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El Classico in Spain

December 13th, 2008 | By: Jan | 12 Comments »

Something to look forward to, as always. The clash between two major football forces, illustrating the clash between the Royals and the Rebels. As Bobby Robson once quipped: Catalunia is a nation and Barcelona Football Club is it’s army. With nine points difference, a Barca team on fire under Pep Guardiola and Madrid in trouble, with Ramos replacing coach Schuster… Some people predicted a monster score in Camp Nou. Real misses Robben, Van Nistelrooy, Marcello while Sneijder is not 100% fit.

Barca, on the other hand, at full strength.

But despite the possession stats, despite the pressure from the hometeam and the lacklustre counter-attacking tactics of Real, the score line stayed blank for a long time.

Sure, Barca does play tremendous modern football. One touches, lots of movement, wonderful skills, great runs…but not a lot of effective finishing. Barca took the game to the Merenguez from the first whistle onwards, but Real managed to stay in the game. With Drenthe as left midfielder/winger and Wesley Sneijder fit enough to start, Real tried to keep the damage limited.

But as these matches go, when the team on top forgets to score (as Eto’o did when he got to take a penalty in the second half, denied by San Iker), it seemed Real could pull a trick. Sneijder was replaced after 36 minutes with fitness issues, but he was able to put Victor Valdez to work with a half volley in the box. The best chance of the game was Madrid’s. In that same first half, Drenthe was overlooked by Dani Alvez and the ex-Feyenoord player could march up to Valdez. The latter’s reaction kept the scoresheet clean, just like Valdez did on that Sneijder attempt.

With 0-0 until late in the second half, Madrid sniffed opportunities. With Van der Vaart on the pitch for the disappointing Huguain, Juande Ramos tried to force a shock result, but it was the precision of a Barca corner and the timing of a Puyol header that allowed Eto’o to score from close range. All or nothing, it was for Madrid after the 1-0 and in the dying minutes the Real defensed opened up for Messi to score a beautifully composed chip: 2-0.

Barca seems unstoppable this season, while Ramos has his work cut out for him in Madrid.

But, with Sneijder regaining fitness and Huntelaar in the group, Real should be able to fight their way back in the tables.

Tags: Barca, Drenthe, Group C, Guardiola, Holland, Oranje, Real, Robben, Schuster, Sneijder, Vaart

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Comments

By Bart | December 13th, 2008 at 8:54 pm

NOOOO DRENTHE you idiot, how could you miss that???

Posted from Canada

By dave | December 14th, 2008 at 12:15 am

Drenthe–God Almighty–finish!

Posted from United States

By Jan | December 14th, 2008 at 3:07 am

Robben chipped it last weekend. Raul did. Now, it was Drenthe’s chance

Nice little volley by Sneijder.

By the way, why doesn’t Vaart play?

By ferenc | December 14th, 2008 at 7:40 am

Jan: he played in the last 15 minutes but the sad reality is that even in this madrid with injuries and suspensions he’s not good enough to be a starter… don’t understand what happened to him. he should take the first airplane and go back to hamburg.

drenthe has no brain. it’s obvious. real played like an italian team,pure catenaccio. but i reckon that it was the only one way to survive,otherwise it would have been 5-0. they wanted get messi injured. in the first 30 minutes it was horrible to see what they did against him. guess la liga will be won quite easily. barca should win both la liga and the cl.

Posted from Hungary

By Alex | December 14th, 2008 at 8:58 am

V.d.Vaart just isn’t used to play like this, he is at his best when he plays regularly. BTW Drenthe should go to an italian club and get out of the way of V.d.Vaart, Robben, Sneijder; they can all play at the left.

Posted from Netherlands

By ian wilkie | December 14th, 2008 at 9:19 am

the crisis at madrid looks pretty bad but honestly people forget things pretty easly

the amount of red cards they have gotten in first halfs of games is very large i think and that has cost them some pionts

against barca they were without van gool their best attacker and robben who would have chewed alves up

barca always drop pionts because they have no power forward they twice of almost lost to some russian team in the champions league and i can see them droppping tons of pionts still

madrid beet barca at home then they only have to make up 9 pionts

i garauntee that barca will drop way morre pionts then that so madrid should relax and play football

if huntelaar can do what ruud did sneijder and robben stay fit and they sign a really good defendre i think they have a chance at winning la liga

By Carlos | December 14th, 2008 at 5:36 pm

To me RM defence looks hopelessly disorganized which amazes me with the so called best defender in the world marshalling them ? Agree with Ferenc that Madrid tried to injure Messi more than just play football thats very sad to see. Altho unlucky towards the end 2-0 was deserved for a team wanting to play attractive football.

Posted from Singapore

By Jan | December 14th, 2008 at 7:32 pm

Well, my 2cents…

I think Real needs a footballing center back. Someone like…Gutti?

Salgado is a disgrace. He shouldn’t play.

Sergio Ramos should play on the left. (Drenthe could have played left full back with Vaart on midfield instead of putting Ramos on the left).

Gago and Gutti were hopeless in the first half.

Huguain is a good player but doesn’t break the game open like Robben or Van der Vaart can. I’d say: play either Raul or Higuain, not both.

If Real gets their injured players back (and Huntelaar) they will be on top of things again.

Barca does look fab, but by golly, they do seem to have gone to the same school as Arsenal: The Academy of We Want to Walk the Ball into the Net otherwise it’s not Fun Anymore…

By bobotoh | December 14th, 2008 at 10:37 pm

Will vdv play for Oranje again? Vdv is not like he used to be. He should have stayed at Hamburg.

Posted from Indonesia

By Miguel Rosado | December 15th, 2008 at 8:38 pm

At the begining of the campaign Van der Vaart was playing very well but when Sneijder came back Schuster benched Rafael. He even scored a back heeler. Juande Ramos is a very good coach and I’m sure he’ll use him more.

Drenthe has a very bright future ahead of him, OK he missed that chance very badly but you have to remember he is just a kid yet. In the last games I’ve seen him improve and I’m sure he’ll shut some mouths one of these days. He is what we lack in Holland, balls.

By finnster01 | December 15th, 2008 at 8:44 pm

Drenthe still is a punk. He needs to grow up and spend a weekend together with VanPersie and Sno at Hunters dads house.

What balls?

By finnster01 | December 15th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Completely unrelated, but fascinating still:

I have a bet with a mate at work who claimed that if you fold over USA today (in half like it is in the pile when you buy it), the upmost front half will each day have a photo of a woman, or a male minority (American African, Asian, Native American, Latino etc). We agreed to do this bet over the month of December.

It is now 15th Dec., he has been right every single day and I look to lose some serious dollars if this keep up (as if I haven’t lost enough already . I don’t mind political correctness but that is taking a tad too far. I never thought they would be that consistent as they are not considered a real serious newspaper.

I know there’s an international USA today issue out there and I would be interested to know if the same thing happens there. Next time you see it, somebody let me know. Maybe I can save my bet

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