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Barca impotent; C Ronaldo misses from 11 meters

April 23rd, 2008 | By: Jan | 25 Comments »

Lionel Messi ready for ManU

Barca - Man United, a classic fixture. We saw them slug it out in a finals before, was it 1991 in Rotterdam? ManU winning 2-1 against Cruyff’s Barcelona.

The Blaugrana’s are in trouble a bit, this season. Fans unhappy, question marks about Rijkaard/Neeskens future, rebellion among the troups… Man United on the other hand, seem to be in control. On the pitch, in the EPL, here in the CL.

A great opportunity for Rijkaard’s men to show the fans what they’re made of. Rijkaard chose to use Messi and Deco again, both not 100% match fit and using Iniesta on Ronaldinho’s position who wasn’t present. Krkic on the bench, Henry on the bench.

Sir Alex on the other hand started Tevez, Ronaldino, Rooney and Park up front, suggesting an attacking tactics. And why not? You know when you play Barca that they will allow for space.

And you know these fixtures will not be boring, but who expected this start? In the first minutes it’s a Man United corner kick brought into the box and Ronaldo’s header is blocked by a defenders’ arms. Penalty kick. Tough decision, but ultimately a right decision. So, you brace yourself, expecting the master to score. But C. Ronaldo wants to do it just a tad too flashy. In the upper corner. And the Player of the Year misses!

From that moment on, Barca rules. High paced positioning play, great individual skills (Messi, Toure, Xavi, Deco) but…there’s always that but with Barca. A lot of possession, a lot of threat but no real sting. We maybe saw four of five well played through-passes unable to connect and a couple of runs through the center without the decisive final pass. Leaving us with no real test for Edwin van der Sar for 45 minutes! Man United soaked up the pressure without getting too nervous. Playing Barca you know they will trick you, they will outplay you and will get in the box. But they seem to want to pass and combine until they’re inside the 5 yard box! A pass too many. Or maybe 2 or 3 passes too many… When does this stop?

I dont’ know the exact possession stats for the first half, but I think if one would analyze the number of attempts at goal or even goals scored vs possession % we’ll find that Barca lacks effectiveness. But what else is new? It is still a wonderful team to watch, the flow of the game, the individual skills, but you want to shout “shoot!!” every now and then.

Man United couldn’t really do anything back other than some free kicks when CR was clipped. But, I can imagine Sir Alex and his men aren’t too dissatisfied with the half time result.

Same old same old in the second half. 65% possession for Barca, but still a frustrating performance. Messi had a wonderful first half, Deco did his job but the pizzazz just wasn’t there. Man United played in Liverpool style, with C Ronaldo as the lone striker and Rooney in the Dirk Kuyt role on the right. Manchester created very little, the only real opportunity for Carrack, penetrating into the box and hitting the side of the net. CR had another penalty claim but other than that the Mancunians didn’t play along. Barca had a couple of shot attempts, with the best probably sub’s Thierry Henry’s try stopped by a very firm looking Edwin van der Sar. Eto’o had a good chance in the box after a wonderful set-up through Iniesta but the African striker couldn’t even hit the target.

The score remained 0-0. And although Barca played much better than they do in La Liga, you are still left with a frustrated feeling. Like the young, muscle toned and tanned bloke, with the six-pack, the cabrio Porsche and the wayfarer glasses being able to take three bombshells back to his room only to find out he can’t get it up. That’s how Barca must feel at the moment… Although, CR did miss that penalty of course.

Anyway, the fans didn’t seem too disappointed after the match. Didn’t see any white hankies. Next week, any draw bar 0-0 will be enough for Barca, although Rijkaard can expect a different Manchester United there. This ManU team didn’t come to play football, they came to stop Barca from playing.

Barca can’t do that next week. I think they’re unable to. But, summarizing what Barca can do: it’s keeping possession, passing the ball, doing fancy little flicks and tricks, but they - like Arsenal - have trouble putting opponents away. More direct, more wide play and more opportunistic potshots at goal, please!! Henry did it in the 12 minutes he played, he had three goal attempts and made Sar work for two of them.

Next week will prove to be very interesting indeed… But I’m worried for Barca…

Keeping a clean sheet

Tags: CL and UEFA, Group C

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Comments

By gregorio | April 23rd, 2008 at 4:11 pm

what a dissapointment this game was! barca completely lacking vigour and pace. manu played defensive tactics with 4 attacker on the field. amazingly awkward match. ronaldo proved he is a big fish only in a small pond, and I don’t mean the missed penalty solely.
still, I can;t imagine machester not winning it at old trafford. barca had a huge chance, but blew it.

Posted from Poland

By goose | April 23rd, 2008 at 4:20 pm

Sorry ferenc; Barca is an impotent team at the moment..its like watching Oranje in the early nineties…lots of possession,never looking dangerous…they have some great defensive midfielders, Messi has great skills but they just dont create anything…ofcourse ManU is a great team but Barca has played like this for a while now…afer 10 minutes into the 2nd half i knew enough and didt watch the rest

ferenc; what is going on?? do they need new players/ different kind of players?

btw; i fear that MnU v Chelski will be the final, hate both teams

btw2; what was wrong with vdSars kicking??

btw3; Ronaldo is a diver, a cry baby and an all out wanker…great to see him miss(though me guess is hell punish them in Manchester)

grtz

Posted from Netherlands

By Lerkot | April 23rd, 2008 at 4:26 pm

Barca did their best game in weeks though they lack the efficiecy at the moment.

