The times, they are a’changin’

November 7, 2008

FC Barcelona, riding high on an 11-game winning streak in all competitions, was finally brought back to earth by its 1-1 draw at home against FC Basel. Such is life. All good things come to an end, as they say, but the thing that has come to an end, at least for the immediate future, is Andres Iniesta’s run of form.

Poor Andres, who has been a major contributor to our success so far this season, is out injured. He’s started 13 of our 17 games in all competitions and subbed on for one, playing 740 out of the 850* league minutes. He’s only scored 1 goal, but his contributions in terms of passing and spacing have been invaluable. I’ve always been a fan of SPF45, but this year I’ve found myself nodding knowingly as he squirms through a couple of defenders, as if that’s somehow normal. He’s all growed up now and he’s proving those who pointed to him as one of those necessary but hard-to-pin-down players very, very right.

Because of his injury — a muscle tear on the back of his knee, from what I understand — he’ll probably miss the December 14 Clasico in the Camp Nou (as well as our very own Kevin’s trip to Barcelona, involving Valencia and Shaktar). If I were Mrs. Kevin, I’d demand a refund. Or maybe just more Yaya. Either way, Iniesta will be missed, though it does provide Hleb and Keita fairly decent opportunities to step up and get more playing time. Both have been maligned by some for failure to produce, but both are still growing into the squad, a process that generally takes a year except in, well, exceptional cases.

Seydou Keita is back to full training with the squad after getting injured a few weeks ago. That’s good news for us and hopefully he comes back stronger and with a better understanding of his role, whatever Pep decides that is. I’ve seen him almost as a left-sided central attacking midfielder, a designation that makes no sense at all until you watch him. He’s not an Iniesta, he doesn’t make into the box much, but there he is in left channel, playing as if he’s in the middle of the field. It’s strange, I think, but it allows Abidal/Sylvinho to make constant overlapping runs without removing the threat from the middle. It’s where Messi has been drifting to on the right, freeing up Alves to swing over his shoulder into the corner.

Yet the greater issue right now is what is happening to our fan base. Yes, the team is playing beautifully and has regained the top spot in the league after quite a while out of it, but those who follow the team are beginning to place their faith in this squad. Because I thought Rijkaard was a great coach — note I said great, not good — I will not bash him. I was not in favor of letting him go, but I will admit that Guardiola has changed a few things, not least of which is the feeling you get watching the players. They are running harder and smarter, they’re challenging for every ball, they’re taking (almost) every shot. It remains to be seen how long they can keep up this work rate, but Guardiola’s rotation can’t be hurting. The fans are responding and beginning to gain in confidence after 2 years of slow, but steady declines in self-belief — and yes, I know the arguments that will be posted in the comments — and that is a good thing.

I love reading that people are really excited for our next game because they believe we will win and put on a good show doing it. So far, I’ve noticed that most everyone is going at it well-balanced, without expecting to win, but rather believing we will win. There’s a subtle difference there, of course, especially to a semantic nerd like myself. We believe we will win, but only through hard work and dedication, by putting bodies on the line and putting heels on throats. We lose Iniesta, but here we are, with Keita back and with Hleb ready to roll. Get those guys integrated in the squad and we’ll be truly dangerous. My lord, Bojan has been misfiring constantly this year and yet he’s got 3 goals — he has 8 sub appearances and 0 goals in the league — if he starts clicking, and I think we all know he will soon, we’re going to be so dominate it won’t be funny.

It’ll just be awesome.

Think of the names we bandy about: Bojan, Caceres, Busquets…none of them are regular starters, yet we all seem to agree that they are talented.** This means that we are deeper than we have been in several years as well as younger. If we don’t win any titles this year, it will surprise me a bit, but will not mean all that much because the core of our team is young and talented. Not much wrong with that, to be honest.

Real Madrid aren’t exactly floundering, despite there current knack for losing to Juventus. It’s not like they lost their first Copa del Rey game to a Segunda B team or anything. Wait. Oops. I’d laugh more if we hadn’t barely beaten Benidorm 1-0 thanks to the aforementioned Bojan, though I have little doubt that RM will pull it out in the Bernabeu against Real Union. They will be without Arjen Robben, though, who looks set to be out for roughly the same amount of time as Iniesta after he got injured in training before this last Juve loss.

We all see El Clasico as the most important game during the season, but will it actually end up being such? RM continue to get points in the league (they’re only 2 behind at this point) and can never be counted out. But is this a two horse race or a three maybe even four horse race? What of Villarreal and Valencia? Villarreal are steady as she goes (despite a thrashing in the Copa by Segunda side Ejido) and sit between Barça and RM; Valencia is 4th, but has been playing without David Silva for a while. Will the injuries to Iniesta and Robben give both El Submarino Amarillo and Los Che the chance they need to keep themselves in title contention during the tough weeks ahead?

I personally don’t think anyone has the talent Barça currently boasts, but La Liga is the real deal, folks, and no game is ever easy. Except the Almeria game. That one was easy…but who saw that coming? Not you. Whoever you are, you did not see it coming. And you didn’t foresee Ejido and Real Union winning, either. But they happened and the league is more interesting for it. Being partisan, I am rooting for Barça putting this thing away soon, but it’s a long, tough road and I plan to go ahead and enjoy it one game at a time.

Oh man, the times, they are a’changin’, huh? And I, for one, like it.

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*This includes added time, which, contrary to popular belief, is actually real time. I have the total from Valdes’ stats page.

**I’ll go ahead and admit that Busquets is growing on me, though I’m still skeptical to a certain degree about his consistency. However, if we’re giving Bojan the benefit of the doubt, we have to give it to Busquets as well, especially considering that Bojan has had a full year’s worth of time in the 1st team and Busquets has appear in 11 games, including the Copa Catalunya.

Also, Bojan has played 176 minutes in the league (21%), which is not all that much. When he has appeared more often in the Champions League, he has a much better record: 176 minutes in the group stage (49%), but has 2 goals. He also has played 93 minutes (100%) in the Copa and scored 1 goal. Per minute, Bojan is rocking the house, I’d say (Eto’o has 10 goals in 881 minutes and Messi has 10 in 920, as opposed to Bojan’s 3 in 445).

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