Once Lionel Messi scored his club record-tying 34th goal of the season in the 76th minute to increase the lead to 4-0, the 98,772 Culés at the Camp Nou, save for a few hundred Real Valladolid die-hards, began to chant the song that every team wants to hear at the end of the season, “Campeones, campeones, ¡Olé, olé, olé!”  For the final fifteen minutes, the procession commenced on the pitch.

Bojan Krkic came out for Thierry Henry, likely Henry’s final appearance for Barcelona because of his increasingly diminished role with Pedro Rodríguez and Bojan ahead of him in the pecking order.

Dani Alves departed in the 80th minute for Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a player who epitomizes the cliché that there are two halves of a season.  Despite Ibrahimovic’s struggles in the last three months, the supporters gave Ibrahimovic a nice round of applause.

The heartiest plaudits, however, rained down on Pedro when Pep Guardiola took him out in the 86th minute for Andrés Iniesta.  An infrequent contributor last season, Pedro rose to the occasion nearly every time Guardiola called his name this season, and after fifty-one appearances and twenty-three goals in all competitions, Pedro made himself a fixture as one of the starting three forwards for FC Barcelona.

Referee Miguel Ángel Pérez Lasa whistled for fulltime at the ninety-minute mark, and Barcelona won its fourth La Liga crown in six years and their twentieth overall.

Despite the 4-0 scoreline, Valladolid accounted well for themselves and displayed the aggression on both ends of the pitch early that Javier Clemente-led teams always show.  Ever the entertaining yet obstinate manager during press conferences, Clemente verbalized the fighting spirit that Valladolid would have against Barcelona with colorful imagery:

“We will not go like lambs to the slaughter.  I would rather be a bull, which gives its all and dies angrily.  Let us see whether we will die or not, but if we do, we will do it with our boots on.  We have nothing left to fear.  We must go there bravely.”

Nearly invoking the spirit of Franklin Delano Roosevelt with his impassioned plea, Clemente sought the desire, will, and all of those wonderful intangibles from his players that would be necessary to achieve any sort of positive result against Barcelona.

In a bizarre twist of fate, Mr. Clemente, one of the most hated enemies of Real Madrid, could have aided Madrid’s faint hopes of winning La Liga if Valladolid could prevent Barcelona from earning the three points.  Real Madrid had to beat Málaga and pray for Barça not to win in order to secure their 32nd championship.

Besides winning two La Liga crowns in 1983 and 1984 with Athletic Bilbao on the last day of both seasons with Real finishing second both seasons, he had a reputation of excluding Real Madrid players in favor of Basque players during his tenure as Spanish national team manager in the 1990s.  No one player felt this cold shoulder more than Real Madrid legend and current Getafe manager Míchel.

Míchel was part of the illustrious Quinta del Buitre quintet of homegrown players for Real Madrid in the 1980s and early 1990s that won two UEFA Cups and five consecutive domestic titles, and Míchel made himself a fixture on the Spanish national team.  He earned sixty-six caps to his name when Clemente became Spain’s manager in 1992, and despite his continued excellent play with Los Blancos in the prime of his career, Clemente never called him up for Spain.  At a young twenty-nine years, his international career ended prematurely.

Clemente favored Barcelona right wing Ion Andoni Goikoetxea over Míchel, and while Goikoetxea featured the hard-working and industrious characteristics that Clemente loved and coveted, he did not have nearly the skill or creativity that Míchel brought to the table.  In defense of Goikoetxea, he did win the Don Balón award for Spanish player of the year in 1991 and was a significant member of Johan Cruijff’s Dream Team that won four consecutive La Liga crowns and the 1992 European Cup over Sampdoria, but for Clemente to leave Míchel completely off Spain’s squad and not even grant him a seat on the substitute’s bench stung Míchel and continues to sting him to this day.

Despite the history, the Madridistas would instantly forgive Javier Clemente Lázaro if he prevented the Barcelona machine from rolling to one last victory.

The “thank you” letters from Real Madrid, however, nearly needed to be written for Víctor Valdés, as his penchant to show his footballing skills virtually handed Valladolid the opening goal in the fourth minute.

