Despite fielding a depleted squad without first-line stalwarts Xavi, Puyol, Valdes and Alves, yesterday FC Barcelona put RCD Mallorca to the sword with a scintillating 3 - 0 performance that could easily have been more lopsided than the score suggests. The Baeleric islanders were hoping to equal their 1 - 1 draw against Barca from earlier this season, particularly as they knew that that many of Barca's best players would be absent from the match, but to no avail. Although Mallorca had a couple of chances early on, reserve Barca goalkeeper Jose Pinto was equal to the challenge, allowing Barca to open the scoring when Messia Wan Kenobi beat Mallorca defender Dudu Aouate in the first half, allowing Barcelona to head into the half with a one goal lead.
In the second half, Mallorca seemed overwhelemed by Barcelona's relentless ball control and persistent attacking, and one sensed that it was just a matter of time before they broke down. When Sergio Busquet split the Mallorca defense with a fine pass to David Villa, the Barca striker calmly rolled the ball past the goalkeeper and into the net, and the rout was on. Nine minutes later, Pedro unleashed an unstoppable cannon-shot from the edge of the box, and just like that the score was 3 - Nil. One sensed that Barca could have scored even more, but it didn't matter, as the game wistle mercifully ended the execution, extending Barcelona's road-match winning record in La Liga competiton to an astounding 19 games.
In related news, Real Madrid managed to post only a scoreless tie against Deportivo La Corunna, giving them only 1 point in leauge standings and extending Barca's lead to an amazing seven points. At this point in the season, with a seven point lead over Real Madrid, only a complete collapse by the Blaugrana would allow Real Madrid back into the race, and that does not seem likely to happen-- so far this season, Real Madrid has scored 55 goals, while the Barcelona trio of Messi, Villa and Pedro alone have scored 56 goals together. I call this, 'Jedi Soccer.'
“LIKE A JEDI KNIGHT— no, better than that— A TEMPLAR KNIGHT. This is a FLASH OF PURE INSPIRATION, and let me tip my hat to the genesis of this goal: Ibarra. Lionel only absolutely LIGHTS IT UP here, he LIFTS OFF IT, FLAMETHROWERS IT PAST poor Reny Vega. It’s just as well Reny didn’t get a hand to that because it would have TAKEN IT OFF HIS WRIST. Superlative football and an out of this world BERNINI SCULPTURE of a finish." GOL TV Commentator Ray Hudson
