Which club side can match the flair of Barcelona's play, the creativity of their players and the fluid transition between players on the pitch? Many people will have to think back to the Ajax sides of the '70s, where Cruijff and co. established totaalvoetbal on a global scale following three consecutive Champions League victories. And it is with the help of Cruijff and Rinus Michels, the Ajax manager at the time, that the brand of football Barcelona advocate now, such as pressing, interchange of formations and manipulating the space on the football pitch, is in place. With the help of those two Dutchmen, Barcelona won the Spanish division in 1974 with attacking football, and have remained engraved in Catalan history. Johan Cruijff often sees himself as a Catalan; he was appointed manager on non-FIFA affiliated Catalonia in 2009; and is a fierce exponent of positive football. His and Michel's legacy is firmly in place in Barcelona, with them winning 8-0 over Almería with a magnificent, attacking display.
For as Almería can be embarrassed about their performance on Saturday, Barcelona can be equally pleased about the manner of their performance. They played short, precise football while waiting for the right delivery into the box, where Pedro, Villa and Messi were waiting to pounce on goal. The first goal was especially well-crafted, with Messi passing it to Villa, the latter flicking it back to the Argentinian, who then drived a fierce shot into Diego Alves bottom corner. If Diego Alves could do nothing about the first goal, he didn't exactly cover himself in glory with fourth and seventh goals. For the fourth goal, Diego Alves was slow to come of his line after a fantastic lofted pass from the young Andreu Fontàs found the feet of Pedro and the goalkeeper left a large gap for Pedro to slot the ball into the net. The seventh goal occurred after Diego Alves fumbled a long shot from David Villa into the path of Lionel Messi who gratefully grabbed his hat-trick. While Diego Alves had a poor game, Almería were abject. Their defence had no shape to it and the team looked degraded and slow in their reactions boosting Barcelona's confidence before the big game.
Real Madrid would have also had a massive confidence boost after beating Athletic Club 5-1, with poster boy Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a hat-trick. While Barcelona are slow and measured in their approach, Real Madrid play with such alacrity that opponents can't keep up with them. Ronaldo and Di María add a lot of pace down the flanks for Real Madrid, which resulted in a fabulous second goal for them. After a corner from Athletic, Ángel di María laid the ball forward for Gonzalo Higuaín who ran down the right flank, past the halfway line, and in turn lofted the ball towards Mesut Özil, laying in turn off for Cristiano Ronaldo to crash home. It was the perfect example of how Real Madrid play, dominating the game and pressing their opponents. Ronaldo also scored a free-kick and a penalty to complete his hat-trick, leaving him with fourteen goals in twelve games, in front of Messi in the running for the Pichichi trophy, who is on thirteen goals for the season.
The Clásico next week will be actually played on a Monday, for the first time in its history. The reasoning behind it will be to publicise games on Monday, as the Spanish public have mostly turned a blind eye to games on that day. The two best teams in the world will meet then, with the whole world watching. Will Barcelona overtake Real or will the Blancos hold on firm at the summit of the table? Will Real Madrid finally come out of the shadow of Barcelona's treble win in 2009? Watch on Monday and you will find out
Brilliant blog, a journalist in the making. But after a match report on "el Clasico" a mention of French and German Football big games would be much appreciated. Maybe even a match report. Cheers!
ReplyDeleteA review of the German games over the weekend has been posted.
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