Barça Femení: Individual Growth and a Collective Scuffle
Highlighting a couple of excellent performances in Sevilla and a streak-snapping bummer at the Johan
Gradually… and then all at once.
It’s been a hell of a week for La Blaugrana.
I started the past week mapping out and not-urgently-enough writing about a couple of takeaways from Barça Femení’s 3-0 win last Sunday in Sevilla. The first took me back to a recent article on the backbone of a new-look Barça defense.
Martina: Maturing Before Our Eyes
No sooner had I posted that original piece praising Martina, Ingrid Engen, and Ona Batlle than Martina (and Engen as well, though she’s not the focus here) turned in if not her worst performance since becoming a first-team regular, then the one most glaringly littered with miscues. Oops!
Fortunately, a week after that outing against Levante Las Planas (the 9-1 final score obscures it but this is what it was), Martina started Barça’s Copa de la Reina opener against Albacete, played all 90 minutes, and scored the second in a 6-0 win.
The following week, she came on as a second half sub in both the semifinal and final of the Supercopa de España and helped hold down the fort in the combined 11-0 wins. She subsequently turned in a solid performance against Real Betis and a pair of excellent ones against Huelva and Sevilla.
Her wobbles seem to stem from trying to paint by numbers and consciously try not to make mistakes. In Sevilla, she played decisively, intelligently, instinctively, and maturely, keeping things moving in possession and serving as an excellent deep-lying security blanket.
Her game-high 133 touches yielded 127 attempted passes, of which 116 were completed - including 38 of her 44 passes of 15+ yards - 11 of which were “progressive” (10+ yards downfield), She also added five “progressive carries” (dribbles moving the ball 10+ yards downfield) and succeeded in her only take-on attempt. A pair of clearances, an interception, and a tackle were the finishing touches on her gem of an unspectacularly spectacular performance.
Barely a month after her 19th birthday. Martina’s seemingly worked out the distinction between leaning on positioning and a high on-pitch IQ to play error-free football without “trying not to screw up.” At the risk of jinxing her again, that bodes well for whatever comes next.
The Evolution of Clàudia Pina
Against the club with whom she spent 18 months (January 2020-June 2021) on loan, Clàudia Pina provided a look at her invaluable role in the future of this team’s attack. In a starting lineup without Caroline Graham Hansen or Salma Paralluelo, with Asisat Oshoala on her way out, and Alexia still injured, despite nominally starting on the left side of midfield behind a front three of Vicky López, Mariona, and Esmee Brugts, Pina got a largely unfettered crack at headlining the attack alongside reigning Ballon’d’Or winner Aitana.
To the surprise of no one in this household, she was outstanding. She kicked things off with a bang when she threaded an 18th minute strike from about 22 yards through four defenders, across Sevilla goalkeeper Esther Sullastres, into the bottom right:
In a pure “highlight” sense, we didn’t hear much more from Clàudia until the second half, when she thumped an Aitana pass toward the right side of the Sevilla net and only missed doubling her tally because of an excellent effort from Sullastres:
Throughout, though, she emanated comfort, confidence, and an understanding of her role. When possession was lost, if she wasn’t the one to regain it, her pressure prevented Sevilla from playing comfortably and short-circuited would-be attacks. In possession, she made plays that were there to be made and didn’t try to force the action.
Make no mistake, Pina remains spectacular, voracious, and “arguably the most innately ruthless attacker on Murderers’ Row.” However, she’s since grown into a playmaking attacker who’s capable of starting, going 90, and providing a constant threat - in this case, five shots, three on target, and that opening goal. Every bit as impressive was her all-around influence.
Of her by-far season-high 108 touches, 55 came in the attacking third. She completed 54 of 56 sub-15-yard passes and 15-of-19 15- to 30-yarders, including nine progressive passes and eight passes into the final third. She also added a team-high three tackles (one in each third of the pitch) and seven ball recoveries. That she “only scored a single goal” and that Aitana dished out a pair of beautiful assists in a two-minute span midway through the second half to triple the lead may (but should not) obscure the extent to which Pina dominated.
No member of this team was more displaced from her role to start the season than Pina. Last season, she and Mariona shared attacking playmaker (midfield) and playmaking attacker (“false 9,” if we must) roles. Alexia’s return in a new role effectively created a game of musical chairs for the third midfield spot opposite two of Aitana, Patri Guijarro, and Keira Walsh - with Jonatan Giráldez often opting for Mariona and Pina seemingly sliding down the pecking order.
It would be idiotic to argue against Mariona, who’s contributed to 17 goals (scoring ten and assisting on another seven) in 25 appearances and exerts her own awesome influence of games. At the same time, there’s no sense in denying Pina - who’d scored three and assisted three in four outings culminating with the Sevilla match - and her relentlessness, unflappability, and, lest we forget, grotesque talent, her place as a focal point of Barça’s attack today and for the foreseeable future.
Midweek Trauma
Had stuff not come up to start the week, I’d have gotten this all on paper and that would have been that.
