Copa Del Rey 2018-19 Final – Valencia vs. FC Barcelona match - Viewpoint.
FC Barcelona ended the season on a disappointing note as they lost the Copa del Rey finals 2-1 to Valencia. Nothing much to say except that despite being dominant, Barcelona couldn’t find the net.
Valencia at the start of the season had been in good form and held Barcelona to entertaining draws in both the La Liga games. But during the Cup finals, Valencia were just okay. A battered Barca midfield were ineffective while defensive lapses led to the two goals. First half goals by Kevin Gameiro and Rodrigo Moreno put Valencia on the front-foot.
In the absence of Luis Suárez and Ousmane Dembélé, Messi had no suport up front. Everyone needed to be reminded that Coutinho was in the team, because once the game started, he wore an invisibility cloak and disappeared. The injured Suarez in the stands, showed more intent and energy than Coutinho on the field. Of all the people, somehow Pique (!) managed to get into scoring positions and missed the chances that came his way.
The 2nd half saw Vidal and Malcom coming in for Arthur and Semedo and there was an immediate effect in the way Barcelona played. The biggest revelation was the young Malcom on the right, who provided cross after cross into the D. One of Malcom’s crosses was met by Lenglet whose header struck the woodwork and the rebound was coverted into a goal by none other than Messi.
Alena came in later in the 2nd half and Barca pressed harder. Valencia could have won the tie by a much higher margin through late counters. But they missed one to one chances and also failed to score, when the Barca goal was practically empty. Valencia held on despite constant pressure from Barcelona and managed to win the game.
Analysis:
Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur, Alba and Semedo were badly out of sorts. One needs to remember that most of the star players of Barca are aging and require back-ups. Otherwise they will continue floundering towards the end of every season.
Semedo had one of his worst games, while Roberto couldn’t help much. Arthur who showed a lot of promise in the first half of the season, had not been the same after his return from a recent injury. He was unable to dictate the midfield and was easily overwhelmed by the physical opposition.
Cillessen had a horrible outing in the last league game against Eibar and nothing much was different in this game. He gave both Lenglet and Pique nightmares with his weak and awful passing. Barca need to find a better keeper as a back-up or give more chance to their B Team youngsters that could prove to be a better investment for the future.
Valverde picked a starting line-up expecting Messi to do all the work from Midfielder to Winger to Striker. In his current form and position, Coutinho was totally ineffective as Messi’s strike-partner. The most absurd thing was that Couitnho was on the field for the entire game, doing nothing. The coach probably forgot that Coutinho was playing. There was no other logical reason to let him continue.
There were post match talks of Semedo not totally recovering from the head injury of the last game. If this was true, then, how could the player be risked by the coaching and medical team of Barca. Even when fully fit, Semedo is okay as a defensive right back and is not good enough in attack.
FC Barcelona ended the season on a disappointing note as they lost the Copa del Rey finals 2-1 to Valencia. Nothing much to say except that despite being dominant, Barcelona couldn’t find the net.
Valencia at the start of the season had been in good form and held Barcelona to entertaining draws in both the La Liga games. But during the Cup finals, Valencia were just okay. A battered Barca midfield were ineffective while defensive lapses led to the two goals. First half goals by Kevin Gameiro and Rodrigo Moreno put Valencia on the front-foot.
In the absence of Luis Suárez and Ousmane Dembélé, Messi had no suport up front. Everyone needed to be reminded that Coutinho was in the team, because once the game started, he wore an invisibility cloak and disappeared. The injured Suarez in the stands, showed more intent and energy than Coutinho on the field. Of all the people, somehow Pique (!) managed to get into scoring positions and missed the chances that came his way.
The 2nd half saw Vidal and Malcom coming in for Arthur and Semedo and there was an immediate effect in the way Barcelona played. The biggest revelation was the young Malcom on the right, who provided cross after cross into the D. One of Malcom’s crosses was met by Lenglet whose header struck the woodwork and the rebound was coverted into a goal by none other than Messi.
