Rain of goals to present candidacy for the Champions

BarcelonaIt is the Cup that everyone desires. The one that the 'barcelonistas' dream of, be it Lamine Yamal or an anonymous member. After two years of winning the League, the challenge is the big-eared cup and the final at the Metropolitano. The League is magnificent, but it does not quite fill the belly of a hungry team that, to debut in this edition, signed an offensive festival turned into a statement of intent. The competition is long, but Barça already commands respect after thrashing a Feyenoord that ended up drenched at the Camp Nou (5-1). They were hit by a downpour from the sky and a downpour on the grass led by Raphinha, who scores goals in twos. For the Dutch, it was a day to forget: they found neither the sun they thought they would find in Barcelona. Quite the opposite. The sky fell on top of them.

In contrast, Barça looks to the sky and flies high. This team has normalized scoring goals, as if it were easy. Against Feyenoord, Flick made rotations to test new players and give others a rest. Christensen entered in defense to keep Cubarsí company; Cancelo and Koundé played as full-backs, and Dani Olmo came on for Fermín. And in attack, since Raphinha and Lamine Yamal are untouchable, Karim Adeyemi had his first start stuck to the wing. And the Bavarian player came out eager to devour the world: he pressed a lot, moved up and down, and scored a signature goal. He received the ball stuck to the wing, looked for the angle to shoot, and sent the ball into the top corner. The former Borussia Dortmund player celebrated by doing his capoeira jump, a somersault on one leg that sparked euphoria in a stadium in need of warmth, since the match had started with a downpour that, fortunately, did not affect the pitch. The stands were a very different story, with leaks and puddles everywhere.

Adeyemi's goal was the second for Flick's team, as Barça had taken very little time to score the first thanks to Raphinha, who has started the season acting as a leader. He is one of those who show the way. An opinion leader who helps his teammates, a Drummer of El Bruc with a Brazilian accent. In Barça's first clear chance, he faced the opposing defense and, with a twist of his waist, shook off two rivals who slid past him on the grass. With a hip movement, as if he were dancing at a Carnival in his homeland, he created space for himself to beat goalkeeper Tjark Ernst. Two goals in a few minutes, both beautiful. The kind that justify leaving work early, enduring the rain on the way to the stadium, and arriving home with soaked feet. Barça had chances to score more goals, as Lamine Yamal is always up for some fun. The genius from Rocafonda went around handing out candies, as if it were a Sant Medir day, in the form of dribbles and magnificent plays in which he teased rivals. He still doesn't play the match at a high pace. From time to time, he rests and watches life go by. Aware that he needs very little to be the best in the world.

The Rotterdam team only managed to run by getting behind Cancelo as they kept looking for Hadji Moussa, the only one who could pose a threat. The Frenchman asked for a penalty and forced Joan Garcia to make a solitary save, the only one of the first half. The men coached by an old acquaintance, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, limited themselves to surviving in a match in which Rodri and Pedri secured possession. They didn't need to do anything out of this world. Just take care of the ball and deliver it to the players in front of them, who were in charge of doing their thing. Like Raphinha, who was in charge of scoring the third goal, the one that served to finally seal the match early in the second half. The Brazilian is capable of playing in the area where Lewandowski moved with ease a year ago, receiving the ball after a pass from Dani Olmo between two center-backs, with intelligence. He is the forward that this team needs. The leader, the man who brings to the pitch the demand that Hansi Flick has on the bench.

Lamine Yamal debuts with free kicks

Although Feyenoord celebrated a goal that would be disallowed for offside shortly after the 3-0, in a play where Joan Garcia asked his defenders for more intensity, the match was always played in one direction: the one decided by Barça. Every match, for the moment, ends the same way: with a rout and minimizing the rivals' virtues, who end up without an answer while Flick brings on players who maintain the level. A team in which everyone wants to score, as happens with Lamine Yamal, who ended up with the captain's armband when Raphinha received the well-deserved tribute from his fans. And the player from Rocafonda, shortly after, scored his first direct free-kick goal and, to celebrate it, he went to look for the Brazilian. Gabriel Jesus, with a great header turning his head, put the icing on the cake with the fifth. We have before us a team with so much hunger that, when in the end Feyenoord scored their consolation goal when the match was 4-0, Flick got so angry that someone could have thought he was losing the match. This is how winning projects are built, with this mentality.