10/17/2020 1:01 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 10/17/2020 6:47 PM
It is inevitable to speculate on what would have happened if Luis Suárez had been the one who was twice face to face with goalkeeper David Soria with the clarity with which Antoine Griezmann had in the first half and Ansu Fati in the second stage and failed.
It is immediate the reflection to see in the face of Lionel Messi that mixture of desolation and annoyance every time a teammate does not interpret the correct course of a play.
The equation turned around: what Leo found in good sections of his recent appearances in the National Team is difficult to build on his team.
Not even the Rosario was able to patch a game for Barcelona to forget in the final moment when the ball was stinging on the edge of the area and his left foot went wide.
In the previous one, more had been said about what had happened and what looms on the horizon than about the meeting itself.
In the rear-view mirror were the commitments for South American qualifiers and for the UEFA Nations League and onwards there are nothing less than the debut in the Champions League (on Tuesday against Ferencváros) and the classic on Saturday against Real Madrid.
But in the middle, a detail: Getafe.
Ronald Koeman had given a clear indication in the week when declaring that "Messi is a player who if he does not play is more tired. He is a winner who wants to be in all the games".
Something similar to the message that Pep Guardiola used to deliver when the press asked him if he was thinking of putting the Argentine to rest in those series that included Cup, League and National Team matches.
Messi flubs Dest's inch-perfect assistpic.twitter.com/rt4QPQOvP2
- Watke Russell (@watke_) October 17, 2020
Messi plays.
He is the only Barcelona footballer who has participated in every minute since football resumed and is the main card of a team that is still in the oven, which is being cooked with Koeman's new recipe and wants to leave behind the bitter seasonings of the recent past.
And the importance of having Messi on the pitch is more evident when Barcelona has a first half as apathetic, imprecise and without ideas as the one they had against Getafe.
If, in the first matches of the Koeman cycle, a search for an associated game had become clear, the sum of touches, block progress, dynamics and good rotations in attack, none of this was repeated against Azulón.
And then it was individual bursts that put light on that opaque panorama.
Messi wandered as a left pointer for the first 18 minutes.
In that section it was Antoine Griezmann who floated as a center-forward and Dembelé played (again he was in debt) on the left wing.
Neither could gravitate.
Messi's face says it all: Barcelona did not play well against Getafe.
Photo: AFP
Then the Argentine detached himself from the line and began to look for a more fruitful space.
This is how he generated from the first chance with a threaded left-foot from the door of the area that hit the right post.
The second goal situation of that lackluster first half was at the feet of Griezmann, who was left alone in the face of goal after a pass between the lines by Pedri.
The Frenchman, who in the week had scored for his team and highlighted that DT Didier Deschamps knows where on the court to place him, will have no excuses to justify his poor definition above goalkeeper David Soria.
The best league of the world.
NO BLOOD, GO ON!
pic.twitter.com/rY9o0yQWaZ
- Culé per semper (@SimplementFCB) October 17, 2020
That twisted first half of Barcelona was crowned with Messi's annoyance when he received a strong blow from Allan Nyom, who crossed him with his forearm when the Rosario faced towards the area.
On the 10th he was sore and asked for expulsion, but the referee Cesar Soto Grado only admonished the French defender.
It is worth saying that from the VAR cabin they did not alert the judge to review the action.
Getafe played the game and did it well.
With a strong leg, going to the friction and cutting the game every time a rival attacker tried to outline and face the goal.
The local bothered the culé team during the 90 minutes, neutralized it and took it to a field in which its big and rough defenders felt more comfortable than De Jong, Dembelé, Griezmann or Messi.
The start-up of the complement enhanced that symptom.
And the penalty goal for a naive De Jong foul against Djené at the exit of a stopped ball that turned Jaime Mata into 1-0, ended up making Barcelona lose the chip of the bad game they were playing.
(2/2) THE BAD STREAM IS OVER!
With a goal from #JaimeMata at 56, Getafe beat Barcelona by 1 goal.
#Getafe 1 #Barcelona 0. # 17Octubre #fitmasperu #Deportes #Peru #sports #soccer #futbol #getafebarcelona #getafebarca #Spana pic.twitter.com/sMfuNubyd8
- Fitmas Peru (@fitmasperu) October 17, 2020
He moved the Koeman bank with the unavoidable income of Ansu Fati and Coutinho.
And although the game did not improve, the young man who was born in Guinea and became a Spanish national had a very clear situation, but like Griezmann in the first half he failed in the heads up with Soria.
It could have liquidated history and not suffer Getafe.
The Colombian Juan Camilo Hernández had it twice, who in the first defined powerful and found a saving slap from Neto and in the second he ran alone to the goal but defined very poorly from above.
In short, he played badly and Barcelona lost well.
He had isolated chances and in the final onslaught, with Getafe holding everything back, he almost found a tie with Messi's imprecise left-foot strike and a header against the corner.
But Koeman will have homework.
What he had built up to here disappeared just at the start of a key week.
The wear and tear of the footballers may be a valid explanation, although he must immediately turn the page and improve for the challenges that come.