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Spanish Inquisition: Barcelona's Backlash - Could Copa Del Rey Defeat Drive The Blaugrana To La Liga Glory?
Goal.com wonders whether the pain of their cup defeat could focus Guardiola's side on retaining their league crown...
20-Jan-2010 9:03:00 PM
By Paul Macdonald
As the mid-way point in this intriguing Primera Division season approaches, sextuple-champions Barcelona have experienced a strange succession of results.
The Club World Cup victory over Estudiantes could not have been a more appropriate way to bookend 2009, a year that exceeded every expectation, and at times produced football that made those watching feel privileged to observe a team performing on a higher echelon than it seemed feasible to consistently attain.
This side have, at times, been unmatchable, unparalleled, and even invincible under the stewardship and passionate tutelage of Pep Guardiola, and his unblemished record of never losing a tournament he had entered as a coach was testament to their unbridled dominance over the competition in the past 18 months.
However, it is inevitable that eventually a chink in the armour, or a miniscule slip in standards would occur, and since the beginning of 2010, there have been moments when the Catalan giants have hinted that they may not be impenetrable after all.
The year began with a disjointed, uninspiring display against a vibrant Villarreal side which should have ended in defeat, but the damage, and resultant impact in the Spanish press, was limited by rivals Real Madrid slipping to a 0-0 draw in Osasuna.
Then, Guardiola’s second-string side produced a second-rate performance to allow Sevilla to leave the Camp Nou with a deserved 2-1 victory in the Copa Del Rey first leg clash, and put one of Pep’s six treasured titles at serious risk. The next weekend, Tenerife should have been two goals up before Lionel Messi captured the imagination by inspiring a five-goal blitz.
Barcelona, put simply, were not performing to their own immensely high standards.
Pep deep in thought
But for all the reasons behind it, whether it be Guardiola’s incessant contract speculation, or the brittleness in the depth of his first-team squad, or even the impending club elections, last week’s two matches versus Sevilla told us everything we needed to know about Barcelona’s aspiration to retain their titles, both domestically and in Europe.
Second-Leg Squander
Every Blaugrana-biased follower was aware that it would require the level of performance that arguably only this team can produce to reverse a 2-1 deficit against Sevilla. Yes, in the grand scale of Barcelona’s achievements in the past 12 months, the Copa del Rey could have be regarded as a minor distraction, but not for Guaridiola... and not for a team under his tenure.
Barcelona battered the Rojiblancos for ninety minutes, only to find home goalkeeper Andres Palop in superhuman form. Despite a Xavi goal providing victory on the night, a glance at the expressions on the faces of the players, the coaching staff, and even the president, revealed devastation that a prong of the unprecedented Triplete had been relinquished.
The Club World Cup victory over Estudiantes could not have been a more appropriate way to bookend 2009, a year that exceeded every expectation, and at times produced football that made those watching feel privileged to observe a team performing on a higher echelon than it seemed feasible to consistently attain.
This side have, at times, been unmatchable, unparalleled, and even invincible under the stewardship and passionate tutelage of Pep Guardiola, and his unblemished record of never losing a tournament he had entered as a coach was testament to their unbridled dominance over the competition in the past 18 months.
However, it is inevitable that eventually a chink in the armour, or a miniscule slip in standards would occur, and since the beginning of 2010, there have been moments when the Catalan giants have hinted that they may not be impenetrable after all.
The year began with a disjointed, uninspiring display against a vibrant Villarreal side which should have ended in defeat, but the damage, and resultant impact in the Spanish press, was limited by rivals Real Madrid slipping to a 0-0 draw in Osasuna.
Then, Guardiola’s second-string side produced a second-rate performance to allow Sevilla to leave the Camp Nou with a deserved 2-1 victory in the Copa Del Rey first leg clash, and put one of Pep’s six treasured titles at serious risk. The next weekend, Tenerife should have been two goals up before Lionel Messi captured the imagination by inspiring a five-goal blitz.
Barcelona, put simply, were not performing to their own immensely high standards.
Pep deep in thought
But for all the reasons behind it, whether it be Guardiola’s incessant contract speculation, or the brittleness in the depth of his first-team squad, or even the impending club elections, last week’s two matches versus Sevilla told us everything we needed to know about Barcelona’s aspiration to retain their titles, both domestically and in Europe.
Second-Leg Squander
Every Blaugrana-biased follower was aware that it would require the level of performance that arguably only this team can produce to reverse a 2-1 deficit against Sevilla. Yes, in the grand scale of Barcelona’s achievements in the past 12 months, the Copa del Rey could have be regarded as a minor distraction, but not for Guaridiola... and not for a team under his tenure.
Barcelona battered the Rojiblancos for ninety minutes, only to find home goalkeeper Andres Palop in superhuman form. Despite a Xavi goal providing victory on the night, a glance at the expressions on the faces of the players, the coaching staff, and even the president, revealed devastation that a prong of the unprecedented Triplete had been relinquished.
Messi on the move in the Copa - but it was in vain
Collectively, the club felt pain at the loss, despite an almost flawless example of pass and move football that saw numerous chances created but the gloves of Palop, the woodwork, desperate lunges, and over-intricate build-up conspiring against them. Messi, in particular, could not have offered more.
There are two schools of thought when assessing that cup exit; that the club is burdened by its own success and that a shallow pool of players may see them fall short of last season's history-making accolades.
Backlash Begins
Or, more likely, that the pain of fallibility, the pain of giving their all only to fall
slightly short will serve as a source of unrestrained desire to ensure that they will do everything in their power to avoid any further disappointment this season. If the latter is the case, this could have been a definitive week in determining the eventual destination of the Primera Division title.
After the agony of last Wednesday, came the stark contrast of a perfect Saturday evening, which not only offered immediate revenge against the side that vanquished them in the cup, but took place immediately after Cristiano Ronaldo et al had fallen foul of Athletic Bilbao. Barca were rampant, and made a staggering statement of their intent not to let the La Liga crown slip from their grasp, on the way to a resounding 4-0 win over Sevilla.
Barcelona were a side possessed, not only with providing their Andalucian visitors with the kind of scoreline they were lucky to escape from in the first leg, but with re-instilling their authority as La Liga's gold standard.
The lead at the summit is currently five points, and if Guardiola's gifted group perform to a similar standard from now until May, then Real Madrid's efforts to reclaim the league title look an increasingly impossible task. It could be that the Copa del Rey elimination will provide Barcelona with all the more impetus to acheive glory.
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