The façade of the University of Salamanca is one of the preeminent examples of Plateresque, noted by its ornate and detailed ornamentation of Spanish Baroque architecture.

Spain limps into their second Euro 2012 qualifiers against Lithuania, as injuries forced five of their usual call-ups from participating in La Furia Roja’s two upcoming fixtures.  Cèsc Fabregas, Fernando Torres, Pedro Rodríguez, and Jesús Navas all have different knocks and nicks, but the man that Vicente del Bosque will miss the most is the conductor of both FC Barcelona and the Spanish national team, Xavi Hernández.

The Spanish press has been badgering the squad about the absence of Xavi, and understandably, they have been on the defensive.  Carlos Marchena believes that Spain is not overdependent on Xavi, and Gerard Piqué stated that while Xavi is an irreplaceable cog to the Spanish machine, players like Xabi Alonso, Sergio Busquets, and Andrés Iniesta can replace him for this short stretch.

Spain will host Lithuania on Friday at the Estadio El Helmántico in Salamanca, and with its capacity hovering just over 17,000 spectators, the stadium chosen by the RFEF (Royal Spanish Football Federation) shows that the federation does not consider this qualifier as a grade A matchup.  Vicente del Bosque and the players, however, insist that they are not taking Lithuania lightly, saying all the right statements to diffuse any notion that Spain is merely dismissing this match as a walkover.

They should not overlook Lithuania because they have been unbeaten in their two qualifiers, holding Scotland to a 0-0 draw and coming away with a 0-1 surprise in the Czech Republic against the team many consider the second favorite in Group I.  La Liga followers will most recognize Marius Stankevicius, a versatile defender who played for Sevilla on loan last season and is currently on loan to Valencia this season.

Lithuania will rely on their veteran leadership of their captain and all-time leading goal-scorer Tomas Danilevicius, who has scored a respectable nineteen goals in fifty-nine appearances for the national team, the rock in central defense and all-time cap leader Andrius Skerla, and the creative and hard-working orchestrator in the middle of the field Edgaras Cesnauskis.

For what it is worth, Spain has won three of their four prior meetings against Lithuania, the one being a draw at Lithuania during the 2006 World Cup qualification.  Especially away from home, Lithuania will flood their own half with all ten outfield players and try to keep a clean sheet while capitalizing on the one or two counter-attacks Spain will afford them.  Vicente del Bosque has experimented with a 4-4-2 formation without Xavi available, featuring Fernando Llorente and David Villa up front.  On paper, Spain should have no problem against a team that has some decent credentials, but Lithuania will carry the confidence from defeating the Czech Republic in Olomouc, and whenever there is little space in which to work, Spain will find it hard to scythe Lithuania’s disciplined and organized defense and midfield.

The times listed are Eastern Daylight Time (EDT) and include the pregame pleas­antries.

Oct. 8

Spain vs. Lithuania – 3:55 PM on ESPN Deportes/ESPN3

When Spain fell to the hands of Switzerland in the opening match of World Cup 2010, the vultures suddenly appeared from the sky and circled around their “dying” carcass.  No team has ever won the World Cup after losing its first match.  The ghosts from yesteryear are rising from the dead and haunting this current team about their ancestors’ past failures.  Previous entrenador Luis Aragonés ranted about Vicente del Bosque and indirectly undermined most of what Vicente del Bosque has done with this team.  Although Spain has only made it to the quarterfinals after defeating 1-0 over Portugal in Cape Town yesterday, La Furia Roja’s form suggests that rising to the occasion will not be the same problem as it has in previous international competitions.

Spain’s only injury concern before their match against Portugal was Xabi Alonso’s sprained ankle he suffered against Chile, but del Bosque slotted him in the center of midfield after passing a late fitness test.  Del Bosque saw no reason to change his starting eleven, but if he had any reservations about one of his players, it would have been Fernando Torres because of his erratic play in the group stage.

