I don’t want to act like the world is hanging on this news, but a couple of people wrote to ask if I’d be doing one. I’m not, because I want to pay real attention the match, and live-blogging fosters a sort of crazed hyper-attention in which you’re aware of the individual atoms moving as the leaves rustle outside the stadium but forget each discrete action the instant you’ve finished transforming it into a joke about the number of Chelsea corners. I might drop by at halftime, but otherwise I’m just watching the match.
I don’t know about you, but I’m excited. I just switched on ESPN2 to hear somebody (Robbie Mustoe?) talking about “the passion English fans demand from their players,” and it stressed me out to the point that my fight-or-flight reflex almost kicked in. For the record, that’s not because I think this match or Barcelona winning the Champions League would have some sort of power to redeem football or transform the way the game is played. I’m more committed to the legacy of this particular Barcelona team and to the hope that every now and again, a style of play that seems consonant with the reason I watch the sport will be validated by the judgment of the result.
Anyway, as in all good things, I agree with Fredorrarci’s conclusion on this. See you soon…
Read More: Schedule Update
by Brian Phillips · May 6, 2009
You never actually see Bosingwa playing football. Has anyone else noticed that? The camera always catches him walking away with a furtive expression on his face, as if he’s just been playing football and he’s hoping that nobody noticed.
Essien’s goal that was the point where intention and accident collide and form a black hole aside, I’m scared that we’re seeing the same exact game from two weeks ago. Barsa is playing without any urgency.
Iniesta is getting hammered on the left–where is Henry?
Out with the knee injury he picked up against Madrid.
It’s not just the same game from last week, it’s the same game from the second leg of Barcelona-Man Utd last year. I think Essien’s goal might have actually done something to space-time.
messi needs to play as a forward. this is exactly like barca-manu last year. i agree with amare, there is no urgency, just control the ball, pass it all the way to the center backs, and start over. this is not going to work if you only have 45 minutes left.
and to comment on “other forms of beauty not found on Barcelona” that Brian had asked in an earlier post, could you really see anyone on Barca hitting that Essien strike?
keita or yaya once in a thousand
Henry once in ten.
And Brian, I can’t agree with this more:
“I think Essien’s goal might have actually done something to space-time.”
When I was talking to my friend I joked that the improbability of that goal opened up a black hole.
Iniesta needs to come out. Barsa needs Bojan to thunderbolt down the sidelines. If he doesn’t make something happen, at least he might bring the mindset that something needs to.
Wow.
more action and opportunities for excitement in a chess game… too bad
henry is not a def mid
and one in ten? still even for the best strikers 10% is very generous
goal
o my god iniesta!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!
goal goal goal goal goal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111
ballack almost killed the ref
That AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!, by the way, was both the sound I made when the ball went into the net and the sound every Chelsea fan and every sportswriter in England is going to be making about the refereeing in the match, not totally unfairly, either. Though the Abidal red card obviously mitigates a lot of those 50-50 handball appeals.
gvb — If there’s any justice in the world that video of Ballack running down the pitch behind Øvrebø at the end is going to live forever and take on an iconic significance we can’t even begin to perceive.
Wow- that was terrible for about 90 min- Essien’s strike was quality- and then the end changed everything- destruction, heartbreak. Was Iniesta’s strike Barca’s first shot on target tonight? The Barca win didn’t feel deserved, they were in general awful, I wouldn’t count this as a victory for their style, but also I think Chelsea got overconfident with their 1-0, there were several times they should have scored a second.
The ref is going to be under heavy scrutiny for those non-penalties in the first half. Similarly, so will Hiddink’s tactics. Oh I hate the away goals rule so much!
Wow, Drogba isn’t a happy camper either.
And I forgot to mention Ballack being a lunatic… another wow. Does anyone else remember his hissy fits in the Euro final this summer?
Giovanna — That’s right—it was their first shot on target.
That was just too much sudden adrenaline after too much utter torpor. I need a recovery period before I even know what I think about this.
Drogba chased the referee all the way off the field screaming and jabbing his finger at him, then when Øvrebø went into the tunnel he started screaming and pointing his finger into the camera. Right at us.
Should they not at least play extra time before the away goals rule kicks in?
Man Utd will win now. Thats that. Barca can be shut down for sure and their defense is officially garbage.
brian im not sure im understanding the justice part? i thought the refereeing was poor, but i certainly dont think that was a pen for the hand ball. i am a completely unabashadly biased observer, and i have told my “casual” fans that this is the most important soccer match in the past five years. As DaveL says in a previous:
“Barcelona; forged in a spirit of defiance toward Franco’s facist regime and his favoured Real Madrid, owned and run by the supporters, commited to playing beautiful football, champion Unicef over a big money shirt deal, have a long tradition of producing world class youngsters. Vs. Chelsea; largely a second rate team for a century until ubercrook Abramovich invested money he had enveigled from Russian state infrastructure into a vulgar, vanity project, no class, little history, no flair.”
