It is surprising how quickly things change in football, not too long ago Barca were reeling from the uncustomary loss to Arsenal in the first leg of their Champions League tie and closer to home the eternal rivals had closed the gap to 2 points. But that was then, and now is now, with things looking a whole lot rosier.
The youth system at Barcelona is unquestionably the most sophisticated and successful in the world and has been the breeding ground for the majority of the thoroughbred professionals that now represent the first team. Please note at this point that the academy is called La Masia (The Farm). A glimpse into the Barca B squad gives an idea of the next generation of homegrown superstars shackled impatiently, waiting for that moment when they can grace the pitch of the Nou Camp and realize their dreams.
Before being appointed as Frank Rijkaard’s successor in a surprise move back in the 2008 Pep Guardiola was in charge of the Barca B team and his affinity with the young stars continues even as first team manager. In fact, one of the most successful policies of Guardiola’s tenure to date has been his willingness to integrate players from the 2 teams where possible by training together and giving opportunities to prove themselves. And as anticipated it has paid dividends, Pedro Rodriguez and Sergio Busquets both off the production line in recent years have gone on to not only cement themselves in the Barcelona first team but have also become indispensable for the Spanish national team. So staying true to his philosophy Guardiola maintained his policy and introduced another young starlet to the world last night in what turned out to be another 3 steps closer to league glory.
With Valdes,Puyol, Xavi, Alves and Jeffren out of the squad Guardiola was deprived of his starting 11 and had to make some changes, despite the remaining strength in depth of the squad Barca were not going to sit on their laurels. And there was this unnerving fact that Barca had never beaten a side coached by former dream team start and teammate of Guardiola, Michael Laudrup. So with the first choice out, in came Adriano, Abidal, Keita and Pinto following up from his brilliant performance against Athletic last week.
Mallorca opened the game in the ascendency with plenty of possession of the ball as Barca looked to gel and find some fluency, but were put under strong pressure and closed down well by their opponents. A swift move from Messi saw him go close on 30 mins only for his shoot to go wide. But it wasn’t long before Messi added daylight in the race for the pichichi. Seven minutes later a lobbed ball by Keita, who spotted Messi’s run, beat the off-side trap and left Messi only to beat Aouate which he did convincingly to take his league tally to 26 and 2 clear of Ronaldo. 1-0 up and it was the best start Guardiola could have hoped for as it clearly calmed the jitters of the Barca players. Barca came close to adding a second before the break but had to settle for 1-0 having suffered very little after the breakthrough.
Starting brightly and finding space the team was moving a lot more freely now and use the whole of the pitch to their advantage. A superb through ball from Busquets on the 57th minute split the Mallorca defense and found Villa who dragged past the oncoming Aouate and cooly struck home to put the game to bed, the lack of attacking initiative from Mallorca suggested just that. Finally 11 minutes later Pedro cut in from the left and struck the ball from distance and rounded of an excellent evenings work with a wonderful strike. The result was a timely reminder of the quality in depth at Guardiola’s disposal all of which he will need as his team move toward the ‘business end’ of the season. The result also brought Barca in touching distance with yet another record as they look to surpass the 1979-80 Real Sociedad team by recording 20 games unbeaten on the road. They will have a chance to do just that against Valencia on Wednesday when they make the trip to the Mestalla.
So all in all it has been an encouraging week for the Blaugrana, just when many thought they would go through an inevitable bad patch they seem so far to have come out unscathed, of course the league is far from over but surely a wise man would put his money on the Barca, seeing as they are now 7 points clear again… Oh yes, of course I forgot to mention, Madrid dropped 2 more points yesterday.
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