Barcelona Beats Real Madrid in First Leg of Supercopa

Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez celebrates with his teammates what proved to be the winning goal. (Andres Kudacki)

European football (soccer) is just getting underway into a new season. One of the most anticipated matchups throughout every season is El Clasico. This is any matchup between Spain's biggest club rivals, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. The first match between both these sides occurred yesterday. They were facing off in the first leg of two in the Supercopa.

The home side, FC Barcelona, came out strong at Camp Nou early. They controlled possession, tempo, and had multiple opportunities to score in the first half. Two of the best scoring chances came at the feet of Lionel Messi. Both times, he accomplished the difficult part of cutting through the Real Madrid defense to free himself for a shot in the box. Both shots though went begging just outside the respective posts. The sides went into the intermission still level at 0-0.

When the better team fails to put one in the net, it often seems to be that the team that is playing worse strikes first. That happened right away in the second half. In the 55th minute, Real Madrid earned a corner kick. Mesut Ozil sent the cross into the box, where Cristiano Ronaldo headed home the ball. Just like that, FC Barcelona, who had outplayed Real Madrid, trailed in the second half. That didn't stay that way for long. Under a minute later, Barcelona's Javier Mascherano played a beautiful ball over the top to Pedro, who buried it past Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas. All was level 1-1.

Both defenses began to get stretched as the match wore on. Real Madrid's defenders had been lucky not to get called for penalty kicks earlier in the game. Their luck ran out in the 70th minute when Madrid's Sergio Ramos took down Barca's Andres Iniesta in the box. Messi smoked home the penalty to put the home side up 2-1. In the 78th minute, FC Barcelona sealed the deal with little bit of their fabulous magic. Iniesta dribbled through three Real Madrid challenges to play a through ball to Xavi Hernandez, who played it by Casillas for the goal.

Now trailing 3-1, Real Madrid pushed the accelerator to try to get at least a goal back in the waning moments of the first leg. On the counterattack, Barcelona's Messi first had a chance to all but seal up the championship. His point-blank attempt was denied by Casillas. The save turned out to be huge as Real Madrid proved they weren't done yet. In the 85th minute, an error by Barca goalkeeper Victor Valdes led to an easy goal by Madrid's Angel Di Maria. Barcelona's lead was suddenly cut to 3-2. That will be the aggregate heading into the decisive second stage.

FC Barcelona outplayed Real Madrid in nearly every aspect of the match. The problem is that they didn't take advantage of more of the scoring opportunities they had could come back to haunt them in the second leg. If I were a Real Madrid supporter, player, or coach, I would be pleased with my side's result. For how poorly they played, they are heading home down just one goal. That is certainly a manageable deficit to overcome. It will be interesting to see how things turn out in the second leg on next Wednesday. In my opionion, the title is Barca's to lose at this point in time.