Football Club Barcelona closed 2023 with a bad taste in its mouth after being defeated this Thursday in its friendly in Dallas (United States) against Club América (2-3), current Mexican champion, with a team full of young people and with few minutes for the regulars. The friendly in the USA was set on a particularly uncomfortable date for both teams. Barcelona landed in Texas 24 hours after winning the last official match of the season against Almería (3-2), while América had to interrupt the celebrations of its fourteenth league championship won this Sunday after beating Tigres UANL 3-0 .
Perhaps for this reason, in Xavi's very young eleven only Joao Félix and Christensen repeated their starting positions compared to Wednesday, and goalkeeper Ander Astralaga and defenders Pau Cubarsí and Gerard Martín made their debut in the first team. The fast play brought about by the rain starred in the first minutes of the game and Lamine Yamal did not take long to make the score 1-0 in the 6th minute after starting a play from the right side, marking an excellent diagonal to the center, going into the area and beat the goalkeeper with a not very fine shot.
As is usual at the beginning of the season, the Catalan team's joy was short-lived, as the Mexicans responded in the 12th minute with a backheel from Colombian Julián Quiñones, who had time to control the ball in the small area assisted by Alejandro Zendejas against Cubarsí's weak mark. As the minutes passed, the game lost intensity and the teams abandoned high pressure, but opportunities continued to come from both sides.
In the 28th minute, Héctor Fort starred in a beautiful association play with Lamine Yamal and Unai and crossed from the right for the first shot in the small area by Marc Guiu, who once again showed that he has a scoring nose that Barcelona is lacking. . With the score at 2-1, the break was reached, but not before Ander Astralaga excelled with a great save by extending his foot against a close-range shot by Leo Suárez.
América came out of the locker room more focused and took advantage of a double error by Barcelona to tie the score again in the 50th minute again thanks to Quiñones after snatching the ball from Cubarsí, who fell in the area when he already had control of the ball.
Andre Jardine and Xavi rotated most of their players in those first minutes of the second half, changes with which the Mexicans gained control and possession. The Barcelona coach brought on players like Ferran Torres and Robert Lewandowski, although the majority of the eleven was still with youngsters who are usually under the command of Rafa Márquez at Barcelona Atlètic.
In the 82nd minute, Henri 'La Bomba' Martín culminated Las Águilas' comeback with an unorthodox header from a great cross from the left by Diego Valdés, to put the final 2-3 on the scoreboard and give joy to the fans, mostly Mexican, who did not fill the stadium.
In this way, Club América won the friendly tournament against a financially needy Barcelona that returned to Spain with a loot of around 5 million euros just for participating.
2. Barcelona: Ander Astralaga (Diego Kochen, min.62); Gerard Martín (Cancelo, min.72), Pau Cubarsí (Mamadou Fall, min.72), Christensen (Mika Faye, min.46), Héctor Fort; Marc Casadó (Pau Prim, min.72), Unai (Fermín, min.72), De Jong (Oriol Romeu, min.46); Marc Guiu (Lewandowski, min.76), Lamine Yamal (Ángel Alarcón, min.62), Joao Félix (Ferran Torres, min.46).
3. Club América: Luis Malagón (Oscar Jiménez, min.46); Israel Reyes, Salvador Reyes (Luis Fuentes, min.61), Kevin Álvarez (Emilio Lara, min.46), Ramón Juárez; Jonathan Dos Santos (Santiago Naveda, min.46), Alejandro Zendejas (Brian Rodríguez, min.61), Richard Sánchez, Leo Suárez (Diego Valdés, min.61), Julián Quiñones (Henry Martín, min.61); Jonathan Rodriguez.
Goals: 1-0: Lamine Yamal, min.6. 1-1: Julián Quiñónes, min. 12. 2-1: Marc Guiu, 28 min. 2-2: Quiñones, min.50. 2-3: Henri Martín, min. .82.
Referee: Elton García (United States). He showed Fermín yellow (min.85).
Incidents: Friendly match between Barcelona and Club América played at the Cotton Bowl Stadium in Dallas (United States).
