Sighhhhh

This is my absolute, all-time favorite picture of Seydou Keita, the man I nicknamed “Huh? What?” because he always had a look of incredulity on his face that was hilarious. That man is leaving the club, it was announced today, as he informed the powers that be of his wishes to no longer continue with a club at which he became an integral part.

As we all know, now-gone coach Pep Guardiola had nothing but love for Keiteee. Here are some comments after, fresh from a return from the African Cup of Nations, Keita turned himself inside out to help the club outbattle a pesky Sporting Gijon side:

“This is a guy who never plays poorly and who always makes the right decision.

“There are many players who, when they lose the confidence of a coach, are offended. They feel that they are the center of the universe and do not understand that the coach does it [drops them] for the good of the team.

“But one of the most wonderful things in these four years is to have met a guy like him.

“Today I’m happy that he has had such a huge game and scored a great goal. The work he does makes my job easier and I hope he will stay here as long as possible.”

He joined the club in 2008 from Sevilla, the club’s first Malian player, for a sum believed to be around 14m. At the time, we set his release clause at 90m, something we apparently don’t believe any longer, as he is leaving on a free. And I bet you’ve forgotten, as I did, that his Liga debut was in a loss (against Numancia), one of only 7 that occurred under his watch.

His statistics aren’t really all that impressive, for you stat whores: 22 goals and 11 assists in 188 matches. And there was a growing cadre of “Keita is worthless” believers, who found it difficult to understand why Guardiola played him, when he seemingly contributed so little statistically to the side. But I remember my Keita Revelation thanks to Ramzi, verbose commenter and advocate for the Malian midfielder.

For a match, I watched Keita and only Keita, a task that made me realize why he plays. I also wanted to change his nickname to In The Way, because that’s what he does. You think that “Hey, any damn body can get in the way,” but not the way that Keita did. His loping strides seemed to almost always place him in a spot that made him a pain in the butt for the opponents’ attack.

But more than that, he was a physical presence in a world of sprites, a not-at-all magical creature who stood up, man-style, and kept out midfield from being pushed around by the big kids.

Here is Keita’s last goal for the club, in a 2-2 match against Betis, a header in which he gave up his body to score, and had to sit there and collect himself afterward, before getting up and continuing with his task of getting in the way.

He is going to Chinese club Dalian Aerbin, following what appears to be the new money trail. He will earn 10m per annumm over a two-year deal, at which point he will probably stroll off into the sunset, richer than Croesus.

It seems fitting that with the departure of Guardiola, the man who he called his moral barometer is leaving as well, even if I’m cranky as Hell for how he is leaving, which is on a free. I’m happy for him, but he’s also a valuable player, released from his contract by activating a clause within it that says he can leave on a free if he didn’t get time in 50% of matches last season. There were talks with Vilanova, and rumors that Keita had agreed to continue as if he had received the requisite number of minutes, etc, etc. When the rumors first broke, they were denied by his hew Chinese club, but they came from too many reputable sources for us to be fully convinced. So there we are.

If the club, which offered Keita a last-minute, half-assed renewal, gets anything from the departure, it will be pittance, because free transfers are kinda that. Bad business? A presumption that a player would do something different? Who knows. All we know right now is that dude is gone, and the midfield is a little weaker. We’re also losing a box crasher, a guy with a howitzer of a long shot who was unafraid to use it and a physical presence in the box. It should also be noted that the next time the African Cup of Nations rolls around, the club will be unaffected.

Did he go to chase money? You bet. And who can argue with that, really? He has had glory galore, being part and parcel of the club that has won so much, done so much and captured so many imaginations. Why not get paid. I would suggest that his meetings with Vilanova also left him unconvinced about his value to the Tito Project. So farewell and good luck, Seydou Keita, with your adventure in China. Here’s something fun to remember him by:

We have things to discuss, including your departure, such as:

Where the brothas at?

I noted today on Twitter that if the Keita rumor became reality, there would be no black players in the club’s roster this season, unless Eric Abidal made a miraculous recovery. And certainly, Spaniards who make monkey chants at Dani Alves will argue with me. Nothing extra to that observation, just a bit of oddness for a club that has in its very recent history Thuram, Toure Yaya, Henry, Eto’o, Abidal and Keita, that even started 4 black players, effectively thumbing its proud Catalan nose at those elements who aren’t all that fond of black players. So there we go.

