Barca Talks: La Masia grads and last minute gasps

Over the week, Barcelona played Deportivo and Rayo in the Liga, and Celtic in the Champion’s League. The Rayo match was mostly unremarkable, except the last time this fixture was scheduled, the score was 7-0 to Barcelona, two more than the score this time around.

The games worth talking about, are the two other fixtures. The Celtic game was by far a game-changer for all fans. Vilanova abandoned his apparent lack of trust in academy graduated centre backs and started with Marc Bartra. For a player who had hardly seen 11 professional matches, and most of them as substitutes, Bartra showed exceptional understanding with Mascherano and Adriano.

In fact, nothing gives me more joy than see some new names in that hallowed role that Pique and Puyi excel in. But we have to accept that it is time we brought in new blood and get them to the levels of the former. Bartra has an excellent eye for the ball, good aerial capability and strong tactical capability. The credit for Celtic’s own goal goes to Mascherano as usual. Samaras whipped a header past Javier who looked on helplessly as he deflected the ball into his own net for a goal to Celtic. However, Barcelona were in form, and it took some sublime passing and quick interplays between Messi, Xavi and Iniesta before Andresito slid the ball into Celtic’s goal. I lost count of the number of times that Barcelona missed after that goal. Talk about last minute – Jordi Alba, left unmarked, came in to tap a goal 30 seconds before the end of play, to finish the game 2-1 in Barcelona’s favour. Celtic have one of the best defences, I must say, but quantitatively speaking, it would be a measure of how many players you could effectively station to cordon off spaces. Bartra, Sergi, Muniesa and Dos Santos feature regularly in the line up, as does Montoya, who seems to be first choice over Dani Alves, and has proven himself.

Iniesta’s goal:

Bartra did well in closing off spaces and his positioning was excellent, staving off Celtic’s chances by defending well, aerially and on the ground. I am happy to see Song playing Buesquet’s role — Playing him as centre-back would just be a stopgap measure.

Some trivia on the Celtic match:

“Alba” is Gaelic for “Scotland”.. And he scored against a Scottish Team.. Get it?

The match against Deportivo was, by far, one the worst in the league. Barca conceded 4 goals and scored 5, narrowly winning the game. That Barca were leading 3-0 within twenty minutes, and then went on to win the game 5-4, only shows how things can go from ‘Wow!!’ to worse in a matter of minutes. And to think that one of those Deprtivo goals came from a Jordi Alba own goal…

And that own goal was funny, or at least the look on Valdes’ face was. It was one of those excellent chips which instead of taking the ball out of play, took it into Barca’s own net, just out of Valdes’ reach.

Barcelona fouled Pizzi in the area. Well, actually, there is a lot of confusion on whether it was a foul at all, and if it was, whether it was in the area. Penalty was awarded and Deportivo scored.

Alex Bergantiños then unleashed a volley through Barca’s wall of players off a deflected ball, and Valdes was left fumbling as the ball slid in inches from his hand.

Busquets fouled Pizzi, and a screamer of a free kick later, Pizzi had scored Deportivo’s third goal. In an almost Messi-esque style, he dipped in the ball right into the top-right corner past a frozen Valdes.

Messi, Fabregas and Jordi Alba saved Barca blushes and scored 5 goals,to make the scoreline read 5-4 for Barca.

Deportivo have not been seen in Spain’s top tier league for two seasons now, but they were once a force to contend with. In 1992, the likes of Donato, Barragan and Ribera played for Depor, most of them veterans from Barcelona, Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid. In 2000, Depor won their first ever league title under stalwarts like Mauro Silva, Djalminha and Roy Makaay. To see a resurgent Deportivo side make it to the Liga is interesting, to say the least. They have proved that it takes a determined group of 11 players to wrest the title from giants like Barcelona and Madrid. Guardado and Bergantinos will be players to watch out for, in this Depor side.