Your Arsenal

Barcelona are going to London to meet Arsenal on Wednesday in the Champions League. The top eight teams in Europe are playing each other this week and the next, all leading up to the finals--set to take place in May at Madrid's Bernabeu.



The Bernabeu, Madrid's football colliseum, is always the site of memorable play for the team. The long-standing cultural rivalry between the Catalan side and the Castilian seat of power held in Madrid. The Franco years. Barça has made the trip north with fists firmly in pockets. Though the team want to be there for the Champions league final, their own local concerns still have them tied in the hot race for La Liga.

The team cannot win the treble this year (Spanish Copa del Rey, La Liga and Champions League) because they were knocked from the Copa Del Rey a few months back. I don't know how many possible cup titles there are for a team. They'll count them up at the end of the season and punch them into the fact machines.

On the 11th is the R. Madrid/Barcelona match in Madrid. El Clasico was played in the autumn in Barcelona and this is the second and final game of the season against their great rivals. Tied for first but behind Real Madrid in goals scored; number one is a tenuous draw. The two teams upcoming game in Madrid looks decisive to the Spanish League.

Madrid were knocked out of Champs league so they are trying to steel their grip on La Liga. Barça, however, are still in the running for Europe and are gearing up for Wednesday's game.

Emirates Stadium, London

In London, Thierry Henry will take perhaps his last stand against the team he cut his teeth on. Family, adulthood. It's tough growing some and going back home. We'll see how much he plays. Here's to hoping he looks fit in training.

Iniesta will be out for the game after tearing his calf muscle in Sunday's win against Mallorca. The good news is that Ibra has scored in three straight games, and that one saw his return to form as a striker. He has been getting caught offsides above defense a lot lately. Messi has been taking it to the goal from any place. He cuts through the backs like a slick finned fish and takes shots on the goal through befuddled defenders.

Pedro is playing hard and getting goals, and young Bojan has made an impression in his limited minutes on the field. This mediates the glare on the three marquee names. Although Barça routinely keep possession for 60% or 70% of the games, the goals are what keep the appearance of invincibility. Ibra's bad streak is breaking just in time.

Like the song says, You're gonna need someone on your side.

Ground Thunder

The League

The Champions League Cup is the most prestigious title in Europe. The title has existed in slightly different incarnations since the fifties. More recently, as the league has been administered by UEFA, it has been marketed as a newer title.

In this era of Champions play going back six years, no team has repeated a championship. In fact, no team that won the previous title has advanced beyond quarter finals. Barça, as last year's miracle team are in the position of defending that elusive title.

This year's team is a different one from last year's lightning attack squad. No more Eto'o.

Samuel Eto'o was the leading scorer for the team and league last year. The striker from Cameroon formed an arrowhead tip with Messi and Henry. Particularly with Henry. Scoring and celebrating with salutes to the crowd and eachother.



But the chemistry of that team wouldn't last. Pep Guardiola reshuffled the front line of the team by trading Eto'o to Inter Milan for Ibrahimovic and 60milion euros. It seemed like mucking up a good thing. An exciting and whip-smart team that won three titles in a season, split up for what?!

Apparently, Guardiola had the future of the club and the ongoing team philosophy in mind. Though he is coach now, he'd played for the team from youth league to professional for years. Pep was the same kind of play-making mid-fielder as Iniesta or Xavi today. Iniesta and Xavi get more gushing adulation from commentators and coaches than any other two players in the game. The FoxSoccer channel's American commentator could only come up with that Iniesta looks like Landon Donovan.



Eto'o was a controversial figure. He'd score and incite the audiences. Talked shit in public when provoked. He also was a public figure in criticizing racism in European football.



It may have been a distraction to Guardiola's understanding of the Barcelona game. To re-work the chemistry of their play he brings in a tall northerner, like Johan Cruyff was in the Seventies. Cruyff, from Holland, became Barça and pretty much Catalan. One of the greatest players ever, he then coached there and is still intimately involved with the club affairs.

Management opted to keep the team changing, but these days it looks like the choices have kept them winning with all of the burden on Messi's shoulders. He scored all three of the team's goals in the second half on Sunday against Valencia. They were still replaying the second goal when he scored the third.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=izO9Mf7wZes

Wednesday night in Barcelona against Stuttgart to reach the top eight teams of European play.

The game starts out aggressively for Barça. They're putting Stuttgart on the defensive right away with 90,000 fans in attendance backing them. Henry makes a few attempts that don't connect. Around the twelfth minute Messi explodes up the field and blasts a goal while four defenders converge on him at the top of the box. Boom!

Then Messi delivers to Yaya who sneaks back to Pedro for a goal. Pretty teamwork. More prettiness when Dani Alves flicks the ball back to Messi for his second goal. Other than that, Alves is not looking his best. His crosses aren't connecting as lean with Henry. Henry is good natured on the pitch, but the ten years he has on Messi are showing.

In the second half they bring on Ibra with twenty-five to go. They keep playing hard and looking for more goals, but there are a lot of flubbed opportunities. The score should be higher. Stuttgart takes only one shot in the half to Barça's twelve.

Three minutes of regulation to go, and Henry is sent off as Bojan comes on. First play, Barça breaks through the wall of Stuttgart again and head downfield to the goal. 30 yards out, Ibra sends it forward to Bojan, who touches it once to send it into the net.

Flash to Messi looking slightly perturbed at the success of his team-mate, then joining in the celebration. He's trying for his second consecutive hat-trick. Messi does get about two more chances which closely get sent wide and denied. A minute and a half after regulation, the ref blows the whistle and calls the game. 4-nil'.

Barça advance with their reputation re-affirmed, though everyone knows they could have performed better. But to look shabby and still score four!?! That should make teams nervous.

Meanwhile, in Italy, Samuel Eto'o has scored and knocked out Chelsea from play. The signing seems to be going well for Inter since he's arrived. The tension of a possible game is bubbling. That or possibly Arsenal, which was Henry's home for the greatest days of his football.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BfVWFn5ygpE&feature=related

Henry was their captain and is their all-time leading scorer. Now they are captained by Cesc Fabregas, who came up through the Barcelona youth team and is among the best play-making mid-fielders in Europe. That would be a game to get excited over.

The teams all decided, the next draw for play will come on Friday by the time I wake up in Los Angeles. This town, my home, is cool and lovely in the morning. A small earthquake the other night at four in the morning. I was up for it and dashed into the doorway. I don't feel them so much as hear them. It sounds like a garbage can fight. Ground thunder.

the game in russian*
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PeConZsOAZo

Own Goal?!!??

Carles Puyol, our team's captain scored an own goal against Almeria to help the team from my least favorite Spanish city draw 2-2 against Barça today.

Almeria?!?

What the fuck?!!!?

If Real Madrid wins, they are in first. If they draw, they are tied for first.

I hate this sport.


***update***

Great. It's an hour later and I am watching Real Madrid play Sevilla. Defining myself in opposition to what I loathe rather than in solidarity with what I like.

The good news is, Madrid is down by one in spite of their boombastic shooting display in the first half.
The bad news is, the goal is not enough to count the Madrillenos out and I have to watch another hour of a game to see if--hope against hope--Barça can hold onto first.