I like a lot of the chelsea players, but if you play like cowards, you dont deserve to play. (see disclosure above)
“Should they not at least play extra time before the away goals rule kicks in?”
They do that in the League Cup; I don’t really agree with it (see Burnley v Spurs).
also, Brian I can not wait wait wait for a post on the referee’s role in arbitrating navigating the chaos and intention. seems like this match is a good case study.
Wow – I really wish you’d done a liveblog of that.
gvb — No, no; I don’t mean justice for the call (definitely not a handball penalty). I mean justice for the absurdity of Ballack.
Mike A – they get Puyol back next game– although they lose Abidal. And Henry? Iniesta needs to be in the centre of the park, he’s not effective against big fast EPL wing backs.
Also, maybe this is a dumb question, but is there any chance that Anelka tripping over his own feet will be recognized as such and Abidal’s match ban will be lifted?
Losing Abidal isn’t nearly as big a problem as losing Dani Alves. Although if he plays the way he played tonight, I could be wrong about that.
Absolutely no way to appeal. If there was, yesterday’s penalty should be appealed as well (even though it wasn’t as clear as Anelka’s)
time to start training caceres and even maybe keita as a left back. he may not be able to play ronaldo in open space, but as a man marker? Brian, i have watched almost every barca game this year, Alves was absolute dynamite the first half of the season, but he has definately quieted here recently. As any Barcelona fan would attest, in their traditional 4-3-3, he would be a huge liability against the manchester counter-attack. i love him but he simply will not play defense. i absolutely have no idea how the back line will look, but they have 4 league games to try some ideas.
gvb: I definitely agree with you on Alves.
He was the “second best player in the world, behind Messi” but his candle has been dimming and today I was begging him not to get a yellow. A minute in and I knew he was getting a yellow. Then I was praying for him not to get a red.
With so many changes at the back, I fear the game against ManU will be like climbing mount everest with one leg.
But you know what? Iniesta will be there, Messi will be there, and Erik Weihenmayer climbed Everest without sight.
So there’s still hope.
and the reason i know ol’ tommy smyth is full of shit, his comments on alves’ free kicking ability. again, i love the guy, but the vast majority of his free kicks look like his crossing today: scorched about ten kilometers too high.
It was like he was playing with a sand wedge instead of a foot.
Good Lord, after 92 minutes of screaming at Barca to shoot from distance, that was the sweetest moment ever; the way the singing next door suddenly stopped, the way Drogba exploded and threatened to crawl through our televisions to shake us all by our disbelieving shoulders, and sweet karma the way Ballack exposed his serious lack of pace by failing to catch a fat 40+ year old Norwegian on a fifty yard sprint. Le magnifique.
A soccer ball just crashed through the window of my sixth story apartment. I think it was a Dani Alves cross. I live in New York City.
They get Puyol back, which will bolster that back-line significantly. Also, I really really want Bojan to play a significant part in the result.
Chelsea won me over this game – I came in hating them but the way the nullified Barcelona so completely (no shots on target) was amazing. Sure it was 11 v 10, but it made me think of watching Barcelona tear apart Santander or someone, in reverse? Barcelona looked like a West Brom whose every player was amazing, you could see how good they were and it made how completely they were being smothered super impressive.
I don’t know, I tuned in rooting strongly for Barca and by the end I was kind of neutral.
Well, Creg, a huge part of the reason why Barcelona no longer had the midfield was because they had a youngster, Busi, Keita was not doing well, and Yaya was at CB, and in addition to that down a man.
But the first half was also very bleak for Barcelona, so the 1 man down argument I don’t think is sufficient to justify the complete domination over Barca by Chelsea.
Also, Henry does track back a lot to recover the ball for Barcelona.
Finally, Alves was not doing well, either.
Against Osasuna, it was Alves who recovered the ball in the opponent’s half, passed it to Messi, who then scored a goal that saved Barca’s points.
So it was the perfect storm for Barcelona’s midfield and it was very easy to see why Chelsea had the midfield on lockdown.
And because Barca depends entirely on the midfield to start an attack, you then see why they had one shot on target the entire game.
Even so, I do think Barca put up a good fight.