99% of the time, Torres would be an automatic starter, but still recovering from knee surgery in April, his lack of match sharpness became painfully obvious in his starts against Honduras and Chile when his first touch disappeared on him on numerous occasions, and his finishing would have the usual Nike T90 ball well off target, much less the unpredictable Adidas Jabulani ball.

After a strong first few minutes where he made threatening runs into the penalty area and curled a shot from the left side of the penalty box that forced a diving save from Eduardo at his far right post, Torres’ contributions were minimal.  Fernando Llorente came in for Torres in the 58th minute, and after Llorente lit a second spark for the Spaniards after the hour mark, del Bosque might need to reconsider who plays alongside David Villa in the quarterfinals against Paraguay.

As for the other twenty-one players on the pitch, the eleven from Spain exhibited no sliver of the tentative attitude they displayed in the first twenty minutes against Chile, as they pinned Portugal’s eleven into their own half and peppered Eduardo’s goal with shot after shot, especially working the left wing.  Portugal has used three different right backs in their four games (Paulo Ferreira, Miguel, and new Valencia signing Ricardo Costa), so the scouting report must have emphasized attacking this vulnerability.

Portugal manager Carlos Queiroz would not have worried about Spain’s possession or his team’s ability to organize themselves defensively because of their strong defensive record, one goal allowed in their last eleven competitive international matches to be more specific.  Whether he tried to build his players’ confidence or he was delusional, he described the match against Brazil and his ultra-conservative gameplan as a “football feast” where Portugal attacked and Brazil defended.  Using that same blueprint against Spain, Queiroz would have felt that Spain was falling right into his strategy.

And fall they did as Spain’s possession became ponderous, and Portugal felt more assured to throw some men forward in the counter-attack.  Tiago popped an effort from twenty-five yards that Iker Casillas needed a second handle to slap away from an on-charging Hugo Almeida, Cristiano Ronaldo struck a dipping free kick from over forty yards that Casillas somewhat fumbled, and Almeida botched a header from a precise Raul Meireles cross that could have easily given Portugal that precious first goal.  Spain did what they wanted, but Portugal did what they wanted better than Spain.

After the halftime break, the status quo reigned for the first fifteen minutes of the second half as Spain could not penetrate the defense, and Portugal remained dangerous on the counter.  The match changed when Torres came out in the 58th minute and in stepped Fernando Llorente, the Athletic Bilbao target man making his first appearance in this World Cup.  He immediately made an instant impact with his first touch when his diving header from de facto right winger Sergio Ramos’ cross forced a brilliant point-blank save from Eduardo.

Then the combination of FC Barcelona midfielders Andrés Iniesta and Xavi Hernández with future Barcelona forward David Villa occurred with such Catalunyan flair that a picture diagram is necessary to complement the authorial description.

A one-two with Fernando Llorente gave Iniesta the space to dribble around the “D” to find Xavi coming back into an onside location.  In no position to go towards goal, the indomitable Xavi used all the resources of his spatial-temporal reasoning to visualize David Villa’s diagonal run from the left corner of the penalty area and back flick Iniesta’s pass first-time into space, where Villa shot with his left foot to the left near post.  Eduardo did extremely well to cover that area of goal and saved it with his feet; however, the rebound tracked directly back to Villa, and with his feathery touch, he lifted the ball over the sprawled Eduardo, kissing the underside of the crossbar and into goal.

When Spain forced Portugal to chase the game after Villa’s goal, A Selecção looked incapable of forming a cohesive attacking move.  Carles Puyol and Joan Capdevila blocked their only two truly legitimate chances, and the double substitution of Pedro Mendes and Liédson for Simão Sabrosa and Pepe proved to do little for Portugal as Spain controlled the rest of the match.  The only footnotes worth noting after Villa’s goal were Xabi Alonso’s yellow card, the first booking for Spain in the World Cup, David Villa’s stellar play, and Ricardo Costa’s red card after he supposedly elbowed Joan Capdevila, although replays showed little contact and Capdevila’s “writhing of pain” as he covered his face in apparent anguish.

