Back in Black

Pep 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?