Chelsea v. Barca

Some days you're the windshield, some days you're the bug. Or, in Barcelona's case, you're the windshield moving 65 mph (105 kph, if they're playing in Camp Nou) that runs into a bug wearing Chelsea blue that was apparently created in a lab, given an adamantium exoskeleton, a penchant for parking the bus, and a flair on the counterattack (This is evidently the same lab that tore down and rebuilt Fernando Torres, replacing his malfunctioning scoring unit).

Rarely have I seen a team defend as resolutely as Chelsea did today, a display made even more impressive by doing it without proper center-backs. Terry definitely deserved his red card, regardless of what excuse he trots out about Sanchez stopping short or the devil making him do it or whatever. I, for one, thought that was the end of Chelsea's chances. Having already conceded, the crowd rocking, and the captain in the shower, I was pretty sure that was taps. I hadn't reckoned on the ability of Ramires to take the high road, Didier Drogba doing his best center-back impression, Petr Cech doing his best brick wall impression, and the timely resurrection of Fernando Torres.

Today also shone light onto the ugly underbelly of this Barcelona team, which is the fact that their back-line and keeper are actually fairly mediocre. Their best defensive strategy is their possession, which isn't all too bad of a thing given the quality of their possession play. But once they do (finally) give up the ball they're quite open at the back. The midfielders and forwards do a good job of pressuring immediately after turning it over, but if you can move the ball quickly after a takeaway there will be plenty of green to run into. Chelsea did a great job of that for all three of their goals in the tie. Granted, the circumstance was probably exacerbated by Barca's attacking desperation, but Real Madrid did something similar over the weekend in less dire circumstance.

The other problem they have is that Victor Valdes, to be honest, isn't very good. Oh, sure, he's good enough to play in La Liga and is vastly better than I or probably anybody reading this will ever be. But facts remain that Chelsea scored three goals on four attempts over the two legs of the semifinal. When Barcelona needed him to save the bacon, he was nowhere to be found. On Tuesday there was probably little that he could have done differently on Ramires' chip, but his dive at the feet of Torres in second-half stoppage time was, to be frank, pathetic. Even Fernando Torres--the butt of so many jokes these past months--was able to dribble around the prone keeper and find the empty net. It looked like a sniper hired by Roman Abramovich had taken him out at the last opportunity. It's a tough thing to do, to stand there idle for much of a half and then be called upon to keep the team in it, but it's what is required by the Catalans' no. 1. If Valdes can't prove that he can do that consistently, I think that they might have to look into finding somebody who can.

I had a slight rooting interest for Barcelona in this one, strictly because I think they play the more beautiful football, and nothing I saw today caused me to reconsider that stance. But them's the breaks, and I'd be lying if I said it wasn't an immensely enjoyable 2+ hours. Here's to hoping that Real and Bayern can give us comparably entertaining stuff tomorrow afternoon.