10/24/2020 2:09 PM
Clarín.com
sports
Updated 10/24/2020 3:50 PM
The Roberto Natalio Carminatti stadium in Bahía Blanca became an element of counterfactual soccer measurement.
It could have been many other settings, but particularly the Olympus one is used as a reference to recreate scenes that never existed.
Namely: "If Mbappé comes to the Olympus court they won't let him touch the ball, forget it, they'll kill him," Oscar Ruggeri said a few days ago after an outstanding performance by the French forward.
The examples are not small, they have included Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and even several elite coaches who would not make their way at Carminatti either.
The concept, it is understood, points to the discomfort that could be mounted in hostile terrain and at the same time to the fluidity of the game mixed with defensive passivity that many of the best matches in European football return.
Jorge Valdano did not use the reference of the Olimpo court, but averaging the first half of Barcelona-Real Madrid he said: “This looks like a singles match against married people.
Great for the spectators but the coaches shouldn't like it very much ”.
Prisoner of his destiny.
Leo Messi laments after missing a goal chance.
Photo: EFE
Without an audience at the Camp Nou for the first time in history, with the sun forming a strip across the entire length of the playing field as the match schedule aimed to continue to seduce the Asian market, and the ambient sound bursting through the televisions at through a console.
A real PlayStation game on Saturday morning Argentina.
In 10 minutes what for Ruggeri would never happen on the Olimpo court happened twice at Barcelona.
Defensive oversights, open passing lanes, child deconcentration.
A detail that is sometimes hidden: nothing would be the same without precise touches, unchecks, walls, the pass that everyone knows that Messi will make for Jordi Alba but continues to bear fruit or Benzema coming out of the noise, going from being 9 to being 10 , to be for a while Zidane to give a boost to his coach and a great pass to the Uruguayan Valverde.
And when it comes to singles versus married couples, Sergio Ramos is
the most professional of all there
.
The one who did not eat a barbecue the day before, the one who enjoys knowing that all the flashes point to it, the one who masterfully takes advantage of the unfair nuances that the VAR system continues to deliver game after game.
Sergio Ramos did it again.
He went to the center of the scene and put together the fiction with the key participation of Lenglet and his childish grip.
The subtle right hand of the captain of Real Madrid to convert the penalty that he knew how to build broke a game until then balanced and with an uncertain outcome.
Luka Modric hangs on Sergio Ramos to celebrate his goal, a great goal, at the Camp Nou.
Photo: AFP
The VAR will inevitably be talked about.
And one of the questions that will rebound in the week is why in the first half the referee was not called to review an action between Messi and Casemiro in which the Brazilian midfielder took ball and player positions within the area and could also have been interpreted as a criminal.
Beyond the debate on the good or bad use of technology in arbitration,
the classic had it all
.
A first time without respite, with the starting goals and two teams that took advantage of the three quarters of the court to deploy without fixed positions.
Koeman chusmea while Juan Martínez Munuera checks the play of the penalty in the VAR.
Photo: Reuters
Messi went from highest to lowest, like the whole Barsa
.
His best play was averaging the first half and found a relentless Courtois.
The Argentine tricked Ramos in the small area, hooked to his right and with little angle took the shot that the Belgian goalkeeper covered.
From that play came a heads-up from Benzema that Neto covered.
This was the first part, with Casemiro much firmer and more participative than a very lackluster Busquets.
With Valverde breaking lines and arriving by surprise more than Coutinho.
With De Jong too shy and with few connections with Messi.
The best of Barcelona happened when he could project to his sides, Sergiño Dest on the right and Jordi Alba on the other side.
In addition, the hierarchy of Ramos and the brushstrokes of Benzema ended up overshadowing a Barcelona full of boys (Ansu Fati and Pedri played from the start; and the income of Trincao and Dembelé did not provide solutions) and without the necessary rebellion of Messi, who He has six classics without converting or giving assists.
It is worth a fact that reflects the images at the end: Barcelona took to the field with three debutants in a classic (Neto, Dest and Pedri), something that had not happened since 2014. And the last blow of drowning was thrown with the entry of Martin Braithwaite .
In Madrid, all the starters knew what it was like to face Barsa and it was
Luka Modric who came in to finish the story and seal 3-1.
"Great for viewers," Valdano says amid the incessant back and forth.
The Camp Nou empty for the first time in the history of a Spanish classic.
Photo: AP
And it is a constant in football without fans
.
A new uninhibited reality in which Aston Villa scored seven goals against Liverpool the same weekend that Bayern Munich suffered five goals and Manchester United 6. Or Cádiz who dared to beat this Real Madrid while in Italy they scored Atalanta and Sassuolo.
Something like a singles against married, although with an intruder like the VAR who plays alongside Messi and Sergio Ramos.
MFV
Look also
The unusual negative streak that Lionel Messi could not break at Barcelona - Real Madrid: 902 days without scoring "classic" goals
The controversy of the VAR in the second half in Barcelona vs Real Madrid: the naive penalty of Lenglet to Sergio Ramos