Receiving a simple back pass from Gerard Piqué, Valdés’ first touch on the ball got away from him, and eying this unexpected opportunity, Valladolid left back Antonio Barragán pounced on the ball.  Valdés tried to recover from his error by clearing it to safety, but Barragán deflected his clearance as he slid in to tackle the ball away from Valdés, and the ball fell right into the path of Manucho just inside the top of the penalty box.  Whether Manucho felt he needed merely to guide it toward the empty net or the bounce prevented him from striking the ball cleanly, he hit the ball with his shin, but it was heading to the back of the net.

Because Manucho’s did not crack his shot with the greatest conviction, there was a slight chance that a Barcelona defender could knock his shot away from goal, and who other than the captain and defensive stalwart, Carles Puyol, to race into the box and commit to a diving clearance that sent the ball to the touchline.

When Luís Prieto deviated an innocuous Pedro cross into his own net in the 27th minute to gift Barça the 1-0 lead, the title was destined to be retained by the Catalunyans for another season.  Valladolid could not get into the game as Barcelona played their possession style, and the “plan” that Clemente championed and rightly refused to reveal prior to the match failed miserably.

Lionel Messi scored twice and assisted Pedro in the backbreaking second goal, but the man of the match award must go to Touré Yaya, who took on the responsibility of playmaker because of Xavi Hernández’s suspension.  After the first fifteen to twenty minutes, where they could not penetrate the Valladolid and resorted to long-distance efforts, Yaya controlled the match from the midfield on both offense and defense.

Nothing encapsulated Touré Yaya’s impact as the conductor more than Barça’s third goal that prevented any thought of a miracle comeback by Valladolid.  After receiving a pass from Sergio Busquets, Yaya nutmegged Raúl Rodríguez Navas and then hurdled Henrique Sereno’s sliding challenge as he charged into the box, where his cutback pass from the endline found Messi, and with a wide-open goal, he rolled it in for the 3-0 advantage.  Touré Yaya will likely leave in the summer because Busquets has succeeded him as Barça’s holding midfielder, and if this eventually becomes the final appearance for Yaya in a Barcelona uniform, he went out with one of his best performances as a Barça player.

Even though Real Madrid only managed a 1-1 draw with Málaga, the spirit and gusto of the Real players dropped considerably when they found out what was happening at the Camp Nou, so one cannot assume that this result would have occurred if the Barcelona – Valladolid match were much closer.  FC Barcelona, however, did not want to have the championship decided on Real Madrid’s result against Málaga, and they merited the La Liga trophy in typical Barça flair in their 4-0 drubbing of Real Valladolid.

Ninety-six points in a season is a ridiculous amount, the most points accumulated in the history of La Liga prior to this season.  Unfortunately for Real Madrid, one other team eclipsed that point total in the same season.  While the 2009-10 FC Barcelona club did not defend their Champions League trophy, ninety-nine points in the league and a +74 goal difference (98 for and 24 against) are accomplishments that will be on par with any that Barcelona has ever achieved.  With all of their young talent under contract for the next several years along with the economic firepower that the club possesses, László Kubala’s five cup season of 1952, Cruijff’s “Total Football” of the 1970s, and Cruijff’s Dream Team of the 1990s could take a backseat to this current Barcelona incarnation.

It also helps that Lionel Messi declared that he could never see himself playing for Real Madrid or at any other club.

Fueras de Juego

- Another upheaval in the Bernabéu seems likely as they failed to win any silverware this season.  Manuel Pellegrini deserves another season to mold this team, but with José Mourinho possibly available in the summer (although he would employ a more pragmatic style that the Madridistas and the Real boardroom hated when Fabio Capello WON the league in 2006), Real’s failure to advance past the Round of 16 in the Champions League (although the previous seven Real managers did not pass this stage), their debacle against Alcorcón in the Copa del Rey (although Real does not really care about this competition and had not won this since 1993), and second-place in the league to Barcelona (although they amassed an obscene ninety-six points and scored 102 goals), Pellegrini may not get the chance to improve on what any other team would consider a great season.  Fabio Capello was right when he compared managing Real Madrid to living in a goldfish bowl.

