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