Spain deserved to reach the quarterfinals, and with a gritty Paraguay side that will likely employ similar tactics as Portugal, the Spaniards should feel self-assured about performing well against Paraguay.  David Villa looks to be the favorite in both the Golden Boot and Golden Ball awards, Xavi Hernández and Andrés Iniesta control the midfield and keep possession for this Spain team, and the underrated back four closes down the ball very quickly when their opponents reach their own third.

For those who believe in numerology, Spain’s quarterfinal appearance marks the fourth time in the last seven World Cups where they have reached this stage of the tournament (every other World Cup since 1986), and each time, they failed to progress to the semifinals.  So what is different about this team compared to those other Spanish teams that have flattered to deceive?

Silverware.

Capturing the 2008 European Championships cannot be overstated as a confidence building measure for a country that always produced talent but never fused them into a unified national team.  The regionalism manifested in Spain has hindered the team in the past, as the chemistry never fit a team with such potential.  Some tend to overrate unity and chemistry and propose that talent overcomes whatever problems occur in-house, but numerous examples such as Greece in Euro 2004, South Korea in World Cup 2002, and New Zealand in this year’s World Cup show that twenty-three players playing for one cause can be as powerful as a team littered with world-class players.

Vicente del Bosque will mull over the Fernando Torres question during these two rest days while the players train to see if he finds any slice of form to suggest that Torres is improving enough to warrant a start against Paraguay on Saturday.  It takes a brave man to replace Torres with Fernando Llorente in the starting eleven, but for the betterment of the team, del Bosque must make this move to ensure Spain’s optimal lineup against Paraguay.

While Spain will likely defeat Paraguay whether Torres or Llorente starts, del Bosque should incorporate Llorente from the start to develop a rhythm with the other outfield players as a potential semifinal between either Argentina or Germany looms.  Spain is peaking at the perfect time, and flying under the radar with Brazil and Argentina garnering most of the headlines, this is exactly the position that Spain wants and desires at this stage of the tournament.

Vicente del Bosque hopes his team will continue its trophy-winning ways at World Cup 2010.

Yesterday, the goalkeeping and the defense were discussed, and while the three goalkeepers contending for the final goalkeeping spot will state their cases to Vicente del Bosque on and off the pitch, they will have little to no chance of participating in the World Cup.  The players who will compete for the final midfield spots, however, will more likely have a chance to run onto the field in South Africa.

Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, and Cesc Fàbregas, stalwarts in Spain’s midfield, have had chronic injury concerns throughout the second half of the season.  Iniesta might be back for FC Barcelona in their final match against Real Valladolid after a hamstring tear six weeks ago; Xavi continues to play with a muscle injury in his leg that could jeopardize his World Cup ambitions; and Fàbregas is still in rehabilitation after cracking his fibula against Barcelona in the Champions League in April.  While all three will be on the squad, there is no guarantee that they will be able to play in every World Cup game.

Besides the aforementioned midfielders, Xabi Alonso, David Silva, Sergio Busquets, and Marcos Senna seem to be locks for the plane to South Africa, so the last four midfielders will be competing for the last two spots: Juan Mata, Jesús Navas, Santi Cazorla, and Javi Martínez.

Juan Mata, in tandem with David Silva and Pablo Hernández, contributed significantly to Valencia’s attacking midfield as the fourth-best offense in La Liga.  While Mata has had a tendency to drift in and out of matches, he rose to the call nearly every time that Valencia needed him.  Nine goals in thirty matches in La Liga from the left wing position, a relatively healthy campaign, and three goals in seven international matches for Spain are an abundance of accomplishments that sees his inclusion into the Spain squad a near formality.

