Football is cooked in the center of the field, and more so at Barça, where the engine room is the Sistine Chapel. But football is decided in the areas. A team can dizzy the partridge like a convict and remain composed and without a girlfriend (triumph) if it is weak in its own area and innocent in another's. On the other hand, sometimes it is not necessary to play the magic flute if there are specialists of the first magnitude at both ends of the field. Barça has them. In goal he has recovered a Ter Stegen reminiscent of a few years ago and up front he has signed a Lewandowski who is always on guard. The German broke his unbeaten record in the League and stood at 534 minutes. "The victory is more important than my record, but this gives me more conviction," he explained. The Pole scored his 12th goal as a Barcelona player, the ninth in the championship in just seven days. At this rate, the former Bayern player will complete records that Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo had only produced in these parts.
With the goal is born but the goal is also worked. It's an instinct, as you can see in the 0-1 action, when Lewandowski receives, cuts and shoots with a movement that is as natural as it is automated.
He knows what he is going to do, when he is going to do it and how he is going to do it. But there is a lot of dedication behind it. This week, after returning from the national team, Xavi gave him a party but the Pole showed up at the sports city to prepare his body and to maintain his strength. The goal goes with him but not by chance. In four of the seven league games Lewandowski has opened the can. An issue that is priceless against ultramontane rivals. Javier Aguirre already said it the day before. “He sends it to you to save in a second.” A Mexican expression to portray that the striker first snaps and then asks. Always attentive to what's going on between central defenders, Lewandowski doesn't shy away from pressure either. If he has won over the locker room it is because he leads by example.
If Lewandowski scores goals, Ter Stegen avoids them. From the first day of the campaign it was seen that the German had recovered the angel that he lost last season. This summer he did not have knee surgery, as had happened in the previous ones, nor did he leave with the national team. He just rested and got stronger. He never abandoned a supine level of self-confidence but now the facts prove him right again. "I'm doing everything to stay 100% and you can see that in the games."
He has only conceded one goal so far in the league. He beat Isak at Anoeta on matchday two, but since then he has kept a clean sheet. Not even the losses in defense of Koundé and Araújo changed this dynamic and he contributed his own, with a point-blank save after Jaume Costa's shot. “It was an important action given how the game went after”, admitted the goalkeeper.
It was not his only intervention of merit in the game because he later repelled a poisoned shot from Sánchez. He is safe again. Save points again. He is 30 years old. An ideal age for a goalkeeper.
With a route behind and a highway ahead. At a game and a half away, he has the best record of Víctor Valdés and two and a half that of Claudio Bravo, who holds the unbeaten record for a Blaugrana goalkeeper. One day the German and the Chilean vied for the position. Ambitious as Ter Stegen is, he also has that milestone to overcome. Barça treasures two mattresses. One in each area. They are a treasure.
