The casual observer probably though he was a star striker, but it was Gerard Piqué, a center back, who chested the ball down off a corner and smashed it into the Atlético Madrid net. It turned out to be the winner in an entertaining match. What looked like it would develop into a walk in the park for the blaugrana after Messi scored in the 13th minute became a dogfight as Atleti began to put the boot in. Raul Garcia got on the end of a corner to equalize in the 25th minute and then Piqué scored the winner in the 32nd.
During his post-match press conference, Andres Iniesta said the team played a complete match; Guardiola said the team was scandalously good. Barca had 68% of the possession and had eight shots on target. Were it not for the brilliance of Atleti keeper David de Gea, the score could have been 5 or 6 to 1, but instead the 19-year old made six saves and the match ended up fairly close.
One thing that I noticed - and which is
broken down in-depth by Zonal Marking--was Sergio Busquet's role behind Xavi and Iniesta: he dropped deep when necessary and came out to shadow Forlan when necessary. This is, of course, the difference between this visit to the Calderon and last year's visit when we were without several defensive options and had to substitute Pedro on for Keita after just 7 minutes. So we dominated possession and were able to clog their passing lanes whenever they tried to counterattack.
And then, of course, the Ujfalusi Moment happened. With only a few ticks left on the clock, with the game seemingly won, the ball was fed to Lionel Messi, who took off by the Czech defender and received a nasty stamping in response. He left he field clutching his face and leaving me feeling terrible despite the win. Feel free to watch the video
here (thanks to
Kevin at BFB for that) and judge for yourself, but here's my quick take: it was a deliberate hack designed to take Messi down. It was not designed to injure him, but as with all such deliberate actions, it increases the potential for injury and, in essence, causes the injury. Ujfalusi should receive a 3-match ban, but nothing more. I've always considered him a bit of a kick-first-and-ask-questions-later kind of defender (like Gabi Milito, if you will, but less talented--a true hatchet man) and that naturally increases my reading of his foul as an intentional slash.
Anyway, if Messi is only out for 2 weeks, we should consider ourselves lucky. Our schedule over the next 20 days is Sporting Gijon, @Athletic Bilbao, @Rubin Kazan (Champions League), Mallorca. Then there's an international break and it's not until October 17 that we host Valencia. Those are all winnable matches without Messi, but it does mean that Bojan will have to step up and fulfill some of the promise he's shown in flashes.
