The 2012-2013 season just concluded and our beloved Barça competed for four cups. In the end, they succeeded in winning one out of four competitions by capturing their 22nd league title and ended the season on a positive note when they managed to reach 100 points and finish 15 points ahead of Real Madrid atop of the standings. So, as we enjoy the summer break before another season is upon us, it’s time to hand out the awards.
A season in transition as Tito Vilanova, and at times Jordi Roura, managed the club after Guardiola opted not to return to Barça for another season. Nevertheless, FC Barcelona continued to add trophies to the trophy case with the capture of their 22nd league title. Sadly, there is still the lingering sting from the Bayern Munich 7-0 aggregate thrashing in their sixth consecutive UEFA Champions League Semi-Finals. Furthermore, there were some sad farewells with Abidal not returning and perhaps other players too bidding farewell to their Barça playing days.
The season started off with the team losing to Real Madrid in the Super Copa with sloppy play from Valdés and the back four would turn out to be a common theme for the rest of the season. FC Barcelona did have enjoy a great first half of the season as they were still competing in all 3 competitions and enjoyed an astonishing 18 point lead over their arch rivals, Real Madrid by setting a new Spanish record of accumulating 55 points from 19 matches.
Unfortunately, the club failed to make use of that great gap and once again, we saw an exhausted and unfit Barça struggle in the second half of the season. Barça were eliminated by Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey Semi-Finals and could not defeat a makeshift Madrid team in league play the same week. Fatigue and injuries would also affect Barça, with Messi struggling with injuries, as they were manhandled by Bayern in the Champions League after struggling to eliminate the likes of Milan and PSG.
Barça though would end the season on a positive when they captured the league title by reaching 100 points although they would be without Messi’s services in the final month or so. Messi still managed to win another FIFA Golden Ball and won the league’s Pichichi top scorer award again. We also had to say a sad farewell to Abidal when the club announced they would not be offering the inspiration player a new deal and others might soon follow suite and leave the club as well. So, as we enjoy the summer break before another season is upon us, it’s time to hand out the awards.
Messi scored 38 goals from 29 matches halfway through the season. Although he was ruled out of action near the end of the season, he still managed to score 60 goals in 50 matches and win the Pichichi with 46 goals. I did state in my midseason awards that “Barring any injury, the sky is the limit for Messi as he keeps doing what he loves to do; win”. Sadly, the injury he picked up against PSG made him ineffective in the first leg of the Bayern 4-0 loss and would not feature in the second leg 3-0 loss. Nevertheless, he essentially was the big reason why this club won its 22nd league title and hopefully he will learn to take it easy next season and not play in every single match. He is human after all.
Best Goal: Messi v Athletic Bilbao
This is usually a tough one but even though we saw some great goals so far this season from Adriano, David Villa, Iniesta, Xavi and Jordi Alba, Messi’s goal against Athletic Bilbao simply stood out from the others. It was artistic and the closest thing I have seen to resemble art in motion. Messi just simply took on four Bilbao players and displayed his amazing grace on the ball as he managed to glide each one of them before unleashing a powerful shot that Gorka could not stop. It simply was a footballing masterpiece by one of the all-time greats of the game who keeps making it look easy even when playing hurt.
Best Assist: Xavi to Villa against Milan
Barça’s style means we get to see a lot of assists but for me, Xavi’s through ball to David Villa against Milan was the best one for me this season. Barça needed a third goal against Milan and the ease with how Xavi delivered that through ball with his only touch, with such vision and precision, to find Villa inside the box was one of the best things I saw this season. Sadly, we don’t get to see too many of these superb through balls from Xavi and hopefully we’ll see more next season.
Best Game: FC Barcelona 4-0 AC Milan.
This game was nearly perfect. We saw the Barça of old that we were accustomed to seeing under Pep. Barça’s performance was daring, courageous, energetic, and totally in control. They hounded Milan all over the pitch and Messi scored a great brace in the first half before Villa and Alba scored in the second half to overcome the disappointing 2-0 first leg loss. Wish we saw more of than the rest of the way.
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Although his performance dipped a bit in the second half of the season, Jordi Alba still was a great transfer by Barça. As I said back in January, his arrival has been so good that people seem to forget about Dani Alves as the club’s most explosive fullback. Jordi has fit in perfectly without any adjustment period and already looks like someone who has been on this team for years. His goal against Milan will be remembered for quite a long time.
Tello’s progression was one of the positives of the season. The young man went from the player who just aimed for the goal to one who could cause problems with his shooting and passing. Barcelona media compared some of his goals to those of Thierry Henry and it was fully justified. For some inexplicit reason, Vilanova never turned to him in the big games. He was in the stands for the first leg against Bayern and never left the bench in the second leg. The sky is the limit for Tello and here’s hoping he’ll continue to improve and that he is still with the team for next season.
Unfortunately, not too many young players got to play much with only Bartra and Montoya featuring when needed. Cuenca won this last season with Tello also impressing and he did well this season too. Montoya, whenever he was not neglected by the manager, filled in for Dani Alves superbly on two different occasions against Real Madrid. He scored in the team’s final league match and one hopes he will feature more, along with Bartra, next season, and not be omitted from the squad when rotations are needed.
For the second year in a row, Cesc sadly wins this award. I was in favor of the club signing him from Arsenal but his time with the club thus far has been disappointing. He still stood out after the disappointing seasons from the likes of Pique, Mascherano, Pedro, Alexis and Dani Alves to name a few. He seemed to have finally snapped out of his funk only to fall back into during the second half of the season. Yes, it is true that he finished second behind Messi with his 11 league goals and finished the season with 14 goals and 12 assists. However, he was supposed to be a part of the puzzle for Barça. Yet, where was he for the big games? He did not feature in the 4-0 Milan win and 4-0 Bayern loss and was either a substitute or was subbed off against Madrid and PSG. This was the same problem last season but we’re still trying to figure out how to best utilize Cesc. He failed to impress on regular basis and now we have to weather a summer of transfer rumors linking him with a return to England.
2012-2013 started off with a bang and the club endured a blip in form near the end, but it was a successful one nevertheless. More importantly, we saw Abidal and Tito battle back from their medical problems and return to us which is the biggest prize of them all. Here’s hoping that next season will be even better where the awards will be less harsh on some of the players.
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