2023-08-08 21:57:55
BarcelonaWelcome to a new reality. Barça’s debut as a home team at the Olympic Stadium was not the best, but it ended with a smile from ear to ear thanks to the youngsters, who were responsible for provoking euphoria in a plethoric final 10 minutes. 10 minutes that served to forget a sluggish game that seemed destined to end in defeat. But the Joan Gamper Trophy ended on a high note, despite the defensive problems against Tottenham (4-2) and a cold atmosphere in the stands. Young people, as Messi or Iniesta did in the past, take advantage of the Gamper to ask for a pass. Time will tell how we will remember them, but 16-year-old Yamal’s last minutes were emotional.
But to be able to lift titles this season, it will be necessary to improve. It will be necessary to have the energy of Lamine Yamal, Ansu Fati and Ez Abde, who rescued Barça at the end of the match. It will be necessary to plug in and be strong in a stadium that still doesn’t feel like its own, despite the club’s efforts to paint it as Blaugrana. El Gamper was still like the first day you enter a new apartment after renting it, like adapting to a new university when you leave Erasmus. It is necessary to create new rituals, to adapt to a new sound, to different spaces. Maybe that’s why young people were the ones who adapted best to the new reality. The rest of the crowd, both partners and some players, seemed out of sorts.
Yes, it won’t be an easy year. And Xavi knows it. So much so that the Barcelona manager asked the fans in his opening speech to make them “feel like they were at the Camp Nou”. It wasn’t the case, to begin with. In fact, animation groups complained about the directive and accused it of prioritizing tourists. And the tourists arrived, but not that many either, just over half way through a stadium where the seats closest to the grass end up empty. There was little enthusiasm at the Olympic Games. If the team will have to improve, so will Barcelona. The team cannot stay alone, in this exile in Montjuïc.
What a strange day indeed. A day when one of the main protagonists was an absent man, an Ousmane Dembélé whom the club spared the awkward moment of being introduced to Lluís Companys, as it is only a matter of hours before he leaves for Paris. What a curious player, Dembélé, capable of despair when he is there but homesick when he decides to pack his bags. In the game against Tottenham Hotspur, Barça missed him until Lamine Yamal came on. Raphinha didn’t quite get away with it, despite providing the assist for Lewandowski’s early goal. After five minutes, Barça was already winning, but it gradually faded. A few days before Sunday’s La Liga debut at Getafe, Xavi has some homework to do: in attack, he lacks a bit of electricity. There is talent in the midfield, but the pieces need more time to understand each other. And in defense everything is problems. In fact, before the break Araujo left injured. Lucky for the young, indeed. If against Madrid in Dallas Fermin was excited, at Gamper Yamal’s details were exciting. Balde or Abde also asked for a pass, without fear, and managed to raise the spirits of a soft team in defense.
A crazy end game
Tottenham, sleepy at the start, took the sleep out of their ears thanks to Perisic. The spurs, without a Harry Kane who still doesn’t know if he will leave London, turned the score around thanks to the opportunism of Oliver Skipp. Barça did not finish rumbling, although interesting details can be seen, such as the verticality of a Balde destined to shine this year. Or the character of Oriol Romeu, who already commands a midfield where he was surrounded by De Jong and Pedri. And also by an omnipresent Gavi, running up and down. Now, the English found a lot of space between the lines, perhaps because they have been working longer days and looked fresher. Australian Ange Postecoglou’s team always bit, in attack, a Barça too broken.
Xavi revolutionized the team in the second half, with a lot of changes. Pedri and Gündogan, therefore, did not play together. And the Turkish midfielder got in front of the game in the last half hour of the game, but still lacks pace. Now, he was playing surrounded by players who either have to vindicate themselves or have little to lose. Players like Abde, Ansu Fati or Ferran Torres. get rid of them A great play by Yamal allowed Ferran Torres to score another goal. The Valencian forward, without doing anything out of the world, continues to score goals in Lewandowski’s position.
The equalizing goal scared the English a little, who seemed to think it was okay to play Gamper from the penalty spot. It wasn’t to be, as Lamine Yamal was being playful. He knew everyone was watching him. And with the desire to conquer the world you have at the age of 16, he began to dance with the ball, created spaces and the play ended with Ansu Fati scoring the third goal. And he still had time to participate in the play of the fourth, the work of an Ez Abde who was also in the mood for revelry. If for a large part of the match Barça worried, once the youngsters came out to play, everything changed. They marked the way. This is Barça. When things don’t seem to be going well, the La Masia players take it upon themselves to lead the way. Maybe there is a lack of money and half the team is not registered. Maybe not the best stadium to play. But a group of young people who had not been born in 1992 lit up the Olympic stadium. With them, came optimism.
FC Barcelona: Ter Stegen (Iñaki Peña, 61′), Araujo (Sergi Roberto, 32′), Koundé, Eric Garcia (Ansu Fati, 61′), Balde (Marcos Alonso, 61′), Oriol Romeu (Lamine Yamal, 80 ‘), De Jong, Gavi, Pedri (Gündogan, 61′), Raphinha (Ez Abde, 61′) and Lewandowski (Ferran Torres, 61′). Tottenham Hotspur: Vicario, Pedro Porro, Davinson Sánchez, Eric Dier, Reguilón, Skipp (Devine, 72′), Bissouma (Matar Sarr, 89′), Perisic (Spence, 72′), Lo Celso, Solomon and Richarlison (Scarlett, 75′). Goals: 1-0 Lewandowski (3′), 1-1 Skipp (24′), 1-2 Skipp (36′), 2-2 Ferran Torres (81′), 3-2 (90′) Ansu Fati and 4 -2 (90′) Abbot. Referee: Gil Manzano (winger). Yellow cards: Bissouma (27’). Red cards: None. Stadium: Olímpic Lluis Companys, 36,000 spectators.
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