Archive for November 21, 2006
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
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