Pedro dressed as Messi, and the kid from Abades played as good as or even better than the child from Rosario. Pedro’s merit was that he made the difference when Barça played as if Messi was in the pitch. The player from Tenerife excels himself so much each season that yesterday he looked like the Holy Trinity. Undetectable as striker, he leaded the team from a fake nine position and he closed the match with two goals. He’s already made 10 in the last 11 fixtures.
The good is Pedro, a universal player, an excellent expert on the mechanics of the Barcelona game and, at the same time, one of its best resources thanks to his skills to find the holes, to support and give space to the defenders and wingers, and to shot, indistinctly, with both legs, to fix the problems his mates have. Pedro doesn’t only score decisive goals, but he already plays like Messi.
Barça was lucky to count on Pedro because it’s always hard for the team to get fit after Christmas, and even more if when it returns it finds a bare pitch because the winter cold, the rival wraps up and the defense line is affected by the two central defenders’ absence, one banned (Piqué) and the other injured (Puyol), and missing Messi, who had Christmas holidays until yesterday, when he arrived at Camp Nou.
Messi is the key of the Barça game. “La Pulga” (the flea) gives sense to the game without a permanent nine, because he can combine perfectly either to play a one-two or a triangle or to shot to the goal, a collection of virtues very difficult to defend. Yesterday Messi’s absence was evident. Gathered, Levante didn’t cede any inch of the ground to Barça, which was too slow, lacking of dribbling and through passes and slow-paced when touching the ball. Such kind of matches normally require conventional chances to resolute them. Some times it’s enough with the strategy while some other times a mid range kick is necessary. This is not normally the case of Barcelona, because it doesn’t have specialists for such kind of moves. Goals can’t come in any way, and certainly not from a corner kick, a free kick or a rebound, but necessarily they have to come in accordance with the team’s game.
The Barça Schedule sets that, in Messi’s absence, the team is leaded initially by Iniesta, so that the striker made a good game until the half time: excellent at the one versus one, followed both areas’ lines, made a couple of assists and even made a shot more proper to Keita due to its distance. With the passing lines blocked, the solution was Iniesta, the only one able to change the match’s pace and also to generate suspense.
The problem was that there wasn’t any striker to continue Iniesta’s imbalance. Levante perked up until causing a physical exhibition of Abidal, excellent at his pace and anticipation, more awake than Busquets, whose contribution as a right footed central was futile, as he was too far from Xavi and Iniesta. There weren’t any long or short attacks in Barça, because Levante was defending so at the back that didn’t allow any pressure.
Given the things were that way, Pedro started to play as he was Messi, like a put back and centered number nine, ready to combine and shot. The team saw Messi in Pedro’s figure and so it decided the match with two similar moves. Xavi opened to Alves and the Brazilian’s assists was shot by Pedro, unerring both times. The first opportunity was difficult, because Alves faked three times before passing the ball to Pedro and the second was easier, very well combined.
Not any lucky goal but both resulted of billiard moves, the Barça’s rule. Once the match was resolved, Barça embellish itself with Thiago’s dribbling, who stared in a move proper to Pelé due to how he stopped the ball and played it with fakes, turns and touches until leaving it to Pedro’s foot, who shot to the goalpost. The skilled moves, the changes and the effort to play the ball at the most difficult situations strengthen Levante.
Stuani shot with the left foot a soft assist of Valdo and caused a tough ending for Barça and a hopeful one for Luis García’s players, who left the Stadium with his goalkeeper Reina going to shot a free kick and claiming a penalty to Abidal. Fortunately for Barça, Pedro’s goals were valid, the best present for Xavi, who was paid tribute because equaling Migueli at the number of matches played with Barça (549).
In a moment where the team had lost his best state of form after the holidays, blocked and lacking of skill and through passes, Pedro was the best remedy against the monotony and the monothematic game, thanks to his complete football skills, to his ability to shot and surprise the public, to his capacity to play and make everything, and make it well, even as Messi. Pedro is worth his weight in gold.
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