And we replace him with ….

Nobody. Jonathan Dos Santos will probably be most pleased by this news, as he is the player currently on the roster who is most Keitaesque in his abilities. Rangy, smart with the ball, physical and fully capable of getting in the way with the best of them.

And that’s that.

Zzzzzzz …. huh? What? It’s over? What do you mean?

Ain’t backlash a beautiful thing? Spain went from everyone’s darlings to a team that was boring, seemingly in about 12 seconds. And why? The parallels between Spain and Barca fascinate, and I don’t just mean the players. For instance:

Bandwagon Backlash

Spain rolled through the group stages, quarterfinals and semi-final, barely breaking a sweat. They dispatched their opponents with ease, never really bothering to get out of third gear.

And what was wrong with that? Is there some sort of rule that says a team must play its absolute best, every last time or they suck? When I first started bicycle racing, I would win races by 4-5 bike lengths, until I got a coach, who said “You only need to win by enough to make it clear that you won.”

Spain, as with Barca, coasted. And that coasting was usually good enough, though Barca was caught out on more than a few occasions this season, trying to low-effort a match. More importantly, it is this quality that outrages, that makes people cry “Foul!” as though they are disappointed every time Spain didn’t win 235-0, with 125%of the possession. And when that didn’t happen, when Spain played only well enough to win, they were “boring,” in the same sort of backlash that saw Barca go from being the team everybody loved, to the team that people suddenly tired of watching win everything.

Is playing well enough to win boring? Good question. I’d wager that Spain or Barca don’t care a whit. The job got done. Time to move on.

That Passing Stuff is Boring

No, it isn’t. You know what’s boring? Opponents who won’t come out to play. So like Barca, Spain is content to pass the ball around and wait for the opening that almost always comes. And even when it doesn’t, it matters not, because Spain/Barca has the ball. And as long as you don’t have the ball, you can’t beat them.

Much of made of how “exciting” Spain was in the final, but people forget that Italy came out to play, once they went a goal down. But before that, the first goal came from a profoundly absurd bit of play that resulted in a spectacular team goal of the type that Spain and Barca score. Then Italy had to come out and play. Spain stepped it up early precisely because it knew that an early goal would fundamentally mean that the match was theirs.

Spain gave up one goal in the Euros this go-round. One. Goal. And scored 12. It doesn’t take a math whiz to note the stultifying nature of that statistic. Yet Spain doesn’t play defensive football, right, just like Barca. The hell they don’t. That lateral and back passing display that Spain and Barca put on are every bit as parked a bus as 9 men in the box. It’s just a (mostly) positive bus parking. They’re passing the ball, looking for attacking holes.

Much was made of the two times in the Guardiola years, Mourinho’s Inter and Di Matteo’s Chelsea, that Barca was beaten in Champions League play. But people forget that it was only an incorrectly ajudged handball call, and appalling finishing that kept Barca from the final both those years. You can’t really stop either Spain or Barca, but they can stop themselves.

Look Ma, no striker!

Xavi makes the pass to Iniesta, who fakes, dribbles, leaves a defender grasping air, floats to the wing to float in a cross and …. cricket! Cricket!” Nothing. Both Spain and Barca employ a fundamentally striker-less formation. Call it False 9 all you like, but what those systems both do is capitalize on the fact that a running player is more difficult to keep from finding space than a stationary one. Messi runs as Alba runs as Silva runs as Mata runs. It’s an offense predicated on getting there, rather than being there.

And it works.

Spain Don’t Give a Damn Who Score

I was watching an FCB match out in public once, and a civilian asked me why the Barca players ran to the guy who didn’t score, to start the goal celebration. I explained that the pass makes everything possible, that it is the perfect pass that will lead to a goal, which is often incidental to the assist that fed the player through. Assists matter.

Once a team decides to play a strikerless system, movement and passing become paramount. This often means that the goal scorer has a header or tap-in.

Is not conceding boring?

