Barça 1 Getafe 1
Sunday, 23 November 08, 07:55 PM · Comments(29)
It couldn't go on for ever. Barça's winning streak came to an end this evening as we could only manage a 1-1 draw at home to Getafe. It might have been worse as Getafe led through a 19th minute goal from Manu del Moral and were close to a second just before Seydou Keita equalised for Barça twenty minutes from the end. Many will remember the absence of Leo Messi but it does not explain the below-par performance of many of the other players, Bojan starting his first league match of the season was particularly disappointing filling in for Messi on the right, he looked terribly upset after he was substituted and I have to say I am worried about whether he is over affected by the pressure of playing at the top level. Alexandr Hleb and Seydou Keita who also both started offered very little until Keita saved himself with the goal.
Barça were imprecise in the passing today and we also suffered in the one-against-one situations, only when Henry and Pedro came on in the second half did we manage to look a bit more dangerous on the wings. Xavi also did not have one of his best games and his attempts to find Samuel Eto'o were nearly all fruitless. Toure Yaya did his usual good job of recuperating possession but his passing was not up to scratch.
Getafe matched Barça from the beginning playing some good possession football early on and also looking dangerous on the break. After 18 minutes Piqué gave the ball away and Manu del Moral led a counter attack for the visitors, Manu tried a pass which came back to him off Piqué and he fired a perfectly placed shot into the far corner which Valdés was a little late to react to. Barça almost hit back immediately but Bojan's volley was deflected for a corner.
It is on days like today that you need a little luck to win but the gods were not with us today as both Eto'o and Gerard Piqué had efforts hit the crossbar, but at the other end Victor Valdés was fortunate to see the ball go just wide after Albin's shot squirmed through his hands. From a possible 0-2 Barça went up the other end and equalized: Xavi opened the play to Dani Alves on the right and the Brazilian sent in a beautiful cross for Keita to head home from close range.
For ten minutes Barça applied the pressure but the winning goal wouldn't come, after Abbondanzieri tipped Piqué's header onto the bar in the 80th minute the level dropped once again for the last ten minutes. Getafe might have grabbed a winner in the 90th minute but nobody could reach Cortes's cross.
Perhaps we shouldn't be too disappointed with the point especially as we still maintain a three point lead at the top of the table. Of course this was a game that we expected to win but we were bound to have an off day sooner or later. Getafe did their job well defending in numbers and counter attacking dangerously. We'll have to hope that next week we get it together for the games with Sporting Lisbon and Sevilla as it is no good being brilliant at the start of the season if we can't keep it going when the big games arrive. Another worry is that Eto'o received his 4th yellow card of the season for protesting a decision and one more will mean he misses a match through suspension. Hopefully Messi will be back next week as he can definitely make a difference in tight games, however, I somehow feel that even if he had played today we still wouldn't have won.
Barça: Valdés 5.5; Alves 6, Piqué 5.5, Puyol 6.5, Sylvinho 6 (Gudjohnsen m71, 5.5); Xavi 6, Toure 6, Keita 6; Bojan 5 (Pedro m55, 6), Eto'o 5.5, Hleb 5.5 (Henry m55, 6).
Goals: m19 Manu del Moral 0-1, m71 Keita 1-1.
Barça yellows: m5 Alves, m65 Eto'o, m92 Puyol.
Attendance: 65,249.
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disspointed but we hav to learn from this mistakes
the fringe players/squad rotation players need to be ready and put in more efforts, passing was really poor today, poor combinatn and movement unlike our movements...i hope guardiola took some positives from this
UP BARCa
While I understand that we can't expect to be as lethal without the best player in the world on the pitch, we still showed little passion against a very tricky Getafe squad.
I'm very nervous about the future of this season. If Messi goes out again with a hamstring injury, we are going to have to deal with it and I'm afraid that in big games, we aren't going to be able to keep up our usual Barcelona pace.
As far as Bojan is concerned, I think he was more frustrated with himself than anything else.
One of those things guys....at least we got a point out of a tricky matchup. While I'm not saying we should accept the performance, I think we can forgive one sub par game provided we bring a better intensity to the big games comming up.
I'm still not of the believe that we need Messi to win/break games open.
*in my previous post, i meant to say 'poor combination and movement unlike our previous matches'
damnnnn..damn..damnn...i feel like killin someone....They say football is not just one man game, but just take out Messi from Barca squad, and our team is just not the same...this is just pathetic...These games tell me that if we loose Messi for a month or so, we are done for the season....We can't just be a one man team....I used to fight with my non Barca fans regarding this matter..>They always say Barca is just a one man team..but I always dispute their opinions...but even I have to admit, we are just a one man team...I can almost guarantee, if Messi was there, we woulda won...not by 6 goals or 5 goals, but we woulda def. won...he coulda run riot around the defenders, and opened up the space for Etoo...I hope he comes back fully fit ASAP...otherwise, i wouldn't be surprised if we drop points again next week...
anyways...Alves was my man of the match...he was always runnin and always lookin to feed the ball...Xavi had an off day...Etoo was unlucky not to score...Hleb and Bojan were absolutely horrendous...If that miss by Bojan wasn't called offside, I swear I woulda been super pissed off...Henry and Pedrito were better than the aforementioned two...Puyol was a beast in the back...Pique made few stupid errors, but he also saved us on more than a couple of occasions.....Toure was very good...Keita was useless apart from his goal....Anyways, like someone said, you gotta go low to jump back up...I hope this is what just happened....
Viva barca
I too was worried about bojan, he looked torn when he sat substituted, pepe said he thinks e's fine, i think he's low on confidence. the senior players just need to keep encouraging him and offering advice, but he'll start scoring again eventually and turning out better performances.
29 Comments · Add yours
Why is it that we win 6-0, 5-0, 4-1, 6-1 when Messi starts but see a scoreline of 1-0 or 1-1 when Messi is rested or starts on the bench?
Even though pique gave away posession which lead to the goal, he made some key saves to deny getafe from scoring another.
How did Valdes not see that goal coming?!
Keita had some nice one touch passes and good outlet balls but at times his passing was slow allowing defenders to intercept it. Thankfully he got us the equalizing goal.
It was frustrating to watch getafe parking the bus in front of goal and diving all over the pitch. Eto'o did not deserve the yellow at all!
Oh well, its not the end of the world. We are still in the lead and there is plenty of football to be played.
Honestly though, sometimes I suspect the refs are paid off by madrid. Make all the wrong calls for madrid and all the wrong calls against barca. Hein?!
Regardless, a draw is 10 times better than a loss. Sometimes one needs to get low to jump higher.