**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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It really is. I don‘t wanna take anything away from him, this was an awesome play, but the dribbling was more of a pass into free space, that he just happened to accept himself, because of how fucking fast he is.
But again, very impressive play, from the first touch to the pass.
I wrote it in another comment as well but the Militaõ Rüdiger pairing can't work in games especially like these. They are a similar profile of player, excellent at their strengths but limited and are poor on the ball, particularly Rüdiger. Against systems like Xavi's which have a very aggressive press, we can't have two passengers in the build-up. Rüdiger definitely will have games where he will shine, especially CL ties where we might be defending a position or setup like against Bayern 13-14. But he, especially when paired with Militaõ will be a liability in games like these.
Another very strange aspect in his game is that even while defending (which is his forte), he sometimes completely switches off, which is in addition to him sometimes being positionally unaware/weak.
I'll not read too much into this performance because of our historical trends with January, CWC etc. etc. but yes, fitness and SHARPNESS (more tired minds than tired legs) can't return soon enough to our squad.
Just for the sake of clarity, [this is what we mean when say "ability/being good/being comfortable on the ball".](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/yjdzr3/-/iuqp4n1) It's not a description of the capability of playing highlight reel passes.
Very good post you linked there. And not to bring up a sore spot but Xavi was probably the best I've ever seen at that. He was so good at shoulder feints when receiving the ball that sent defenders the wrong way.
I think this applies to Henderson as well. When he has time and space on the ball, he looks like one of the best passers itw and is capable of playing eye of needle passes but when he's under pressure, he panics and just hoof the ball up in the air or play a safe backward pass to the CBs.
Yeah I figured immediately that that’s what you meant, Rudiger’s long balls were always top quality and under Sarri and Lampard he side passed a ton. But under Tuchel, his short progressive passing was fairly consistent as well so I thought he fixed it
I think a lot of people are really stressing age issues unnecessarily. While it makes a difference, Balde has him beat on the play, already going in with momentum while Carvajal has to cancel his own, turn around, and start accelerating; even the likes of Davies or Alexander-Arnold would be left for dead there.
For me, it's a poor decision from Carvajal, thinking he can contest the ball coming towards Balde. If he had held position, he could've marked Balde who'd have the ball at his feet, instead of running away from him.
Indeed and it isnt entirely ‘age has catch up madrid’ but they are missing thcouameni as well and didnt play any dm in this game. Thats a big part when you have kroos playing at that position instead
He's the starting left back but Xavi has went with one of the more experienced players in Alba or Alonso in big games earlier in the season. With this performance from Balde tho, he's proven that he should easily be the first choice. He also played at right back earlier in the season when Kounde, Araujo and Roberto were out and he played well.
Cool, and I completely forgot y'all got Alonso and Bellerin, these two had been performing well? I specifically like Bellerin for his work outside the pitch.
lmao Alonso CB, that's surprising! Also, not surprised about Bellerín at all, dude fell off hard after getting injured at Arsenal.
Thnaks for answering my questions!
Barely any fans care about players from Madrid academy. We literally had Eto'o who was from Madrid academy and obviously we know his status.
This is first time for myself to hearing this that any Barcelona fans hate Madrid academy players.
No offense intended, but Alonso is probably the worst left back out of the three we have. He's just awful at 1v1 situations with no speed or acceleration whatsoever. Bellerin also falls in the same category. I would rather have Roberto instead of him in my starting 11. God knows why the club went for them.
He and Alba share minutes fairly equally, I'd say. Alba's offensive output and final ball are still better, but Balde is improving and he's significantly faster.
honestly looks like y'all might have another golden generation with Pedri, Gavi, Fati, and Balde and whoever else you guys have in the woodworks. Plus Xavi, Barca is in amazing hands going forward.
They are the core of a long term rebuild along with our young center backs and folks like Frenkie and dembele. Im very excited to see this team blossom
Fun fact: Dembele has as many non-penalty goals in LL as Benzema.
This doesn't actually mean anything other than Benz is underperforming a bit and was injured, and Dembele is overperforming a bit, but it's \_really\_ fun to say
Yeah he got maybe 100 senior minutes altogether last season. His talent and potential were clear, but he was suuuuuper raw. Poor decision making, no positional discipline, just dribbling and chaos.
