Barcelona defeated Atletico Madrid 2-1 at the Vicente Calderon, but the result wasn’t the biggest headline to come out of the match. That distinction went to Tomas Ujfalusi’s challenge on Lionel Messi. It appeared at the time that Messi had broken his ankle, but he escaped with only a sprain. This came as a massive surprise to everyone who saw both the challenge and the pictures of Messi’s ankle looking like a grapefruit.
After fearing that they had lost Messi for an extended period of football jersey
time, Barcelona will only be without him for two games. It was a massive stroke of luck for a club that, despite their talent, is lacking in serious depth. However, despite their lack of depth, most of their players are very versatile, if Messi is only out for two games, he won’t be missed too much.
The game itself, independent of the injury was a very entertaining one. Messi’s opener was probably the highlight of the day. Unsurprisingly, the central midfield players were never really in the game for Atletico Madrid as they were completely overrun by Barcelona’s midfield. Diego Forlan and the wingers showed flashes of brilliance, but Sergio Aguero’s fitness issues were apparent as he failed to have a major effect on the game.
The most interested tactical aspect of the match was probably the way that Sergio Busquets was deployed. The traditional defensive midfielder would drop back to a central defender position when Barcelona didn’t have the ball, between Gerard Pique and Carlos Puyol. It was interesting to watch what was essentially a modern Libero be deployed, a tactic that is sparsely used these days. This tactical decision allowed more freedom for Barcelona’s fullbacks and was a big part of why they dominated most of the game.
Although Real Madrid dominated their match against Real Sociedad, their questionable finishing continued as they failed to find the back of the net for a long period of time, despite creating plenty of shots. The winner was officially scored by Cristiano Ronaldo, but he would have been unlikely to score if his shot hadn’t taken a bizarre deflection off of a teammate.
Real Madrid are going to have to start finishing their chances. Eventually, they are going to run into a team that makes them pay for not doing so. Real Sociedad were almost that team when Raul Tamudo scored in the 62nd minute to equalize, but Ronaldo’s winner sealed all three points for Los Merengues. Thankfully for them, their next two opponents, Espanyol and Levante, are unlikely to be the teams that punish them for their mistakes.
The matchup between Valencia and Hercules was a particularly interesting one, as Valencia dominated the early going, started to collapse, and ultimately held on for the 2-1 victory. The first two goals in the match, Valencia’s, were truly world class finishes. Mata’s close range shot and Pablo’s rocket from outside the area gave Los Che a deserved 2-0 lead.
It appeared they were on the verge of collapse, though, as Hercules were Bills jersey
granted a penalty, which they converted, in the 43rd minute and Valencia were reduced to ten men just four minutes after halftime. Hercules created a multitude of chances after Valencia had a man shown red, but they were unable to knock down the door as Valencia held on to an important three points.
One player in particular that had a good game for Valencia before the red card was shown was midfield playmaker Tino Costa. In an earlier edition of La Furia Liga, I wrote that I thought he would struggle to re-produce his fantastic form for Montpellier in a Valencia jersey. So far, I have been proven wrong as Costa has performed admirably. Valencia were never going to replace David Silva, but by buying quality players who can create for their teammates, they might have been able to replace his output without a like for like player replacement.
Malaga vs. Sevilla was another interesting tie, as the boys from Seville did well to scrape out a 2-1 win. Malaga did much better defending during open play than they did in previous matches, but they were undone on set pieces. The winner from Martin Cacares came off of a good header, but the marking by Malaga’s defenders could have been much better.
The biggest disappointment for Malaga fans and neutrals in this match will have been the play of the center of Malaga’s midfield. After a couple of very solid performances, they did not live up to expectations and were outplayed for the majority of the match by Sevilla. Once they went down a goal, they appeared to be pretty devoid of ideas on how to bring back the deficit.
Finally, our “Lost The Plot” award for the week goes to César Muñiz Fernández, the man who officiated the match between Deportivo La Coruna and Getafe. The 2-2 draw featured two penalties granted to Depor while six yellow cards and one red card were shown to Getafe. Despite the official’s best efforts to keep them from getting points, Getafe’s Javier Arizmendi saved the day by scoring the equalizer. Mr. Fernandez, we all hope to see you in the Segunda next week.
With his brace against Levante, Villarreal striker Nilmar is the only player who had a true breakout performance. Really, it seemed like this week’s La Liga games were more about closely fought battles and team efforts than spectacular individual performances. Villarreal actually didn’t play that well against the team that is almost universally regarded as the worst in La Liga, so props to Nilmar for bailing out the Yellow Submarine. César Muñiz Fernández ? Just kidding. I think this distinction has to go to Royston Drenthe. If he had played just a little bit 49ers jersey
better, Hercules probably would have taken a point against a ten man Valencia side. On a regular basis, his partners up top David Trezeguet and Nelson Valdes could be seen getting visibly frustrated and the timing and quality of his passing. His childish fights with Miguel didn’t help matters either.
没有评论:
发表评论