FC Barcelona vs. Real Sociedad, 5-1
Today was Barcelona's first competitive match of the 2012-2013 season, a La Liga home game against Real Sociedad. It was Tito Vilanova's first La Liga match as team manager following the departure of his boss Pep Guardiola, and it turned out to be the debut as well of newly signed left back Jordi Alba and recently recovered striker David Villa.
And although my boys got off to a bit of a shaky start, they did not disappoint. Team captain and central defender Carles Puyol opened the scoring in the first four minutes with a beautiful header off Xavi Hernandez' corner kick. Disturbingly, Chory Castro snuck behind Barcelona's defense and beat Victor Valdes to score just four minutes later. But three minutes after that, Leo Messi decided to get a head start on this year's race for Pichichi and scored a sweet goal... and another one about three minutes later! Pedro scored one more goal for Barcelona before halftime off a beautiful pass from junior winger Tello, who was reading the game much better tonight than he had been last season. Tello assisted Messi's second goal as well, and both he and Pedro were involved in Messi's first.
But the biggest applause greeted the entry of David Villa, who broke his tibia in the Club World Cup semifinals last December and has been struggling to get match fit again ever since. I literally had tears in my eyes as Pedro passed the baton... and then again when Villa scored off Andres Iniesta's assist a few minutes before the end of the match. And Villa was prepared - he tore off his jersey to reveal a t-shirt with a picture of his wife and daughters that read, "Imposible sin vosotras" ("Impossible without you"), and was promptly booked. (Players are not permitted to reveal writing of any kind, but the Barcelona players regularly flout this rule to celebrate Mom's birthday, commemorate tragic events, etc.)
Cristian Tello on WhoSay
So all in all, a nearly perfect first match of the season, and no doubt bitter news for Real Madrid, who drew Valencia 1-1 at home today and suffered a series of unpleasant injuries (Pepe has been hospitalized for observation after a nasty collision with Iker Casillas). The two teams meet for the first leg of the Supercopa in the Camp Nou on Thursday. Visca el Barca!