FC Barcelona won on Saturday. They won as they have often in the last month or so, missing opportunity after opportunity while dominating a clearly inferior opponent.
They did however have many more opportunities to show themselves on Saturday than they have in some of their recent home matches. Which brings us to an interesting issue: is Barcelona better on the road than they are at home?
It sounds strange. Usually teams think of their home stadium as a stronghold and play better in front of boisterous, aggressive and occasionally downright dangerous home fans. Yet this year's Barca squad seems to be doing the opposite: the struggle to beat lesser teams at home and get to show off on the road.
One theory is that the home team can't hide as well: when a team plays Barcelona in the Nou Camp (in Barcelona) it's expected to lose; the visiting team can park 9-10 players by the goal and do everything it can to block real, constructive football.
When a team plays Barça at home, it has a responsibility to its fans to show a minimum of offensive competency. Holding 10 players back is sure to draw cat calls from the fans and even letters asking for the coach to be fired. So the home team plays Barcelona more aggressively - and pays the price for their pride.
I didn't come up with this idea: it was a pearl of an explanation put forth by Ray Hudson on GolTV. This guy makes soccer fun and exciting and drops some real wisdom during the game. Check him out and check out Spain's La Liga (and Barcelona) on GolTV.
For those that don't have GolTV, here are the highlights:
No comments:
Post a Comment