Pep Plays with Fire

Futbol is not a science. Experts normally like to talk about futbol as though it is predictable, deducible and exact like any other science; but unlike math, chemistry or physics futbol is not a science but more of an art. Today commentators at Spanish’s radio station Cadena Ser we talking about how Espanyol’s coach Pochettino was throwing away the King’s cup by aligning 11 players that are normally not on the main team; unlike Barcelona who played with at least one player from each line in their main team (Puyol, Alves, Xavi, and Messi). But Pochettino knows what is futbol about and said “whoever thinks we are going to Nou Camp to lose is very wrong”. And so it was. Espanyol played very good even though their 11 men did not play together very often. But when you play with passion it doesn’t matter. An innocent mistake from young goalie Cristian made life easy for Bojan at minute 34 and the game was 1-0; but don’t fool yourself it could have been 1-1 or 1-2 or 0-1 or even 2-2 at that moment.

Individual talent is all…or is it? Today Barcelona did not play like a team. Instead they relied on individual actions of Messi or Alves in order to create danger. When everything seemed figured out with Barça winning 3-0 after goals from Bojan again (what a goal) and Pique (what a pass from Alves) Espanyol showed how ambition is going to be always above talent. Two very beautiful goals and Barcelona’s so called “cagómetro” (crap-o-meter) was activated. This “crap-o-meter” is a common joke that is run against Barcelona as they are known in Spain for always fearing everything even when the times are good. 3-2 was the score since minute 68 and the rest of the game not safe enough for a person suffering any heart condition. Does the crap-o-meter exist? Ask Guardiola and why he put in the pitch two key players such as Eto’o and Iniesta.

Homework not done. These knock-out tournaments are known for bring emotion to the game. They don’t reward consistency but courage. That is why it is always risky to let everything to decide at the second game when you are playing it at home. Guardiola and his men did not do their homework last week in Montjuic and today they suffer like never before this season to win. If this was a test they scored today a C at best. Barcelona was the winner today but Espanyol showed that he has the guts to stay in first division and played face to face against the best team the league. Let’s hope against Mallorca next week in the semi finals they do their homework at home instead of playing with fire…once again.