El Clasico Liveblog

Below is 6-3 DP’s Liveblog of the 11/29/2009 match between Real Madrid and Barcelona.

• 10:51 AM: 10 minutes until kick-off, and Gol TV is doing lengthy pre-game. So far, it’s pretty awkward for the American announcers to translate on the run.
• 10:53 AM: Barca line-up: Valdes, Pique, Puyol, Abidal, Alves, Busquets, Keita, Xavi, Iniesta, Henry, Messi
• 10:53 AM: Real: Casillas, Albiol, Pepe, Arbeloa, Ramos, Lass Diarra, Alonso, Ronaldo, Kaka, Marcelo, Higuain
• 10:56 AM: A quick note for Welcome to Soccer readers. This match is the biggest club rivalry in the world. You can ascertain why based on the clubs post in the series. This year, the drama revolves around the addition of the new galacticos at Real. Albiol, Alonso, Ronaldo and Kaka are all big, expensive additions. There were questions about whether both Messi and Ronaldo were going to play from injuries, but they’re both in the line-up. Ibrahimovic is on the bench.
• 11:03 AM: Kick-off.
• 11:06 AM: Barcelona is behind Real by one point, so a win here will give them a 2 point lead at the top of La Liga. (Non-WtS readers will be annoyed by the things I’m saying that everyone knows, maybe, but I don’t even know if there are any non-WtS readers.)
• 11:07 AM: Beautiful back-heel pass from Messi to Iniesta. Both teams are out with full energy, as you’d expect.
• 11:08 AM: Technical note. You’ll have to refresh the page to get updates, unfortunately, since I’m completely useless with figuring out how to do this stuff automatically.
• 11:11 AM: Real’s attack looks potent, and a lot faster than they’ve been in recent years. If Manuel Pellegrini has learned to appreciate Higuain, I’m not going to be able to like him anymore.
• 11:11 AM: Higuain, I mean. I never liked Pellegrini.
• 11:13 AM: Long-shot from Xavi goes just over the bar. Both sides are so fast, it sometimes looks like there’s 20 men to a side.
• 11:14 AM: Last time out, Barca became the first team ever to score 6 goals as a visitor at the Santiago Bernabeau, Real Madrid’s stadium. Real won’t want to just win, here, they’ll want to destroy.
• 11:16 AM: Very nice ball from Inieista, about half a step too fast for Xavi to collect it in the box.
• 11:17 AM: You could tell which team is the heroic republican defense force and which is the brutal fascist invader just by looking at the managers. Will Real ever hire a manager that doesn’t look like a Bond villain?
• 11:18 AM: The Real-as-fascist thing doesn’t work as well, though, when they’re playing this kind of open, attacking soccer. The horribly effective albeit unattractive industrial-revolution machine days of Capello and Schuster may be over.
• 11:20 AM: Has there ever been such a famous and great athlete who was so completely unlikeable as Cristiano Ronaldo? Barry Bonds doesn’t come close. Maybe Kobe Bryant.
• 11:24 AM: Oh, what a save from Valdes. Kaka sets up Ronaldo, who’s one-on-one with the Barca goalkeeper. Victor kicks it away and Ronaldo looks like a kid about to throw a temper tantrum.
• 11:24 AM: The Real attack is pouring in, now.
• 11:31 AM: Barca’s defense has been rock-solid, but they just can’t get past midfield. Xabi Alonso is playing very well.
• 11:35 AM: The home team is starting to hold on to possession. Hats off to Real that they haven’t gone to hacking at Messi’s knees like they did the last couple of years.
• 11:35 AM: Ho, ho. And Seydou Keita puts his shoulder right into Sergio Ramos’ ribs. Who needs Yaya?
• 11:39 AM: This, friends, is a case study in why goals alone don’t make a game entertaining. The teams have taken turns stringing passes together and threatening. There’s been excellent last-stand defense from both sides. Everyone is sprinting everywhere. Yeah, okay, Real’s been a little better so far. But this is a really compelling match. The midfield battle is as intense as I’ve ever seen.
