FC Barcelona vs Valladolid, 3-1

[flywoman]

Did Leo cut his own hair for this match? Ugh.


It's been a difficult week for FC Barcelona. Manager Tito Vilanova was hospitalized for removal of a cancerous growth following his treatment last year for a salivary gland tumor and is likely to be out for six weeks of radiation and chemotherapy. Messages of support have poured in from all quarters, including Real Madrid captains Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos, and all four teams in Barcelona's and Real Madrid's matches today wore t-shirts with get-well wishes. Sergio Busquets declared in a press conference that his teammates wanted to win this one for Tito, and in the end, that's exactly what they did.

Fierce defending by Valladolid and a few squandered chances on both sides made it look as though the first half would end scoreless. However, just before the break, a truly lovely combination shattered Valladolid's wall: Leo Messi passed to Jordi Alba, who crossed the ball back in to the center; Xavi Hernandez came sliding in out of nowhere and thrust the ball right past the keeper. This was Xavi's ninth La Liga goal of the season, and imo he was Man of the Match today as well, constantly stealing and distributing the ball to dominate possession, and assisting in numerous attacks as well.

In the second half, Valladolid was forced to open up a bit to try to equalize, which is always good for Barcelona. In the first twenty minutes, Xavi back-heeled the ball to Messi, leading to a superb goal just inside the post. Guerra scored a goal for Valladolid in the last minute of regular time thanks to a defensive muddle that left the far post completely unguarded for the rebound after Victor Valdes blocked the initial header, and I am sure that the home team had short-lived hopes of a draw. But in the last minute of added time, Cristian Tello came on for Pedro Rodriguez... and almost immediately ran the ball right down the center between two defenders and nutmegged the keeper to score the final goal.



In other news, Real Madrid lost to Malaga 2-3, and one of their credited goals was an atrocious own goal - not just an accidental bounce off a defender's back or something, but a legit, heartfelt kick right into the Malaga player's own goal after a kerfuffle with Benzema in the box. It didn't help that Jose Mourinho had inexplicably benched Iker Casillas, who squirmed and groaned during the three goals against poor Adan, at last zipping his sweatshirt up over his head in despair. Also, Pepe got a yellow card for "accidentally" kicking one of the Malaga players in the back... which I have to admit was no worse than Dani Alves' aerial karate kick that went completely unpunished.