Reuters Soccer Blog

Xavi’s Wembley tears turn to triumph

In our latest post on Spanish soccer, Iain Rogers in Madrid muses on the brilliance of the peerless Xavi and Real Madrid’s decision to hand more power to coach Jose Mourinho at the expense of sacked director general Jorge Valdano. 

Xavi’s Wembley tears turn to triumph

Lionel Messi rightly grabbed most of the headlines for his latest European masterclass in Barcelona’s 3-1 Champions League final humbling of Manchester United on Saturday.

However, the Argentine World Player of the Year’s superbly-struck goal, his 53rd of the season in all competitions, and his all-round brilliance distracted attention from the man who has been at the heart of the phenomenal success achieved by Barca and Spain in recent years: Xavi.

Regularly nailing more than 100 passes per game, with a completion rate in excess of 90 percent, the 31-year-old has perfected the playmaker’s art.

United were powerless to prevent him seizing control of the match as he sprayed the ball left and right, twisting and turning his way into space and leaving the English club’s players chasing shadows across the immaculate Wembley turf.

One amazing statistic from this year’s edition of Europe’s elite club competition, courtesy of Opta, is that in 953 minutes of football he did not concede a single foul.

Soccer Break Thursday – How to stop Barca?

Just another night of footballing action and another trophy for the all-conquering Barcelona, who on Wednesday clinched their third successive La Liga title despite a laboured 1-1 draw away to Levante.

Manchester United will be hoping a similarly weary Barcelona turn up at Wembley for the Champions League final on May 28, hopefully having themselves recently won their top domestic honour, the Premier League.

Now, onto Manchester City, who are in the news for two reasons on Thursday. One, they play Stoke City in the FA Cup final on Saturday. Click on this link for facts and figures about the game. Two, newspaper reports say they are lining up a move for Barca’s Xavi. But then again, it was Cesc Fabregas on Wednesday.

Realistically who do you think they might poach for the new season?

Sadly the news dominating the sport this week has been the FIFA corruption allegations, where president Sepp Blatter is promising a swift enquiry into the accusations. Brazil 2014 World Cup chief organiser Ricardo Teixeira is coming under fire in his home country but he is defiant and says former FA chief David Triesman should prepare for legal action.

This blog says Triesman’s accusations have further harmed English football’s reputation.

Another sour note for the game and another damaged reputation is in Scotland, where the attack on Celtic boss Neil Lennon on Wednesday was the latest blow to Scottish football.

Barcelona beset by injuries at crucial stage

Like many of Europe’s biggest clubs, Barcelona find themselves at a crucial point of the season, with their hopes in two of the three competitions they are contesting in the balance.

Worryingly for fans, Pep Guardiola’s side have been hit by a rash of niggling injuries to key players at a highly inconvenient moment.

“Injury alarm” was the banner headline in Wednesday’s Sport, the Catalan capital’s main sports daily.

Playmaker Xavi, the fulcrum around which the whole team operates and a crucial element of Barca’s much-praised style of play, was the latest to break down when he picked up a muscle strain against Athletic Bilbao at the weekend.

The 31-year-old joined captain and central defender Carles Puyol and goalkeeper Victor Valdes on the medical list.

After tricky La Liga games against Real Mallorca and Valencia over the coming week, the Spanish champions have a 2-1 deficit to overcome at home to Arsenal in their Champions League last-16, second leg on March 8.

If things go wrong, they could find themselves out of Europe and with their five-point advantage over Real Madrid at the top of La Liga cut back or even eliminated.

Classy Wilshere looked like a Barcelona No 4 in the making

Scrunching up the eyes a bit, and using just a touch of imagination, watching Jack Wilshere on the ball for England against Denmark was almost like watching Xavi. It was quite a shock, in fact, to see a player in an England shirt pause, look up and think before picking out a team mate with a precise, considered pass.

Comparing Wilshere to the peerless Barcelona midfielder Xavi will be stretching it for some. I was pretty surprised, I must say, to read match reports on Thursday suggesting Wilshere had been a bit disappointing.

