Date: Saturday, 01/19/2013 18:00

Competition: League

Television: C+ Liga - GolT - C+ Liga HD

Referee: Undiano Mallenco

Villa is still recovering from a hamstring strain and probably won't start.

-----------Valdes-------------
Alves--Pique--Mascherano-Alba
----------Busquests-----------
------Xavi------------Fabregas
---Pedro-----Messi------Iniesta

The usual.

i think Puyol will start over Mascherano, and hope to see Adriano soon
Thiago despite giving up a goal last game has been on fire and hopefully starts

I'm goin to the game. I'm halfway to donosti. Txuleton, pintxos, txakoli and Barça!

I don't expect it to be an easy game. One thing for sure, the atmosphere will be amazing.

@free enjoy the game!

Glad to see Pedro scoring, and so unfortunate with the post.

With them getting a goal at the end of first half, it is possible it could complicate our game.

turned into a tensed game after 36 min which seemed to be a simple game before that. our accuracy of passing was terrible in the first half. difficult to find one had good accuracy. actully our miss passes are allowing them to attack fast. for the goal i think alvez is responsible for not covering well even though he had time.

that cross of xavi to alves
that shot of pedro
that miss by messi in one on one

oh well. I hate to loose after going 2 goals up. This is a bad for the moral, a draw and a loss in last 5 days.

The lack of a true 3rd CB to replace Pique was a big factor

First loss of the season. And it feels bad... Sociedad played very well and I can see why that beat Madrid the other week.
Great to see Pedro get a goal and hopefully we see more goals from him. Iniesta and his dribbles Our most influential player on the pitch today.
Pique's red card was deservable. Like Kaka's second yellow card, he didn't move away from the ball and didn't allow the freekick to be taken resulting in a deservable and meaningless yellow card. Second yellow was just another late, reckless tackle.
Iniesta was lucky to stay on the pitch as well and he knew it. Two very late, reckless tackles in which was given a yellow whilst the other should have been.
Alves did the usual with Soc's first goal. Gave the attacker too much time to look at the target and place the ball. Arguably, someone could say he was covering Puyol but IMO he was very slow to press the attacker resulting in a goal.
Ultimately we lost alot more possession in the second half and defended alot. Credit to Sociedad though, never seen a better display of football by an opposition.

eelir wrote:oh well. I hate to loose after going 2 goals up. This is a bad for the moral, a draw and a loss in last 5 days.

I'm already preparing myself for a a possible KO from the cup on Wednesday, with Pique missing.

i think Pique can play the cup, different competition, only a direct red bans you from all of them. Someone please clarify the rule?

Absolute ownage by Sociedad. To go 0-2 down playing so badly but it was thanks to Barcelona's awful game that they gave the Basques a glimmer of hope to go on and have one of the comebacks of the season while crashing Barcelona's dreams to achieve an unbeaten record this season. Regarding Barcelona players:

Piqué: Put his team under pressure by getting sent off and Barcelona paid dearly for his mistakes. Suspect number one.

Fullbacks: Alba and Alves, both horrible. Defensively didn't protect and were poor both positionally and on one-vs-one encounters while didn't add much going forward. Alves has clearly been frustrated for a while now as he's been doing more fouls recently than he's won balls. Certainly not the same Alves people have memories of. Regarding Alba, we all know he is not made for defending. Often choked when pressured and seems like he has zero confidence in his right foot.

Pedro: Unlucky with his chance which hit the post, however did nothing else going forward. Always passing back and never making any runs.

Messi: Sleeping throughout the match, missed two chances that should have been goals and will surely think about those two moments tonight.

Vilanova: For a team to go 10 man down, it is mind-bogglingly amusing how substitutions were not used. Poor decision.

Yea blew my mind at the how our substitutes were used tonight.

Who would you be suggesting to come on? Tello on for Pedro given that Tito wouldn't take off Messi? Xavi off as well? Tough choices... Left it too late mind you..

The whole team was not passing the ball well, too many passing mistakes.

yea it's true, the whole team sucked today. Maybe fatigue? the first half wasn't TOO bad, though we could have had more goals. The 2nd half was so bad it was like looking at an away match last season.

Fatigued? Maybe. Valdes, Alves, Pique, Alba, Busquests, Xavi, Fabregas, Pedro all didn't play in that midweek Copa game against Malaga. Its not like their overly fatigued.

Didnt watch the whole match.Only watched the last 10 min.
And the thing I saw was the world's best player again walking around as if he owned the pitch and doing nothing to help out even with us a man down.
Disgraceful attitude from the lazy Messi again and it is really starting to annoy me.Dont care who he is and what he has won.His diva attitude is really bugging me now.I mean,who the hell does he think he is?I was wishing during those last minutes that Puyol would box him in the ears and ask him to put in his shift.
Disgraceful attitude and it has been going on for far too long.Tito should bench him for the next 3 games just to put him in his place.Everyone puts in a shift,even Messi.

