Getting back to Saudi Arabia, the Spanish Super Cup is being played there right now. They have a contract to host it through 2029. The La Liga officials who made the deal dismissed all complaints about Saudi Arabia’s human rights policies with a ‘we prefer to focus on the positive strides they are making’ statement, which, of course, is b.s. Then, the league officials sat down with the man who ordered the beheading of an American journalist. The crowds were nowhere near the size they would have been in Spain, but the money the Saudis paid obviously made it a profitable venue.
Even though it’s Winter there, it was really hot. Both semis went to extra time and then PKs. The players were exhausted.
As for the matches, Real Madrid and Barcelona both won on PKs. Ancelloti played it very smart. He rested his oldest starters. Modric and Kroos, until extra time, then substituted them in during extra time so they would be available for PKs. He had his best PK takers available for the PKs.
As a coach, Xavi was a train wreck. He took out Dembele and Frenkie De Jong shortly after halftime. They had been Barca’s two best players until then. Dembele was a consistent threat down the left (although he prefers playing on the right) and setup a goal disallowed by a very weak offside call. By contrast, Rafinha offered nothing down the right and should have been subbed out. With De Jong as the Central Midfielder, Barca was overwhelming Real Betis in midfield. They had 81% possession for the first 25 minutes and were a constant threat the entire first half.
So, Xavi replaced them with Ferran Torres and Busquets, and the tide of the game changed 180 degrees. Betis suddenly had free reign through the middle and started getting frequent dangerous attacks.
I have never seen even 10% of the hostile comments Xavi got on Twitter yesterday questioning whether he should remain as coach. When they got to extra time, he had a strange group of penalty kick players, but Betis had 38 (at least) year old Claudio Bravo in goal and he didn’t come close to saving anything.
Earlier, Barca had taken the lead in extra time in a wonder goal by Ansu Fati, a tremendous volley. Xavi then substituted Marcos Alonso on as a defensive replacement, to the horror of Barca fans, and sure enough an Alonso mistake helped Bettis tie the match. Playing a relatively small number of minutes, Alonso has been on the pitch for almost every goal given up by Barca this season.
Xavi was a deity in Barcelona because of his career. No longer.
The finals, a miniature El Clasico, will be on ABC this weekend.
