I received a phone call last Thursday from the Basque TV channel inviting me onto their football programme this Monday, a sort of post-mortem chat-show to analyse the fortunes of the Basque clubs over the weekend. Of course, the Barcelona and Real Sociedad game was uppermost in their minds, as well as the Eibar-Real Madrid clash on the Sunday. It’s an unusual occurrence that both these teams, from the Gipuzkoa region of the province, play the big two this season on the same weekend and then meet the following week in their new-ish derby, but I rather disappointed the TV presenter with the news that I was intending to travel to Scotland to watch my son play against Ormiston, in the East of Scotland Premier. ‘But you’ll see the Barcelona game on the telly?’ he pleaded, to which I replied that I might get to see the second-half – which convinced him to stick to the invitation. Besides, he also wanted to know what David Moyes has been saying since returning home from his brief La Liga stay, so I said I’d do my best to report something of semi-substance.
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He needn’t have worried since my son’s game was called off on Saturday morning, due to the appalling weather, which meant that I could watch the whole game at the Camp Nou at his flat. Since the quick visit required four flights it was a rather expensive way of seeing the match, but anyway, it’s always nice to see your kids, whether they’re on the pitch or not. It was also a different perspective on the game, because rather oddly, watching La Liga from a distance reveals things you don’t always notice when watching in Spain – and the relative silence of the commentators was music to my ears. What was also interesting was the general sensation, purveyed by the match commentary, that Real Sociedad were simply an irrelevance, another inconsequential sparring partner in Barcelona’s ever-growing dominance of the universe. This is also true of the Spanish perspective, but it was interesting to see it in a similar guise, albeit from afar. It took Barcelona and Neymar 22 minutes to score, but for the previous 21 you could have been forgiven for thinking that this resistance by the away team was an affront to the gods, a subversion of the natural order. The commentary team seemed almost terrified that the script was about to be re-written, and that the famous play that they had turned up to see was actually going to feature a different story line.
They needn’t have worried, of course, but as Neymar appeared in a flash in front of poor Aritz Elustondo to sweep in Dani Alves´ cross and open the floodgates, the analysis of the move and the fluency of its execution was not what I was looking at. Elustondo is from the same generation of local players as my son, and as I watched him progress from skinny youth to still-pretty-skinny post adolescent, I never imagined that I would one day see him in such circumstances, surrounded by the enormity of the Camp Nou, attempting to mark a player of Neymar’s substance and fame. Perhaps alone on the planet, I simply remarked to my son – ‘He was ball watching. No way should Neymar have got that’. My son, used to similarly annoying dad-analyses of his own defensive performances over the years, simply raised an eyebrow. The rest of the world applauded Neymar.
For the second goal, wonderfully executed by Luis Suarez – who prepares the shot with an uncannily accurate adjustment of his body to connect with the looping angle of the ball – it once again seemed to me that young Elustondo was at fault, turning his back to the shot and jumping up to leave a space under which the ball passed perfectly. It was a great volley, but it should never have gone in. Elustondo will be a great defender in about two to three years, and he had a decent game in general, but aside from a run of games under Moyes last season during which he scored a memorable header at the Bernabéu, a few months ago he was back to pitching his wits against some of the hairy cloggers who inhabit the darker recesses of Spain’s Second Division ‘B’, in front of 200 or so spectators. This fact would not be apparent to most of the planet’s spectators watching the game, with eyes only for the new Holy Trinity of Messi, Suarez and Neymar, the MSN who are now responsible for 30 of the 33 league goals scored by the Catalans this season. One thing is their undisputed astral brilliance, another are the conditions and circumstances that reign in other more terrestrial squads. Elustondo is a decent young lad, but was only playing because the regular full-back Joseba Zaldua is injured, and because the more experienced Carlos Martinez is still not 100 per cent fit.
Parabéns @FCBarcelona !! #FCB116 pic.twitter.com/oArkOgYldq
— Neymar Jr (@neymarjr) November 29, 2015
Barcelona, fresh from stuffing Real Madrid and Roma in quick succession, have only a midweek King’s Cup game to resolve against Villanovense from the aforementioned Second ‘B’ (the first leg in Extremadura ended 0-0) for which Luis Enrique will use a side of reserves and promising youth-team players. For this reason, he was able to field a full-strength side against Real Sociedad (with the exception of Jeremy Mathieu for Jordi Alba), a fact which probably had the visitors cursing the calendar. It is circumstances like these that help young players like Elustondo to develop, but only those spectators who are not slavering over Barcelona’s latest goal-fest are ever aware of this.
We have already started our preparations for our first Copa match of the season at Cádiz on Wednesday! #RMCity pic.twitter.com/T82d5yKSC3
— Real Madrid C.F. (@realmadriden) November 30, 2015
One semi-weak link, and the pack of predators that represent Barcelona FC quickly smell blood. For the fourth goal, simple as it looks, Elustondo inexplicably fails to track Neymar for the reverse pass that he plays with Suarez, after the Brazilian has moved inside the full-back and passed the ball in an obvious attempt to play a kind of wall-pass, to win space. Suarez returns it wonderfully, Neymar crosses and Messi scores, but the young full-back has given up, as if he just wants to get on the bus and go home. You could hardly blame him. We might all dream of playing in the Camp Nou, but we might also choose not to have to mark the world’s most in-form player.
[TRAINING SESSION] @FCBarcelona are back to work after a day off: https://t.co/bzabC4ZHOc | #MesQueUnClub pic.twitter.com/Lgm7MOS0vk
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) November 30, 2015
To conclude, nobody really noticed Real Sociedad, as the MSN triumvirate continued with their orgy of goals and vibrant offensive play. This is a much better-looking Barcelona than the one controlled by Xavi’s metronome, with all due respect. Neymar, suspect in his first season, has transformed the side into a more vertical collective, and Luis Suarez is not simply a great goal-scorer but a highly intelligent footballer, capable of fitting into a system and then of defining it in a way that Cristiano Ronaldo can never do, because he is too focused on himself. Suarez is a team player, an unselfish predator – if such a concept exists.
Luis Enrique named as a candidate for FIFA Best Coach of the Year https://t.co/XhEY5fk6n1 pic.twitter.com/tC1409xBcv
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) November 30, 2015
Real Sociedad didn’t actually play too badly. For the first quarter of the game they made a decent attempt of pressuring Barcelona high up, and of trying to keep possession themselves. Their new coach, Eusebio Sacristan, was of course an integral part of the original Dream Team, and his insistence on possession through pressure will eventually help revive a squad that has more quality than David Moyes ever realised. But for some reason, they just can’t win in Barcelona. They’ve only managed it three times since 1928, and perhaps in future it would just be a cheaper option to say at home. They managed a few shots and had a decent last half hour, but in the end they’re mortal. The gods of the Camp Nou are from another space-time continuum. Real Madrid stayed within shirt-pulling distance (six points) by surprisingly beating Eibar 2-0 away in tiny Ipurua – ‘surprising’ given their previous performances and the media-whipping they’ve received, but they failed to convince with their play. Eibar were also missing two of their best players, top-scorer Borja Baston and Keko. They’ve now only lost three times this season, to Barcelona, Atlético, and Real Madrid. Say no more. Real Madrid, meanwhile, have stopped the bleeding, although some went on in Valencia on Monday morning when coach Nuno was inevitably relieved of his duties after a 1-0 defeat at Sevilla. Phil Neville takes over temporarily, with Michael Laudrup and Frank Rijkaard rumoured to be interested. We shall see.
