Life is funny when you don’t understand anything that happens. As much, that a child like Lamine Yamal be the one who frees Barça from another mockerythis time against Mallorca, while the fans make waves in the dilapidated Montjuïc amusement park.
One day you admire a coach (Javier Aguirre), not so much for his successes, which are many, but for looking like a whiskey taster. Another one puts your hands on your head because one of the antichrists of ‘laportismo’, Toni Freixa, goes from hating the president to admiring him as if he were Michelangelo’s David, exchanging street pushes for hugs from good people. And the next, you wake up wishing someone would collect all seven Dragon Balls. If the dragon Shenron, that creature that granted wishes created by the late ‘mangaka’ Akira Toriyama, existed and could also bring Xavi’s Barça back from the dead. Or, for that matter, exorcise Freixa, if they have possessed him.
There are things, however, that are wonderfully understood. Like what Pau Cubarsí, at 17 years old, is already the best center back on the squad (he only took care of two beasts like Muriqi and Larin while Iñigo Martínez was shipwrecked). Or like another youth player, Marc Guiu, passing in front of Vitor Roque on the day Lewandowski had a rest. Xavi has no problem contradicting Deco, not in the media pulpit, but in the locker room. The signing that the sports director shoehorned in in the winter market – and which served as an excuse for not signing a midfielder after Gavi’s injury – does not even help the coach to start against Mallorca.
Gündogan’s loneliness
And so, with the invisible Oriol Romeu also warming up the bench, Xavi resolved the drama of having to redraw the engine room without Pedri or De Jong relocating pieces. Gündogan, the only one who seems to know what the job of midfielder is abouthe found that his two partners in the axis were Christensen and Raphinha, a central defender suddenly converted into something like a midfielder without a compass, and a winger with nerve and without dribbling that his coach is now trying to disguise as a midfielder.
The first act, however, was sung. Javier Aguirre had enough to order individual pressure at the start and a defense that closed interior corridors (5-3-2) to disconcert Barça. Xavi, sanctioned, tried to find solutions from the Montjuïc cabin in which he locked himself with Naples-Torino (1-1) on TV. Meanwhile, his brother and assistant, Òscar Hernández, saw how the Barça players barely moved. They neither had space, nor were they able to understand the instructions of Gündogan, who acted as a footballer and coach while he tried to appease his desperation.
The penalty ruling
The German midfielder’s frustration increased when he had to miss the penalty with which Barça could have made up for its deficient first act. Lamine Yamal had launched Raphinha, who ended up rolling inside the area after Copete stepped on his ankle – an action that the VAR had to detect for the referee to corroborate the maximum penalty. Gündogan, however, shot weakly and at mid-height, a gift for goalkeeper Rajkovic. As if that were not enough, Raphinha did not recover from the episode either, and had to be replaced by Fermín.
While the Portuguese placed by Jorge Mendes were lost in their own way – Cancelo was missing a limestone, and João Félix a coffee and four cans of Monster–Muriqi avisaba.
Mallorca, Cup finalist, was a bone despite arriving at Montjuïc having added just eight points as a visitor all season. Lamine Yamal began to warm up his foot by finishing off the crossbar. YXavi looked for the redeeming goal half an hour from the end with Lewandowski and, now, Vitor Roque.
But only Lamine Yamal, who left Dani Rodríguez –with the cut– and Rajkovic –with the thread– in Babia, could take Barça out of the slaughterhouse a quarter of an hour from the end. On Tuesday, against Naples, there will be another survival exercise. At least, he does understand this Barça.
2024-03-08 19:45:38
#Lamine #Yamal #understands #Barça