Jesús Navas’ anxiety problems due to clinical homesickness have been well documented, but his commitment to fight this issue as well as stellar play for Sevilla has reassured Vicente del Bosque that selecting Navas into his squad will not become a detriment to the team.  More than what he has done on the pitch, the courage and perseverance necessary to overcome his psychological problems shows that the crushing pressure of a World Cup will not get the best of Jesús Navas.

Flying down the right wing for Sevilla all season, he became the linchpin for Sevilla’s attack because of intermittent injuries to Luís Fabiano and Frédéric Kanouté.  Many times during Sevilla’s inconsistent season, he was the only player that had any sort of capability to bother the opposition because of his speed and guile.  Because Spain does not have a true right winger in the squad, Navas will likely earn a seat on the plane to South Africa.

Santi Cazorla is the only player that could oust Navas from the World Cup squad.  Equally competent on either wing, Cazorla has been a mainstay on the Spain squad since his surprise inclusion into the UEFA Euro 2008 squad, where he came in as a substitute in five of their six matches.  The injury bug bit Cazorla all season with inveterate leg and back issues, and Villarreal missed his influence considerably, as they mired in mid-table for a majority of the season.  Cazorla is starting to regain his fitness after he came back from injury in mid-April, but unless he stars in the Spain training camp and exhibitions, his lack of game action will be the sole reason he is left off the squad.

Javi Martínez of Athletic Bilbao was one of the surprise selections by Vicente del Bosque into the thirty-man squad, but if one has watched La Liga all season long, Martínez would not be that much of a revelation.  Only twenty-one years old, Athletic saw him as such a talent that they paid Osasuna €6 million when he was only seventeen.

More than a typical Bilbao rugged midfielder, his dribbling and shooting skill is unquestioned, as shown here in one of the most spectacular individual moments of the season.  His box-to-box energy throughout the season kept Athletic in the hunt for a European berth, and without his industry in their midfield, Gaizka Toquero and Fernando Llorente would not have enjoyed the freedom to focus on the final third.  Nearly every World Cup squad includes one player from left field, and although del Bosque has a glut of central midfielders, Javi Martínez should not immediately be dismissed as one of the seven that will not make the final 23-man roster.

Tomorrow, this column will focus on the battle for the final spot in the forward position.

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

Throughout Barcelona’s two-year run of groundbreaking excellence, Josep Guardiola i Sala role as a tactician tended to be undervalued.  He reinstituted the “Total Football” concept that Johan Cruyff, Guardiola’s former manager at FC Barcelona, instilled when he was a player and a manager at the club, and he changed the culture inside the dressing room.

He sent bad influences Deco and Ronaldinho away, and he brought a sense of discipline and accountability that the club lacked at the end of the Frank Rijkaard era.  When it came to the X and O’s of a match, however, most defined the team in his reign as a beautiful machine that only possessed a “Plan A” of ball possession and incessant attack.

If anyone still doubted Pep Guardiola as a tactical grandmaster, the last two matches against Arsenal and Real Madrid should validate his place as one of the top managers in world football.

Debuted against Arsenal during the second half of the second leg of the Champions League quarterfinal, Guardiola insisted on the 4-4-2 formation to handle Real Madrid’s abundance of offensive talent.  Partly forced by injuries but mostly a tactical decision, the Barça starting eleven was a departure from the norm.  Guardiola brought Dani Alves forward as a right midfielder/winger and positioned Seydou Keita as a left midfielder.  Carles Puyol went to right back, and Gabriel Milito filled in alongside Gerard Piqué in central defense.

With Éric Abidal reinjuring his thigh against Arsenal, the question surrounding the left back position was if Maxwell would receive the nod against Real Madrid.  Maxwell is the natural replacement, but in some instances this season, the opposition caught him out of position when he would make his forward runs.  With Marcelo and Cristiano Ronaldo racing down the left flank, there would be a decent possibility of a defensive breakdown with Maxwell absent from the action.  Rather than putting Carles Puyol in a left back role that he rarely ever plays, Guardiola kept faith with Maxwell in their most important match of the La Liga season.

