Barca Routs Sevilla, 5-0

Saturday night's Spanish league matchup of Barcelona vs. Sevilla turned out to be a complete rout.  The match, held in Barcelona at Camp Nou, was a total showcase of Barca Football at its best, and the Blaugrana had complete control of this match from start to finish.  In just the 4th minute of play, Messi Wan Kenobi opened the scoring when he drilled a mishandled ball underneath Sevilla goalkeeper Varas for the first score.  And then it got worse for Sevilla.  In the 24th minute, Messi dished off a beautiful ball to David Villa, who drilled a left-footed shot into the top corner for a 2-Nil lead.  This match was clearly under control from the start.

Then, to add insult to injury, in the 45th minute Sevilla defender Konko was booked for his second Yellow card of the night, when he brought down Pedro after he pushed the ball through Konko's legs.  Down to ten men, Sevilla was in trouble and the rout was on.  In the 53rd minute, Barca scored a silly goal when Sevilla defender Romaric tried to head the ball back to Varas.  The head-pass fell well short and Danny Alves was on the spot to make them pay, looping the ball over the Keeper for a hugely embaressing goal for Sevilla.  In the 64th minute, Messi Wan Kenobi scored his second goal of the night, an aggressive flat-out charge on the goal that left the defense guessing left and right which way he would go, finishing off the confused Sevilla defenders with a sublime low-skimming shot on goal from 20 yeards out that punched into the bottom corner of the net.  The final score of the night was in the 90th minute, when Messi, Luna, Busquets and Villa combined on a false run into the box that set up a back-pass to Villa, who fired another low-skimming shot that also found the bottom corner of the net, for his second goal.  With two goals by Messi, two by Villa, and one by Alves, this result was even more impressive than last year's 4-0 result against Sevilla at Camp Nou.

This victorious effort by Barcelona can only be described as breathtaking.  According to The Guardian (UK) sportswriter Jacob Steinberg, "Incredibly, the current Barcelona side is even better than the 2006 version... For the last two years, Barcelona have been the team to watch: fluent and mysterious in equal measure, with the exquisite partnership of Xavi and Andres Iniesta supporting the sublime skills of Messi in attack."  This was well said. 

But not every side is going to roll over for mighty Barcelona.  It is worth remembering that the only major dissapointment Barca has had the last few years, was the 3-2 loss in last year's Champion's League match against Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan.  Possibly the best coaching manager in professional football today, Jose 'The Special One' Mourinho has coached Benefica, Porto, Chelsea, Internazionale... and now, Real Madrid.  A talented manager with hugely talented players like Cristiano Ronaldo, right now Mourinho has Real Madrid peaking and hungry.

And they are on a collision course with mighty Barcelona, their arch-rivals.  'El Clasico,' the greatest football Derby in the world, FC Barcelona vs. Real Madrid, is on November 28th at Camp Nou.  The winner will likely take the league championship.