The preseason is the season of good principles. Like when at the beginning of the course the name is carefully written on the first page of those books that always open less than they should. Xavi, well applied, returns to the Barca calligraphy that follows the dots with the ball, and imaginarily returns to the place where it is most used: the youth academy. The first led him to the goal, this time thanks to strategy, and the second, to another name for the future.. It is Fermín López, an appearance in a classic, at 20 years old, the goal of a gunner and jam assists. aim.
The ball followed those little dots to Dembélé, who has his own football spelling, indecipherable, to put this Barça of good principles ahead, always with the ball, in search of the utopia that his coach calls “infinite conservation”.. The League offered him that sense of reality. Glory, Xavi knows it well, is achieved like Fermín López, no matter how old you are.
FOUR MIDFIELDS
Ancelotti, on the other hand, lives glory as others live reality. No anathema system, no transgressions in any tactical variation. Barcelona and Madrid met for the first time when the official course has not yet started with four midfielders each. Xavi started from a double pivot, because for that he has made Oriol Romeu return home, Zumosol's cousin who made the crossbar tremble as soon as he started, together with Frenkie de Jong. When he was in the field, the formula seemed sacrilegious to him. Time flies.
With such a cousin by his side, the Dutchman can better unleash his talent and overtake those who have so much: Gundogan and Pedri. For Ancelotti, on the other hand, it is the best way to adjust Bellingham to the most advanced vertex of an imaginary rhombus.. English is actually a player of two diamonds. If you have space, it's scary. At the Dallas Cowboys stadium in Arlington, he had little, as watched as a running back.
VINICIUS, ON THE PENALTY
The Bellingham that astonished in the first two games of the tour did not appear, out of place, dwarfed in the spaces well controlled by Barcelona, and lukewarm, as he demonstrated in an arrival. When Madrid pushed, the chances were for Vinicius, three sticks included, or Rodrygo, who was stopped by Ter Stegen. One of Vini's crossbars came from a penalty, one of the first he shot as a Real Madrid player. After Benzema's departure, it may be the sign of who inherits the 11-meter throne, pure hierarchy.
Madrid pushed to lock up Barça in their field after a dominating start with the ball from the Catalans, with de Jong in command. Madrid's midfield, without Modric or Kroos, was not able to counteract it at the start, and the high pressure from Ancelotti's men did not have an effect in the first minutes either.. Barça's dominance at the start was repeated again after the break. The situation soon claimed the Croatian-German axis.
Dembélé not only put Barça ahead but also proved to be, today, the most destabilizing element of Barça, with the respect of the young Fermín. Dembélé indicated the Achilles heel of Madrid. It was Mendy, calamitous. He left his place to Fran García for alleged inconvenience. I could have done it before. If Xavi put Araujo back on the right wing because he is the best antibody for Vinicius, on the left he has a dagger on the wing. Balde emulates the offensive role of Jordi Alba, an interesting potential for what is to come, and of course for the national team.
Barça has the intentions but not the way to sustain them, so in the second half they found themselves back in their field due to Madrid's push, now with Joselu on the field of play, and under the tremor of another crossbar, of Tchoauméni, third for the Whites and fourth in the match. Ancelotti sat down Bellingham. Xavi, for his part, entered a carousel of changes in which he included Fermín López. The 20-year-old from Huelva, who hit the ball with his soul as soon as he could, as if he were reclaiming his place in the sun, and caressed it so that Ferran Torres could close this little hamburger classic. For Fermín López, the classic of his life. For now.