Wish we would just buy another CB,Mascheranos positioning at CB is awful.

"Alves did the usual with Soc's first goal. Gave the attacker too much time to look at the target and place the ball. Arguably, someone could say he was covering Puyol but IMO he was very slow to press the attacker resulting in a goal."

Agreed.Just laziness I think. Probably best sell him at this end of this season,we have 2 class RB's in Adriano and Montoya.

"And the thing I saw was the world's best player again walking around as if he owned the pitch and doing nothing to help out even with us a man down.
Disgraceful attitude from the lazy Messi again and it is really starting to annoy me."

Ye but as the league is effectively over I won't mind so much this season if he just works hard in the Copa Del Rey and especially the CL.The less energy he expends in the league the better he will be in the cup competitions.He was a bit to lazy today though.

alexjanosik wrote:Didnt watch the whole match.Only watched the last 10 min.
And the thing I saw was the world's best player again walking around as if he owned the pitch and doing nothing to help out even with us a man down.
Disgraceful attitude from the lazy Messi again and it is really starting to annoy me.Dont care who he is and what he has won.His diva attitude is really bugging me now.I mean,who the hell does he think he is?I was wishing during those last minutes that Puyol would box him in the ears and ask him to put in his shift.
Disgraceful attitude and it has been going on for far too long.Tito should bench him for the next 3 games just to put him in his place.Everyone puts in a shift,even Messi.

Very disgraceful lets ban him from the team and put Sanchez on his spot.

Messi should run more and score less, that will make things better for sure.

I agree Alex, but only about the 2nd half. To be honest, the first half was not bad, and we hit the post twice. Although Messi did miss a 1 v 1 as well in the early moments.

Regardless, he is getting a bit too lazy on the field. We are approaching that time of the year where our training puts us at a minimum. In other words, we tend to lose points in January/February, after which we can go for max output in the final run of the season. He needs to try harder because of it.

As it stands, we can realistically be knocked out of CdR this week and we really need to step it up.

My thoughts on:

The ref : Something which hasnt got much talk, I think he was poor. Not why we lost, but a bad game from him. I have to wonder, how is it possible Pique commits one foul and sees a second yellow and meanwhile Dani Alves does 5 and doesnt get a single yellow? Inconsistent reffing the whole game, not just the yellows, but his decisions in terms of what is a foul and what isnt.

Sociedad: Played very well, keep the ball excellently at times and deserved a point. They got 3.

Luck : It was a factor, the first goal Alba blocks a cross on the flank, and somehow it falls into a dangerous area on the edge of the box.

The second, a deflection.

Defending: Once Pique got sent off, it became a struggle. The first goal, it seems Dani Alves is getting blame..im not sure why..he covered around on Puyol and then had to get out to his man. He isnt faster than the ball, what more could he do? Castro is right footed I believe, surely committing himself and the player faking inside getting a shot off on his strong foot would be equally as bad? There was very little he could do once he helped on the cross. You can argue he didnt need to help on the cross, but when he didnt (the 3rd goal) look what happened. I think if we blame him for the goal, every goal we let in has blame...there is little more he could of done.

The 2nd, deflection..on another day Masch blocks it and it goes out for a corner.

The 3rd, horrible my Mascherano, weak weak tackles from Alba and Busquets in the build up.


On individuals:

Valdes : Hoofing every chance he gets, your guess is as good as mine why. Goals not his fault, but does anyone else feel 09 Valdes gets a stronger hand to the deflection goal?

Iniesta: Played his heart out, drove us on, was giving his all. In general play, he and Alves are the only two I felt gave everything and played like they wanted to win.

Messi: Walking around doing nothing. Its one thing to do when we are winning, but when we need him to get back into the game..unacceptable. Sick of saying it, he cant just walk around the pitch defensively and not even try to get involved offensively.

Busquets: Didnt have a good game defensively, mistimed a few tackles and didnt look at his best.

The rest: Alba, Pedro, Puyol, Xavi and Cesc did fine, normal games. Pedro and Alba could of been more involved, Xavi and Puyol did alright in their roles (Xavi lost the ball a few more times than normal but made a excellent pass for Dani Alves) and Cesc didnt play so much of the game obviously.

Tito: Thought he was awfully slow with the subs, should of put on another forward much earlier...and when he did, it was Adriano for Pedro. Because Pedro scored a tap in, for some reason he became unsubbable in Tito's eyes...a mistake.

Bigger picture : 9 away wins, 1 loss...its a great record and lets keep some perspective. If this and the draw to Malaga are our only down moments in the season, it will be fine.

The lack of movement from Messi was so shocking that I actually thought he had injured himself. Team was down to 9 men.

In defence of there referree Undiano Mallenco, second Piqué yellow card was because Vela was in a very dangerous position close to Barcelona's goal while most of Alves's fouls were in the middle of the park.