The first few minutes of the match suggested that this pivotal game would be more akin to the tightly contested edition in November than the open affair at the Bernabéu last May.  The suffocating Barça press swarmed even harder, and the Real Madrid tackling came with more regularity and venom.

Guardiola positioned his team to quell Real Madrid’s lightning counter-attack, and apart from a couple of instances when Cristiano Ronaldo’s pure talent and speed would defy any defense, Barcelona’s defensive organization and discipline kept firm.  A clean sheet through forty-five minutes and zero shots on goal allowed testified to the Blaugrana’s security in the midfield and in front of Víctor Valdés.

With a one-goal lead to start the second half, Guardiola readjusted his formation, bringing Dani Alves back to his usual right back role and moving Carles Puyol into central defense, creating a five-man back line to consolidate an already strong defense.  Guardiola knew that his counterpart Manuel Pellegrini would send wave after wave of attacks in the second half to score the equalizing goal, and he felt a reinforcement to stem this oncoming tide would be prudent.  Hardly characterizing this change as protectionist with Dani Alves and Maxwell still marauding both flanks, Real Madrid found Puyol, Piqué, and Milito to be uncompromising and intelligent in their tackling and positioning.

Two clean sheets against Real Madrid this season substantiated Barcelona’s claim as more than a club who only worries about scoring goals.

Manuel Pellegrini is no fledgling manager either, and with Real Madrid’s midfield and defensive organization at its season best, it would take more invention and guile than individual splendor to break down their white wall.  Who better than Xavi Hernández to solve the problem.

For a player that has and continues to receive numerous accolades throughout his illustrious career, Xavi does not get the full credit for his contributions to Futbol Club Barcelona.  He always had a transcendent talent on his team that would garner the headlines: first, it was Rivaldo; then it was Ronaldinho; and now it is Lionel Messi.  Others would scoff at their teammates for stealing the limelight, but Xavi would want nothing more than to provide assists for his fellow colleagues as well as deflecting praise to them and his manager.

For Xavi’s first masterpiece, he executed a cheeky lofted ball over the Madrid defense to perfection.  Constantly scanning the field for any potential passes to befuddle the opposition, he saw Messi make a run from the corner of his eye.  He had two options: an incisive through ball in between the defenders or a ball over the defense.  He chose the latter (the much more difficult option), and Raúl Albiol watched in horror as the ball floated over his head onto the chest of Messi, who chested it to his right to create space and smack it past Iker Casillas for the vital first goal.

Xavi’s second offering early in the second half sealed the match.  Again, he spotted a run of his teammate in his peripheral vision.  Pedro made a diagonal run, and Xavi obliged his effort by slotting a perfect through ball that hit the moving target as well as directing it into a position where Álvaro Arbeloa could not come around Pedro to tackle the ball away.  Pedro curled his shot past Casillas, and the 0-2 lead proved insurmountable.

Besides his inventive and sagacious ball distribution, his ability off the ball remains underrated.  Sergio Busquets and Touré Yaya are known to be the pivots of the Barça midfield as well as the protectors of the back four, but Xavi is the epitome of a box-to-box midfielder.  His harassment of any Madrid player on the ball forced them to rush their movements, causing a few turnovers in compromising areas of the pitch.  On several occasions, he fully committed to decisive tackles that broke up feasible goal-scoring opportunities for Real Madrid.

It is no coincidence that Xavi Hernández and Josep Guardiola would mastermind a crucial victory in Barcelona’s attempt to repeat as Spanish champions.  When Barcelona won their first European Cup in 1992, Guardiola led the midfield as that deep-lying playmaker that controlled the game without having to score.  As Guardiola started to age, Xavi became the natural successor to Guardiola in his position, and Xavi’s teams have won two UEFA Champions League titles, the second with his former teammate Guardiola as manager.