What the hell happened to Hleb? I miss his elastic legs and velcro feet.
i dont want to hate on chelsea anymore, but the shots on target is a misleading stat. chelsea were defensively brilliant over the two legs, but you have to score to move on. for the most part, a shot on target for barcelona equals a goal. they dont try a lot of speculation, its about stringing 12+ low-percentage (for a normal team) moves together to create a high percentage shot. the brilliance of chelsea, was stopping the moves count at no more than six.
that said, barcelona must learn from this game to have a chance against manchester. it is much easier to score when playing 4 v 4 than when playing 8 v 8. Breaking down a complete set (8) of defenders and midfielders at this level is very difficult. no more passing back to the center backs to control possession and start over. they need urgency and have to take offensive gambles at the risk of turning the ball over.
Sorry, Greg, I misspelled your name.
Chelsea fan here. I suppose it’s too much to even contemplate that you gentle Nabokovian dilletantes, whose souls are so easily swept away by simple notions of an aesthetic sublime, would ever really be up to the task of questioning just what this dotish pursuit of yours really says about you.
In my teenage years I also thought a bit like you. But then I landed in the lap of some other Russian masters. Dostoyevsky, Tarkovsky, Abramovic, here were soul-searching stories of the human condition, each of them piercing through any lingering ideals of wistful abstraction I might have had. Leaving me all the better for it.
Therefore on this night of all nights, I feel sorry for each you. You were so close to coming face to face with genuine levels of despair, those from which we only then able to truly bring ourselves into a fuller understanding of the sublime, whose range is more than just that of artistic ectasy. Had just one of the (clear) penalties been given, you might have then been able to look into yourselves, like Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy always did, even after having climbed to the very pinnacle of complete artistic achievement, and asked that eternal question whose answer you are still so stubbornly sure of: What is Art?
Instead you can now cling to your pyrrhic victory. Safe in the your world of fancy footwork and FM2009. The one in which nothing can ever really hurt you, and if it does, well you didn’t really deserve it. I could go on but I feel I am already overplaying my passes.
And no, I am not the slightest bit bitter about tonight’s result.
2-4-6-8, come on let’s self-flagellate!
Cheer up, Run with it, it might never happ–
The only self-flagellating I’ve seen over the last few days is that of the Barca players and the witterings on of the dull fanboys that tend to follow such ilk. Ba-humbug!
@Run with it:
Barca fan here. I love your post, and think it is entirely appropriate. I had never thought of it, but Nabakov is a perfect metaphor for Barcelona football. Still, Pyrrhic victory? Hardly. And the dig on Football Manager? For someone that reads russian masters and likes soccer you will not find a more perfect blog for your tastes than here.
and which of the penalties is clear? i am biased as i have said, but the malouda call in the first half was appropriate. and a pen for the pique handball in a ucl semi? again maybe 30%. Five chances at 25% sometimes dont add up to one.
just to avoid confusion on which part of the post i thought was appropriate:
” and asked that eternal question whose answer you are still so stubbornly sure of: What is Art?”
you’ll see that that has been explored too on previous posts here.
Run with It — It sounds like you’re happy Chelsea lost!
It was an entirely incompentent display of refereeing that made a mockery out of a CL semi. I have never been one to complain about refereeing decisions in the past. After tonight, I have no reason to ever do so again.
I think this still counts as a liveblog!
Screw you Run with it. I’m a Cubs fan, I know plenty about despair.
gvb – Apologies if the FM jibe came across wrong. Just channeling a variety of emotions and thoughts here. And Nabokov holds a fond place in my heart, but I wouldn’t go near him for the answer to the question. I also happen to actually believe that a Barca loss tonight (particularly if it had ended with 0 shots on goal) would have posed a much more interesting addendum to the question than any fantasy football mauling they could have produced.
In this particular circumstance as we say it unfold tonight that is. I have nothing against beautiful football let it be known.
You have no idea how weird it is to see an American namecheck Robbie Mustoe!
@run with it – no problem, hell, its not my site. and if i was a chelsea fan i probably would not be happy, especially at the holier-than-now attitudes of many of the barcelona supporters. if barcelona would have lost the tie, you are correct, there would be some deep existential questions asked about the role of beauty in football. many of these again have been explored here. Still, Dostoyevksy would never have packed 9 in the box. And i think many Barca supporters (including me) feel a certain satisfaction winning because of the away goals rule, which, although only because a last minute piece of brilliance/luck, totally negates the anti-football strategy employeed by the blues at the camp nou.
I see the comments about “no urgency” and the Sky Sports commentators just cast aside the 60% possession as “rubbish,” but here’s a thought – when you have the ball, only three individuals work off the ball either coming or going and also the other team cannot score. I think the isles look down upon possession because they only focus on scoring a goal, when success depends on other factors.
Hence, even a man down, if you can keep the ball and are not tired, you can create magic in the final seconds – what i find shocking was Chelsea’s inability to keep the ball with a man advantage.
