Wednesday, May 25, 2011

68/69

Since the start of the 2010/2011 campaign, Barcelona have played 68 games. Now it is the end of the season and there is only one left.

Wembley.

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Freddie rocking at the old Wembley

On Saturday they will take the field to meet Man U in the Champions league final--the last game of play in Europe before the summer coolout of vacations and harmless friendly exhibition matches.

The last few weeks have had the feel of vacation, as the Spanish league has been won and settled with a point total of 96. The entire top ten is as follows:

1 FC Barcelona 96
2 Real Madrid 92
3 Valencia CF 71
4 Villarreal CF 62
5 Sevilla FC 58
6 Athletic Club 58
7 At.Madrid 58
8 RCD Espanyol 49
9 Osasuna 47
10 Sporting Gijón 47

Almeria, the scene of a personal industrial-coast dis, was relegated to the second division. They finished with 30 points.

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Almeria

The team are the favorites to win on Saturday, against the side they beat two years ago for the cup. Man U no longer have Cristiano Ronaldo or Carlos Tevez, but they have picked up the blossoming Chicharito as striking power and Wayne Rooney has been having a great four months.

Likewise, Berbatov has been one of the Premier league's most dominant scorers and Ryan Giggs-now in his 26th season playing professionally in Manchester (with the last 24 being at United) has been solid as a rock. He is what John Terry wishes he could be. Outrageous sex scandals and all.

In fact, the last week has been looking a little shaky for Man U. Giggs' is in the storm of a media freakout over an affair with a reality show chick, and he has ducked the press and skipped practice. Man U also played a friendly this week against Juventus, and the Italian side came to Old Trafford and handed them their first home loss of the season.

In the meantime, it seems that Barça have been studying up and doing their training for the final. They had to fly a day early into England as there is another Icelandic volcanic explosion threatening to shut down air traffic soon. That could be lame for the blaugrana since they would naturally want their maximum fan turnout in a stadium that holds 90,000 (the second-largest in Europe behind the Camp Nou).

Though the crowd should be overwhelmingly Man U supporters, there is a kind of harmony to the appeal of Messi these days that could persuade any football fan to their feet.

The dude is now 23 and he's got that young Obi-Wan Jedi knight stride. Guardiola looks excited and focused in the pre-match, while Sir Alex Ferguson seems to be hedging his optimism in the face of jedi.

If Barcelona get a stunning win on Saturday, it will clearly mark them as one of the great teams to ever play professional football.

It feels like everyone is preparing for that eventuality.

One to go...

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Friday, May 13, 2011

The Marathon

League Champions of Spain 2010/2011.

This is the third year in a row--the entire tenure of Pep Guardiola who has built three sterling teams.

The first was the Eto'o-Henry-Messi squad that won in Rome with Sylvinho playing in his last game. A team that had stunning goals from the three most spooky-artistic scorers in la liga.

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the 3, 08/09

Last year was the Ibra season that brought the emergence of Pedro as their piercing alternative to Messi since Henry was out to lunch.

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cheeky monkey, 09/10

This year was the killer bee attacking swarm of Villa, Pedro and Messi as Iniesta continues an era of brilliance.

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this one's for my baby

But in yesterday's away tie at Levante (1-1), the team just barely slid into home to seal the league on points. Although the century point total will not be met, nor last year's record of 99, it seems like the team will get a slight vacation over the next two weeks leading up to the only remaining title.

The Champions league final will be played on saturday the 28th at Wembley Stadium. The interim should be spent getting Puyol back healthy enough for the full 90, along with bringing Abidal up to as high a level as he can muster post tumor removal.

Villa continues his streak of no mojo, scoring only a goal or two in the last three months. Can somebody please give el guaje some ham? The boy needs some grease.

Their current form, winning but not with much to spare, shows their fatigue after a grueling few years of play in the broad schedule of international, league, and random cup and promotional play. Over a hundred games in the last year and a half for some of them. It's battery time.

It was nice to see the goal that came yesterday courtesy of Keita's header. He always makes a real impact on the pitch with his forward mid-fielding. Though Messi created a stunning cut through four defenders to shoot, the ball rattled out off the inside of the post a cm off the mark.

The second half was played out with both teams resigned to the draw and not attacking. We got the point, can we go home now?

Still, the team did make time to celebrate the league for a little on the pitch, and their supporters were in high numbers. La liga's is the title that the team prizes the highest, as it is the most arduous contest they play in and names them the greatest in Spain.

For Catalunya, it is a source of pride. The winners of Spain, the world champions; Catalunya is the height of football on Earth. Soon Barcelona will be lifting up the cup, with their red champions hats on, toasting
"Visca Barça,
Visca Catalunya."

