Valencia 1 Barca 1 Reactions

By: Cesar | February 28th, 2008

After the game ended 1-1 with Barca’s last-second goal in last night’s 1st-leg of the Copa Del Rey semifinals, I admit to feeling gutted.

I hurt. I was in emotional pain.

Around me, Barcelona fans were going nuts, jumping up and down, hi-fiving each other. The feeling was reminiscent of the pain I felt after Barcelona’s 3-2 hammering of Valencia in the last game of the 2001 season, a hat-trick by Rivaldo tearing my heart out, leaving us out of the next season’s Champions League after losing the tournament’s final a mere 4 days before.

But after thinking about the match and talking with people about it, I have to admit to feeling quite good about the game.

If we played with this intensity and passion all the time, we’d be leagues above where we are now.

True, Barcelona dominated huge swaths of the game. Valencia did little to batter the Barca goal, with one pure shot registered, the one that went in.

Still, the guys played well enough. In fact, two players in particular, Timo Hildebrand and Raul Albiol, played the games of their lives.

Albiol reminded me of departed friend Roberto Ayala last night, flying up for balls, being in the mix consistently, scampering around the field in search of loose balls.

And Hildebrand. What can I say? The guy saved Valencia too many times to count, outstanding saves being made throughout the game. He was unlucky to be beat in the waning seconds (courtesy of Eto’o’s hand. More on that later …), but no love lost. He looked amazing.

Accolades also go out to Ever Banega, who played an efficient game and Ivan Helguera, who I thought was influential in the middle of the defense.

What a great goal by our lads in the second half. Slick passing by David Silva and Arizmendi (ARIZMENDI??) and a wonder finish by David Villa. Here’s a video of the goal … stay tuned at the end of the clip to see how Samuel Eto’o used his hand to cost us the game. Not too happy about that one …

The two things about the game I didn’t like:
- We gave the ball away too easily. There was little in the way of offensive consistency from our boys. We stripped the ball from the Barca attackers, passed it up and couldn’t do anything with it. The ball fell to someone’s feet and often times was fumbled away. Valencia don’t have much in the way of ‘first touch’, do they?

- The defensive game plan irked me a little. Why not go for the away goal a little more aggressively? True, that could have exposed us at the back. And true, we did score a wonderful counter-attack goal. But we consistently sat back, waiting for Barca to hit us. To me, that’s a foolish way to play, especially with Barca’s offensive firepower. But our defenders were up to the task last night and did a wonderful job neutralizing the Catalan juggernaut …

Speaking about the last-second goal by Xavi: Did anyone else notice Eto’o’s hand-ball?
Anyone else see Barca get points like this week in, week out? I’m starting to wonder …
What? The ref didn’t see it? C’mon … I’m sick to death of the big teams in many footballing countries getting the benefit of the doubt every week. Something needs to be done about this. It happens way to often to ignore. Should there be video replay? Should there be another official on the field to act as a checks and balance for the other refs? I don’t know.
I just know the video shows an Eto’o handball that led to the play that cost us the win last night. And I’m upset about that.

Coach Ronald Koeman was pretty upset about it afterwards as well …

“We feel that there were too many mistakes made against us,” he complained.

“I am going away from this game feeling furious because Eto’o used his hand during the move for the equalizer. It is difficult to take conceding a last minute goal, but even more so if a hand was involved.”

Koeman admitted that he a draw would have been acceptable before the game, after stating that he felt his side had kept their hosts quiet before the break.

“Barcelona only had a couple of chances in the first half,” he explained. “I would have taken the draw before the game, but after seeing the handball it is different.”

The final result may be hard to swallow. But I tell you what: Yesterday’s Valencia team showed a grit, a passion and a game plan sorely lacking the past few months. They didn’t look like Valencia circa 2004, but they certainly played with an emotion not yet seen in the Koeman era.

I’m disappointed in the last second goal. But I’m buoyed by the great play, the nice David Villa goal and the near-upset at the Nou Camp.

On to the Mestalla. Let’s go to the final!! AMUNT!!!!