By goose | April 23rd, 2008 at 4:29 pm

well, if this was their best game in weeks…how bad are they? you must agree that they never looked like scoring…no running deep, all passing square..they had a few moment at the beginning of the game where it looked they might create something but they neber did

is Rijkaard on his way out?

Posted from Netherlands

By Lerkot | April 23rd, 2008 at 4:32 pm

Barcelona has been really bad for… well… two months, with only 2 wins in nine games or something like that. It’s been horrible. But since the games against Schalke they have improved slightly game by game, but they still fail in the final moment.

By ferenc | April 23rd, 2008 at 6:32 pm

manu has to attack at old trafford because they have to score. it means we’ll have more space and more opportunities. they played very old fashioned catenaccio. is this the best team of the world? i don’t think so. if we score first we’ll qualify. and i’m sure we will. our problem is the final,the decisive pass. or like Jan wrote always one more pass or 2 or three. actually i was disappointed by mu - everyone said that they were the best team of the world with brilliant attacking football and apart from the penalty and carrick’s shoot they even failed to create anything. our midfield is from far better. for me yaya toure was the man of the match. and unfortunately it wasn’t eto’o’s day…

Posted from Hungary

By R | April 23rd, 2008 at 7:02 pm

I thing Barca should have won this match for sure…… they played excellent match and they really had nice chances…. but Man U. had horrible match today… I believe the way these teams played today…. Barca should be playing final….

Messi though came back after 6 weeks played like PRO ……I don’t know why but i felt like Ronaldo is still acting like a small baby… crying and all sorts of things…. never seen him like this …at least during this year….

Hope to have best match next week… but i am sure… either Man U or Barca will win the final…….

Posted from United States

By finnster01 | April 23rd, 2008 at 8:59 pm

Ha ha ha,

Rijkard in Chelsea next year. Ronaldo missing made me feel I won the lotto. Could not happen to a nicer guy haha

Posted from United States

By Miguel Rosado | April 23rd, 2008 at 9:47 pm

@ferenc: I TOTALLY AGREE. Man U is not the best team of the world.

Barcelona hasn’t been playing well for that last 2-3 months as you’ve said but in tonight’s game they showed better football even with that “catenaccio”. As ferenc said I believe Barcelona will win because there will be more spaces and also because Messi and Henry will play the whole game, they will be fit enough to play the 90′.

I don’t like Ronaldo at all but he’s been impressive this year and we can’t judge a player based on one game so let’s see if he steps up to the occasion next week.

By Miguel Rosado | April 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 pm

The TV commentators here in latin America said that Edwin was very bad playing with the ball on his feet. I was sooooo angry with those comments because I’ve seen Edwin through his whole career and I believe he’s great passing the ball with his feet. With Ajax and Holland all the players would pass the ball back as if he (edwin) were one extra defender.

What do you think about this issue?.

By Manu Rocks | April 24th, 2008 at 2:03 am

Edwin van der Sar ROCKS…

ManU was forced to break their formation because of Barcelona’s ground game. ManU would have been more comfortable playing 4-4-2 which would have allowed their wingers to cross the ball into the box. Barca wanted to dribble the ball into the goal in every attack. Classis touch artists, them catalans…

Posted from Australia

By Rob | April 24th, 2008 at 2:27 am

It was like Milan last season
Pretty much every United player had a ‘mare, bar Brown, Ferdinand and Evra, who basically saved the game (plus Van der Sar’s one save from Henry).
Special mention to perennial big game bottler Cristiano Ronaldo, who confirmed he’s playing worse than last season, and bottling semi-finals worse than last season. Pretty much everything he touched turned to ****. Highly commended is Carlos Tevez who failed to pass to a red shirt all night I believe.

Not too happy that I got up at 4am to watch it, but United have been playing garbage for the last few games anyway, as have Barca for most of the season, so no surprises there.
Expect Henry to do a Fat Ronaldo and dominate at Old Trafford - 0-0 draws in Spain are not a good omen for United!
And Miguel - I would have to agree with them - Edwin’s not as bad as, say, Mark Bosnich, but it’s not really a strength of his either. Case in point:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=0yJE07dJkAw

@ferenc: When United are on their game they play the best balance of passing and direct football in the Premiership but they pretty much bottle all the big games. Definitely currently the best defence in the world though.

Posted from Japan

By Igor | April 24th, 2008 at 12:27 pm

a couple of ‘tubes showing van der Sar’s quality as reply to Rob’s video…I think that many people would agree that van der Sar is great with his feet but happened to absolutely suck in that department yesterday (maybe a result of his groin injury?)

