But aside from at the club level, Valdés can boast that he is a goalkeeper who finished a natural year playing 53 games and only losing three.  The Barça net-minder, unfairly ignored in the majority of polls for the best player of the season, has  achieved an enormous record this year.  With him in the goal, Barça has only lost three games.

The first was against Espanyol in Camp Nou, the famous 1-2 in which Iván de la Peña had one of his best matches, the second was in the Calderón against Athletic Madrid (4-3), and the last one was against Rubin Kazan in Camp Nou  (1-2).  The other two games lost last year had Oier as goalkeeper (against Mallorca in La Liga by 2-1) and Pinto (against Osauna, 0-1).

The Barça goalkeeper, who this year renewed his contract with the Blaugrana club, has been one of the fundamental pieces in the legendary year of Barça. In 2009, Valdés has played in 34 league games and only lost two, neither of those in the present campaign.

Valdés has played 14 Champions matches, adding up the last season ones and the current season ones, and they only lost against Rubin; above this we have to consider the two out of two matches won in the Club World Cup, one out of one in Europe Supercup and two out of two in Spanish Supercup, which means that they have the impressive register of 53 matches played and only 3 of them lost.

In addition, his numbers when defending the Barcelona goal convert him into one of the fundamental pieces that explains how Guardiola’s team has finished the year as the team with the least number of goals against them in the big European leagues. Clearly, this circumstance is not only due to the merits of Valdés. It’s a result of the defensive work of the forwards, the midfield, and the Barcelona defense, but one cannot fail to call attention to the spectacular balance that Barça presented at the end of the past course, in the section that refers to goals allowed in the present course, clear evidence that things have been going well in the Barcelona rearguard.

Barça, with 15 games played, it is the European team that has the lowest average of goals allowed in games disputed in their league, if we compare them to the major competitions of the Old Continent. In 15 games, Barça with Victor Valdés in the goal has received only 9 goals, which is an impressive average of 0.60 goals per match.  That is followed by Burdeos, with 0.63, on average, Leverkusen, 0.76, and Schalke, 0.76.  It’s a fact worth noting  that Mourinho’s Inter has 0.84 per game and the Real Madrid of Casillas, chosen as the best goalkeeper of the year, has an average of 0.86 goals per game.  And this is taking into account just the league championship.  In spite of these numbers, Valdés is the only member of the Barça defensive system that is not an International for his country, despite the fact that with him in the goal Barça is only a little less than invincible.

By BarcaFanDallas