Lionel Messi and Pedro Rodríguez scored yet again in an important match, and the plaudits showered on these two for their brilliant individual moments are richly deserved.  Behind all great forwards, however, are the midfielders that provide them with the potent ball to pierce the defense.  While Messi creates opportunities for himself due to his amazing ability, he would be the first to say that without Xavi governing the midfield as a maestro and conductor and Pep Guardiola continually instructing in training and in the heat of a match, he would not have matured into the historic figure he has already become.

Fueras de Juego

- Cristiano Ronaldo played his part, consistently flying down both flanks in search of any opening that Barcelona allowed, but his anxiety to prove he is better than Lionel Messi and worth the €94 million transfer fee left his teammates out of the loop as he single-handedly tried to beat Barça on his own.  Gonzalo Higuaín supplied the most disappointing performance for Real Madrid, as he could not carve out a decent chance against Puyol and the gang.  Although it was not entirely his fault, the papers will again spout out how he flatters to deceive in the grandest occasions despite scoring a tremendous amount of goals.

In case of El Clásico blinkers, there were other matches in La Liga this weekend.

- Sevilla defeated Málaga 1-2 in an Andalusian derby, but both Andrés Palop and Gustavo Munúa provided classic moments for those blooper highlight reels.  For Palop, he failed to secure a routine shot from Duda, and the ensuing spill gave Felipe Caicedo a simple tap-in for Málaga to take the lead.

Sevilla’s equalizer from Juan Cala came about from an embarrassing error by Munúa.  Ivica Dragutinovic’s free kick floated straight into Munúa’s chest, but he somehow fumbled and mishandled it as if he caught a burning rock, and Cala could not believe his luck as he tapped in his goal.

Málaga was disgraceful with their constant play-acting and time-wasting tactics, and cosmic justice reigned supreme as Lolo headed the winning goal late in the contest.

- Athletic Bilbao notched the most comprehensive victory of the weekend with their 4-1 drubbing of Almería at the San Mamés, and the score flattered Almería.  Javi Martínez exhibited why Rafa Benítez and Liverpool are following his every move closely.  Two goals and industry in the midfield further cemented him as one of Liverpool’s summer transfer targets as the Reds try to find the replacement for Xabi Alonso that Alberto Aquilani has failed to achieve to this point.

Bilbao pelted Almería goalkeeper Diego Alves with twenty-six total shots, thirteen on target, but the most impressive stat of the match for Athletic Club was that they committed only nine fouls for the whole ninety minutes.  Nine fouls in ninety minutes for Athletic Bilbao would be analogous to Barcelona only having 50% of the possession.  It hardly ever happens.

- Valencia’s Manuel Fernandes might want to hide under a rock tonight after a torrid game against Mallorca.  Admittedly a midfielder forced into central defense due to a host of injuries, Fernandes committed elementary errors in defense, including getting continually beat over the top and stranding his own keeper César Sánchez a couple of times with short back passes.

The coup de grâce came when he netted into his own goal from a Gonzalo Castro cross to hinder any chance for Valencia to salvage a point.  To cap off a miserable performance, Fernandes was sent off late in the match for a clumsy tackle on Aritz Aduriz.

Pablo Hernández scored late for Los Che to intensify the last few minutes, but Mallorca dominated Valencia despite the 3-2 final scoreline, and Valencia’s miserable week ended with a thud at the ONO Estadi.

The Spanish national team hopes to relive this moment in 2012.

The Congress Hall of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland held the draw for UEFA Euro 2012 on Sunday afternoon, and while there is no clear consensus about a “group of death” among the nine groups, Spain’s group would not be considered in contention for that infamous moniker.

Spain was chosen in one of the three groups that contains five national teams, so their qualifying campaign will consist of two less games than the teams that were selected in the six groups that had six teams.  Second, the schedule for these fixtures will be negotiated in Madrid on February 18 and 19.  The international calendar for the next two years will be comprised of twelve dates for these matches to be played, so for four of these dates, Spain will either play a friendly or not play at all.

