The Setanta Sports commentator for this match noted the curious fact that Johann Cruyff, after the Racing match, called the 4-0 win "the worst performance he'd ever seen of a Guardiola side."
Huh. I wonder what he is saying about this one.
When the results of the Round of 16 draw came out several weeks ago, I doubt that I was alone in thanking my lucky stars for the easiest possible draw, knowing with the fullest confidence that Pep and the boys would deliver up a thorough and vengeful Hlebbing of the side with that one guy who wanted out last year.
Boys and girls (and Isaiah if you're reading), we just barely escaped a right-Hlebbing of our own.
Pep went to Deutschland with a lineup geared up with our most intimidating beasts of men, plus a magically fit-again midfield maestro: Valdes, Maxwell, Pique, Marquez, Puyol, Yaya, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi, and Ibrahimovic. I suppose all credit must go to the manager for recognizing the need for an abundance of experienced defensive talents in such an important away fixture (injury obligations aside), but by the same token, all fingers must point to him for preparing his men for nothing more than an awful defensive display throughout much of the game. The players have to accept some responsibility. But the pervasiveness of cheap giveaways, woeful touches, weak clearances, and overall defensive incohesiveness and evident scrambling, especially in the first half, proved to me that Pep did not instill in his troops the sense of importance of this crucial fixture that could have been won handily.
Barca started the game looking solid enough. They had most of the ball for awhile, and when Stuttgart got the ball, some very organized-looking defensive plays by the team earned the ball back. For instance, in the sixth minute, Marquez gave away the ball with a poor pass to the forward line. But immediately, Ibrahimovic and Messi put pressure on the receiver, forcing a pass to a man that was well-covered by Busquets and Puyol. Puyol makes an easy tackle, gives the ball calmly to Yaya, and off we go again. It was a brilliant collective move that stood out to me, but it was the initial poor pass from Marquez that set the tone.
Iniesta played awfully throughout the first half, passing just about every ball he received straight to a Stuttgart player. Yaya was worse, playing the most useless match I may ever see him play, with some of the loosest possession and slowest defense; whenever Iniesta gave the ball away, Stuttgart flooded right through our middle. Often, the middle was just a route from our left to our right side, where Marquez was all over the place, Messi was clearly not tracking back consistently, and Puyol was rushing around like a mad man, putting on as much pressure as he could and making last-ditch tackle after last-ditch tackle. That right side should have been our strong side on defense, but it collapsed like a Jenga tower again and again.
The goal came came from our left side, but it began on our right. It was none other than Alex Hleb that totally schooled Yaya and Puyol and delivered a pass that led to an excellent cross. A better head from the un-marked receiver would certainly have been a goal, but the contact by the un-marked receiver was poor and Busquets was aloud to clear...poorly, for a throw-in around our box. It should have been routine defense for the boys, but discipline broke down quickly when play resumed, and Stuttgart dragged the team toward the middle before switching it back out to the left, and the crosser had nothing but time and space to put in another excellent cross. Puyol did not mark Cacau closely enough after getting pulled apart moments earlier, and this time the contact was perfect. At 1-0 in 25 minutes, the score reflected what was shaping up to be real domination of the game by an opponent of the mighty FC Barcelona.
The team's most baffling period was over, but they continued to look very much un-mighty. Iniesta's passes continued in their failure to find Ibrahimovic. When Ibra did have the good graces to finally get on the ball, his poor touch gave it away just about every time. Messi had the worst of both worlds: despite having the only moments approaching highlights with a few futile runs and shots, including that stinger that so nearly trickled into the goal after sneaking past Lehmann, Messi had plenty of poor giveaways in possession and in sprayed passes to more than render his highlights forgettable. Everyone gave the ball away: go down the team-sheet, and you find three poor giveaways at the very, very least, and the result was absolutely no attack.
