Carlo Ancelotti reacts to Vinicius Junior’s performance in Real Madrid’s 4-1 win over Barcelona. (1:20)
There was a time when Xavi Hernandez knew how to get Real Madrid striker Vinícius Júnior out of a Clasico. Sunday brought us the Clasico in which Vinícius was probably on the verge of removing Xavi from his role as Barcelona coach.
That is the extent of the pain caused by the brilliant Brazil who won the Spanish Super Cup for Los Blancos by scoring 3 goals in their team’s 4-1 win in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (stream the replay on ESPN).
Over the centuries, human nature has thrived on the misfortune of others: Cassandra in Greek mythology, the old witches who sat and knitted on the guillotines in revolutionary Paris, Shakespeare writing about the “fatal flaws” in the character of wonderful men and women, almost all wonderful operas end in death and misery, decades of wonderful blues music and almost every country-western song.
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Therefore, in the world’s media there will be a huge appetite to analyse, criticise and celebrate the downfall of a truly wonderful team, as Xavi suffered one of the biggest seismic setbacks of his career as he watched his team be beaten in this first World Cup Final. Spanish season.
Fortunately, the headlines will speculate about his dismissal, opinion journalists will talk about a historic humiliation, entire mines of salt will be emptied into the Catalan’s already bloody wounds. Schadenfreude, the German word for rejoicing at the downfall of others, will proliferate. the great story.
It’s simple to see failures, declines, and underperformance around the world right now. What will be seen is the kind of dazzling, relentless and uplifting excellence that Carlo Ancelotti’s brilliant Madrid side displayed in clinically destroying the reigning Spanish champions.
This final was a thrilling and chilling display of athleticism, sporting aggression, brilliant competitive vision, all-for-one team play and a demonstration that Ancelotti’s team is just warming up for what might well be several years of complete domination in Spain.
Back to our first point: An eon ago, when Xavi was quite patently proving to be precisely the right guy (at that time) to steer Barcelona away from the rocks, to infuse them with a new, steelier, competitive spirit and began to win regularly against Los Blancos, a main weapon was nullifying the brilliant Vinicius.
Ronald Araújo is rarely nicknamed “La Lapa”, but when Xavi first asked him to mark Vinicius, he did so with the verve of a 1970s Italian defender (it’s a false rumour that Vinicius opened his dressing room). after a defeat in the Clasico and asked Araujo what he was doing there. )
In this definitive breakdown of their rivalry, which originally seemed so balanced in favour of the 24-year-old Uruguayan and which now gives the impression that Vinicius not only has Araujo’s number, but loves to play with him, the revenge dish served so cold, there were ice cubes hanging over it. Vinicius’ record against Barcelona is now as follows: nine wins, 1 draw, 6 defeats and 6 goals.
For the opening goal, Araujo was beaten. He was literally nowhere as Vinicius — half Usain Bolt, half Fred Astaire — sprinted past Barcelona’s asinine defending and danced around their helpless keeper. From the fastest hat trick of Vinicius’ life, to the moment Barcelona’s best defender was red-carded for kicking out at the Brazilian’s ankle — this was a no-contest.
The bones of it were that, firstly, Vinicius knew that he was athletically quicker than every single player in Barca colours. He knew it and he chose to impose it.
Secondly, Vinicius has continued with the trend of this season, which was first and foremost uncomfortable for him, which is that he is no longer a true left-back who cuts his appearance. He is now the second striker in a 4-4-2 formation. He has a lot more freedom of position and is much harder to mark for a guy like Araujo (whereas in the past the Uruguayan had the line painted white on the side of the pitch to help him decrease Vinicius’ potential space). .
That the last thing any rival should do is play a high defensive line when they are unwilling or unable to vindictively press the Madrid ball players who feed Vinicius — especially if the rival has a keeper who’s pretty allergic to performing the sweeper-keeper role and positioning himself on the edge of his own penalty area when the ball is in midfield.
Although Vinicius played the role of ‘second striker’ in Flamengo’s midfield, a whole new edition of this already phenomenal player is emerging.