Barca and Spain have in common a miserly quality on defense, when they are at their best. Is a 1-0 win more or less boring than a 5-0 blowout? Depends on who you ask. Three points is three points, right? More importantly, Spain is Barca in that the passing game is used to play defense. Is it parking the bus in the same way as having 9 men in the box? Nope. Is it as effective? Absolutely. Either way, it’s a tactic designed to keep an opponent from having the ball to score, while also looking for ways to breach the defense.

The bottom line, however, is that as long as Spain/Barca have the ball, you don’t. This means you can’t score. Which is just fine by them.

No speculation, thank you

For long, we have lamented the fact that Barca doesn’t take speculative shots. Neither does Spain. The reason is simple: speculative shots cede possession, which ruins the team’s defensive strategy. It accounts for Messi’s astonishing finishing efficiency rate as well, as unlike his major rival for best in the world, he doesn’t take speculative shots. If Messi hits one, it has a chance of scoring, or there’s no point.

“They try to pass the ball into the net.” Exactly. It’s a tendency that I don’t see changing for Spain/Barca, either. Ultimately that’s an impossibility, as it’s no coincidence that Spain’s success has arrived at the same time as Barca’s golden period. Barring injury, Puyol, Pique, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas and Villa would most likely have been starting for Spain. That’s Barca. So anyone who asserts that Spain is not Barca is kinda messing with themselves.

Greatest of all time?

Spain is making a case for being the greatest international team of all time, just as Barca has made a case for being the best club side that anybody has ever seen. Again, with the same players playing the same essential way, it could be argued that both Sparca has its success inextricably linked. But if you look at how the two sides make this argument, again there are parallels galore, most notably the sheer inevitability of their success.

When Sparca turns it on, the only real question is how much you are going to lose by. We saw it against Athletic Bilbao in the Copa del Reig final, we saw it against Italy in the Euro 2012 final. In high gear, both teams are unstoppable, primarily because they not only have more talent than anyone else, but that talent plays a system that always maximizes the skill sets of that talent. Is Iniesta, for example, playing in his “best” position when he dons the national shirt? In the context of how that side plays, yes. It’s why he was so decisive at Euros, and why he is so decisive with Barca.

So how is Spain not Barca

In three words, Messi changes everything. Without that same sort of galvanic talent running around, Spain become a different club and are forced to play a different way, even as that way is the same because that is the way of its nucleus. But what Spain doesn’t have is the genius that can take a ball, run around and create something amazing.

It is this quality that makes Spain a bit more deliberate in its approach, in lacking the “Here, go make something happen” quality that makes Barca so dangerous.

But what’s probably most fascinating is that both sides, the “Spain is Barca” or the “Spain isn’t Barca” both have supportable arguments. But what say ye? Discuss.

Time for a quick round-up of team news! As you can see from the picture above, Jordi Alba was at the club today to do an interview, shake some hands, and pose in front of the club crest. Tomorrow he will have his medical, formally sign his contract, and be presented to the public at the Camp Nou at 17.00 local time. Welcome, Jordi! We’re glad to have you.

Now that the Euros are over most of the first team are on a well-deserved vacation. Some others have been named to the preliminary teams for the Olympics. Dani Alves will likely be representing Brazil, and is reportedly almost fully recovered from breaking his collarbone. The call-ups for the Spanish team include Thiago, Tello, Montoya, and Jordi Alba. This means they will miss most, if not all, of Barça’s preseason. It’s a bit unfortunate in Alba’s case as he won’t have a chance to train or play with the rest of his new teammates until the new season begins, but as he is a La Masia product as well as a member of the senior NT I don’t expect him to have much trouble adapting. And of course there is always the prospect of Spain getting eliminated early and everyone getting plenty of rest after all!

The UEFA Under-19 Euros are underway right now in Estonia, and two Barcelona players are on the team: Gerard Deulofeu and Alejandro Grimaldo. I didn’t get a chance to watch their game against Greece on July 3rd, but Spain won 2-1, and all reports indicate that Grimaldo was a monster on the left side of the field. He is still only 16. Their next game is against Portugal on Friday July 6. You can find all the info here.

