My cousin was visiting me from Pittsburg and with a bunch of friends was out traveling to Lake Tahoe for Skiing. I did not want to miss the match but soon realized that i would have to be happy with a repeat telecast. I went one better, and that was to make sure not to know the result of the match before i see the repeat on Monday morning.
It was a glorious sight to see a Camp Nou jam packed with over 98,400 fans. Real in white made just one change. Shcuster brought Heinze in at LB instead of the young Brazilian Marcelo. Though Messi who usually plays in the right wing for Barcelona was injured Heinze was bringing immense experience which could be crucial to such an intense away fixture. Schuster continued to partner Pepe and Cannavaro in the center of defense, and Sergio Ramos at RB. Diarra in the holding role was joined by Baptista. Schuster continued with "the beast" seeing that he has been putting in some superb performances. Sneijder on the Right wing and Robinho on the left joined the dangerous striking duo of Van Nistelrooy and Raul.
Right from the kick off it was evident that Barcelona were not going to attack blindly and would try to play the passing game to create opportunities. Ronaldinho on the left and Iniesta on the right would be the creators and Xavi and Deco in the middle. One thing i can say for sure was seeing Real play in the first 15 minutes, i felt confident and for the first time in a few years proud the way the defense was looking organized. The way Pepe and Cannavaro were cutting off Eto in every play was so confident that i had a feeling that if they can continue this same intensity for a while Real have a chance here.
The initial sparring saw Real's first chance at goal pulled back for an offside on Van Nistelrooy. The Referee was having a tough time with the fouls, but it was the home team who was conceding more trying hard to make sure that Madrid does not get into rhythm and does not hit them in a counter attack. Pepe was the first to get a chance at goal for Real Madrid when he headed a free kick, but it was straight at Valdes. Time after time straight balls through the center were being cut off by Pepe and Cannavaro and there was no wing activity for Barcelona on the right as Heinze had an easy night. Sergio Ramos was marking Ronaldinho very closely, preventing the Brazilian to create any magic.
After a Sneijder free kick was saved by Valdes the resulting counter attack ended in a fine cross from Iniesta into the box, Cassilas saved the shot from Eto, the ball fell to Iniesta, and the Spanish keeper was coolly off his line and covered Iniesta into the corner of the penalty box and finally cleared it. Iniesta fell in anticipation of a penalty and was lucky not to be booked for diving. Sergio Ramos close to the action was quick to give an earful to the young Spaniard.
Again it was Iniesta who crossed in for Ronaldinho who was prevented a goal again by the superlative Cassilas and saved the follow up shot by Deco also though there was a foul committed on Sergio Ramos by Ronladinho that was called by the referee. It was time for the pivotal moment in the game, through the center, Raul headed a ball to Baptista who passed to Van Nistelrooy who passed back one time through to Baptista who scored with a beautiful strike to the top corner. Valdes could not even make an attempt. The brilliant triangle one touch movement split the center of the Barca midfield in half. 0-1 Real Madrid on 36 minutes.
Real Madrid continued looking for the killer blow till half time, Robinho constantly trying to break out of the shackles of Carles Puyol, Raul hardly seeing the ball but it was amazing to see the Captain running at defenders non stop trying to force a mistake. The Spanish titans head into the dressing room at half time with the score 0-1.
The second half saw pretty much of the same intense and fierce attacks from the both sides, really going end to end. But in both cases it was not going beyond the edge of the penalty box. Eto missed a shot on target and Iniesta from the edge of the box again was denied by Casillas. From a corner that Casillas again gathered he released Baptista with a throw and the Brazilian ran the entire pitch and passed it onto Robinho and after dribbling across defenders his shot was easily gathered by Valdes.
Rijkaard seeing that with almost 20 minutes remaining Real were getting confident on their role and were trying to control plays introduced the young Mexican Giovanni for Deco. Even with Van Nistelrooy and Raul the highest scorers in the Spanish league in the Real attack, it was the goal scorer of the night Baptista who was heading the attack line. Real were bent upon defending and Barca were getting desperate to score. Ronaldinho's shot from outside the box went wide, Iniesta was yet again denied by Casillas. Rijkaard had introduced the 17 year old Bojan for Xavi and his shot from outside the box was saved again by Casillas and with Barca shirts lining up for the rebound it was Pepe again heading it to safety. From the resulting corner it was Yaya Toure to miss again for Barca as he could not hit the target from a close range volley on the turn. It was just not Barca's day.
Tactics wins Matches:
I spend time to see the match 3 times, to analyze this splendid performance. It was not just a contest between 22 players on the pitch. The contest was more between the tactics of Rijkaard and Schuster. This time Schuster had won the contest for Real with his tactics. Many feel football is a dull game because even after playing 90 minutes it could very well end in a 0-0 draw. I would disagree on this saying that there is a lot more to a game of this stature.
Schuster has identified what makes Barca dangerous and how they get to the opponents goal line. Since Messi was not playing as he was out injured, Barca was going to be dependent on the center midfielders as there were no wingers. There was only one striker in the form of Samuel Eto. This is how i have broken up Schuster's tactics when he put 11 men from Real on the Camp Nou. Sergio Ramos was put on a Man Marking role on Ronaldinho and he did a brilliant job at doing it. He curtailed his runs down the right wing and seldom joined in attack as he was pretty much focused on the task in hand and kept Ronaldinho quiet almost all through the match. Any other Manager would have started with Guti instead of Baptista in the midfield as he is more experienced and played in numerous such encounters. While the goal scored by Baptista was definitely a bonus, and in this game the match winner, Baptista was on the ground to create plays and start attacking moves but his primary job was to mark Xavi. Each time i watched the match i noticed how Baptista was always on the heels of Xavi. Diarra was marking Deco and that is taking out everyone in the equation in terms of creative force.
Schuster lined up Heinze on LB instead of Marcelo to counter Iniesta whom he expected would be playing in a right wing role. Iniesta is very similar to Sneijder has the habit of being a drifting player and he did exactly the same and did not stick to wing play. Schuster's plan was to push Barcelona to play on the wings were they are not comfortable.
Its one thing to have tactics but it requires exceptional performances from the players to implement the same. Pepe and Cannavaro were phenomenal in defense. Pepe was there every where and was cutting off all balls in the air and the ground. Cannavaro i should say put in one of the best performances of the season and could see the spirit he was in when Ronaldinho took a tumble in the penalty box and appealed for a penalty, the Italian was in the Brazilian's face. It was amazing to see the only defender world player of the year battling it out with the 2 times world player of the year. Cannavaro was even standing upto Eto, who tried to dribble past him on the wing, the Italian just stood up to the approaching Eto and stole the ball away from him. Sergio Ramos suffocated Ronaldinho and the Brazilian could not make any productive dribbles or creative plays.
The defense did a phenomenal job, it has to be said that Barca were trying really hard to win penalties and free kicks around the Real penalty box,but it was the Real keeper Casillas who made saves after saves who was the King pin. I wanted to identify a Man of the Match, i could not say the match winner Baptista was the Man of the match, was it Pepe, Cannavaro, Sergio Ramos or Casillas?
I am picking this match for Real Madrid's best team performance in a long time and a successful implementation of tactics...
Someone from the press asked the Sporting Director Mijatovic why spend 30M on a defender? and he replied "You have to see him play and you will be answered"
Here is the video link of match highlights:
2 comments:
Gostei muito desse post e seu blog é muito interessante, vou passar por aqui sempre =) Depois dá uma passada lá no meu site, que é sobre o CresceNet, espero que goste. O endereço dele é http://www.provedorcrescenet.com . Um abraço.
neat blog...
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