- Getafe cruised to sixth place and a Europa League berth when they defeated Atlético Madrid’s B-side 0-3 at the Vicente Calderón on Saturday evening.  The players and the colchoneros in the stands celebrated their Europa League triumph and looked forward to the Copa del Rey final against Sevilla on Wednesday rather than worry about a league match that did not matter to them, and Getafe could not have been happier to take advantage.

- RCD Mallorca felt the ecstasy and agony of football in a span of a couple of minutes.  After dismissing Espanyol 2-0 at the ONO Estadi, they watched the final minutes of the Almería – Sevilla match on the big screen at the stadium.  At the time, it was 2-2, and if that result held, Mallorca would be in the Champions League for finishing fourth in the league.  In the third minute of stoppage time, however, Sevilla youngster Rodri twisted himself around to score past Esteban Suárez and send Sevilla into the Champions League.  The juxtaposition of Mallorca captain Nunes’ despair with the champagne bottle standing right behind him showed how close they were to the bright lights of the top European club competition.

- Racing Santander saved themselves from relegation with a 2-0 victory over a more-than-willing Sporting Gijón, and Barça blasted Valladolid 4-0, but the other three teams in the relegation battle (Xerez, Tenerife, and Málaga) were involved in intense matches where one goal in any of those matches would have ramifications for the others.  Xerez needed to beat Osasuna and hope that two other teams involved in the relegation fight would not earn a point.  Xerez could only muster a 1-1 draw against Osasuna, so Néstor Gorosito’s reclamation project fell just short of an all-time great escape.

That left two teams for one spot in La Liga.  Málaga had the head-to-head tiebreaker over Tenerife, so Tenerife needed to better Málaga’s result for salvation, except for one caveat: if Valladolid, Málaga, and Tenerife were tied on points for 17th place and another season in the top flight, Tenerife would stay in La Liga because they scored more goals than the other two teams amongst matches against them, the fourth tiebreaker.  As complicated as that sounds, a Tenerife loss would not necessarily doom them.

Tenerife played as though they were doomed.  Tenerife keeper Sergio Aragoneses must have felt like those body-shaped silhouettes at a shooting range because Valencia pelted his goal with shot after shot after shot.  Luckily for Aragoneses, David Villa, David Silva, and Juan Mata did not start for Valencia because their clinical finishing would have converted some of the fourteen chances at goal.  Miraculously, it was 0-0 late into the match, and Nino flew down the right flank unmarked, heading toward Miguel Ángel Moyà’s goal.  Hedwiges Maduro’s incredible speed, however, caught up to Nino in the box, and the opportunity was gone.

Alexis scored in the second minute of stoppage time for Valencia to give Valencia the 1-0 win, but with the other matches falling Tenerife’s way, only a Málaga result against Real Madrid would drop them to the second division.  Málaga did the seemingly impossible and got the draw at home to revive their stay in the first division for another season.

- This final weekend of the season became swan songs for three that have served their respective professions to the highest degree: Joseba Etxeberria, Rubén Baraja, and referee Manuel Mejuto González.  Mejuto González’s last match will be on Wednesday as the referees the Copa del Rey final, but his La Liga career ended on Saturday in the Athletic Bilbao – Deportivo La Coruña match.  Etxeberria and Baraja both won, and both could not contain their emotions, as they were both given heroes’ exits by their clubs.

On Monday evening, Spanish national team manager Vicente del Bosque detailed the initial squad he will invite to Spain’s World Cup training camp.  The thirty-man team will be whittled down to twenty-three by May 19, and for the most part, the squad has picked itself.  The competition for those final few spots will concentrate on three areas: third-choice goalkeeper, fourth-choice forward, and the last two midfield spots.

The only question for the defense is if Osasuna left back César Azpilicueta can steal a spot from one of the midfielders.  Equally capable on the left wing as well as left back, Azpilicueta has never played for the Spanish national team at the senior level.  At twenty years of age, he will be the future left back for Spain, but with the expectations so high on this particular Spanish squad, Azpilicueta will be on the outside-looking-in because Álvaro Arbeloa can slot in at either full back position if either Sergio Ramos or Joan Capdevila gets injured or needs rest.

As for the goalkeeping situation, Iker Casillas and Pepe Reina are locked in as the number one and two goalkeepers respectively, so the last goalkeeping berth will be among three players with vastly different histories.

