One More Down, Next?

First of all, Enjoy the Clasico win, it was well deserved and well earned, we are a team hunting for titles, in a complicated game like this one, we won scoring twice, conceded no goals, and we are now twelve points away of our direct rivals, nothing can take that away, that was a cheerful victory.

Madrid:

They played as expected; I already predicted the tactical plan and players moves in the animated presentation posted in the preview, even though with some different names- and I think that presentation explain more than what I may write, so lets keep this Article SHORT.

(Click the Image for Animated presentation, Loading time Depend on your Internet connection quality)

I was impressed by Metzelder to be honest with you, even though in Eto’o goal he carry some responsibility but to play a game like that after being out since ever was a surprise, Gago did well trying to contain Xavi, Ramos was better than his standards this season and Casillas was their man of the match.

Palanca, Espanyol youth team product, may become one of Juande discoveries, even though he is a key members for the Castilla, Juande picked him over some other more accomplished options for a substitute, and he did relatively well, taking in consideration the game conditions.

But what about the dirty tactics?! I will not judge if it was right or wrong, but no one can ignore the fact that it was dirty, I can understand tactical fouls to stop the game, slow down the ball, or even to stop a player, but to give the instruction “kick their Achilles”! That’s not acceptable, especially when we know – and it was obvious- that it was a Juande Ramos instruction. Not only against Messi, but no doubt he was the main target! That was DIRTY!

Juande Succeeded to avoid a disastrous result, but this game is off record and tells nothing about how he will reshape Real Madrid; obviously they cannot play more games using that tactic, so let’s see if he can create a team that is as good punching the opponent as covering their faces to avoid being punched.

Barcelona:

Real Madrid Played the kind of games that bother us, a small team strategy applied by the club of the century, as nominated by that FIFA– they had their reasons to apply this system but its not my concern- may be they were surprised of what they achieved – complicating the game for Barcelona – but for us Barcelona fans we have seen this happening again and again when we played against teams like Numancia, Sporting, Malaga, and you can name at least ten more teams in la liga who park the bus, close spaces and live to defend, trying to steal a point or rub a goal, the only difference was that the mentioned teams do not have quality players like Canavaro, Ramos, Gago… So this bus was more complicated, a little.

We honestly helped them a little more; we had a drop in form, its reasonable and expected, but in the wrong timing, we were so in a hurry to score that even Puyol rushed out of his box to the opposite side with Abidal and Yaya to do what they felt Messi, Xavi, Eto’o, Henry and Gudjhonsen were not able to do, offering more spaces for Madrid to counter attack, and to believe they can steal a win. Messi was not right playing on the right, he closed the right flank standing in Alves path and with Henry opening wide on the left, Eto’o became more isolated as old days, Messi tried to cut inside – when he was not shot in the feet- but still he was more on the right flank than as a free role playmaker, or even a striker in front of Henry and Eto’o, he would have been able to make more Mess between Canavaro and Metzelder if he moved more there.

Eto’o was contained, Henry made good runs exhausting Salgado, but still not enough threat knowing that his flank was the weak side of Madrid, while Drenthe and Ramos worked on our right, Salgado didn’t find enough support from Sneijder or Guti. Now I am not saying he was bad, he actually was one of our dangerous players in the game, but he is more convincing when he plays in the box than on the flank.

Xavi did his work even though not with the same brilliance, Gudi started the game fine then faded more and more till he turned to a walking disaster in the second half, Yaya was a monster getting back the ball and spreading fear, but was caught out of position sometimes specially in the first half, now before you punch me for saying that watch Real Madrid counters again and check where Yaya stands, knowing that his territory is the circle and the surrounding, he still also have that Virus I mentioned before, when things turn to be complicated, he leave his duty and jump with the ball in the Mix, it make fans cheer but it hurts the team, I know you don’t like it when I say it, but I will stick to what I said in the last paragraph -off Record (here), even when one of his attempts was so close to end with a historical goal, that change nothing. He is a great player but either he fix this bug in his style, or Guardiola need to give instructions to one of the midfielders to drop back to cover behind him when he move forward, a third option is to play him in the third midfielder position beside Xavi while Busquets play as a defensive midfielder.

Alves did a good game; Puyol was Brilliant aside of his moves forward with the ball, Marquez was the Marshal while Abidal had a solid game.

Busquets showed he is a winning card and not a back up, and wasn’t that Hleb who –again- initiated the counter of the second goal?

Valdes, my man of the match! He kept us in the game, and I hope no one is still hunting him for his old mistakes, this season he is so far the best Goalkeeper in the liga – yea I forgot no one, he is the best performer so far!

Again Fitness level was an advantage for us, they obviously got exhausted, and when you calculate the average age of the Defense its easy to expect that.

Now that’s a fast evaluation without getting in depth with tactical analysis so we don’t make it one of the long articles, I hope you enjoyed the game.

For two days we tried our best to make an extensive –TV like – coverage for the Clasico, the big event of the season, hopefully this team make us more busy preparing for Mega Events, like Champions' league Final for example!

But for Now, lets drown the submarine!

Ramzi Tanani