Spanish Supercup Final Thoughts: What Did You Expect?

By: Paul | August 24th, 2009

Right now, Barcelona is gaining more silverware than Oneida. After their form in EVERY competition last year, and after showing good preseason form, I was not surprised when images like the one to the left popped up on the internet. Athletic were already down on aggregate, they started a reserve team, and were playing against Barcelona at home. It would have taken a miracle for players like Etxeita, Gabilondo, and Toquero to compete with the likes of Puyol, Messi, and Ibrahimovic, but there was no sun magically breaking through the clouds yesterday- just a 3-0 drubbing.

Now, while I may sound bitter about the loss, I’m really not. First off, yesterday’s match marked my first real live blog (hopefully the first of many), and I also went over to the Barcelona live blog (go through the chat and find the story about how Lionel Messi got me laid) and chatted it up a bit, which also was fun. Next, Athletic started a second-team yesterday. The only guys in the team who aren’t usually bench players were Iraizoz and Iraola. It’s clear that Athletic weren’t playing for the win so if they accepted defeat beforehand, who am I to be angry about a loss? Finally, as I’ve said before, the Super Cup is really an official kickoff to the season with little meaning. I would have loved to see the team lift the trophy, but am able to tolerate the fact that they lost (well, I wouldn’t have been able to tolerate it if they lost to Real Madrid- but you’ll get to see how I feel about them as the season goes on).

So I said I’m not bitter, but that does not mean I am not concerned. Yesterday, Barcelona dominated possession from early and looked as though they were playing to wear out the Athletic defense. They succeeded by the second half, as there seemed to be no fight left in the team. Seriously, you would think that reserve players would try to prove themselves on a stage like this against a top team but no, they just let Barcelona take the wind out of them. Another problem was that when Athletic did gain possession, they squandered it by poor passing. I doubt this will be as serious of a problem with more first-teamers on the pitch (and against teams that aren’t Barcelona), but it raises concerns off the bench or if there are any long-term injury issues. Finally, the defense looked utterly worn out and confused by the second half, and the midfielders had trouble closing down the opposition. Especially in the second half, Los Leones just looked worn out and bewildered. Ustaritz was terrible and gifted a goal to Bojan, while Iraola tried too hard to play down the right wing and left holes on the right side which Barcelona played right into more than once. Toquero is still relatively useless. I hope that these kinks can be worked out before the season (or at least early into it), but we’ll have to see.

The only real bright spots were that De Cerio made his comeback (he made some decent runs, but terrible passing meant that he gained no chances) and Iraizoz looks good. Etxeita also played great as a hard-man, at least for the first 30 minutes. Oh well, when he’ll probably be used as a sub anyway, I guess he didn’t need to play like that for the full 90.

For more match details, read through yesterday’s live blog- there is much more detail (and maybe humor) than I can think up right now.

Speaking of the season, the first game is on Sunday against Espanyol! Expect to see a pre-season wrap-up/season preview sometime this week. Before that, though, it’s another Europa league game at Tromso.

Oh, and, one more thing: I leave for school tomorrow. Don’t be surprised if my posts become a little more sporadic for the next few weeks as I get into the swing of things. Once I do, I will be able to post just about as frequently as I do now.