He’s still been given that box he used as a winger. The elasticity of the body, the sheer audacity and audacity of telling a defender that he is going in one direction, then the other, then backing off, invention, boasting, fun. . But if you look at his performance in Sunday’s win, there wasn’t the slightest spark of “spectacle. “
Vinicius was in Terminator mode: totally focused on timing his runs in behind, 100% intent on getting the win sealed as firmly and quickly as possible. This was the 23-year-old at his most ruthless. This was top-grade and it was awesome to watch, no matter how much Barcelona’s ineptitude helped the Brazilian.
The moment Madrid realized what Barcelona were doing defensively, they stifled laughter with incredulous gleering and began to completely defeat their historic rivals. Madrid’s passing, running, selfless vision and finishing were brutally relentless, and seeing it all was a wonderful spectacle.
Throughout the season, the chant of Ancelotti’s team has been “Hey Jude”. And honestly, Bellingham made an excellent assist on the first goal, very well in his position throughout, and helped check and turn off the Pedri-Frenkie axis. by Jong-Ilkay Gündogan which, at least in the artistic sense, may have given Barcelona a lifeline.
But from the ’60s song of peace and love, “Hey Jude,” we come to a slight corruption of Julius Caesar’s secular statement, Veni Vidi Vici: “I came, I saw, I conquered. It’s Vini Vidi Vici: Vinicius came, he saw where Barcelona’s flaws were and he won.
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It is not dead to say that one can only wonder how much sweeter it is for him, here, to excel, achieve a historic treble, win the Super Cup, be named attack boy and not suffer any of the racist abuse that, unfortunately, we seek to eliminate from football .
I have already written in recent weeks in this area about the dynamics of Madrid, worried (only for its rivals, happy for the Madridistas). A brilliant coach who remains for a few more seasons, a fantastic core, competitive and obsessed with Madrid. young players, most of whom have been linked to the club for 4 or five seasons and a stadium that has not only been sensationally rebuilt, but can also contribute significantly to the club’s profit generation. If Kylian Mbappé or Erling Haaland are to be added to this project imminently, then heaven is helping Madrid’s rivals in La Liga.
Rodrygo was happy to play second fiddle to his long-time friend and national team colleague Vinicius but still managed to score and make it nine goals in his past 12 matches across all competitions.
Bellingham also played a much more entrenched role, the kind of positional intelligence and diligence that was so lacking in the way Barcelona tried to engage their opponents. There will be games in which he will break into the spaces that Vinicius likes to occupy, and his procedure. The question of getting hooked on the timing and specializations of each one will continue. For those who think Bellingham is increasingly favored for the 2024 Ballon d’Or, I say: good. It’s surely spectacular.
But Vinicius is part of that mix. When Ancelotti celebrated his superstar after a 5-2 win at Anfield by describing him as “the most decisive player in the world”, that only left him room to build on that feeling by calling Vinicius the player of the world. It is becoming increasingly clear that one day he will have to use this expression.
As for Xavi and Barcelona: they displayed a defensive functionality of general incompetence. They’ve been slower mentally and physically than their opponents, and until their big win in that specific game a year ago, they’ve come back by a significant margin.
Most of their players feel that their athletic condition during training is insufficient, or that the intensity of Barcelona’s educational matches is too low or, and this is something that president Joan Laporta has to analyse, they have lost respect or accept it as true. with in your coach. In competitive aggression, Madrid was ruthless, ruthless, intelligent and victorious; Barcelona was none of those things. Still, for the first time this season, the Spanish champions showed wonderful creativity, moved the ball cleverly to create space and may have scored 3 or 4 times, compared to seven or 8 for Madrid.
If Laporta believes that the return of João Cancelo and Iñigo Martínez will fix the abysmal defense, then there is enough creativity on Xavi’s part to recommend that this season is not yet a write-off. If he considers that the team’s functionality is the fault, above all, of the coach, then they will be disastrous days of assessment and decision-making in the Camp Nou offices.