Saturday night at the Camp Nou, the FC Barcelona machine was firing on all cylinders once again, as the Blaugrana struck early and often against an woefully overmatched Deportivo La Coruña side, cruising to a 5-0 victory in a game that was every bit as lopsided as the score would suggest. Barcelona not only held the ball for nearly two-thirds of the match, they used that possession to create every scoring opportunity in the match, outshooting Deportivo 21-1, with ten of those shots on target.
Once again the Barcelona’s front line of Lionel Messi, Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry abused Deportivo keeper Daniel Aranzubía, as the trio combined to score all five goals. It took just 20 minutes for Barça to strike, when Xavi picked out Messi on the right side with a typical pinpoint pass, which was taken by the brilliant Argentine, whose run into the middle of the pitch to left four defenders in his wake, and in a scene that has become almost commonplace (though hardly boring), Messi beat Aranzubía to his left side, squeezing the ball just past the post for the game’s opening goal.
The rest of the first half was defined by scoring chances created by the world’s top right back, Dani Alves, whose recent work down the right side has been nothing short of sublime. Just moments after Messi’s opening goal, Alves received the ball on the right wing and launched a beautiful cross into the box, where Thierry Henry was waiting. The Frenchman elevated just as the ball arrived, connecting on a strong header that found the back of the Deportivo net- 2-0 Barcelona. Then, just before halftime, in a near-replay of Barça’s second goal, Alves again produced a gorgeous cross from the right wing, this time finding the head of Seydou Keita, who was unlucky not to score, as his the header was saved. However, Aranzubía was unable to hang on to the ball, which trickled into the six-yard box, where Samuel Eto’o was waiting to pound his seventeenth league goal into the open net, effectively eradicating even the faintest glimmer of hope Deportivo might have had.
Despite producing just six shots in the second half (they had 15 in the first), Barcelona were no less the superior side. Attempts by Messi and Andrés Iniesta were the lone threat to the Deportivo goal for much of the second half, though it seemed inevitable that Barcelona would find the inside of the Deportivo net yet again. They’d have to wait until the game’s final ten minutes, but the Blaugrana did add to their tally, first in the 82nd minute when Xavi, near the touchline in the Deportivo box, just to the left of the goal, played the ball back into the box, where it was collected by Henry, who slotted it past Daniel Aranzubía to make the score 4-0. Four minutes later, the door already slammed shut on Deportivo, Carlos Puyol joined the attack, making a powerful run into the box, where he was upended by Aranzubía, resulting in a penalty kick for Barcelona and the sending off of the Deportivo keeper for the inappropriate challenge in the box. Eto’o stepped up and coolly put an exclamation mark on Barcelona’s second 5-0 victory of the season.
The home matchup with Deportivo marked the halfway point of La Liga’s 2008-09 season, and Barça’s dominance was fitting, as this side has put together as transcendent a half-season performance as any in recent memory. The statistics are almost comical- Barcelona has played nineteen league games, are unbeaten in their last eighteen, twelve points clear of second place Real Madrid, having scored a staggering 59 goals while allowing just thirteen for a superhuman +46 goal differential. Barcelona has averaged a margin of victory of nearly two-and-a-half goals per game, a number which jumps to three goals per game at home, and already boast three players with at least eleven league goals- Samuel Eto’o with a league-high 18, Lionel Messi with 12 and Thierry Henry with 11, their 41 combined goals surpassing the totals of all but two teams in La Liga.
Barcelona’s comprehensive victory against Deportivo La Coruña emphatically reinforces an opinion that’s been spreading through the football world- this Barcelona side is one for the ages. They are enjoying a completely unbeatable run of form the likes of which other teams can only dream of.
On the heels of a terribly disappointing season, in his first half-season as manager of the club for which he starred as a player, Pep Guardiola has shown himself equal to the task with which he was presented, looking poised to ascend to similar heights as a manager that he did a s a player. The second half of this season will be hard-pressed to equal the first in terms of dominance, but it’s safe to say that Guardiola’s men are the most gifted and the most entertaining team in the world, and the second half will provide the opportunity to watch this sublimely gifted team take on all challengers as they look to accumulate the silverware that will immortalize what is shaping up to be a truly historic season.
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