So Cadiz. The glorious FC Barcelona is now sharing this fate with its greatest rival Real Madrid. As in many places in Spain’s football, some things are currently tumbling upside down and so the realization after this game day in the Primera División is: You can lose against Cádiz, the amazingly strong climber from Andalusia. Barça’s trauma this time came in the form of a 1: 2 (0: 1) away, and Los Blancos even lost 1: 1 at home against the current fifth in the table in October.
Cádiz, San Sebastian and Villarreal annoy the big ones – while the big ones are mostly preoccupied with themselves. This is the situation that only the boldest expected after almost a third of the season. And after this weekend, Barcelona has the biggest trouble again. Only seventh place, with just three points ahead of the relegation places. No wonder the Catalan newspaper The vanguard headlined: “Barça is already giving away half the title in Cádiz.”
With two-digit points behind in first place, this is a very realistic assessment. The level of performance of the team of coach Ronald Koeman has leveled off in constant ups and downs. After things looked better recently, there was now the third away break of the season. And why? Because, according to Koeman, “poor concentration” once again ruined a better performance. In the bankruptcy in the deserted Carranza Stadium in Cádiz, he saw “a big step backwards” in the battle for the championship. He is right about that, because at least Atlético and Real won their games in this round.
This time, several Barça pros gave the personified slack. When Álvaro Giménez made it 0-1 (8th minute), Antoine Griezmann lost a header from a corner at the first post, before Óscar Mingueza almost headed the ball into his own goal in the middle. The fact that the young man Mingueza, one of the backsides from the La Masia Academy, even played, reveals the team’s massive personnel concerns. The list of injuries is still extensive and there is no substitute in sight for Piqué, Samuel Umtiti or Sergi Roberto due to the financially strained situation. It just has to go that way.
After the equalizer through Alcala’s own goal (Jordi Alba had flanked flat, 57th), the next lapse followed in reverse gear: Defender Clément Lenglet brought goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen with a pass at 1: 2 through old master Álvaro Negredo (63rd) his own sixteen in such a mess that the German failed like a shaky circus dancer with a press strike with Negredo. A lot has been brought about by Barça itself, which only deepened Koeman’s dismay: “With the best will in the world, I have no explanation for the second goal,” the Dutchman exclaimed.
A team with such enormous demands should not allow itself to fluctuate like the large Catalan company has been experiencing for months. And yet Koeman cannot prevent a lot – for example, that the offensive around Messi, Griezmann and Coutinho has not even scored ten goals this season together. Or that the team cannot come up with innovations against passionate defensive workers like those from Cádiz (or previously from Alavés and Getafe).
And Messi? There are many indications that the Argentine is now so annoyed by the environment and the talk about himself in Barcelona that his game is also suffering. “Something is wrong with Messi,” the newspaper said Brand. During the week, Barça interim president Carlos Tusquets said on the radio that his club would have gotten rid of the Argentine better after the upheavals last summer. “From an economic perspective, I would have sold it,” said Tusquets at RAC1. Messi will have noted this with resentment.
The transition man at the top of the club will in the end only be a side note in the upheaval in Barcelona, because an old friend has long since returned to the position with the former club boss Joan Laporta. At the beginning of the week, the 58-year-old announced his renewed candidacy for the presidential election on January 24th. And unlike the past and current leadership figures, he campaigns for Messi insistently – knowing full well that this will earn him votes from the members. If he wins the election, he will do everything possible to extend the Barças Shrine Treaty, which expires on June 30, 2021.
He also wanted to bring internal disputes to the past, said the Catalan lawyer and politician, who was the club boss between 2003 and 2010. “I want the Barcelonismo unite. The Barcelonismo connects us. It is time to lead the team together again to success and victories, to fame, “he announced in the best manner of a tribune. There should be” no looking back and no reproaches “. But now it’s all about sport : Cristiano Ronaldo and Juventus Turin will come to the Nou Camp on Tuesday to win the Champions League group – and Ronaldo is currently in really good shape.
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