• 11:40 AM: I can never think of any words to describe Sergio Ramos that wouldn’t draw protests from GLAAD.
• 11:43 AM: Gol TV has all these “exclusive views” that follow individual players and look like they’re filmed with iPhones.
• 11:51 AM: Okay, half-time. 0-0, and it’s been a very tense and entertaining first half. Real had about a 10 minute spell where they looked like dominating the match, but a good save by Valdes and a beautiful slide tackle from Puyol stopped their two best chances. Real is stifling Xavi and Iniesta, which is all you really have to do to beat Barca. (Right, and it’s usually so easy.) Surely we’ll see Ibrahimovic in the 2nd half.
• 11:59 AM: I in part blame the fact that I woke up just in time for the game for the fact that I’m totally unable to explain how good this match has been.
• 12:07 PM: And off we go. Pep Guardiola’s got to have made some adjustments during half-time. And Ibra’s warming up.
• 12:09 PM: Keita makes a badly-time but not particularly hard challenge on Pepe, who starts screaming and rolling around like he got knifed. As Dani Alves hasn’t done the same thing yet, I think it fair to complain about this.
• 12:12 PM: The first five minutes of the second half have been all Barca, but they still can’t break the last Real defenses.
• 12:13 PM: Ibrahimovic on for Henry. The Frenchmen was a non-entity in this game. Ibra’s got a nasty reputation for being unable to perform in big matches, which he could make a step away from here.
• 12:16 PM: Holy shit. Barca strings together some beautiful passes, but can’t find the way through. It goes out for a corner, then Xavi crosses in a nice ball that can’t find a head. A lightning-quick blitzkreig counter-attack from Real sees Higuain through on goal only to be stopped at the last minute by a diving Carles Puyol. Wow.
• 12:20 PM: GOAL BARCA! Zlatan Ibrahimovic! A move started by a lovely Pique stop of Ronaldo gets up to Dani Alves, who plays a pitch-perfect cross to Ibra, who taps it in on the most powerful shot a man could achieve on something I call a tap-in. Ray Hudson is halfway to an aneurysm in the Gol TV booth. Lovely move by the home team, and Iker Casillas is going to have to quit looking dumbfounded at every ball that comes near him in these matches if he wants to keep being called the best goalkeeper in the world.
• 12:22 PM: Real’s getting their reinforcements ready, but they look rattled.
• 12:24 PM: Drama, drama, drama. Sergio Busquets gets his second yellow card on a very, very, very stupid handball. Now the club’s got to hold on to their lead with 10 men.
• 12:28 PM: Cristiano Ronaldo’s off for Karim Benzema. Yaya Toure’s on for Keita.
• 12:31 PM: Inches wide from Pique on the free kick. It’s pretty hard to tell Barca’s down a man, honestly.
• 12:33 PM: Kaka makes a stunning move off the dribble in the box to spring an open Benzema, but Puyol once again comes sliding in out of nowhere to save a goal.
• 12:36 PM: And Arbeloa off for Raul, the captain.
• 12:45 PM: Real can’t break through, and Barca are dominating possession.
• 12:51 PM: Messi point-blank after a brilliant pass from Alves, but saved by Iker. It was an easy one for Leo.
• 12:52 PM: 10 men each now, as Lass Diarra is sent off with his second yellow after a brutal tackle on Xavi. Oh, just like Real to get thuggish when they get frustrated. Maybe we can get a headbutt to the chest before the end of the match?
• 12:57 PM: And the match is over. 1-0 is the final. Incredible match, all around. Real comes in and completely controls the first half, only to be stopped time and again by individual brilliance from Valdes, Puyol and Pique. Ibrahimovic comes on and immediately puts his side ahead. Busquets goes off and Barca play half an hour a man down, still managing to maintain possession. Lass Diarra is sent off at the end. Wow, what a match. What a match.