Barcelona v Real Sociedad - MVP is back

BARCELONA, SPAIN – NOVEMBER 19: David Villa of FC Barcelona (2ndR) celebrates with his teammates (L-R) Lionel Messi, Seydou Keita, Maxwell Scherrer and Dani Alves of FC Barcelona after scoring his fourth team

Ever since I started following club football, I have always been drawn towards La Liga for its sheer quality. The games were always played late into the night owing to the soaring temperatures in Spain, and this always created problems aplenty for the broadcaster as viewership in India never quite caught up to the level of the Premier League. Hence we witnessed a see-sawing of television coverage between channels like STAR sports and TEN Network. I was one of those fans who was quite suspect about the abilities of the latter but after two years of La Liga action, and the enthralling debates and analysis of the C2K show, I really miss their company. The new season began on ESPN STAR yesterday and it felt like La Liga was the neglected child of the house, and I hope and pray that the broadcasters come up with some forum for previews, halftime analysis and reviews of the games very soon.

Now that I got the bad news off my chest, let me move on to the pitch where the frenzy is like a Rajini Kanth movie releasing in Chennai. It was truly a blistering start to the league especially for Barca fans after what happened both at Camp Nou and Bernabeau last night. Barcelona began their season playing at home under the new coach Vilanova and within minutes all those fears about their style of play getting tweaked, were out of the window. In their new kit, the runners-up of last season were looking quite sharp and within a matter of minutes the domination began. News from the other end of Spain that their arch rivals lost two points on their opening night would have also done its bit to boost the spirits of the Blaugrana.

As the game progressed, FCB began to show their preeminence in passing and ball control and won a corner in the fourth minute. And would you believe if anyone had told you that Carlos Puyol would score Barca’s first goal of the season? The seasoned campaigner despite all his injury troubles and missing Euro 2012, rose to the occasion, literally, and headed the ball into the back of the net and their title challenge was well underway. However their opponents had other ideas and Chory Castro equalised on the 9th minute through a quick counter attack. I was beginning to feel the pressure and pondered that this season too, FCB might just squander away all the opportunities like last season. But when things start looking messy, one can always look up to Messi, and there he was just two minutes later battling his way through a crowded penalty area and curling the ball to the top left corner to put the former champions back in the lead.

The game really started to look alive and Tello, Pedro and Messi were combining quite effectively. The young Tello who up until recently was a Barca B player, lived up to all the humongous expectations he created last season. He was playing on the left flank and was cutting past defenders and providing all the necessary crosses. It was during one of those episodes that Messi utilized a cross to the fullest and doubled the lead before quarter of an hour. Xavi and Fabregas remained loyal to the tiki-taka passing and the Camp Nou cheered and applauded every single breathtaking display.

Vilanova decided to put Iniesta on the bench with an El Clasico coming up on Thursday and David Villa was seen eager and anxious to come onto the pitch too. As the first half was nearing its end, Christian Tello once again provided a cross and Pedro delightfully drove the ball into open net for a thumping 4-1 lead. Something that was quite heartening to see was that the Spanish youngster Jordi Alba fit into the system like a perfect cog in the wheel. Tito brought on Iniesta in the second half for Cesc and the best player of Euro 2012 worked about his magic and came close to scoring a couple of times too. Apart from a minor injury scare for Iniesta late in the game, it was a walk in the park for the home team. It was probably the heat of the night or just that a little bit of complacency had infiltrated into the camp, that FCB lost a little bit of the shine and glamour and the game seemed a bit of a drab.

Vilanova probably thought that this was the perfect time to bring on David Villa. It was an emotional moment for all fans as the outgoing Pedro was elated to shake Villa’s hand and welcome him onto the pitch. The champion striker immediately produced some exciting passes and dribbles before he struck a brilliant curler off his left foot on the 84th minute. Spanish national team’s all time top scorer showed us his emotional side as he displayed a Tee saying” Impossible without you, ladies” referring to his wife and two daughters as he ran back to the dug out to hug his trainer. He was playing after 9 months and his goal both brought relief to the home team and probably sent a chill down the ‘special’ one’s, I beg your pardon, ‘the unique’ one’s spine. It was all coming back to me like flashbacks from the 2010-11 season when FCB produced scintillating football match after match and scored 5 goals on numerous occasions. But guys watch out for the wounded tiger this year, not because Messi is scoring, or Tito Vilanova is effective, but because the MVP combo is back. When Messi, Villa and Pedro start scoring, it means death to opposition defences.