With the weather being in the 90’s all day, the sun finally set on Soldier Field in Chicago as Las Chivas de Guadalajara and FC Barcelona went head to head in front of 40,717 fans. As the majority of fans were sporting the red and white stripes of Chivas, it was the Barca fans that relished in the offensive domination of the first half. Barcelona –without Lionel Messi who is taking part in the Olympics with his Argentina – would draw first blood as Xavier “Xavi” Hernandez would put his team up 1-0 in the 25th minute of play. Barca would take 3 more shots on goal, the first of three was a cannon off the foot of Barcelona’s midfielder Alexander Hleb but was stopped short. The second shot was deflected off the foot of Chivas goalie Sergio Rodriguez. It was in the 42nd minute of play that Hleb received the ball again and blasted a shot in the back of the net to put them up 2-0 as the first half closed out.
Picking up right where they left off, Barcelona’s forward Samuel Eto’o was finally put into play in the second half and shortly after that netted his first goal of the night in the 49th minute to put Barca up 3 nil. Barca stars Thierry Henry – who constantly pressured the Chivas defense in the first half – and Rafael Marquez would also not return for the second half. Chivas finally showed some life in the 58th minute as forward Jesus Padilla buried the ball in the Barca net to give Chivas their first goal of the night while giving the Chivas faithful something to cheer about as their team still trailed 3-1.
It was precision passing in the 72nd minute from Barcelona’s forward Eidur Gudjohnsen to Eto’o yet again as he added another goal for the night as his team took a commanding 4-1 lead over a visibly tired Chivas. Two players that still had some gas left in the tank were Guadalajara forwards, Marco Fabian and Javier Hernandez as they displayed superb teamwork as Fabian crossed the ball over the heads of Barca’s defense. Hernandez sprung up and flicked a powerful header in the close corner of the net to close Barcelona’s lead to only 2.
As fans were leaving Barcelona earned a corner kick in stoppage time and capitalized on it as number 2 Jose Martin Caceres put the final touches on a stellar night, adding one more for Barcelona as the whistle blew with a final score of Barcelona 5, Chivas 2.
Guadalajara head coach Efrain Flores was not totally disappointed with his team as he said in the postgame press conference that they would have loved to play Barcelona under a different set of circumstances since his young team played in the Mexican league only 48 hours before this game and was not 100 percent. “It would have been a totally different game,” he said.
“There are times where we have to play and there are times where we have to follow through,” Flores said. “Barcelona is a team that does not forgive.” And they showed it by capitalizing on the mistakes of a young and tired Chivas team. 
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