FCBARCELONA.CAT

26.10.2008 19:40

History repeats itself (29-28)

Verònica Díez

Barça Borges lost at Universitario de Navarra by 29 to 28. It was the same story as last season, as a goal by Malmagro gave Portland the win. It was Barça’s first League defeat and knocked them off the top of the table.

Manolo Cadenas’s men couldn’t break the bad run of the last five seasons away in Navarre. After dominating the first half the Catalans were surprised by Portland San Antonio who made no mistakes against a weakening Barça defence.

Barça have the edge

Barça Borges and Portland San Antonio both came out all guns blazing at the start of the game. Barça’s defence dominated the first period and this combined with rapid attacks gave the Catalans the edge. Two counterattacks in a row by Juanín García left the scoreboard at 4-7. Shortly afterwards Mikkel Hansen put up the biggest lead in the game at 7-12.

Jóse Villaldea tried all possible combinations but nothing seemed to work, and the teams went in for the half-time break with the score at 12-16.

Portland come back

Portland scored the first two goals of the second half, and after nine minutes they were level at 17-17. From then on neither team could get away, though when Juanín García made it 21-23 in the 17th minute it looked as though Barça would take it. But Portland came back aggressively and managed to get back on a level footing to make the last few minutes into nail-biting stuff.

With 40 seconds left on the clock Cristian Malmagro made it 29-28 from the six metre line. Barça Borges didn’t throw in the towel and tried to get an equaliser in the time they had left with Laszlo Nagy as the keeper/outfield player. However, a final effort by the Hungarian came to nothing and Barça were squeezed out by one goal.