As for the competition that the Spanish national team will face in Group I, Spain should and will be heavy favorites to qualify for Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine as group winners.  The four teams with whom they will square off did not qualify for World Cup 2010, and none of those teams finished higher than third in their World Cup qualifying groups.  These European national teams are as follows: Czech Republic, Scotland, Lithuania, and Liechtenstein.

The Czech Republic provides the only significant threat in this group to dislodge Spain from its perch at this moment.  Considering their results from the past two years, however, internal strife within the team has spilled onto the pitch with their inconsistent play.  Three coaches during the two-year World Cup campaign and a scandal that led captain Tomáš Ujfaluši to retire from international football have hampered the Czech Republic’s efforts to move beyond the first round of the major international tournaments.

Scotland remains the perennial bridesmaid, as their last four qualifying campaigns for the World Cup and the European Championships combined included three third-place finishes in their groups as well as a second-place, where they lost in a playoff to the Netherlands 6-1 on aggregate for Euro 2004.  The disastrous reign of George Burley, which included the Barry Ferguson – Allan McGregor late-night drinking scandal and a measly three wins out of fourteen, forced the Scottish FA to make an immediate change, giving the services to now-former Dundee United manager Craig Levein.

Lithuania has steadily improved since their birth from the fall of the Soviet Union and has managed to achieve positive results against some of the top national teams in Europe.  Although they finished in the lower halves of their groups in their last couple of qualifying campaigns, European teams do not see Lithuania as a pushover by any means.  Many La Liga fans will recognize Lithuania’s versatile defender/midfielder Marius Stankevicius, on loan to Sevilla from Sampdoria, but other players such as FC Dinamo Moskva midfielder Edgaras Cesnauskis and Livorno striker Tomas Danilevicius, Lithuania’s all-time leading scorer, ensure the starting eleven depth that Lithuania needs in order to compete for second place in the group.

The Liechtenstein national team will be the cellar-dwellers of this group, as they have finished last in their groups in every single World Cup and European Championship qualifiers.  A majority of the current squad falls under the age of twenty-five, but the leadership comes from Liechtenstein best and most famous player ever, Mario Frick.  At age thirty-five, he has not made any declarations about retiring from the team, so for the foreseeable future, he will nurture this young and talented team, including midfielder Martin Büchel and the little lightning bug David Hasler, the attacking midfielder/striker who has caught the eyes of several top European teams.  While they will not threaten to compete for the top two spots in the group, do not be surprised if they pull off a shock result during these next two years.

As in life, nothing should be taken for granted, but if Spain plays the way to which they are accustomed from the last four years, they should clinch the group with matches to spare.  While the likes of Carles Puyol, Xavi Hernández, Joan Capdevila, and Marcos Senna will be heading into their mid-thirties by 2012, most of the current Spanish guard will still be in their twenties, and rising stars Iker Muniain, Javi Martinez, César Azpilicueta, Sergio Canales, etc. will have two more years to mature into the quality players that their talent indicates.  Whomever the manager of this team will be during the Euro 2012 campaign (mostly likely Vicente del Bosque will stay on for another two years), he will be blessed with a team with chemistry and talent that surpasses any national team in Europe.

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.

This is the kind of space Xavi thinks he deserves.

The theory is that because of the low amount of scoring in football, using particularly protective and cynical tactics ruins the sport whose nature inhibits a high amount of goals per match.  Football’s common nickname is “The Beautiful Game,” but from where did that phrase initially originate?  Credit is usually given to 50′s and 60′s Brazilian star Waldyr Pereira, universally known as Didi, and those Seleção teams spoiled the world with their slick passing, their showmanship, and their creativity.  In today’s football, FC Barcelona would be the team that most resembles this vision of Joga Bonito.  Barcelona survived a 1-0 victory over feisty Almería on Saturday to maintain their perfect start and their position at the top of the table.  While the game itself was not that interesting, the postscript afterward brought attention to a long-standing feud between defensive tactics and football.  Xavi Hernández, the main orchestrator of the Barça attack, had some bold statements regarding Almería manager Hugo Sánchez’s strategy to stifle Barcelona’s flow:

“We will have to get used to it.  It’s a shame that they come here to pack the defense.  I’ve never been marked like that.  It was madness, obsessive.  Even when they had the ball or when I was going to take the corner they marked me.  (Coach) Pep (Guardiola) told me to use the wings to create space so that Busi (Sergio Busquets) and (Lionel) Messi could get the upper hand in the middle.  I practically had to leave the game.  It was very boring for me.”

Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who played in the Italian Serie A for the last five years, was far less incensed with Almería’s style of play:

“It’s difficult to play against five defenders.  We didn’t play well, but we’ve won.  This is also important.  I’ve not scored, but I’ve made another.  This is important.”

The tight marking of Almería was something Ibrahimovic faced in Italy weekly, so he was not as frustrated as Xavi.  Ibrahimovic also keyed on a point that Xavi failed to address: Barcelona did not play that well.  Xavi deflected the criticism of their play by pointing out how Almería did not let them play their football.  Does Xavi make legitimate claims concerning the opposition?  Last year, Almería lost both meetings to Barcelona, 5-0 at the Camp Nou and 0-2 at home.  Almería wants to win just as much as Barcelona, and there is no doubt Hugo Sánchez remembered those matches and was wary of what Barcelona could do to his team.  In terms of pure technical ability, there is no argument that Barcelona has the most technical ability in Europe and uses it to the fullest extent, so a team like Almería, who does not have the resources or the players like Barcelona, has to be much more pragmatic with their approach.  Every team wants to entertain and provide a spectacle for their supporters, but results are most important, and sometimes, they have to make sacrifices in order to get the outcome they want.

Even European powers like Chelsea and Manchester United knew that trying to fight fire with fire would only lead to their demise.  They swallowed their pride and played with nine to ten men behind the ball for the majority of the time, not worrying about the chastisement they would receive from the fans and the media.  Manchester United pulled off a 1-0 aggregate victory over Barcelona in the 2008  UEFA Champions League semifinal, and Chelsea was a couple of minutes from completing the same task as Manchester United in the 2009 Champions League semifinal before Andrés Iniesta banged home the equalizer and the 1-1 victory on away goals.

So how is defense treated in other sports?  In baseball, while a home run fest excites many fans, a pitcher’s duel with great defensive plays is equally appreciated.  Two of the most storied teams in American pro football history are the 1985 Chicago Bears and the 2000 Baltimore Ravens, who each had tenacious defenses and held their opponents to less than thirteen points per game.  Hard tackles and tough defense are paramount in succeeding in rugby union.  The closest sport that would identify with association football’s loathing of ultra-defensive tactics is hockey.  The New Jersey Devils won a few Stanley Cups with their employment of the neutral zone trap, but many criticized the Devils for this scheme because it drastically reduced scoring and made their games boring in the eyes of fans.  The NHL took action during the 2004-2005 lockout by implementing changes in the rulebook to penalize teams who employ such methods.

Unfortunately, for Xavi, unless FIFA changes its rules, Barcelona will most likely face opponents that employ Almería’s tactics to limit Barcelona’s goal-scoring machine.  What Xavi fails to recognize is that there is more than one way to play football.  The sexy football that Barcelona plays is an ideal that almost no teams can accomplish.  If teams want to play like Bolton Wanderers or Stoke City and use their physicality and direct style to stymie Barcelona, then it is up to Pep Guardiola and the team to figure out how to unlock the defense.  If clubs like Villarreal and Valencia want to compete with their passing football, it will likely be a better display for the fans, but the task is still the same: to unlock the defense.  Barcelona has a very good chance to retain all three crowns from last year as well as adding other trophies to outdo last season’s treble-winning season.  Worrying less about their opponents’ tactics and focusing on their own game will greatly benefit Barcelona in the long run.