it was clear that Van Persie’s fist had propelled the ball ahead JUST before Reina dashed past him. Reina had seen it and was protesting vigorously, thus giving Van Persie the chance to ‘score’ the first goal.

Finnan’s impressive defending
At 6 minutes, another crack on goal was attempted by the Arsenal side. While it got pass Riise, it could not get past Finnan. He was SO fast… he just nipped right before the ball and send it whittling away with quick kick. I’ve never quite seen such accurate defending before. Letting the ball bounce off the body, yes. Clearing the ball, yes. Tucking the ball off with a impeccably timed kick, not quite.

Gallas saves
At the 35th minute, Mark Gonzalez attempted a shot on goal, but was foiled by an alert Gallas. For this match, Gallas would show that he was indeed one of the world’s best defenders. His performance was sorely disappointing for the past two matches I watched briefly.

Gerrard and Zenden waste chances
I felt Gerrard was a little disappointing in this match. His passes were mistimed and his shot on goal flew so widely offmark, I wondered if he even bothered to aim. Where was the man that was once declared one to be stopped if any chance at beating Liverpool was to be made? I can’t say.

At the 28th minute, Zenden had a good chance to translate the freekick to goal but misjudged the angle and it bounced off the wall. Should he had scored, it might have been a different picture for the Reds.

Denied Goal #2:
At 14 minutes, Liverpool had just managed to toss the ball over to underrated striker, Peter Crouch. Crouch seized his chance and eagerly flipped the ball into the net past Almunia. But he was ruled offside and the goal was denied. On replay, Crouch was clearly offside and there was no denying to it.

From then on it was a tight fight with little chance for goal on either side. There were several players that stood out very clearly. On the Liverpool side, Riise played for all he was worth. He defended so ferociously, it was almost like he was an attacking defender. I told Mr. X that Riise was a dangerous man. He scoffed me by saying Riise was a mere defender. I trust what I see, Riise is fearsome… He is the most fearsome defender on the field that night other than Gallas.

Arsenal goal #1
The other player that caught my notice was midfielder, Cesc Fabregas. At the 40th minute, Hleb (another remarkable player) had just won the ball from Liverpool and was steadily advancing to goal. He then sent the ball to Fabregas, who is adept at freeing himself from being tied down by his opponents (something that Messi should learn). Upon gaining the ball, Fabregas wove himself parallel to goal. He chose to deliver to straight pass to Flamini who was directly in front of the goalpost. Flamini did not disappoint, despite being very nearly offside and having Riise on his back, he scored.

I had a discussion with Mr. X on Fabregas’ seemingly risky move to pass the ball to Flamini. I likened his maneuver to what Messi did in World Cup 2006. Messi was about forty degrees behind Tevez. He could have chose to try to score or pass to Tevez. He passed to Tevez before he was swarmed by defenders from the other side and Tevez took that chance to throw the keeper offguard and scored. Mr. X said a lesser player would have tried to score on his own. I concurred.

Arsenal goal #2
In the second half, Toure took a rare chance to score a truly gorgeous goal. Van Persie had just lost his chance to score. Toure was behind him. As Van Persie was embroiled in the tangle with superman Riise, Toure took the chance to run pass the fiasco. Van Persie managed to get the ball out into the clear and Toure calmly took up his position behind the ball and sent it sedately from the midfield penalty area past Reina (who could have done better at this point). Even Toure was pleasantly surprised that he scored. His calmness was impressive. If he were more agitated, his shot goal on goal would have most likely be over the crossbar because he would have kicked it too hard.

Arsenal goal #3
Gallas, the other multi-tasking defender other than Riise. Van Persie had just returned to the ball to play from the corner. I really wonder why Gallas was at where he was. The ball came flying down onto the mad scramble in front of the goalpost. Gallas took his chance and headed the ball past the hapless Reina. It was a neat header. This instance of the defender scoring reminded me of this Barcelona match that saw Puyol scoring against Ath. Bilbao. Puyol backpedalled and scored. Both incidents left me wondering what were the defenders doing so near to goal? Either ways, it was to good effect.