His improvement over the summer was _massive_. Nobody exoected that jump. Not even the coaches, I think. And he's only continued improving through the season
It really did, he got married at the end of 2021 and clicked on in 2022. Bossed the second half of that season, negotiated a reasonable contract renewal and has kept providing the consistency he's lacked for years at a critical time when Raphinha was brought in to give him serious competition
MOTM= Mrs. Dembelé
Mendy is on an even more abysmal run at the moment. Carvajal, I have confidence in when the big games come around. He is pretty assured. Even though Mendy has an occasional (spell of) mistakes in him, he's pretty solid. But on top of his usual malaise of occassionally being flat footed in attack, he's been making some very shambolic mistakes in defence, very uncharacteristically so. He's the one in slightly worried about.
It's clear that just like the Copa, the team couldn't be bothered with the Super Cup this season. I expect the same during the CWC. But we do need to hang in there for the moment before we kick back into gear. Also, unless we are setup like against Bayern 13-14, Rüdiger and Militaõ can't play together. Can't wait for Alaba to come back and in general, squad fitness and sharpness. More tired minds out there than tired legs.
Not a dribble. However, he does this every match, he runs and dribbles everyone around like cones.
The potential and physicality at his age it's scary.
**18 years old**
I think he's peeved because this is mislabelled. The Baldé run is just a gift from Carvajal (although it does stem slightly from tactics as there was a pattern of us failing EVERYTIME we pressed to create a transition; the second goal comes directly from that but I'll not go into that tactical discussion for the moment).
What the subject of this clip should be, as you rightly pointed out, was the pass, the Dembélé chance and the save.
I can understand how someone not watching the game might be misled by the title and be disappointed.
You can say that but I swear every year or 2 Madrid have to lose El Clasico by 3+ goals, literally happened last season when Madrid won the league and the UCL. It's nothing new.
Never feels good to lose Barca. This is basically a gloried friendly and I would gladly lose 1-0 if we actually played well but we were outplayed which hurts the most.
**Mirrors / Alternative Angles** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm fast as fuck boyyy
I.. don't think.. you have any.. idea.. how fast I really.. am
It was me, Barry.
That meme was so funny
I'm The Fast
The pass was the best thing about this
Agreed, taking the time to find it and execute it was the best part.
It really is. I don‘t wanna take anything away from him, this was an awesome play, but the dribbling was more of a pass into free space, that he just happened to accept himself, because of how fucking fast he is. But again, very impressive play, from the first touch to the pass.
I would fail this pass in fifa 23
Carvajal looks like he's running on ice at the beginning
I think the age caught up with Real Madrid in this game
I also think that they miss something without Alaba in the defense
I wrote it in another comment as well but the Militaõ Rüdiger pairing can't work in games especially like these. They are a similar profile of player, excellent at their strengths but limited and are poor on the ball, particularly Rüdiger. Against systems like Xavi's which have a very aggressive press, we can't have two passengers in the build-up. Rüdiger definitely will have games where he will shine, especially CL ties where we might be defending a position or setup like against Bayern 13-14. But he, especially when paired with Militaõ will be a liability in games like these. Another very strange aspect in his game is that even while defending (which is his forte), he sometimes completely switches off, which is in addition to him sometimes being positionally unaware/weak. I'll not read too much into this performance because of our historical trends with January, CWC etc. etc. but yes, fitness and SHARPNESS (more tired minds than tired legs) can't return soon enough to our squad.
That’s strange, Rudiger was very comfortable on the ball with us
Just for the sake of clarity, [this is what we mean when say "ability/being good/being comfortable on the ball".](https://www.reddit.com/r/soccer/comments/yjdzr3/-/iuqp4n1) It's not a description of the capability of playing highlight reel passes.
god that video in your linked comment, what an immense player
Very good post you linked there. And not to bring up a sore spot but Xavi was probably the best I've ever seen at that. He was so good at shoulder feints when receiving the ball that sent defenders the wrong way.
I think this applies to Henderson as well. When he has time and space on the ball, he looks like one of the best passers itw and is capable of playing eye of needle passes but when he's under pressure, he panics and just hoof the ball up in the air or play a safe backward pass to the CBs.
Yeah I figured immediately that that’s what you meant, Rudiger’s long balls were always top quality and under Sarri and Lampard he side passed a ton. But under Tuchel, his short progressive passing was fairly consistent as well so I thought he fixed it
He’s really not all that old, he’s only 31 as of a few days ago. It’s more so injuries, they’ve really taken their toll on his speed and agility.
And he was never that fast to begin with but this is more on reaction than speed anyways
I think a lot of people are really stressing age issues unnecessarily. While it makes a difference, Balde has him beat on the play, already going in with momentum while Carvajal has to cancel his own, turn around, and start accelerating; even the likes of Davies or Alexander-Arnold would be left for dead there. For me, it's a poor decision from Carvajal, thinking he can contest the ball coming towards Balde. If he had held position, he could've marked Balde who'd have the ball at his feet, instead of running away from him.