Alena came in later in the 2nd half and Barca pressed harder. Valencia could have won the tie by a much higher margin through late counters. But they missed one to one chances and also failed to score, when the Barca goal was practically empty. Valencia held on despite constant pressure from Barcelona and managed to win the game.
Analysis:
Rakitic, Busquets, Arthur, Alba and Semedo were badly out of sorts. One needs to remember that most of the star players of Barca are aging and require back-ups. Otherwise they will continue floundering towards the end of every season.
Semedo had one of his worst games, while Roberto couldn’t help much. Arthur who showed a lot of promise in the first half of the season, had not been the same after his return from a recent injury. He was unable to dictate the midfield and was easily overwhelmed by the physical opposition.
Cillessen had a horrible outing in the last league game against Eibar and nothing much was different in this game. He gave both Lenglet and Pique nightmares with his weak and awful passing. Barca need to find a better keeper as a back-up or give more chance to their B Team youngsters that could prove to be a better investment for the future.
Valverde picked a starting line-up expecting Messi to do all the work from Midfielder to Winger to Striker. In his current form and position, Coutinho was totally ineffective as Messi’s strike-partner. The most absurd thing was that Couitnho was on the field for the entire game, doing nothing. The coach probably forgot that Coutinho was playing. There was no other logical reason to let him continue.
There were post match talks of Semedo not totally recovering from the head injury of the last game. If this was true, then, how could the player be risked by the coaching and medical team of Barca. Even when fully fit, Semedo is okay as a defensive right back and is not good enough in attack.
This entire season, we saw Malcom (in the few games he played), on the left, trying to fit in. In this game, Malcom playing as the right winger managed to give more crosses in 45 minutes than what Semedo had managed in the entire season.
This was probably the first time, since the leaving of Dani Alves, were there so many crosses from the right for FC Barcelona. The talented Barzilian was a natural on the right and is a huge asset. This game was proof enough. Malcom’s perormance was the only other silver lining for Barca, apart from Messi.
Wondering if Coutinho is the victim of a similar problem?
There is no immediate solution to Barcelona’s problems. It will take time and fans should learn to be patient. The fans of Barcelona, need to be practical and stop expecting this transitional team to win all the time. All they need to do is take one extraordinary player from the line-up and see where the rest actually stand. Yes Barca are a a good team – but they need more time to rebuild and work as a unit to achieve great things in the coming years.
One cannot judge any of the newcomers, based on the way this coach had utilized them. I truly hope Barcelona doesn’t react to this season’s failures by hurriedly selling players who were not doing well under Valverde.
The coach had been adamant and refused to change the positioning of players to see where they actually fit in. Continuing with a defensive and non-experimenting Valverde could be detrimental for both the team and its players. Barcelona need to look for a new and suitable coach.
An isolated Messi kept trying and trying – forcing saves, hitting the post and scoring an opportunistic goal for his team in the 2nd half. He was the main reason why Barcelona were in the Copa del Rey finals this season. He had pulled his team from the brink of elimination in the last two rounds. But this time, probably God did not want his special child to save an undeserving team. After all his heroics and impeccable performances, it was heart-breaking to see him leave the field, sad and forlorn.
While Messi did not deserve to loss, his team did not deserve to win and that had been the story of the 2018-19 season of FC Barcelona. (Sadly I get the feeling that this would be the script for Messi with his national team in the upcoming Copa America as well.)
P. S. : This season was filled with happiness, success, tears, anger and disappointment for Barca fans. I am indebted to Lionel Messi for lighting up my weekends with immense joy. He was totally astounding this season even by his lofty standards. (God Bless you Leo. You made life much easier not only for your team, but for millions of fans, who forgot everything that were bothering them, while watching you. Hearty Congratulations on winning the Pichichi and the Golden Boot of this season. )
Looking forward to the 2019-20 season. Lets see what it has in store for FC Barccelona.
Bye for now.
Image Credits: Google Images
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