In this edition of Cruyff’s Corner:

Madrid’s wake up call at Riazor
The Message that Barca Transmits
The Red Card of Cristiano Ronaldo
Appeals, Sanctions, Cautions
The Test at Riazor
Pointing the finger at Henry and Ibrahimovic
The Goal Drought of Ibrahimovic

Real Madrid woke up in Riazor because the subs of a big team tend to have more quality than the first eleven of other teams. But the sensation that Barca transmits after winning it all are overwhelming…

Last week we accumulated a ton of words that are non-football like: sanction, committees, appeal, caution… Football is football no matter where you are, but the matter of fair play or the matter of athleticism is very different from country to country and in mentalities. In England and in the United States, for example, sanctions are obeyed and complied with. But here, sanctions are synonymous of resorts. Of pointing fingers and accusing others as well. And if the implied player is someone who always appears on the front side of newspapers, magazines, websites, etc, a circus is guaranteed to happen.

I have been a forward. And like every forward, I have had my shirt pulled, my arm pulled, and even pulled by my neck.. Your instinct as a forward is to be let go off and to maintain yourself afoot. And if your controlling the ball, its more difficult. Your instinct makes you force the other players arm away from you. A blow that states, “Leave me alone!”, and that tends to finish off with the referees whistle. So whether the ref says foul of the forward or of the defender, I still believe the defender is the one who always starts. So fast forwarding all the phases of sanctions,committees, appeals, and cautions, of the play between Cristiano Ronaldo and the Malaga player, I only have one thing to say: This was a struggle like many but with an espectacular ending that caused the nose of the Malaga player to be broken. The final consequence is what makes matters worse. Foul? Yes! Deserving of a sanction? Without a doubt. And you have had them all. A straight red card and two games without playing. With that said, I have seen and we will all see worse than this.

A Test In Riazor

Without Cristiano, Madrid won more than just three points at Riazor. The pressure that Barca had towards Madrid, made Madrid go out to play their best, for if they lost, they would be eight points behind. The test here was not mathematical, because football is not about numbers. Its about going out there and playing your best. The test here was about efforts, efforts of going out to a field where you have had a long time not winning, and hence are forced to win, to play for six points . And Madrid did do that, because like I said, the subs of a big team tend to have more quality than the starting eleven of other teams. And if they go out concentrated and so into the game, that quality tends to mark the difference.

The month of January is closed, and the sensations that Barca transmits are overwhelming. Coming back to the competition after Christmas is costly. But doing it by entering history in 2009, is incredible. Sure Barca has fallen out of the Copa Del Rey competition, but there are many ways to fall, and the fall of Barca against Sevilla is one to be proud of. Because from that point on, a mountain full of goals in favor of Barca have been scored, and few have been scored against. And thats something worth being proud of.

The team (Barca) transmits something that goes beyond that of statistics. Its learning to respond distinctively, to find new solutions to play against different teams that tend to come out and play a different style, learning what to do and what not to do in the first 15 or 20 minutes of the game where every team seems to bite the hardest. And then you start to see progress. To entrust in Valdes, to suffer less. After all he is the first. And all because he is the last man on defense.

The Line And The Team

This is Barca, and here, happiness is never total. There is always someone that has a finger pointed to. First it was Henry. Now its Henry plus Ibrahimovic. If you are a forward and you never score, you have to live with that. To judge their accuracy is so easy as it is difficult. Its not about seeing a player as an individual, rather its about seeing the line of the team (the defense, the midfield, and the forward) and then the functionality of the team as a whole. There will always be downsides in every team. The last match of Henry, was a recital of Alves on the right wing. The comment here: we didn’t see the French. But did he move well? Yes. I never saw him dead on the pitch. Did he open the field? Yes, and that helped the other side. He is a forward after all, the goals are important, but they are not everything.

Now its Ibrahimovic. X matches without scoring. In Gijon, he formed the attack with Messi and Pedro. And his movements with and without the ball are good. But the goal being the most important, is not the only obligation that a forward has. He also has to move around, which he does, and he has to take part in possession. And when he does this and creates goal scoring chances for others to score, then he is doing his job. The goals will come.