The other big news is of course Andres Iniesta’s impending wedding, which will be happening this weekend at the beautiful Castell de Tamarit near Tarragona on the Mediterranean coast SW of Barcelona. I’m sure the Spanish papers will be dissecting the guest list for evidence of who is feuding (or not) with whom. At any rate, I hope they release a few pictures to the media because seeing Iniesta happy is one the great joys in life. (Michele, any chance of you sneaking in and posing as an official photographer?)

It’s here – today – 20:45 CET.

The chance for Spain to create history and win 3 major tournaments back-to-back.

Will the La Roja boys be furia or will they be manso?  The odds aren’t much in their favour – they haven’t beaten Italy in a competitive 90 minutes since 1920.

The teams are making their way into the stadium as I write this.  La Roja looks very concentrated and serious.

Tournament Stats so far (shamelessly lifted from the UEFA Euro official site):

Click here to convert the kick-off time to your time:  Spain vs. Italy

Click here to watch the Preview Show which starts at 20:00:  Preview Show

Click here if you need a link to watch the game at 20:45:  Game Links

Please share other links in the comments.

¡Vamos España!

Eric Sylvain Abidal joined FC Barcelona from Olympique Lyonnais. At the time he was signed, nobody could have predicted what would happen. At Lyon, he was known for his pace and physical abilities. When Lyon played Manchester United, his job was to mark Wrongaldo into oblivion. Abidal summed up his defensive philosophy like so:

“As a defender, my aim is to infuriate the opponent,” he explained. “I want him to be so sick of the sight of me that he has to move somewhere else on the pitch to get away.”

Many of us have forgotten that he threatened to go on strike, and refused to practice with Lyon because he wanted the transfer to Barcelona. And so it was.

He didn’t get off to the best start, and even he would admit (and did) that his beginnings weren’t what they should have been, but resolved to work harder to become the best left back in the world.

As he accomplished that mission, he defined his role with style, physicality, grace and calmness. Somewhere, he acquired this otherworldly ball control that allowed him to make plays, flip balls around and generally let attackers make fools of themselves. And suddenly, he was the best left back in the world. He resolved the Theo Walcott complexity by putting him on his butt. He marked players out of the match so much that he was free to roam into the center of the pitch, since nobody wanted to even bother coming to his side of the pitch.

His dedication to the cause was unquestioned, and unquestionable. He slammed his head into the pitch to clear a ball against Sevilla. Even more staggering, his body, riven by the capriciousness that is cancer, was beginning to let him down even as he was playing some of his best football.

Everyone knows what happened last season, a season that I still can’t think about and remain dry-eyed. Barca had a friendly at Wembley, and Abidal left a note in the locker room, vowing to return for the Champions League final, which was to be held in that venue. Then came the word: he would be lost to the club for an indeterminate period, due to liver surgery. Speculation was rife. Was it cancer> The player himself, in an interview with L’Equipe, revealed that it was. None of us knew what to do. His friends, teammates and family didn’t know what to do. It was one of the two times Pep Guardiola wept, as did we all.

And then, one day, a wan-looking Le Roi Eric was at practice, looking hungry. It was at that time that magic started to happen, as the hashtag #animsabidal became #waitwhatamiseeing? Because he returned to the pitch, to a thunderous ovation, in the home leg of El Clasic. You know the rest. He started in the Champions League final, played his usual brilliant match and was given the Captain’s armband by Carles Puyol, and allowed to hoist the trophy. As sporting …. nay, human moments go, this one was without compare.

And then came this past season, where Abidal’s play was plagued by uncharacteristic errors and erratic matches. Some said it was a tailspin, and that he had always been overrated. Others just wondered what was going on. When word came, suddenly, that Abidal would be going into hospital for a liver transplant, suddenly it all made sense. On those occasions where he wasn’t the player that he was, it was because he wasn’t the man that he was. I can’t begin to imagine what playing must have been like for him, each match coming and going in a haze that, because he, like any of us, is human, would have to have led to some distracted moments, moments in which despite what his brain was saying, his body, suddenly, wouldn’t do it.

He’s out of the hospital now and recovering, with a goal of leading a normal life. And I, for one don’t care a whit if that normal life includes football. I imagine that Abidal doesn’t either.

Happy 5th anniversary, King. Good to have you with us.