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Levante, 5.10.11.

Friday, May 6, 2011

The Annointed ones...?


Jose Mourinho was banned by UEFA for five champions league games following his outspoken criticism of referees after Real Madrid's loss last week in Madrid. One of the bans will be suspended for three years. As he was already red carded during the game, he had to sit out and not watch his team fall again finally on tuesday in the second leg at the Camp Nou, 1-1 (Barça 3 - R. Madrid 1 agg.).

After dropping the first game in Madrid, Mourinho sensing the impossibility of victory in the champions league opened his mouth wide and let fly:

"It's clear that against Barcelona you have no chance.

"I don't understand why. I don't know if it's the publicity of UNICEF [the club's shirt sponsor], I don't know if it's the friendship of [Spanish football federation president Angel Maria] Villar at UEFA, where he is vice-president, I don't know if it's because they are very nice, but they have got this power. The rest of us have no chance."
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He went on to temper the achievements of Guardiola--who in nearly three seasons as coach has brought Catalunya two Copa del Reys, two la Liga championships (soon to be three barring some unforeseen extraordinary catastrophe in the next few weeks), a FIFA World Club Cup, and a Champions league cup--the second to be played for in three weeks at Wembley.

"Guardiola is a fantastic coach, but he has won one Champions League which I would be ashamed to win after the scandal at Stamford Bridge and this year, if he wins it again, it will be after the scandal at the Bernabeu."

In fact, the sole sour note of last year's season for the Blaugrana came from their elimination from the Champions league by Mourinho's men at Inter Milan. Though Barça finished the season with two championships and a record point total of 99, the missing Champions league cup stuck out to the team that felt undeniable in so many ways.

People have been murmuring against the Catalans for a while--the mountains of praise heaped upon them has made the team a target for those who resent their dominance. Mourinho has become that sector's bullhorn, albeit with his own interests in mind.

Still, his ideas have cost him with many in football's hierarchy, including some of the royal elders at his own club. Football legend and honorary Madrid president Distefano criticized Mourinho's coaching style and the team's lack of personality. The personality Madrid fail to exhibit on the pitch is instead on full ranting display in their press conferences. With a team assembled at a cost of over 600 million euros, the frustration is understandable.

Unfortunately for Mourinho, the only philosophy he has for getting out of the pit is to keep digging...

In less sensational UEFA-banning news, Jose Pinto, Barça's reserve keeper, was banned for three games following his tussling with Madrid as the teams left the pitch for half-time at the Bernabeu. Earlier in the season, he was banned for whistling to mislead a Copenhavn forward into believing he was offsides. He's a real hot-head who had a great run in the Copa del Rey (his domain for the majority of the season) until the one costly goal against them in the final.

Barça have stated they will appeal the ban.
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Monday, May 2, 2011

Back in Black

PhotobucketPep watches as Mourinho plays himself

So far, the string of clasicos has been kind of a stalemate, with both sides drawing in la liga, then Madrid winning the copa del rey final and trophy, and then last week's first leg of the champions league semi finals which saw Barça beat Madrid 0-2 thanks to two great second half goals from Messi--The later of which was a work of individual art on the pitch as he darted up and cut past four dudes to sneak the ball in the far wall of the net past Casillas.

The team has been trying to shake off the defensive jitters, but as Puyol appears to be back and fit again along with the imminent return of Eric Abidal fresh from whooping a tumor's ass, it seems that the cylinders may be firing again along the back line.

The protracted war with Madrid has been grueling, and as the final game of it approaches to be played tomorrow, there is a relief coming on. Big-show fatigue.

Soon enough, there looks to be the champs league final which will be a rematch of the final two years ago between the Catalans and Man U. This one will be played in London.

That is, unless there is a stunner tomorrow at the Nou Camp and Madrid can get past the deficit they are in for the series and season. Post-match controversy has been rife as Mourinho has decried a long list of referees that he insists are part of a pro-Barça conspiracy against his teams over the years. He had to sit out the second half of last week's loss from the stands after he mocked the ref's decision to red card Pepe and reduce his squad to 10 men. He shouldn't complain; his team's are usually better with 10 men. They have bastante talent that cannot be coordinated without a frozen hearted mentality that drives them to play aggressively and break legs.

And then the special one rants about it in his droll laconic frustration, gets fined and benched by the league as the ball rolls closer and closer to his own goal.

La Liga all but already secured for Barcelona, their main issue now seems to be if they will beat their league record 99 points of last year by winning all the remaining four contests left in the spanish season. Having lost on Saturday against low positioned Racing Santender, they have set themselves up to finish in first with 100. What is this, cricket?

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