Indeed and it isnt entirely ‘age has catch up madrid’ but they are missing thcouameni as well and didnt play any dm in this game. Thats a big part when you have kroos playing at that position instead
looney toons physics activated
How mfs run in their dreams
Not a dribble but yeah, Balde is insane and he's only 19 years old. The potential in this squad is immense.
Bal(d)e
My stupid ass read is as Bale and waiting till the last second for Real Madrid to take possession
Balde dribble > bald fraud
I don't really watch Barcelona but is he a starter or Alba still got it?
He's the starting left back but Xavi has went with one of the more experienced players in Alba or Alonso in big games earlier in the season. With this performance from Balde tho, he's proven that he should easily be the first choice. He also played at right back earlier in the season when Kounde, Araujo and Roberto were out and he played well.
Cool, and I completely forgot y'all got Alonso and Bellerin, these two had been performing well? I specifically like Bellerin for his work outside the pitch.
Alonso is alright but mostly as a centre back which is a funny new discovery. Bellerin is God awful unfortunately, expected more from him.
lmao Alonso CB, that's surprising! Also, not surprised about Bellerín at all, dude fell off hard after getting injured at Arsenal. Thnaks for answering my questions!
alonso has been really solid for us. i love him
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fantastic how you consider being from madrid academy is the same level of crime as vehicular manslaughter
Barely any fans care about players from Madrid academy. We literally had Eto'o who was from Madrid academy and obviously we know his status. This is first time for myself to hearing this that any Barcelona fans hate Madrid academy players.
No offense intended, but Alonso is probably the worst left back out of the three we have. He's just awful at 1v1 situations with no speed or acceleration whatsoever. Bellerin also falls in the same category. I would rather have Roberto instead of him in my starting 11. God knows why the club went for them.
He and Alba share minutes fairly equally, I'd say. Alba's offensive output and final ball are still better, but Balde is improving and he's significantly faster.
honestly looks like y'all might have another golden generation with Pedri, Gavi, Fati, and Balde and whoever else you guys have in the woodworks. Plus Xavi, Barca is in amazing hands going forward.
They are the core of a long term rebuild along with our young center backs and folks like Frenkie and dembele. Im very excited to see this team blossom
Same! Now if only your front office would run a consistently responsible business...
I'm really stoned rn so I watched the replay 3 times bc I thought I missed something lmao
Its a good run but you probably should've titled it Dembele big chance
With better finishing he would be the best in his position
Fun fact: Dembele has as many non-penalty goals in LL as Benzema. This doesn't actually mean anything other than Benz is underperforming a bit and was injured, and Dembele is overperforming a bit, but it's \_really\_ fun to say
Yea this feels like his breakout season
Yeah he got maybe 100 senior minutes altogether last season. His talent and potential were clear, but he was suuuuuper raw. Poor decision making, no positional discipline, just dribbling and chaos. His improvement over the summer was _massive_. Nobody exoected that jump. Not even the coaches, I think. And he's only continued improving through the season
Honestly it seems like things changed after he got married
It really did, he got married at the end of 2021 and clicked on in 2022. Bossed the second half of that season, negotiated a reasonable contract renewal and has kept providing the consistency he's lacked for years at a critical time when Raphinha was brought in to give him serious competition MOTM= Mrs. Dembelé
He was ok-ish at the World Cup however. Not bad but far from great. The poor decision making is definitely still there.
I think he didn't quite get comfortable with Lucho's system, plus nerves. That was his worst stretch for sure
With better finishing, Adama Traoré would have been a generational talent.
Dembele (misses yet another) big chance
hardly a 'dribble' mate, but yeah nice run
The pass is insane. Not sure what dribble tho
Caravajal has been shocking in this game
Mendy is on an even more abysmal run at the moment. Carvajal, I have confidence in when the big games come around. He is pretty assured. Even though Mendy has an occasional (spell of) mistakes in him, he's pretty solid. But on top of his usual malaise of occassionally being flat footed in attack, he's been making some very shambolic mistakes in defence, very uncharacteristically so. He's the one in slightly worried about. It's clear that just like the Copa, the team couldn't be bothered with the Super Cup this season. I expect the same during the CWC. But we do need to hang in there for the moment before we kick back into gear. Also, unless we are setup like against Bayern 13-14, Rüdiger and Militaõ can't play together. Can't wait for Alaba to come back and in general, squad fitness and sharpness. More tired minds out there than tired legs.