In the second half, certainly after a good ripping-into from Pep, Barca found their scrappy equalizer and something resembling a rhythm. The goal, appropriately enough, came froma corner, and it was all down to our tall men. Xavi's cross was kept alive by Ibrahimovic, whose height prevented a solid clearance. Iniesta finds the ball outside of the box and gives it to a more-central Marquez. Marquez did the only thing he was doing right in the entire game, and put in a good long ball over the top of the defense, the shortest of his game. Ibra kept it alive again, nodded it to Pique, who rose and knocked it back to Ibra, who smacked it...against Lehmann. Luckily, the rebound only fell to Ibra again, who did not repeat the same mistake with a simple tap-in.
And thus, Barca escaped. Afterwards, Stuttgart lost their ravenous edge, and Barca passed the game to death without looking really dangerous and only getting into it with Hleb once or twice. Part of this was due to two very wise and uncharacteristically timely substitutions from Pep: Henry on for Yaya after the goal in the 52nd, and Milito on for Marquez in the 59th.
Setanta's cameras did not capture Yaya's substitution. If they had, they would have caught a glimpse of a defeated Yaya. I have no idea what got into him. It was not just his poor passes, defense, positioning, possession--everything!--it was the situational unawareness that marked it all. For a player whose strongest and most remarkable trait, in my opinion, is his intelligene on the ball, this game was extremely shocking. His replacement changed the game, arguably more so than the goal. For the first time ever, I can say that Busquets was much, much better in that position. Defensively (but certainly not offensively), Busi was one of the strongest performers in the first half, with a ton of midfield tackles, including an athletic "tackle" of a ball passed loosely to him that he hooked straight to Messi for one of the few "chances" of the first half, and when defense became his primary responsibility, the team was far more solid. Xavi, on the whole our best player throughout the match, had all the more opportunities to orchestrate the game with most of the best passes, the calmest presence, lots more great distribution, and superb movement (I cannot believe he healed up so quickly). Most importantly, he had the opportunity to play alongside his buddy Iniesta, who looked completely relieved and incomparably better in a deeper position. The typical routine commenced, as Xavi set 'em up with great space-finding and shorter passes, and Iniesta knocked 'em down, acting as a constant valve to make perfect cross-field balls and passes into the attack. Henry saw little of the ball and what we did see from him was definitely underwhelming, but that just seems to be Titi these days: more of a presence for defenders to respect than a real threat. Without him, the Xavi-Iniesta-Busi midfield that properly controlled the game in the second half would not have been allowed to show off.
Now, Marquez came off because he was terrible. Appalling. Useless. His long passes gave Iniesta ample opportunity to give the ball away in the first half, but except for the easiest of clearances, he accomplished nothing in the heart of the defense. He was at the center of most of the defensive disorder, almost constantly out-of-position. The contrast between his youthful heir-apparent, with the excellent positioning and impenetrable presence that used to be hallmarks of the Kaiser's game, could not have been starker. Milito did not have much time to shine with the midfield under control, but if Marquez had stayed ont he field, I daresay Barca would have found themselves in a lot more trouble. Like Henry, Marquez is aplayer whose aging is difficult to watch.
And that was that: there is little else to say about the match. 1-1 was quite an honest result, as it was a tale of two halves, and after our goal, Barca considered the job done and did not really expend themselves to earn a second away goal. They should be able to take the away goal they do have back to the fortress and kill the tie properly. Remember last year's CL: in the knockout stages, Barca scored only three goals in the away fixtures (not counting the final), but ten at home. At Lyon, who we were matched up with at this stage, the result was also 1-1. In that match, Lyon drew first blood, before Henry headed in a scrappy goal from a corner. I see nothing to worry about, especially with Alves returning very soon, and Xavi shaking off the last shades of his injury. If we have to be one of those "home-sides", we will be one of those "home-sides" and take care of business.
Other short notes:
-I didn't like Busquets' timewasting at the end. Alves has all but stopped that practice, and Busi does not need to adopt it. Not a classy way to play a sub-par game at all.
-Is anyone as worried as they were two or three weeks ago when the news came out that Abidal would be out for two months? I'm not.
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