David de Gea of Atlético Madrid was the third-choice keeper on his own team to begin the season behind Roberto Jiménez and Sergio Asenjo.  At nineteen years old, he was a mere afterthought, as Atlético signed Real Valladolid keeper Sergio Asenjo over the summer for €5 million to be the goalkeeping future.  Early struggles for Asenjo and injuries for Roberto thrust de Gea into the unexpected spotlight, and he responded with a veteran’s savvy, keeping Asenjo on the bench and eventually sending Roberto on loan to Real Zaragoza in the January transfer window.

Víctor Valdés has been the starting goalkeeper for FC Barcelona since 2004, and although he has finished in the top three in the race for the Ricardo Zamora trophy (the award given to the goalkeeper with the lowest goals to games ratio) since he earned the goalkeeping helm, winning it twice, former national team manager Luis Aragonés and current manager Vicente del Bosque never seriously considered him as a potential call-up to the national team.  A combination of inopportune, high-profile errors and occasional run-ins with managers have been presented as reasons why he was kept off the national team, but with his high-level play in the past two seasons, Vicente del Bosque may find it hard to continue to justify Valdés’ exclusion.

Unfortunately for Diego López, he came up through the Real Madrid cantera while Iker Casillas manned Real’s posts as one of the best goalkeepers in the world.  He left Madrid in 2007 to join Villarreal, knowing that there was little chance he would overthrow Casillas in the Real goal.  López’s good form with Villarreal led del Bosque to hand him the third-choice keeper berth over Andrés Palop in early 2009, and he has been ensconced in that spot since then.  While he continued his consistent play this season for Villarreal, he might be penalized for both Villarreal’s underwhelming campaign and the grassroots swell of support for Víctor Valdés.

Tomorrow, this column will focus on the last midfield spots.

Vicente del Bosque’s Provisional 30-Man Squad

Goalkeepers: Iker Casillas, Pepe Reina, Víctor Valdés, Diego López, and David de Gea

Defenders: Sergio Ramos, Álvaro Arbeloa, Raúl Albiol, Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, Carlos Marchena, Joan Capdevila, and César Azpilicueta

Midfielders: Xavi Hernández, Andres Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Xabi Alonso, Juan Mata, David Silva, Marcos Senna, Santi Cazorla, Jesús Navas, Javi Martínez, and Cesc Fàbregas

Forwards: David Villa, Fernando Torres, Fernando Llorente, Pedro Rodríguez, Dani Güiza, Álvaro Negredo

The hype, the pomp, the circumstance.  All of these rose to a higher level for this episode of El Clásico at the Camp Nou on Sunday evening.  Coming into this match, FC Barcelona turned their fortunes around in the UEFA Champions League with a 2-0 victory over Inter Milan.  The scoreline hardly gave any justice to both teams as Barcelona played as well as Inter played poorly.  The impotency in attack as well as the nonchalance in defense for Inter contrasted with the elegant passing football and the defensive pressure presented by Barça.  What resulted were two goals in twenty-six minutes and a willingness to keep possession, as Inter Milan did not use their ability to close Barça down.

Real Madrid was more workmanlike in their 1-0 win over FC Zürich.  Reading the stat sheet would convince all those who did not witness the match that Real dominated their lowly Swiss opponents, but the desire and spirit within the Zürich squad contributed to a tighter than expected match.  Real toiled through a physical encounter to rise to the top of their Champions League group with one match to go, and they were able to give Cristiano Ronaldo his first action in several weeks.  His twenty-minute stint was not anything special, but the most important reason that manager Manuel Pellegrini sent him out against FC Zürich was to get him used to live football before their match against Barcelona.

The biggest pieces of news before the Real – Barça clash were the absences of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Raúl from their respective teams’ starting eleven.  Raúl’s omission did not come as too much of a surprise because Gonzalo Higuaín has been the in form striker in the last few games, but for Pellegrini to exclude Raúl in such a monumental occasion shows that he is in full control of this team and will do what he feels is best for the team, even if that means passing over Real legends like Raúl and Guti.  As for Ibrahimovic, he struggled with a hamstring injury that occurred in a league match against Mallorca three weeks ago and forced him to miss two friendlies for the Swedish national team and a Champions League encounter against Inter Milan.  Both Raúl and Ibrahimovic were available on their sides’ benches if necessary.