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vllo3243EqA&feature=related
http://youtube.com/watch?v=r_mM_HZKS8w&feature=related

and on an unrelated note, here’s a story on Cruijff, the pool incident and his absence from the ‘78 world cup:
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story?id=528411&root=worldcup2010&lpos=spotlight&lid=tab2pos2&cc=5901

Posted from Canada

By Jan | April 24th, 2008 at 3:52 pm

On ESPN they specifically mentioned Sar’s reputation as great with both feet, but the groin injury had some impact on the power in his leg… Some kicks he made didn’t have the distance… In this match, his feetwork wasn’t that good. But, his keeping was good! I do fear a bit for Oranje. Sar is in and out with that injury, so…

I am a big Barca fan and lately I am more frustrated than happy. And I’m not referring to the last weeks, but the last years!

It’s too much knitting, indoor-futsol and trying to make a 1-2 inside the keeper’s area…

In my view: there’s too many little dribblers who want the ball in their feet and then choose the center channel. Barca needs more Overmars/Giuly type players. With depth, pace, who can keep the wide channels and who can cross. The final pass that did come every now and then wasn’t on target, yesterday… With how ManU played, Barca should have won 3-0.

And Barca needs one or two killers. Eto’o has it (a bit) but Ruud van Nistelrooy, Alan Shearer, KJ Huntelaar, Drogba… That kind of striker.

If I was Rijkaard, I’d try to sell Ronnie and Deco. Messi is Gold (he played awesome if you take into account his long absence) and the midfield three (Iniesta, Xavi, Toure) are world class too.

I’d sign Huntelaar and van der Vaart. Pronto!

Man U was horrible, I thought. Sir Alex must have said to Rooney: you have to do a Kuyt tonight :-). Tevez never settled in the game and CR is a whiner. I liked Evra. He is a very promising player.

Posted from Australia

By ferenc | April 24th, 2008 at 5:51 pm

Jan: about barca i have exactly the same opinion as you. from a to z.

Posted from Hungary

By ferenc | April 24th, 2008 at 6:00 pm

eto’o (one of my fav barca players) is technically too good for being a good killer. it’s difficult to explain what i mean by this. let’s see for ex. cruijff was a magician,brilliant but he didn’t have the killer instinct. a little bit more than the typical number 10 but less than the typical goalscorer forward. usually others did the job. rvn is a killer but technically not as good as a cruijff or eto’o. gerd muller,paolo rossi,all these great goal-scorer were the kind of van nistelrooij type players. eto’o tries to organize and finish at the same time in the penalty area. actually it was only one striker in the history who excelled in both at the same time: marco van basten.

Posted from Hungary

By Jan | April 24th, 2008 at 7:56 pm

Well said. This is true. Marco had both. Maybe Ibrahimovitsch? Torres? Rooney?
Not the same league of course…

Posted from Australia

By Rob | April 24th, 2008 at 10:10 pm

@Jan: I really do think Evra is the best left back in the world right now - he has it all and the only slight downside to his game is a tendency to lunge for the ball (even in the area!) - he usually gets it though.

And I agree Edwin’s not BAD with his feet, but he’s not one of the best either when he’s under pressure to kick from the strikers.

Posted from Japan

By Jan | April 24th, 2008 at 11:08 pm

Yeah, Evra is allright. The Abigal (?) French left back at Barca is also pretty decent. I haven’t seen a lot of the French lately but I dare say, with Evra, Flamini, Ribery and some more they’re a pretty awesome side, or what?

Posted from Australia

By ferenc | April 25th, 2008 at 5:19 am

Eric Abidal

Posted from Hungary

By Igor | April 25th, 2008 at 10:29 am

maybe i just haven’t seen the right matches, but i feel like Abidal is overrated, some of his tackles are seriously mistimed and he doesnt seem to be as much of a threat going forward as his reputation would make you believe. in my mind clichy and evra are the best left backs in the world right now.

Posted from Canada

By Caleb | April 25th, 2008 at 12:30 pm

Jan - I don’t think Rooney is a killer at all (persnoally I think he is overrated). He is more like Kuyt than Marco. He runs a lot but doesn’t have the full package. Torres is a good player, I think he’s got real potential. Won’t even mention that other player that I hate…

I have to agree with most of you guys, Van der Sar is great with his feet. Able to play great pinpoint passes (usually), and has good ball control. Rob, that video was only one mistake that could happen to anyone.

Posted from Canada

By Jan | April 25th, 2008 at 4:24 pm

Yeah, I am still in doubt about Rooney too… Sometimes I really like his way of playing and his performance, sometimes I feel like I’m watching Riise :-).

Were they separated at birth?

Posted from Australia

By Bart | April 25th, 2008 at 4:53 pm

lol, I was watching that van de sar video with the penalty kicks. Americans can not commentate at all. They do not know what they are talking about. They were saying that van der sar was saving the penalty kicks because he saw that the opposing player’s right knee was facing outward. How the fuck does that help knowing his knee is facing outward. It’s all about reflexes.

Posted from Canada

By Caleb | April 26th, 2008 at 11:35 am

Jan, you may be right about Rooney and Riise.. and Riise got the bigger share of the good looks.. and that’s not saying much!

Bart - I agree with you about American commentators, they are generally pretty useless. Looking at the knee may help, but it depends on the direction of the run up too.

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