Nothing Positive about that loss

By: Jeremy | January 5th, 2009

I dont think any Mallorca fan was expecting points from the teams travels to Barcelona, but in all honesty, I would rather the team have lost 5-0 then to play a team that was not at its best only to lose fairly decisively when all was said and done. Its games like this one and last week against Sevilla that remind you that your team is just not that good. You have a chance to win against a big team that is not in top form yet you dont have that killer talent to take an early break to then neutralize the opponet and get some points. Its just a lack of talent nothing else.

No doubt Adurizs nice chip over the Barca goalie after a couple of good moves to give the Reds a 1-0 lead in minute 14 was great and a bit of a surprise, but after that Barcelona pretty much controlled the game, even if not in its dominating fashion. One thing I hate is when a big club beats your team with a solid but non dominating performance and afterwards praises their opponent and says that we dont deserve to be in such a bad position and that Mallorca outplayed them for much of the match and made them suffer. Give me a break. You should instead say that if Mallorca had any talent, we would have pounced on them after that first goal and not allowed them to come back and win the game. Last years Mallorca team would have won the game against Sevilla and gotten atleast a tie at Barca based on how these top teams played. I guess the political correctness is just too much to stand, but then again Europeans sue each other for smack talking so they are trained to ass kiss a weak opponent to avoid such problems. Its one thing to salute a game opponent, but such tactic is so over done by big clubs like Barca.

Either way its a loss. After the first goal, Mallorca did fairly well in midfield but again failed at the back when it counted and put on no real pressure up front. Henrys goal in minute 30 was a great finish but the defense allowed an easy header by Puyol down to Henry with no pressure on him which give him a chance to control the ball and finish. You cant allow a guy to do that, but I guess in practice the Mallorca defense does not face that kind of talent so they just play back and let their opponent control the ball but miss the goal. Yes it still took a great finish fro Henry to get the equalizer, but the defense didnt challenge the header and was out of position on Henry. Piss poor especially after that first goal to give us the lead on the road.

The second Barca goal by Iniesta was offside, but teams ultimately are rewarded by their play and Barca controlled the match from 1-1 until that goal in minute 75 so I am not going to whine. With the constant pressure, teams get those kind of plays. especially when the talent can hide in an offside position.

The third goal was another failure by the defense. How does Toure get all that dribbling done in the area with no decent challenge and help for the goalie. The Mallorca dmen and goalie looked like the Ft. Lauderdale Strikers defense back in 1981 when an old George Best was dribbling around them in the box before putting a goal on the board for the San Jose Earthquakes. Toure wouldnt barely deserve the G when comparing him to George Best and Mallorca even at its worst should have a better defense then a mediocre NASL team but you cant let that goal happen. Mallorca fans just feel helpless. 2-1, 3-1, who cares? We didnt pressure them in the offensive zone and goals like Adurizs are rare where goals from nice set pieces or constant buildup win games and that is what Barca did to us.

The initial goal followed by some solid play in midfield in bursts does not allow for a win against teams like Barca. We certainly made it somewhat competitive if only by that shock goal, but the result was not really in doubt. These kinds of games tell you that your team is lacking so much, but also reminds you that you should do better against the bottom clubs that against we continue to give up points. While I think Barca undersold their play in the media and hyped ours to justify not winning 5-0, the difference is still clear. Fake humility by these big teams pisses me off however, but then again its probably just the complaining of a fan of a small team.

Still on 14 points with Espanyol and Osasuna propping up the bottom with 13, we are solidifying our relegation position in this run of games and moving closer to last place. Guess who is up next? Real Madrid. Real is not nearly as good as Barca this year, but this weekends win over Villarreal shows they are still a solid top team as always. With our only talent Aduriz getting a yellow card against Barca, he wont even play in this match. Ill now pray for a 0-0 draw like we got against Sevilla. I assume he will get a couple of goals in Wednesdays Copa match against Almeria though, but as much as I want to progress in the Copa, the lack of league form is overriding everything.

So much work needs to be done to turn this team around and playing what seems like a close match against a lazy Barca team still waking up from hibernation is not an indication that we are ready to turn it around. It comes down to how we handle teams on our level, not making too much of a brief flash of individual brilliance against a good team. The game is 90 minutes long and we cant spell 90 minutes.

Ill see what I can find about potential transfers.