FC Barcelona - WOW !!!!

Round 7 and La Roca took on the mighty FC Barcelona A U19 team. This Barcelona team is arguably one of the best U19 womens club teams in the world. So La Roca knew they were in for a tough battle. That´s exactly what it was, extremely physical outstandingly technical and a battle from the opening minute until the final minute.

The speed of the La Roca players caught Barcelona off guard as the La Roca midfield won alot of ball, especially Natasha, Ainhoa and Capi and they would quickly drive La Roca forward to their fast attack. Barcelona scored first midway through the first half but La Roca were creating many attacks and had Barcelona rattled (which is not easy) finally scoring. They went into the halftime break at 1-1. That was the first WOW, that La Roca were very competitive with Barcelona and were in a position where they could win the game if they could play an equally good second half.

Natasha had been brilliantly effective in the first half accumulating a massive 10 ball wins (0 ball losses) and 22 posessions at 85% effective. This may not sound like much but for a game against Barcelona whose entire game plan is to maintain posession at all costs even if it means to pass along the backline for 5 minutes these are very impressive statistics.

The second WOW came in the second half as Barcelona produced one of the most impressive displays of football imaginable. The coaching staff obviously identified that Natasha was too effective in the midfield and that La Roca was attacking quickly from that so in the second half they played largely around the midfield and moved the ball more quickly. They did this with such precision and quality that at times they produced passages of play that included over 30 consecutive passes without La Roca touching the ball. Even though their second half goals all came from La Roca defensive errors we were fortunate to witness an outstanding display of football. Barcelona 4-1 La Roca.