Many expected this match to be a goal fest, similar to their last meeting in early May, when Real Madrid fought their way back into the title race with a torrid fifty-two points out of a possible fifty-four heading into El Clásico.  Barcelona would dominate the proceedings with a 2-6 thrashing at the Santiago Bernabéu to seal La Liga for the Blaugrana.  What transpired this Sunday was more akin to the first Barcelona – Real Madrid meeting last season, where goals were at a premium, and the physical nature of both teams was a major part in influencing the run of play.

Even though it was 0-0 at halftime, Real won the opening forty-five minutes by creating the better chances and snuffing out the influences of Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, and Lionel Messi.  Manuel Pellegrini’s tactics forced the ball away from Xavi, the conductor of the Catalunyan orchestra, and Barcelona bypassed the midfield altogether on more occasions than they prefer.  Xabi Alonso and Lassana Diarra worked in synergy in the midfield, as their two dominated the midfield three of Barcelona.

Real had the best opportunity to score in the first half in the 20th minute, when Kaká’s run from the left flank into the penalty area set up a pass across the box to an unmarked Cristiano Ronaldo.  Ronaldo took the shot first-time to the left far post and had Barça keeper Victor Valdés going the wrong way.  Valdés somehow deflected the shot with his trailing legs and went wide of the post for a corner.  Ronaldo might be criticized for not finishing a golden opportunity, but most of the credit should belong to Valdés, as he continues to become one of Spain’s top goalkeepers without ever being noticed.  Those gaffes that have plagued his career are at a bare minimum, and Barcelona rewarded this consistency with a contract extension through 2014 in the offseason.

The start of the second half was more of the same as each team received yellow cards for professional fouls.  Both teams tended to halt any semblance of a counter-attack or breakaway with a professional foul or significant contact.  Barcelona continued to possess the ball at a high percentage but failed to substantiate it with any noteworthy chances.  Barça manager Pep Guardiola made the first move in the tactical game between Pellegrini and him when he sent in Zlatan Ibrahimovic in the 51st minute for an ineffective Thierry Henry.  Henry started the match in the center of the three forward line with Messi on his right and Iniesta on his left but found little success.  He drifted to his more comfortable left flank as the game wore on but still could not engineer a legitimate scoring opportunity.

The blasé Barcelona attack suddenly became much more potent with Ibrahimovic leading the line.  They had their best spell of possession two minutes into Ibrahimovic’s shift, when a series of patented Barça short, incisive passes ultimately led to a shot blocked by Xabi Alonso.  Although they did not convert, Barcelona brought different ideas into the fold and concerned an already worried Real Madrid, as they felt the momentum shift toward their Catalunyan rivals.

Real Madrid stubbornly succumbed to this momentum when Barcelona broke the deadlock in the 56th minute.  Ibrahimovic volleyed in a left-footed shot to give Barça the 1-0 lead.  Dani Alves gets equal credit for the goal because of a wonderful early cross, and Ibrahimovic still had plenty to do, as his left-footed volley was technically difficult.  Many players with this particular opportunity would either blaze it high over the crossbar or completely mistime the cross and whiff on the shot.  This moment was why Barcelona was so aggressive in bringing Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Inter Milan.  As technically gifted and football-intelligent as he is, he built a reputation for coming up small in the most important moments.  Whether this assertion was fair or not became irrelevant at this instant as Ibrahimovic etched his name into the fabric of this historic rivalry.

The euphoria would be short-lived as Sergio Busquets received his second yellow card for an unnecessary and deliberate handball in midfield in the 62nd minute.  Touré Yaya came in for Seydou Keita to beef up the midfield and fill the absence of Busquets, and Andrés Iniesta dropped back into the midfield to produce a 4-3-2 formation.  As well as Barcelona’s offensive flair drives their overall philosophy, it often overlooks their defensive tenacity and discipline.  Carles Puyol is the captain of the team for a reason, and he wears the Catalunyan armband with abounding pride and grit.  Barcelona held on to the clean sheet and the win thanks to Puyol’s defensive positioning and sheer will.

