Nothing makes me more excited than the thought of one more "Clasico". The old history of the two teams, the great rivalry, the amazing atmosphere at the Camp Nou, and the 98,000 faithful fans who have come to support their team can only mean one thing; you are about to witness something really special!
The games between FC Barcelona and FC Real Madrid have always attracted a lot of attention. Even if Barcelona are playing their best football ever and Real are playing their worst, this game is still unpredictable. Even if Barcelona has a full squad with no injuries or worries and Real is suffering from all kinds of problems in their squad, you do not expect to see a one sided game. It would just be disappointing...
Journalists all over the world never doubted Barca's ability to win this year, and the real question posed by many was how many goals are going to be scored past the Real defense this time? Will the current Barca be able to break the record of 5-0 set by the likes of Cruyff et al.? Will it be as memorable as the day the whole Santiago Bernabeu gave a standing ovation to an incredible Ronaldinho? Or will it be better than the time the legendary Diego Maradona was roaming around the Real defense wreaking havoc in their flanks? El Clasico was about to give you the answer.
No matter how much speculation happens though, some tactical surprise always occurs. Sometimes, this surprise comes in simply fielding a different team that makes whatsoever no sense! The reasoning being, if my team is losing the way things are going, you might as well shuffle your cards and try some new random combination. Confuse your enemy! This time, however, there was a change from a different type. Real decided to simply change their coach!
The Real head coach Bernd Schuster said right after he lost to Sevilla a week earlier "We cannot beat FC Barcelona!" What kind of a statement is that? Raising the white flag already? What the hell was he thinking? So, simply the Madrid based club decided: We need a new coach, and so it was. Juan De La Cruz Ramos, also known as Juande Ramos is an already celebrated coach winning the UEFA Cup with Sevilla FC in 2006 and successfully defending it in 2007. Currently jobless, being sacked from his post at Tottenham earlier this year, he already has what it takes to be a top level coach, and Real need exactly that! Now what? Are we still asking how many goals are El Barca going to score against El Real? hmm.. the inputs have now seriously changed!
Ramos claimed winning against Barcelona was not impossible. Indeed it was not, and he proved so! El Classico started, Barcelona's attack started doing what it knows to do best. Chances started pouring from the left, right, and even the center! Real Madrid decided they need to absorb this overexcited Barca team so they stayed back. Madrid was defending with 5 defenders and 4 midfielders, and behind them was arguably the best keeper in the world: Iker Casillas. No matter what Barca did, they just could not go through. What is going on people? Barca only needed 10 minutes to go ahead in no less than 70% of the previous matches this year, but somehow Madrid were still holding on! All of a sudden, one counter attack and Drenthe was simply all alone with the Barca keeper. Valdes, however, would not be beaten. Everyone knows that Casillas is a much better keeper than Valdes, but it was to be proven a trivial piece of information this night. Had Derenthe scored, it would have been effectively game over.
Barcelona, however, did keep their back safe. They threatened the Real goal while keeping an eye on those quick counter attacks. The second half came even stronger, with Barcelona now simply throwing all the tricks they know to penetrate the Real defense, but an inspired performance by Casillas would push the Barca players to their limits and inspire an even bigger determination to win. Barca have not won against Madrid in their last four encounters, and it was going steadily towards a painful fifth. Not even a penalty was good enough to help the team break this stubborn defense with Iker Casillas getting the better out of his own self to continue keeping his sheet clean. It was not to be his night though...
One corner kick is what it took to do the damage. With Puyol rising up to meet the ball coming from the corner, he placed it perfectly in front of the ever motivated Samuel Eto'o. Having missed the famous penalty earlier in the game, Eto'o made no mistake tipping the ball just past the goal line. At that moment, it was going crazy! I knew that the moment for which I have been watching this whole game has finally arrived! Nothing can describe the incredible feeling that you get when the Cameroonian Lion scores against Real Madrid. You could practically hear the roars of victory all over the stadium. They finally did it, they broke Real Madrid.
Poor Casillas, up till that point, he had a man of the match performance. His saves have probably frustrated all the Barca fans, but it only made this one goal more special. With the time now running against them, Real could only pressure for an equalizer, but with most of their men surging forward, plenty of space was left behind, a move that is more than punishable by the players of FC Barcelona.
Messi added the icing to a delicious cake, adding a second goal in the injury time, and sending the Camp Nou into ruptures.
