Barça's First Mistake?

Barça to asses 2 points lost?

"There’s no need to keep thinking about this game. We can only to take away the positive and learn from the few mistakes we did" – Sergio Busquets.

With a revolutionized Barça playing with a 3-4-3 line-up, the same as up against Villareal in the last La Liga game, Guardiola’s squad looked to do easy work as the visiting team up against la Real Sociedad. The first 45 minutes looked like it was certainly going to play out as normal with Barça being ahead with two goals of great collective association. The two goals where almost of same creation with the first one coming from a terrific lob pass from Fabregas up front to Alexis Sanchez who then crossed it to Xavi to tap it in. The second goal also another lob pass to the open space by Xavi to Fabregas who then cross it to Alexis. The keeper managed to block it, however rejecting the ball for Cesc to look for the rebound even as two Real Sociedad defenders came together.

Second half looked to be another preeminent show dance by Barcelona. As Pep Guardiola was quoted in the post-match conference saying, “The second half was were we were looking our best. We had in-depth ball control up front and had ball circulation around the pitch, we were looking good but in football we know that the focus level must always be high and even more when you’re playing in first division…This is a good learning lesson for the future.” Indeed, when Barça was playing their best, an individual play on the right flank from Xavi Prieto placed a cross for an Imanol Agirretxe header that sent the ball right in the angle of the net. The tying goal came from an error of the front line of Barça as Villa tried to make a pass to the back line and clearing it, however landing in for a Real Sociedad forward who on the first try chipped the ball over Victor Valdes and a sneaky Busquets’ hand deflected it into the cross bar but with little fortune as a second man came from behind to tap it in the net with the head.

Now the Cules will try to revamp on their next match as they host legendary AC Milan at Camp Nou for their first match of Champions League group stage and also Osasuna in the next La Liga match the following Saturday. Something tells me that Barça will get challenged by every team, making it a difficult season. As Guardiola puts it, “I’ve always thought that sport (in general) is difficult. Things are even more difficult when you come from winning because teams will be looking to beat us.”

By Gerardo Gonzalez