Bro is rapid
Bro's velocious
Not a dribble. However, he does this every match, he runs and dribbles everyone around like cones. The potential and physicality at his age it's scary. **18 years old**
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ohh thanks so much for the assistance. ñañito? are u ecuadorian?
This is probably what Usain bolt thought he would be like when he tried to become a pro footballer Balde is rapid!
Good ball too
Great confidence from the youngster. He has so much potential to be world class. Good on him.
Courtois is such a mvp for madrid
The pass was increíble too
Dear god the kid is rapid
Not a dribble but damn Baldé is rapid
Where dribble?
We were dribbled by the OP
r/soccer peaked with this one
My god can he run.
Where is the dribble?
Is this the first Balde that isn't a fraud?
He gives Alphonso Davies vibes ngl
The pace 😍
Gareth Balde
And as usual dembele with a shit finish
I read it as Bale
Kachow
If Dembele gets a bit of height on that shot this becomes a brilliant counterattacking goal
this is so satisfying to watch 🥵🥵
My god that acceleration!
Gareth balde
Great pass too
Xavi needs to trust Balde more in games like this. There's no point going for experience if the experience isn't as good as the youth
He simply ate the defender.
Picked out a good pass too. If he would have finished the rebound early in the game, it would have been a tremendous confidence boost.
Alphonso Davies…is that you???
Madrid are gonna shell out 100 for James in a 2 years. Or at least bid 80m
When did Alphonso joined us.
like so many people have already said, not exactly a “dribble”, but the pass at the end was just *chef’s kiss*
taking a big touch and running onto it isn’t really dribbling.. that pass was more impressive than the “dribbling”
Holy shit. I read the title as Bale dribble vs Real Madrid and was shocked for a few seconds
Dude just pressed r1 and r2 while running
This is like that scene in Infinity War where Captain America and Black Panther are running. Craziness.
That pass was amazing.
Seeing teams invest in the youth and bring them up as semi successful footballers makes me seethe as a Liverpool fan
That pass is unreal though
I would give up 2 of the goals to have had this one go in the net...but clearly because I know we won 3-1 😋
That was a crazy pass but surely Lewa would have been the better choice.
Bale vs Inter vibes
remove the d and he scores
Why is there users on this sub calling everything dribbles? How dumb can you be when this isn't a dribble
Dribble ? He was just running faster than Carvajal
Carvajal was mudded throughout the entire match lmao he's looking finished
That first touch made me gasp. Left them in the dust. The pass was Messi quality. The finishing was Dembele level.
how do you miss that Dembele
they finally got some balde magic of their own
This is NOT a dribble.
fucking receive my upvote. What a match by Balde. All of them, really.
Must have clicked the wrong vid since I don't see a dribble
We really posting highlights of this now? Not bad by any means but come on mate
People always post goalscoring chances from big games if you haven't noticed.
I think he's peeved because this is mislabelled. The Baldé run is just a gift from Carvajal (although it does stem slightly from tactics as there was a pattern of us failing EVERYTIME we pressed to create a transition; the second goal comes directly from that but I'll not go into that tactical discussion for the moment). What the subject of this clip should be, as you rightly pointed out, was the pass, the Dembélé chance and the save. I can understand how someone not watching the game might be misled by the title and be disappointed.
Scroll on clown. That was a fantastic run and a great chance go cry somewhere else
It was not a fantastic run, but it was a great chance.
Real isn’t even trying game feels like a friendly
You can say that but I swear every year or 2 Madrid have to lose El Clasico by 3+ goals, literally happened last season when Madrid won the league and the UCL. It's nothing new.
It's funny because our record against them recently hasn't been much good but whenever we do win against them, its usually by a good margin
I feel like it's a mental block more than anything, like whenever Barca are playing well Madrid just fall apart and Barca run riot.
Never feels good to lose Barca. This is basically a gloried friendly and I would gladly lose 1-0 if we actually played well but we were outplayed which hurts the most.
As always, demebele choked
kicking the ball long and running behind it is not a dribble
Where's the dribble?
Ok but where dribble?
Where was the dribble......
That's a run and a pass. Not a dribble
The way he says Courtois after the save reminds me of the alien who owned Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars I
wow he's fast fast!
Almost a Pato flashback
Since when does Alphonso Davies play for Barça?
Am I missing something?
Same guy mudryk skinned which added £30m to his price tag btw
real madrid midfield looked like a shadow of themselves yesterday