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Graham Hunter, writer from Spain
There was a day when Xavi Hernandez knew how to exclude Real Madrid striker Vinicius Junior from the squad. Classico. Brought to us by Sunday Classico Where Vinicius may have come very close to sacking Xavi from his role as Barcelona coach.
That’s how much damage the great Brazil international did when he won the Spanish Super Cup Los Blancos He scored three goals in his team’s 4-1 victory in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (Stream the replay on ESPN+).
Human nature has thrived over the centuries on someone else’s misfortune: Cassandra in Greek mythology, the old whores who sat and spun on the guillotine in revolutionary Paris, Shakespeare constantly writing about the “fatal flaws” in the character of great men and women, almost. Every great opera ends in death and misery, decades of great blues music, and almost every country western song.
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Therefore, across the global media there will be a huge appetite to analyse, criticize and enjoy the chatter of a true great – because Xavi suffered one of the most seismic setbacks of his career when he watched his team get beaten in the first final of the tournament. Spanish season.
Headlines will happily speculate about his dismissal, opinion writers will talk about historical humiliation, and entire salt mines will be emptied into Catalanism’s already bloody wounds. Gloating — the German word for enjoying another person’s downfall — will spread. However, this is definitely not the big story.
It’s easy to find failure, decline, and lack of achievement anywhere you look in the world right now. What is difficult to counter is the kind of soaring, sustained and exhilarating superiority shown by Carlo Ancelotti’s in-form Madrid team in destroying the Spanish champions.
This final was a thrilling and terrifying display of sportsmanship, athletic aggression, great competitive vision and all-round team play and showed that Ancelotti’s side are preparing for what could be several years of complete dominance in Spain.
Back to our first point: eons ago, when Xavi clearly proved he was the right man (at the time) to lead Barcelona off the rocks, he injected a new, more solid competitive spirit into the team and started winning. Regularly vs Los Blancosthe main weapon was the brilliant Vinicius nullification.
Ronald Araujo is not nicknamed “No lapa(The Limpet), but when Xavi first asked him to mark Vinicius, he did so with the verve of a 1970s Italian defender (it’s a false rumor that Vinicius opened his dressing room cupboard after… Classico Defeat and asked Araujo what he was doing there).
In this latest chapter of their rivalry, which originally looked very balanced in favor of the 24-year-old Uruguayan, and now looks as if Vinicius not only has Araujo’s number, but as if he enjoys playing with him, a plate of revenge has also been served. It was cold and had icicles hanging from it. Vinicius’ record against Barcelona now: 9 wins, 1 draw, 6 losses, and 6 goals.
On the opening goal, Araujo was beaten. He was literally nowhere when Vinicius – half Usain Bolt, half Fred Astaire – raced past Barcelona’s foolish defense and danced around their helpless keeper. From the quickest hat-trick of Vinicius’s career, to the moment Barcelona’s best defender was shown a red card for kicking the Brazilian’s ankle, this was no contest.
The crux of the matter was, firstly, that Vinicius knew he was athletically faster than any player playing in Barcelona colours. He knew this and chose to enforce it.
Secondly, Vinicius has continued a trend this season, which was initially uncomfortable with him, which is that he is no longer a left winger cutting inside. He is now a second striker in a 4-4-2 formation. He has more positional freedom, and it is very difficult for someone like Araujo to man-mark (when previously the Uruguayan had a white line drawn on the side of the pitch to help him press Vinicius’ potential space to run into).
The last thing any opponent should do is play a high defensive line when they are unwilling or unable to retaliate pressure on Madrid players who feed Vinicius – especially if the opponent has a goalkeeper who is extremely sensitive to the goalkeeper role and puts himself on the line. The edge of his team’s penalty area when the ball is in the middle of the field.
Although Vinicius sometimes played the role of a ‘second striker’ in Flamengo’s midfield, a completely new version of this exceptional player is beginning to emerge.