He fully committed to sliding challenges that prevented potential goals in the 26th, 53rd, and 70th minutes, and as Real pushed forward with a one-man advantage and a one-goal deficit, Puyol led the defensive line, always insisting to be compact with his words and his hand gestures.  While Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the goal that made the difference on the scoreboard, Carles Puyol clearly was the man of the match as he personified the fortitude and determination of FC Barcelona.  Those rumors of Puyol leaving for Manchester City seem laughable now.

Despite the hyperbole surrounding the match, Barcelona’s three-point win over their blood rivals only gives the Blaugrana a tenuous two point lead over Los Merengues, with a myriad of challengers just behind them with twenty-six rounds of matches left.  Real Madrid will take solace in the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo is on his way back to full fitness, and their team will continue to gel as the campaign continues.  Sevilla and Valencia have the talent to break the duopoly at the top of La Liga.  Today, however, belongs to the tenants of Camp Nou.

This past week was a litmus test in their efforts to recapture the once inconceivable treble.  Barcelona was in grave danger of not qualifying for the knockout stages of the Champions League and falling four points behind Real Madrid at the end of November.  The mark of a champion is when they win when not playing at their best.  Hardly anyone will say that Barcelona was at their scintillating best against Inter Milan and Real Madrid, but they achieved their desired results without compromising their beliefs and philosophies.  The 155th edition of El Clásico ends with a 1-0 victory for FC Barcelona.  A tension-filled thriller, it was neither the prettiest nor the best played match in the history of this rivalry, but the effort and intent displayed by all involved in the match were unsurpassed.

Pep Guardiola cannot believe it either.

After a workmanlike 1-0 victory against Almería and a mediocre showing in their 0-0 draw at the Mestalla against Valencia CF on Saturday, FC Barcelona looked to reverse their form in the Champions League against a supposed weaker team in FK Rubin Kazan.  To their credit, Barça did not make any excuses about their performance against Los Che, but they did suffer from the FIFA virus because a vast majority of their players contributed to their respective countries’ national teams across the globe.  Pep Guardiola rested Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Lionel Messi flew to and from South America and competed in two crucial and stressful World Cup qualifiers with Argentina, Thierry Henry picked up a thigh injury while playing for Les Bleus, and many others not mentioned here.  Before the match, Seydou Keita spoke about their Ukrainian opponents:

“It won’t be an easy game.  They will come to the Nou Camp to defend like all they do and we’ll have to go out strong to create chances and score.”

Rubin Kazan also entered this contest without playing at their highest standards.  In control of the Russian Premier League through much of the season and with a seven-point lead with eight games to play, the Tatars turned their focus on the Champions League.  Fairly inexperienced in juggling domestic and European responsibilities, the distraction of the Champions League led to a dip in form in Russia, which included a draw and two losses before a routine and pedestrian 2-1 win over hapless FC Khimki on Saturday.  Spartak Moscow took advantage of a faltering Rubin Kazan and shaved the league deficit to a single point with five rounds remaining.  Facing Barcelona at the Camp Nou was one of the last tasks that Rubin Kazan needed.

Rubin Kazan erased any fears of the Catalunyan atmosphere when Aleksandr Ryazantsev delivered a shock thirty-yard strike in the second minute to give the visitors the 0-1 lead.  Immediately after a Barça attack that culminated in an unanswered penalty claim, Rafael Márquez misplayed a goal kick from Sergei Ryzhikov.  The ball headed in the direction of Ryazantsev, who decided to take the shot first time from a country mile away.  His searching effort became one of the goals of the Champions League season as his sweetly struck bullet pierced the top right corner of Victor Valdés’ unsuspecting goal.  The Camp Nou faithful were flabbergasted, the Barcelona players were stunned, and most of all, Ryazantsev’s teammates were astonished by both the shot and the sudden lead.

The goal annoyed the blaugrana more than anything, and they continued their assault on the Rubin goal; however, Rubin Kazan’s organization was outstanding, and Barça could not find the breakthrough against this highly disciplined Russian side.  When Ibrahimovic equalized early in the second half with a little spin-o-rama magic of his own, the pervasive feeling was that of inevitability.  It was not if Barcelona would win but by how many.  Apparently, Rubin Kazan did not get the memo, and they continued to persist with their defensive game plan.  Rubin would only have three shots for the entire match, but each one was on target, and their third and final shot proved to be the game winner.  After another Barcelona giveaway, Alejandro Domínguez sped down the Barça half in a blistering counter-attack.  The timing of his through-ball to Gökdeniz Karadeniz was impeccable, and Karadeniz’s one-timer from fifteen yards flashed across the face of goal and bundled the back of the net.

