Man of the Match 13/14 edition

[Faceless]

Valdes-Cleaning Pique and Mach crap
Cesc-Amazing as usual(hope this continues!)
Adriano-His goal.

Honorable mentions:Sanchez-I think he's tied with Cesc. He play an important role to Tata's new tactics, where the ball always head to his direction. Hard worker as well..

 

[barcanuck]

1. Valdes - when the defense crumbled he stood like a rock and deflected everything that came his way.

2. Adriano - shots from outside of the box matter and we don't have enough shooters. He came thru today again with his trademark curling shot.

3. Neymar - another cameo but he was causing trouble for the anchovies at every play. Shame he didnt finish his free-kick or the chance in the box.

 

[utility73]

Valdés
Fabregas
Adriano

 

[Catorce]

1. Fabregas
2. Iniesta
3. Alexis

Unhounorable mentions: Pique and Pedro.

 

[Trickykid]

VV
Adriano
Cesc

 

[Indignado]

Valdés
Cesc
Adriano

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

1. Fabregas
2. Iniesta
3. Alexis

Unhounorable mentions: Pique and Pedro.

Sanchez loses the ball on a bad pass 16:45 in the game. Watch how Pedro shuts down the counterattack.

http://livetv.ru/en/showvideo/150153_malaga_barcelona/

 

[Semi-Neutral]

Sanchez loses the ball on a bad pass 16:45 in the game. Watch how Pedro shuts down the counterattack.

http://livetv.ru/en/showvideo/150153_malaga_barcelona/

That's the only good thing Pedro did all game...

 

[BerkeleyBernie]

That's the only good thing Pedro did all game...

He also nearly had the first goal with a great run in behind the defenders that **Cesc's** pass lead just a hair too much. Pedro made a fantastic effort to get a toe to it, but wasn't able to get enough on it to poke it away from the oncoming Caballero. It wasn't "poor control," as some have claimed, but a great effort at full speed to get to a ball just an inch beyond his stride. If Cesc had weighted the pass just a fraction better, you'd all be clamoring Pedro as MOTM. (BTW, I'm not blaming Cesc either, it was nearly brilliant.)

Especially watch the second replay (around 19:00 into the game, after Sanchez loses the ball again) which shows a closer angle on Pedro reaching for the ball. He couldn't have done better without going into a slide.

http://livetv.ru/en/showvideo/150153_malaga_barcelona/

He made plenty of other runs, and not his fault he was well covered and the long balls were too short and were intercepted. He passed as well as any other Barça player, and didn't make stupid choices when he had no options. Nothing brilliant, but as decent a game as any of the other players.

 

[Elite-BkD]

Hmm

VV
Adriano
Iniesta

 

[Trickykid]

The Official Barcaforum.com MoM-thread award - 13/14 Edition
Malaga, La Liga, away (1-0)

1. Valdes (43,7%) The hero that saved us tonight. 3 points thanks to him ~ abual3bed1
2. Adriano (31,2%) Shots from outside of the box matter and we don't have enough shooters. He came thru today again with his trademark curling shot ~ barcanuck
3. Fabregas (11,8%) Though he faded out in the second half, he was on fire in the first, constantly threatening and threading through passes and scaring Malaga's defense ~ Semi-Neutral


Random fact(s) of the round:

- The last time Adriano made the top 3, was on the 16th of December 2012, where Barcelona faced Atletico Madrid. Here Adriano also scored Barca's first, equalizing Falcao's first half goal, and kickstarting what eventually ended as a 4-1 rout.


There's not a whole lot to look at yet, but Fab takes an early lead in the rankings.

 

[CatalinR10]

Messi on 4'th place ?

No ballon d'or for him I guess

 

[Trickykid]

Messi on 4'th place ?

No ballon d'or for him I guess

Yep, washed up has been!

 

[ShandyFFM]

VV
Alves
Masch

 

[Semi-Neutral]

1. Alves-Got down the right wing time and time again, constantly dangerous, repeatedly megging Atletico's players and drawing fouls left and right, including the red card. Also was great defensively, shutting down most forays into his territory
2. Valdes-Great save after great save after great save, every time Atletico got through our defense he was there to mop up and stop their shot, to the point where I was confident of us keeping a clean sheet
3. Busquets-Made some terrific last ditch tackles, calm in possession as usual, kept the ball flowing very nicely and had a terrific ball to Messi at the start of the game

Honorable Mentions
1. Alba-Dealt with Costa much more capably than in the first leg, shutting him down and angering him, also got forward and linked up with Neymar and Cesc constantly
2. Pique-There were a few plays where he looked slow or made an error in judgement, but for the most part he marshaled the defense effectively and made quite a few crucial tackles and interceptions
3. Xavi-Didn't give the ball away carelessly, played possession, controlled the midfield, and in this tough game that was exactly what we needed