He still has the box of tricks he used as a winger. Body flexibility, express Insolence The audacity to tell a defender that he is going one way, then going the other way, then back again, is invention, showmanship, and fun. But if you watched his performance in Sunday’s victory, there wasn’t even a glimmer of “show.”
Vinicius was in Terminator mode: fully focused on timing his runs at the back, and 100% determined to win with as much power and speed as possible. This was the 23-year-old at his most ruthless. This was top notch and great to watch, no matter how much Barcelona’s ineptitude helped the Brazilian.
The moment Real Madrid discovered what Barcelona were doing defensively, they stifled guffaws of false delight and proceeded to completely defeat their historic rivals. Real Madrid’s passing, running, unselfish vision and finishing were all brutally unforgiving, and watching it all made for a fascinating spectacle.
Throughout the season, Ancelotti’s team song has been “Oh God”. In fairness, Bellingham provided a brilliant assist for the first goal, was superb with his positioning throughout and helped try to quell the Pedri-Frenkie de Jong-Ilkay Gundogan axis which, in a creative sense at least, could have given Barcelona a lifeline.
But taking a cue from the 1960s paean to peace and love “Hey Jude,” we’ve gone for a slight twist on Julius Caesar’s centuries-old statement Veni fidi fishi: “I attended, I saw, I was defeated.” This was it Veni fidi fishiVinicius came, saw where Barcelona’s shortcomings lay, and won.
It is not insignificant to say that you cannot help but wonder how much nicer it would have been for him, here, to excel, to score a historic hat-trick, to win the Super Cup, to be named the best player in the match, and not to suffer any of the racist abuse to which he is subjected. Unfortunately, we are trying to eliminate football.
I’ve already written in the last couple of weeks in this space about the ill-fated (just to their competitors, cheer them up) Madridista)Momentum growing in Madrid. A brilliant manager who has been retained for a few more seasons, a nucleus of brilliant, competitive, Madrid-obsessed young players, most of whom are attached to the club for another four or five seasons, and a stadium that has not only been dramatically rebuilt, but could add significantly to the club. Generating club revenue. If Kylian Mbappe or Erling Haaland are soon to be added to this project, heaven help Madrid’s La Liga rivals.
Rodrigo was happy to play as a substitute for his old friend and national team-mate Vinicius, but he still managed to score and make it nine goals in his last 12 matches in all competitions.
Bellingham also played a more planted role, using the kind of intelligence and diligence in positioning that was sorely lacking in the way Barcelona attempted to contain their opponents. There will be games where he pushes forward into the spaces that Vinicius likes to occupy, and the process of sticking to each other’s timing and specialties will continue. For those who think Bellingham is increasingly the favorite for the 2024 Ballon d’Or, I say: OK. It’s absolutely amazing.
But Vinicius is in the mix. When Ancelotti celebrated his star player after the 5-2 win at Anfield by describing him as “the most decisive player in the world”, he was left only to reinforce that feeling by describing Vinicius as the best player in the world. Evidence is mounting that one day he will have to use that phrase.
As for Xavi and Barcelona: they presented a defensive performance that lacked complete and absolute efficiency. They were mentally and physically slower than their opponent, and compared to their huge win in this particular match a year ago, they fell behind by a huge margin.
It seems that most of their players either have insufficient athletic condition during training, the intensity of Barcelona’s training matches is too low or – and this is what president Joan Laporta has to chew on – they have lost respect or confidence in their coach. In competitive aggression, Madrid was ruthless, ruthless, intelligent and triumphant. Barcelona was none of the above. The fact remains that, for one of the first times this season, the Spanish champions played with a great deal of creative flair, moved the ball intelligently to create chances and could have scored three or four goals, compared to the seven or eight goals Real Madrid could have scored. king.
If Laporta believes that the return of Joao Cancelo and Iñigo Martinez will solve their horrific defensive problem, then there is enough creativity from Xavi’s side to suggest that this season has not been written off yet. If the team’s performance is thought to be precisely the coach’s fault, there are some difficult days for assessment and decision-making in the Camp Nou offices.