Alas, Wednesday crept up rather quickly. So, I slid this to the back burner for a minute, figuring I’d simply gloss over the inevitable 2-/3-/4-0 win over Levante and we’d all get on with our lives. The worst that awaited me was updating some stats if Martina and/or Pina scored and/or assisted. Champagne problems.
At no point did I contemplate the possibility of spending the back half of the week, up to and including this Sunday’s showdown with Atlético de Madrid, reflecting on Barça’s first-ever non-win (after 79 straight wins) at the Estadi Johan Cruyff and the end of their 70-game home win streak (dating back five years and a day) in league play.
I’ve since spent a lot of time wrestling with this draft, sifting through stats, playing and replaying highlights, searching of “what it all means” while trying to avoid the “if you don’t know what to say, just write more and more” impulse.
On the one hand, this was inevitable. No one knew when these streaks would be snapped - and this team doesn’t invite such speculation - but they were going down sometime. And it’s not like they actually lost. Plus, both historically and today, there’s no shame in struggling with Levante UD Femenino.
This is a side that finished top-three every season between 1999-2000 and 2008-09, winning three league titles and five Copas de la Reina. After a rough last decade, they’ve returned to the league’s upper tier with third-place finishes in three of the four seasons before this one. They entered Wednesday’s match in the familiar confines of third, two points behind Real Madrid, with the league’s best non-Barça defense, having conceded just eight goals in 16 matches.
They’re led by the prolific duo of Gabi Nunes and 2023 World Cup winner Alba Redondo, who’s scored 39 goals in 60 in league play over the last two seasons, including a Pichichi-worthy 27-in-30 last season.
In last season’s visit, they held Barça goalless for the game’s final 50 minutes in a narrow 2-1 loss. Even in their 4-0 loss last November, they held Barça to a single goal until the 77th minute. This is a decidedly very-good team.
Of course, it also bears mentioning that these sides’ most recent encounter, on January 20 in the Supercopa de España final, was an unholy beating in which Barça led 5-0 at halftime, conspicuously downshifted in the second half, and still wound up with nearly twice as many goals (7) as Levante had total shots (4).
By every measure besides, y’know, goals, this game was a spiritual sequal. Total shots: 22-4. Shot on target: 8-1. Corners: 12-2. Goalkeeper saves: 7-0. Attacks: 156-50. Dangerous attacks: 139-23. This:
Of course, sometimes it’s just not your day. Like when someone who’s paid to make such determinations concludes that this eveidently does not run afoul of any rules:
Or, for instance, when your top-three Ballon d’Or finisher serves up a dime and the best player on Earth, who seemingly can’t help but score any time she takes the pitch, can’t find the mark:
Or, when an opponent whose nominal “attack” generated one shot and 0.02 xG more than I did in the first 45 collects a “nothing ball” more than 40 yards out, facing the wrong way, against momentum, as 19-year-old midfielder Érika González did, takes two touches and unleashes a gorgeous pass for what will be their only shot on target of the night:
More than anything, Wednesday night was a stark reminder of why this sport is so damn cruel and sometimes just plain stupid.
This isn’t me throwing my hands up and absolving Barça’s post-equalizer performance. That goal came in the 55th minute. There was more than enough time to do something about it. And Barça looked poised for an immediate response, first via a nifty Keira’s Walsh volley off of a blocked CGH shot…
… and then… crickets.
I’m not saying nothing happened in the half-hour following Walsh’s attempt but I also genuinely can’t find anything that warrants inclusion. During that time, in the 73rd minute to be precise, Clàudia Pina and and Vicky López came on for Salma Paralluelo (this I cannot understand) and Ingrid Engen.
A quick aside to catch up with our other original protagonsita: Like Pina, Martina started the game on the bench. She was called upon to warm up in the first half when a blow to the face bloodied Engen’s nose. Fortunately, Engen was able to continue and Martina spent the rest of the evening in the dugout.
Though both Pina and López found the flow of the game right away, Levante’s defense did well to stifle the Barça attack. In fact, it wasn’t until an 87th minute free kick from just outside the box that the Blaugrana had a bonafide opportunity to regain the lead.
As much I’d have loved to see Pina try to do this again from about the same spot, that the try went to CGH is exceedingly understandable. Unfortunately, rather than try to simply stuff the ball in the top corner, she flirted with the idea of a low shot and would up sending a disappointing, waist-high attempt into the wall:
Despite the preceding toothless 40 minutes, the game's dying moments presented Barça with one last spectacular opportunity to dodge this bullet, when, in the 95th minute, a perfect Ari Arias cross from the left found Vicky López’s head right in front of goal for for a thumped point blank attempt but goalkeeper Andrea Tarazona’s reflexes were up to the task:
Is This Something??
If that ball finds a spot on Vicky's head a centimeter or two in other direction, or if Tarazona is a tenth of a second slower, we’re trafficking in “champions always find ways to win” narratives.
So, while seeing this team scrounge around for the better part of an hour for an answer it could not find was certainly jarring, it’s tough to argue that this match unearthed some deep-seeded cause for concern. If anything, this is a stark reminder of just how relentlessly consistent (and consistently relentless) Barça Femení has been in recent years and, more broadly, just how much goes into continually winning, without fail, under any circumstances.