The conventional wisdom on Wilshere seems to be that Capello risks wasting his talent by playing him in such a deep role. Reporters in England clearly want to see Wilshere playing much closer to the opposition penalty area, wreaking havoc with his deft touch and eye for a pass.

The problem is that Capello’s England have a far more pressing problem than the need for a tricky midfielder to set up chances. As was made abundantly clear at the World Cup in South Africa, England must learn how to hold the ball with more assurance and for much longer periods of time if they are to mix it with the best.

Playing Wilshere as a deep-ish midfielder is a great start. Barcelona used to have Pep Guardiola playing just ahead of the defence, always available to take possession and pretty much always using it effectively with sharp passes, short or long. Xavi plays a bit further forward now but early in his career his game was modelled on that of Guardiola. Wilshere even wore Guardiola’s number four, synonymous with the Johann Cruyff-influenced passing style of Barcelona.

If Capello had half a dozen players as comfortable as Wilshere on the ball he could afford to play the Arsenal man as far forward as he liked. Given the lack of such players in the Premier League, he is best off sticking with Wilshere where he started on Wednesday, allowing England to hold possession and start building from the back.

Capello rarely gets much credit from England’s soccer reporters. This time, the Italian seemed to have got it right. 

Messi’s FIFA Ballon d’Or award is still a victory for team football

It’s strange that when 2009 winner Lionel Messi was awarded the combined FIFA Ballon d’Or award on Monday there was shock in the Zurich auditorium and around the globe.

He is clearly the best player in the world but most fans and pundits had expected one of Barcelona team mates and Spain World Cup winners Andres Iniesta or Xavi to take the prize.    

Some might argue that talent has unfairly outstripped team play yet again in the big award but of all the truly great players to have graced the game, Messi is one of a handful who shine because of their understanding with team mates not just their outrageous skill.   

Unlike rugby where the kicker can make a huge amout of difference or NFL where the quarterback is all powerful, soccer really is a team game and that is why skilful workhorses Xavi or Iniesta were widely expected to win.

But the fact three Barca players were the only men on the shortlist is a wonderful achievement for the Catalan club and is yet more proof that the beautiful game is about 11 men combined to create one beating heart, with Messi’s brilliance providing the killer touch.

Without Xavi or Iniesta, Messi would not have become arguably the game’s greatest ever player and the modest Argentine will be the first to thank his friends. His win also breaks the mould of the great and good just voting for whoever triumphed in the big on-field prizes during the year.

Ballon d’Or shortlist should give Premier League pause for thought

England performed well below expectation at the World Cup in South Africa and judging by the FIFA Ballon d’Or list announced on Tuesday the stock of the Premier League is not at its highest either.

Just three players from the league that likes to call itself the best in the world are on the list and it would be a huge surprise if any of them made it into the top three:

Iker Casillas (Spain, Real Madrid), Daniel Alves (Brazil, Barcelona), Didier Drogba (Ivory Coast, Chelsea), Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon, Inter Milan), Cesc Fabregas (Spain, Arsenal), Diego Forlan (Uruguay, Atletico Madrid), Asamoah Gyan (Ghana, Stade Rennes, then Sunderland), Andres Iniesta (Spain, Barcelona), Julio Cesar (Brazil, Inter Milan), Miroslav Klose (Germany, Bayern Munich), Philipp Lahm (Germany, Bayern Munich), Douglas Maicon (Brazil, Inter Milan), Lionel Messi (Argentina, Barcelona), Thomas Mueller (Germany, Bayern Munich), Mesut Ozil (Germany, Werder Bremen, then Real Madrid), Carles Puyol (Spain, Barcelona), Arjen Robben (Netherlands, Bayern Munich), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal, Real Madrid), Bastian Schweinsteiger (Germany, Bayern Munich), Wesley Sneijder (Netherlands, Inter Milan), David Villa (Spain, Valencia, then Barcelona), Xabi Alonso (Spain, Real Madrid), Xavi Hernandez (Spain, Barcelona)

Have a glance through the full list (in all its glory above) and you’ll see just Didier Drogba, Cesc Fabregas and Asamoah Gyan representing England’s Premier League, and the latter has barely figured for his new club Sunderland.