Barcelona’s attempts to make the match all-square were in vain, as two of their efforts hit the frame of the goal and the others handled by Sergei Ryzhikov.  The final statistics compare to a video game: twenty-four shots with thirteen on target, 69% of the possession, eleven corners to one, and a mind-boggling 654 passes at an 86% completion rate.  With these numbers, Barcelona won 5-0, right?  Not on this European night.  The streets of Kazan will flood with joyous supporters who will cherish this night as the night when their beloved Tatars slayed the Catalunyan dragon.

The expectations for Barcelona from the media and the team itself are so astronomical that little blips on the radar become immediate crises.  After the match, Xavi Hernández was at it again, bemoaning Rubin Kazan’s tactics and overall play to the Spanish sports daily Diario AS:

“It was a very dissatisfying match from the start, conceding a goal into the top corner from thirty yards at the very beginning.  Then we had many chances and made it more difficult for them.  We played well at times, we opened up the pitch and had spells.  But it is difficult to measure a team that only defends, especially if you do not find the final pass.  They leave with an undeserved prize.”

Sometimes, humility would be a nice change of pace.  While Xavi gave no credit to Rubin Kazan for their gritty display on Tuesday night, plaudits will rain from many media outlets about this fairly unknown team from Russia and their desire and intensity.  Well done Rubin and the loyal supporters who traveled many miles to the Camp Nou to witness their small slice of history.

What got lost from Xavi’s remarks is a question many will ask tonight and throughout the season.  Did Valencia and Rubin Kazan provide blueprints to earn results against this unrelenting Barça side?  Somewhat.  If a less technically gifted team goes against Barcelona, follow the Rubin Kazan plan: defensive organization, midfield flooding, and opportunistic counter-attacks.  If the team can truly compete with Barcelona’s talent, follow the Valencia plan: keep possession, shackle Dani Alves and Eric Abidal as much as possible, and force Victor Valdés into some contested crosses and shots.  Even if all of these principles are followed, as many teams have tried, it will likely be all for naught.  That is the beauty of this FC Barcelona outfit.  Their single-minded nature to attack and attack and attack eventually crumbles their opposition.  When Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich sacked Luiz Felipe Scolari last season, one of the main reasons was that he did not have a plan B if plan A did not work.  If Barcelona’s plan A does not work, which happens quite rarely, they execute plan A even harder.

President Joan Laporta and the Barcelona supporters need not worry at this point.  Barcelona is on top of La Liga and their congested group in the Champions League.  No team will sail through a season without some difficulties, and these recent struggles might be for the best because if Barcelona started to believe in their own accolades, Pep Guardiola will surely point to their performances against Almería, Valencia, and Rubin Kazan.  Even when Barcelona was at their best, Guardiola kept them on level ground.  The players will listen to him, and they will rise from this temporary setback.

Saques de Esquina:

- With a three-goal lead at Stuttgart, Sevilla FC resorted to time-wasting tactics that an inferior team would do if it could earn a point away from home.  Really?  Stuttgart did pull a goal back from Élson’s whipping free kick, but Sevilla did not need to act as though they were a Tercera División side in a Copa del Rey tie.

Courtesy of halighalie

- Hoping to squeak out a last-minute victory over Dynamo Kyiv, Inter Milan manager José Mourinho sent in defender Marco Materazzi as a battering ram forward, similar to what he did at Chelsea when he would use Robert Huth in the same fashion.  The thought of Touré Yaya or Federico Fazio acting as emergency strikers should strike fear in the hearts of defenders everywhere.

- Is Jens Lehmann always angry with someone?  After Frédéric Kanouté legitimately fell in the penalty box due to a legal sliding challenge from a Stuttgart defender, Lehmann got in Kanouté’s face, likely accusing him of diving.  Lehmann seems to thrive in this role, whether he alienates the opposition or his own teammates.