El Clásico Immediate Reaction (Primera Iberdrola): FC Barcelona 9 - 1 CD Tacon

Out shot, outperformed, and outclassed — the first game of CD Tacon’s 2019/2020 season did not go well. However, this was to be expected. CD Tacon was facing off against a tough Barcelona team — who finished second in the season prior — in their first ever Primera Division game. While we all anticipated a blowout, I don’t think any of us expected a 9-1 score line that included both our first goal and our first own goal.

The first half saw four of the ten total goals scored, with the first coming in the first ten minutes of the game and the final three coming after the 27^th minute. For awhile, it looked like the game was going decently in our favor and that maybe we weren’t going to lose as badly as I thought. But then, the tide changed. Our own goal came in the 36^th minute, when Lucía Suarez turned and played the ball into her own net instead of clearing it out, giving Barcelona their third of the match.

The second half was far more painful as Barcelona’s shelling continued and CD Tacon’s defense continued to be picked apart. However, our brightest spot came in the 54^th minute, when Jessica Martínez scored a beautiful headed goal from a cross from Sofia Jakobsson. It was a short-lived reprieve as Barcelona came back to score just five minutes later and then scored three more times in regular time.

We have a lot of work ahead of us to get our women on par with the rest of the league, and it may take us a couple seasons to get there. We focused a lot on picking up offensive players this season (and they’re good players), but we seem to have overlooked improving our defense. More often than not, it felt like Tacon were scrambling to cover for mistakes on the pitch instead of working to anticipate Barcelona’s next steps. It will be interesting to see what changes are implemented between now and the next game to account for these shortcomings. We will face Sporting Huelva next, on September 15^th for our first home game of the season.