Adebayor disappoints
Nearly end game, Adebayor came on for Van Persie. He had managed to run free with the ball and was one on one with Reina. He took too long to try to score and once again, superman Riise came barraging up and knocked the ball away from the indecisive Adebayor. He had a good chance to make the Arsenal goal tally to 4 but squandered it

Denied goal #3
End game, Bellamy came on. I remember Bellamy from my last Liverpool match that was against Chelsea for the FA Community Shield (Yes I know that was SO long ago but I’m not a bigtime Liverpool supporter). And I also remember Bellamy for the wrong reasons that I shall not discuss here, for it may further detract from my already unprofessional reviews. Anyway, the ball had found Bellamy was behind Reina and at the mouth of the net. He was did another nice header; after Gallas, only to be ruled offside.

Most people would say that Liverpool played poorly. But in reality, should all the denied goals; aside from the handball by Van Persie, were not ruled offside, the scores would have been different. I still think the two teams are well matched. Tonight was Arsenal’s night for teamwork and for seizing the right chances. On the other hand, Liverpool should have exploited Arsenal’s loose defence more. Almost as though to guard against Arsenal, too much emphasis was put on the Liverpool defence. Should they have played a more attacking style, I’d daresay despite the denied goals, Liverpool would not have walked away with a zero to their name.

With this match ends all hopes for Liverpool to go near the EPL title. This win is the perfect salve for the Gunners’ embarassing performance and lost to West Ham previously.

Barcelona vs Zaragoza: A preview
Well, the next match review will be for Barcelona vs Zaragoza. A brief preview here, Barcelona scored a resounding victory and once again claimed their rightful place on top of the Spanish League table. Zaragoza got whipped by Barça with 3 – 1. Ronaldinho did some great work scoring 2 goals. Up and coming Saviola scores 1. It does look like this long undermined Argentine is starting show some serious promise.

EPL Miscellany: Chelsea vs Watford and Reading vs Tottenham
Oh yea, before I forget… Chelshit had given Watford a whipping with 4 – 0. To me, Watford deserved it for playing so badly. Platypus faced Drogba scored a hat-trick… Looks like this sickening person will be on the radar for a while to come.

Reading shocked everyone by beating Tottenham with a 3 – 1. 3 – 1! What happened to the Tottenham that bested Chelsea?! I was too baffled to even see the match to fulltime. That’s why I don’t like watching EPL, you can’t never know which are the truly strong teams. Some say this adds to the fun of watching, I say this adds to the uneasiness of the supporter. Mind you, I am not say be predictable, I’m saying be consistent.

Source of report: ESPN Soccernet, TEAMtalk

So you think ham is a kind of meat.

(In case you missed the earlier posts:
- When fines are not enough
- Barcelona vs Deportivo: A night at the penalties)

Under the fire by the Gunners, the ham turns out well baked.

Harewood slips the ball past German keeper, Lehmann late game

Final score: 1 – 0 with West Ham claiming the victory.

The only reason why I watched this match was to see my beloved Tevez on the field. After it’s been a long time since I last saw him play. But there was no Tevez tonight. Since I already am in front of the TV and kind of keen to see who will emerge winner, I watched on.

The match started with West Ham strong on the attack. Kind of like how Deportivo pressed on the Barça defence. But West Ham lacked the discipline of Deportivo… many chances were not carried to fruition by sheer lack of teamwork. Arsenal was very fast in tonight’s clash. Kind of like many little Flash Gordons blitzing on the field. Arsenal played their usual pounding style, fast and furious but accuracy was greatly missing Thus giving West Ham many chances of snagging the ball from the Gunners and pushing towards goal.

Because that cycle kept repeating, Arsenal’s midfield had to keep running up and down, wearing themselves out. I get the impression that Arsenal seemed to be too slack as compared to West Ham. West Ham never tired or gave up. They just kept going for goal again and again. Their tenacity was most impressive. Particularly Benayoun of West Ham, he was the epitome of being everywhere on the field. Along with Spector, the two of them had the most contact with the ball from the West Ham side.

