The Answer for Politics

Valladolid at home on grass that's wet with rain.

Barça haven't played in near a week and which face they're going to show is in question. Conflicted or cooperative.

Though the team is winning and in first, their game is best measured by the expression on coach Pep Guardiola's face. In today's first goal for the team, Dani Alves led a charge of the forwards rushing to meet his cross. A triumph of horse-power and adherence to a plan. But though they were on the board, Pep seemed unimpressed. Or distracted by some error in execution he'd detected in a play that still scored.



And even less than a minute later when Dani Alves broke out again to run the same bolt/cross. But none of his teammates present, he was forced to lob the ball into the far wall of the net just above the keeper's head. 2-nil. Alves does a little samba dance.

Go ahead, you earned it.



But later in the game, the goal would come that finally brought pleasure to the coach.

When Ibra broke out ahead of Valladolid as he got the ball in position to strike, he didn't get good first touch and the ball veered away from him. Rather than take a shot that was no longer ideal and force it, he hung back for a second, then quickly dished it to Messi who was charging up the field, still with intent for the strike. Messi blasts it in, 3-nil.

Guardiola jumps up, his face ecstatic. But he seems to be thrilled with Ibra for the pass. The assist is the most thrilling accomplishment in a team of superstar egos.

The pass notwithstanding, Dani Alves was for me, the man of the match. He also received notice from the Valladolid fans by hearing whistles every time he came near the ball following his blitzkrieg of the first half.

In a weird turn, Pique got a yellow card for parrying the ball off his hand midfield. It was just the type of touch that Henry did against Ireland while wearing the French jersey. Henry has not been at the top of his form. His fast dribbling with the ball up the top of the field is still thrilling to watch. But the drive up the field usually seems to end in a shot that is not as sharp as it was a year ago.

That rise and fall is what makes the assist so gratifying. As abilities go up and down, people feel compelled to vindicate themselves through their accomplishments. This is the "Ego game." It can turn into a vortex.

So as people watch and some mumble pessimistic missives about the turns of a player's career, the response that speaks louder than words is on the field of play. As we deal with the game our hearts are measured not in size but strength, and words are not measured at all.

Defenestration

The team is white-hot right now.

After a somewhat slow start-up in 2010, the Blaugrana has scored nine goals in the last two games. Today's victims: Sevilla.

The first half was a fireworks show for Barça: Henry scored early (his low number of goals not discounting the impact he has had on the team), followed by Sergio Bojan and then two more by Messi--his 100th and 101st for the team in his career. As the half clocked down, they were up 4-nil, and once the game had ended the 4-0 win was sealed. Sevilla had been defenestrated by Barça.



For a little while, it seemed that there were ego conflicts on the team. This looked apparent to me between Henry and Ibrahimovic as the superstar strikers would angle for the spotlight. But that tension has receded somewhat as the rest of the team have stepped up on the scoreboards.

And that pressure to score seemed like it was getting to Thierry. In what is probably among the weirder seasons of his career, Henry has gone from being one of la liga's highest scorers last year to almost vanishing from the board entirely while becoming an international pariah for his handball against Ireland in World Cup qualifiers.

He struggled with the team upon his arrival at the squad, and it looked like they had passed the awkward stage last year. But this season with the arrival of Ibra, the fit for Henry got cramped. Just how many gunslingers did this town have room for?

So while the egos collided, the other boys stayed on track and kept the game on the field. Which brings us to Messi's 14th goal in 15 games. He has stayed warm while the streakier players have flashed and cooled. And though this is almost certainly the last season that Henry will be at Barça (while there is chatter of him going to play in New York for the MLS next year a'la Beckham), the team has clearly marked it's future with their commitment to Leo.

The wave of the future, strong enough to blast Sevilla through a window.