I doubt anyone in English football will be too worried by this, with the money from TV rights still rolling in, but perhaps they should be.

In terms of star quality La Liga makes the Premier League look strictly second division. Serie A, derided over the past few seasons, now boasts the European Cup holders and a resurgent AC Milan and even the Bundesliga has a healthier than usual representation thanks to the exploits of Champions League finalists Bayern Munich and Joachim Loew’s fearless Nationalmannschaft.

It was different, perhaps, when Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Wayne Rooney, Fernando Torres and the like were being described as among the world’s finest but performances at the World Cup that were indifferent to poor have made those assessments look like so much hype.

Who will win the battle between Ibra and Eto’o?

Boy, the Champions League is back with a bang. How much juicier can you get than holders Barcelona at Inter Milan in their first game?  

If the Spanish champions against their Italian counterparts wasn’t enough, we’ve got the added spice of Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Samuel Eto’o playing against their former clubs at the first possible opportunity following their extraordinary close-season swap deal.

Barca midfielder Xavi has told Reuters it will still be strange to line up against Eto’o on Wednesday while Inter’s Jose Mourinho, who has had an up and down relationship with the Catalans, has been stealing the headlines as usual.

“Eto’o is the best attacker in the world. My players are always better. Last year Ibrahimovic was the best forward in the world, now I say Eto’o,” he told reporters.

So will Ibra come back to haunt the San Siro or will Eto’o prove that Inter are not missing him?

No one is really sure what reception the Swede will get on Wednesday.

Barcelona beat Manchester United — your views

Barcelona deposed Manchester United as European champions with an outstanding 2-0 victory in the Champions League final at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday.

Samuel Eto’o struck the opener after 10 minutes when he cut in from the right past Nemanja Vidic with surprising ease and his low shot beat United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar at his near post. Xavi cracked a free kick against a United post at the start of the second half before Lionel Messi sealed the win after 70 minutes when he scored with a beautifully timed header from Xavi’s cross.

It was a curiously subdued performance from United, while Barcelona got full value for a performance that was thoroughly professional but hardly brilliant.

Alex Ferguson was content to say the best team won. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Xavi (R) and Victor Valdes celebrate victory over Manchester United. REUTERS/Albert Gea

Time to revamp player awards

This week we had the nominations for FIFA world player of the year, discovered the winner of the FIFPro world player of the year and mulled the contenders for the Ballon d’Or.

Exactly how many gongs do we need? In the recent past the situation was a bit clearer.

The Ballon d’Or was originally just for Europeans (hence the foreign language-challenged English calling it the European player of the year). In 1995 magazine France Football, which runs the award, decided any player playing in Europe could win it and since 2007 any footballer in the world is eligible (although it will surely be rare for a player not playing with a European side to win). (more…)

Xavi’s understated brilliance deserves recognition

The shortlist for the Ballon d’Or got shorter this year, but there was still room for seven members of the Spain squad that restored a bit of faith in football at Euro 2008.

A lot of news reports focused on the big-named absentees, including Thierry Henry, Fabio Cannavaro and Ronaldinho, but I don’t suppose too many people would argue for their inclusion after disappointing seasons.

No, the real surprise, and shame, is the absence of Andres Iniesta, to my mind the most skilful of Spain’s little men in midfield. If he wasn’t quite at his best at Euro 2008 he was still better than most and he deserves a place in the top 30.

One thing to consider about the award is the weight given to performances over a season against form shown over a few weeks in the summer.

For many Premier League watchers, it will be hard to see past Cristiano Ronaldo but when Portugal needed him he was outshone by Bastian Schweinsteiger. Again. Where does that leave us?

Xavi won the player of the tournament award at Euro 2008 for pulling the strings in that beguiling Spanish midfield and despite the fact that Barcelona won nothing last season, he would be my choice. It would at least recognise that brilliance can be understated as well as flash.