Arsenal had no problems going for goal. But when they had chances, they fumbled it up. The most classic missed chance was by Rosicky in the first half. Boy was that some regret. Rosicky tried to fire a long shot but missed by a small margin. Everyone stared in disbelief. Later Toure had a similar chance, and he THOUGHT he scored until the replay showed that ball was bouncing OUTSIDE the net. What a terrible disappointment for Arsenal. Van Persie, too, had many chances to score but just lacked that magical finishing touch.

Tonight’s keepers for both sides were highly impressive. Early readers of my blog will know I do not have much love for German keeper Lehmann, but that was because he was shaky keeper. Since World Cup till now, he has improved vastly. Tonight he saved Arsenal from heartache more than once… But just not enough.

During the 80-something minute, these three West Ham players (not familiar with their names) worked together to form the Triangle. From the midfield, one of them dashed forth then passed the ball to the player in the middle who took a moment to see his surroundings before giving it good kick to the striker (Harewood). The moment the ball touched the striker’s foot, he sent it flying to goal. The entire sequence happened in less than seven seconds, Lehmann just had no time to react. It was a shock goal for everyone in the stadium. Arsene Wenger lost his temper and started railing at Pardew.

I feel that Arsenal was definitely capable of dominating the match. A lot of chances slipped by when they kept sticking to long passes. They did not seem to realise they were playing against a side that was very good in picking up chances to gain the ball. Another thing about Arsenal was that, they had the speed but neglected to use it to their advantage. If the players were more attuned to each other and tried to work together… it would have been much better. Like what Mr.X said, it was a collective of individuals rather than a team. The only obvious partnership on the field was between Fabregas and Rosicky. The two of them worked well together.

The forwards were one gang, the midfielders alone in their own game, the defenders did the job erratically. Gallas is definitely capable of better results. During the match against CSKA, already he let slip the blue-haired CSKA striker due to a moment’s negligence… I thought it would never happen again. But it did. Once again, a lone West Ham striker found his way out the Arsenal defence and happily started towards goal. Thank goodness, Lehmann did a beautiful job by stopping the ball.

West Ham played pretty gruesomely too. Their attacks lack bite. Barcelona on the attack might be akin to a magnificent lion for the killl, West Ham appeared more like dozen of pesky mosquitoes. But even mosquitoes can bring a T-Rex down. I feel that West Ham should sharpen their attacks and finishing. While their defence held up against Arsenal’s attacks, it was more due to the utter confusion that the ball gets bobbed away rathe than tight defending.

West Ham’s best feature was their midfield. Very lively and ever ready to win the ball. They sent Arsenal in a quandary more than once with their quick actions. Ultimately it was also because of this midfield that West Ham managed to steal the ball, set up for goal and take the goal.

Another thing was West Ham’s fans. These people have no manners at all. When Van Persie was about to do a throw-in, he suddenly collapsed onto the pitch clutching the back of his head in agony. I was shocked to see that happen. I thought he had some brain injury suddenly. It didn’t make sense to me until I saw a policeman come onto the pitch to retrieve some object near where Van Persie fell. Apparently, a fan threw something onto the pitch and it hit Van Persie at the back of his head. That was fucking ugly and bad behaviour. Inexcusable.

Overall, I felt like the match was damn messy, lacked coordination and somewhat frustrating. It also showed me a side of Arsene Wenger I wish I did not see. It’s probably just a bad run for the Gunners.

Source of Report: Based on personal reflections.

When fines are not enough

Lennart Johansson (left) having a word with Franz Beckenbauer.

UEFA president, Lennart Johansson was quoted saying this,

” ‘I do not believe in fines when Chelsea have the money they have to pay it. It must be judged differently,”

It is nice to know is it not just the few of us who thinks Chelsea derserves a harder kick to its cheating ass.

Read the full story here: ESPN Soccernet: Fining Chelsea is pointless – UEFA chief