I hate Chelsea. I hate Chelsea more than any other team in any sport on the planet, but I have to say–and maybe it was because they weren’t playing Liverpool– I was impressed to see such a perfectly executed deconstructionist performance.
For two legs (and the leg at Anfield), Michael Essien turned into Tim Duncan and they were the San Antonio spurs of soccer, creating style out of the intention to negate all style.
run with it-
it was not the way i wanted barcelona to win and i could have done without the whining coming out of camp nou this week. we can talk about beauty and power all we want, but these games are officiated and its rules are interpreted. sometimes this can be mind-bogglingly unfair. football, for all its transporting moments can also be annoyingly like regular life. i don’t begrudge any chelsea fan their unhappiness tonight, but i won’t have much use for the tantrums from stanford bridge.
also- not every fan here is necessarily a boy.
I love the (San Antonio) Spurs and Chelsea comparison. If Essien is Duncan, then is it safe to say that Ashley Cole is Bruce Bowen?
Frank Lampard=Tony Parker; Didier Drogba=Manu Ginobli
chelsea can’t be the spurs because there dont have a gregg popovich. chelsea are the boston celtics.
*they dont have
I think the Hiddunk – Popovich analogue works well. Both run their teams on an extremely “military-based” meritocracy system.
And Elhajjaj – I’d actually reverse the two. Fat Frank always seems to be in the right place at the right time at the end of games or in important moments despite his lack of physical gifts (like Ginobili), while Tony Parker’s job is to constantly penetrate into the lane using his superior athleticism to disrupt and unbalance the defense (like Drogba).
Spurs-Chelsea doesn’t quite work as the Spurs are a financially tightwad organization. Celtics seems a more appropriate comparison. Essien – Garnett as the oft injured “heart of the squad”. Pierce – Lampard as the the OG who’s been through the Annus horribilus. Allen – Drogba, I have no idea. By the same yardstick are :
1)Lakers, the equivalent of Man Utd (built around an annoying superstar who seemingly everyone hates except their respective fanbases)
2) Portland,the equivalent of Arsenal (oodles of jaw-dropping young talent who’ve tasted success)
3) Spurs , the equivalent of the Grizzlies (same as above, only not so much success)
http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/2482558/
Who’s the really fuckin’ disgrace? Had just one of the three non-goal been given, blah blah blah…
I can’t really believe i missed the “most important game ever (*)”.
However, i have seen the Barcelona goal, in the internet.
The beauty of all our verboreous discourse is ultimately portrayed in that moment.
Football games are won and lost over the smallest things. This game was lost and won when Essien (the latest version of a footballing “Terminator”) misses the attempt at clearing the ball from his penalty area to the new Tottenham Stadium construction yard, and in doing so, allowing Messi to take it and pass to Iniesta, for the goal.
That’s how i will choose to remember this game. The day when the “kick it to the stands” lost to “pass the ball”. It was a sublime summary of our discussions.
(*) until the final in Rome
I haven’t read all the comments, but just a few words I wanted to say.
On “deserving to win”: When people say that one team deserved to win even though they didn’t, it really bugs me. The team that deserve to wins a match, 99.9% of the time (bar atrocious refereeing, worse than in this game), is the team that does win the game. Why? Because that’s the team that did what they needed to do in order to win.
In this game, Chelsea needed to outscore Barca, and they set themselves up for that situations by playing for the 0-0 in the first leg. They clearly were confident being able to do this, but they failed, plain and simple.
Barca, having been scored on, simply needed one goal. That’s the way the Champions League works, there’s no point in arguing that the away goals rule is nonsense, because it’s not going to change anytime soon. Barca were able to accomplish what they needed to do in order to advance to the final, and Chelsea were not. You can overanalyze and criticize the referee, but in the end, one team was able to overcome all obstacles, and the other was not. I’m not going to get into the “victory for beautiful football” point because that is in itself is an entirely separate note, but I do believe in it.
On time: The Champions League is a game of many matches, from group stages to the final. The Champions League semi-final is a game of two legs, and this is what Chelsea had in their minds as they played that monotonous first leg. The sport of football, however, is a game of seconds, and that is what Barca had in mind as they played those final minutes of the second leg.
Oh and just to clarify, in that first big paragraph, “even though they didn’t” means even though they didn’t win, not even though they didn’t deserve it.
Hear, hear, Brett.
BM: Huh?
Brett: I meant that your no-nonsense analysis is appreciated.
Gotcha.
I agree with both Brett and Joao-
I plan on playing the video of that first time curling Iniesta shot for my 2 year old every time he has nightmares, because even in live action, it has a surreal slow-motion effect as it bends away from Cech and into the back of the net