It is always with some notion of impending sadness that I gleefully circle off dates that mark Valencia-Barcelona @ Mestalla game, it is very predictably the best game of the season (not liga season...football season), since the morning after - it was the best game of the season and it's pretty much downhill then on. Yesterday was the best game of the 2011-12 season, especially with the only other competitor - Atletico : Valencia already done (and although I couldn't review it, what a game it was! Valencia actually got battered by beautiful Atletico gameplay - All of last season, Juve scratched their heads wondering why they had bought Diego, he showed them that day...for a different club though). Bound to happen if a team can (Airtel Cliche of the day brough to you by Airtel) "give as good as they get" against Barca, 4 goals for the stat-whores, end-end fast paced action for the excitement-whores, intricate passing for the liga-whores and Che absolutely on steroids for the Valencia-whores. I predicted a 1-1 scoreline, it ended up 2-2 but only just. Valencia led 2-1 for 60 minutes, and should have been 4-1 by halftime if Soldado wasn't Soldodo for the entire game.
I was in the process of searching Amazon.com for "Unai Emery explains How to shoot yourself in the foot" that I was convinced existed after watching his starting XI, before I saw the Barca XI and instead looked for "Pep explains...etc etc" (I eventually found "Capt. Hook explains..etc etc" but maybe it was just a parody). Emery's seemingly-foot-shot-lineup was magnificent (barring Miguel who couldn't be magnificent even by holding a gun to Webster's head and changing its meaning to "sucks so friggin bad it hurts". I'm just kidding, in that case he could be magnificent) while Pep's bombed savagely (not in a cool Luftwaffe / Biggles kind of way though). This may be a Valencia blog, but Barca XI was way too bizarre to not talk about... He keeps scoring, assists quite a bit, so why is it I just can't bring myself to do anything but hate his face and his pinocchio limbs... Cesc is ruining this team. The lengths Pep has gone to, to accommodate this jackass, are as ridiculous as Abidal playing left forward..no wait that's what happened...
As I'd feared in earlier posts, Cesc has officially replaced one of the front-3, yesterday Villa was axed and Pedro switched to the left where he usually sucks but yesterday was a god thanks to mentioned unmagnificentable black asshole, but that's for later. Cesc played behind these 2 and hence unbalanced the front 3 completely, requiring Alves to populate the right wing and leaving the back horribly exposed. I'm the last person to not give Valencia due credit for scorching the 1st half, but Barca looked more clueless than North Indians when I make comments with uninflected sarcasm... (actually that's giving few of them too much credit, make that even INFLECCTTEEDDD sarcasm).... ZM mentioned how Pep got his subs right and that's what changed the 2nd half but they're wrong, any Valencia fan would tell you they really flag after 70 minutes in any game, add to this Albelda going off injured and needlessly self-handicapping by including Miguel, and Barca could have scored even if they substituted all their players and replaced them with... ANNYYOONNNEEE (except the unmagnificent seven).
Started with 4-4-2 but Alves positioned to be right-forward so it became 3-4-3, or did it... eventually became 3-4-3 with Abidal replacing Pedro at left-forward... then became 3-4-3 with Busquets back to defence (something I thought would become extinct after his blinding performance back in MF against Osasuna, that Barca had been missing so far) and Adriano at right-forward! Then became a 3-4-3 with Villa and Cesc with Messi and Adriano dropping to MF with Thiago. They changed position more often than my ex-gf, granted they were a lot more exciting, without doing the simple things of keeping possession and finding players. Cesc, Keita (duh) were completely overrun in possession and kept giving the ball away to pressure or interceptions, but even Messi and Alves were guilty of mispasses, only Xavi that ocean of calm kept a 100% pass completion ratio despite having no outlets (being cut off from Cesc who was supposed to be on the left, and in general never being able to link up with Cesc who has absolutely no positional discipline). More on players in the following post, but overall a superlatively attacking and exciting game, and no real guarantee that a dropped Cesc and less-bizarre formation would have yielded any dividends against a heart-warmingly wonderful Valencia performance (no shame in admitting I was complete soccer-mom last night gleaming and saying "that's my boy there!")...ok maybe some shame....DELETE DELETE...
I was in the process of searching Amazon.com for "Unai Emery explains How to shoot yourself in the foot" that I was convinced existed after watching his starting XI, before I saw the Barca XI and instead looked for "Pep explains...etc etc" (I eventually found "Capt. Hook explains..etc etc" but maybe it was just a parody). Emery's seemingly-foot-shot-lineup was magnificent (barring Miguel who couldn't be magnificent even by holding a gun to Webster's head and changing its meaning to "sucks so friggin bad it hurts". I'm just kidding, in that case he could be magnificent) while Pep's bombed savagely (not in a cool Luftwaffe / Biggles kind of way though). This may be a Valencia blog, but Barca XI was way too bizarre to not talk about... He keeps scoring, assists quite a bit, so why is it I just can't bring myself to do anything but hate his face and his pinocchio limbs... Cesc is ruining this team. The lengths Pep has gone to, to accommodate this jackass, are as ridiculous as Abidal playing left forward..no wait that's what happened...
As I'd feared in earlier posts, Cesc has officially replaced one of the front-3, yesterday Villa was axed and Pedro switched to the left where he usually sucks but yesterday was a god thanks to mentioned unmagnificentable black asshole, but that's for later. Cesc played behind these 2 and hence unbalanced the front 3 completely, requiring Alves to populate the right wing and leaving the back horribly exposed. I'm the last person to not give Valencia due credit for scorching the 1st half, but Barca looked more clueless than North Indians when I make comments with uninflected sarcasm... (actually that's giving few of them too much credit, make that even INFLECCTTEEDDD sarcasm).... ZM mentioned how Pep got his subs right and that's what changed the 2nd half but they're wrong, any Valencia fan would tell you they really flag after 70 minutes in any game, add to this Albelda going off injured and needlessly self-handicapping by including Miguel, and Barca could have scored even if they substituted all their players and replaced them with...
Started with 4-4-2 but Alves positioned to be right-forward so it became 3-4-3, or did it... eventually became 3-4-3 with Abidal replacing Pedro at left-forward... then became 3-4-3 with Busquets back to defence (something I thought would become extinct after his blinding performance back in MF against Osasuna, that Barca had been missing so far) and Adriano at right-forward! Then became a 3-4-3 with Villa and Cesc with Messi and Adriano dropping to MF with Thiago. They changed position more often than my ex-gf, granted they were a lot more exciting, without doing the simple things of keeping possession and finding players. Cesc, Keita (duh) were completely overrun in possession and kept giving the ball away to pressure or interceptions, but even Messi and Alves were guilty of mispasses, only Xavi that ocean of calm kept a 100% pass completion ratio despite having no outlets (being cut off from Cesc who was supposed to be on the left, and in general never being able to link up with Cesc who has absolutely no positional discipline). More on players in the following post, but overall a superlatively attacking and exciting game, and no real guarantee that a dropped Cesc and less-bizarre formation would have yielded any dividends against a heart-warmingly wonderful Valencia performance (no shame in admitting I was complete soccer-mom last night gleaming and saying "that's my boy there!")...ok maybe some shame....DELETE DELETE...
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