THE OFFICIAL FCB-RMCF MATCH THREAD[R]

The match was "decided" by one play, that play happened around the 30 minute of the first half, until that moment the game was close. Barcelona was attacking and RM was waiting its chance. I can remember one very clear chance of RM for a pass/shot of RC from the left that pass very near the goal line but any RM forward could reach the ball. I can remember a pass of Beckham that Puyol intercept in the last moment, when Ronaldo was ready to score, it was a clear play of two RM players against two Barca Defenders. And i also can remember a shot by Zidane that went very near of Barcelona right post. Barcelona created also some goal chances, one of the very clear that Roberto Carlos saved in the goal line, but Barcelona was making a great physical effort helped by support by their fans. My impression was that Real Madrid had "controlled" the game and it was waiting to Barcelona pressure went down to create some goal chances and to recover the control of the ball. But then happened the key play of the match, Roberto Carlos made a horrible mistake, and Barcelona scored.

It is unforgivable that a player with experience of Roberto Carlos made a mistake so big in a game so important. A mistake so easy to avoid. This mistake will be remembered for a long time, like happen with all the key plays of RM - Barcelona games. The years will go by and the people will still remember that RC mistake, and RC knows it perfecly, because he has been playing 8 years with RM and has played a lot of Clasicos. RC has been very critized this year for his problems with Camacho, and for his low form, it seemed that he was begining to play a little better. This game won't help him to restore his "image" ... and more when we played horrible after he made the mistake.


Well, the goal was a big knock to RM, Barcelona reinforce his already high morale, the Barcelona fans reinforce their support to the team, and Barcelona played great the last 15 minutes of the first half. And the scored the second goal, although the could have been scored other 2 or 3 goals. The game was practically sentenced.

The second half was diferent, I only can remember one save of Casillas, Barcelona spent his effort to controlling the game. A usual thing when you are winning by 2 goals. And Real Madrid created to clear goal chances, the first one a shot of Zidane, and the second one of Owen. That chances were create for isolated plays, not because RM was playing good, but if RM had been scored, we could have seen a very interesting last 15-20 minutes. But that didn't happen and Ronaldinho scored the third goal, scoring a PK of Guti to Etoo, the origin of this penalty was a ball that Zidane lost innocently in the midfield.


La liga is very long, the game wasn't decisive and to lose in Barcelona isn't a strage result (see RM statistics there). But it was a very good game to analyze the play/form/behaviour/commitment of some the team in very difficult game. And i don't like what i see in 4 players:


- Beckham. He was horrible. He lost a lot of balls (the second goal was a ball that he lost). He didn't recover any ball, and he didn't help in the creation of play. Guti was totally alone in the midfield all the game. Probably he wasn't OK, because he had been 6 weeks injured. Well, then he musn't have played in a game so demanding.

- Raul. He simply didn't exist. I noticed that he was playing when he left the field at the end of the game. I watched two days ago in TV some images of Barcelona manager before the begining of the game speaking with his players, he repeated constantly "Everyone fast to Ronaldo to block him, Everyone fast to Ronaldo to block him, ...". We see all the game how Puyol, helped by 1,2,3 players was around Ronaldo as soon as he received the ball to avoid that he controled the ball. Well, it is easy to understand that if Ronaldo have 2-3 players around him, some RM players much be alone or some spaces of Barcelona defense must be empty .... Raul should have take advantage of that spaces, he should have offered more options to Madrid attack, but Barcelona defenders had a easy work, they only had to stop Ronaldo. It was strange because Raul always appear in the worse moments (Kiev or Roma this year) but i must admit that the Saturday Owen offered more options to our attack the minutes that he played. One of the worse games of Raul, not only for his contribution to our attack, also for his mediocre work defending (a thing very strange in him).


- Roberto Carlos. He didn't play bad the first minutes, but he made the mistake that marked the game, and he played horrible after that mistake.


- Zidane. In this kind of games is when you want to see the best version of Zidane. It is the kind of game where he must put the weight of the team over his shoulders. That didn't happen, we see a slow Zidane, with two or three good moments, but very far of his best version, he was a "good/average" player the last saturday, that isn't what we expect of him.

The play of these four players was a big dissapoinment.

The best player was Guti, It is curious that the best player was Guti, a player with a great quality, but famous for his easy tendecy to lost the control or concentration. But the last saturday he was 110% concentrated in the game, very motivated, making a great effort, sometimes too much effor, like the last penalty, when in his impulse to be in all the places forced a penalty to Etoo. If all the players had played like Guti the 90 minutes, the result could have been diferent. Guti has been playing very good the last games, i hope that he can maintain this level.

About "Catalunya is not ...." banner. We are get used to that kind of politic demonstration in Barcelon - RM games. Barcelona is a very politized club (I'm not saying if is good or bad). We don't listen the Spain hymn or Madrid hymn when RM play against Barcelona in Bernabeu, but we listen Catalunya himn when Barcelona play. And other details .....

..... but what i didn't like was that we couldn't see a great "Madrid 2012" banner that was expected that the players of both team carried at the beggining of the game. That was a total lack of class of Barcelona, because Real Madrid hadn't any problem to use a great banner of " Barcelona 2004 Forum" in Bernabeu in the last year Real Madrid - Barcelona to help Barcelona to promote internationally that event, Real Madrid and Barcelona players carried that banner to the center of the field, and the photographers made a picture of the 22 players with the banner in the center of the field. It would have been a elegant detail that Barcelona would have returned the gesture, helping to promote "Madrid 2012". But that didn't happened, instead of that we watched "Catalunya isn't .....". Thank you.

About trolling, i never have posted in Barcelona board and i have to say that it would have been very very easy in the last five years. But we have seen a lot of Barcelona trolls came to Real Madrid board as soon as we have lost some games or we haven't played good this season. Everyone can get his own conclusions ...