Mighty Healthy

King Eric shows love

The Clasico in Madrid--the first of two that will in all likelihood decide the winner of the Copa del Rey--was played on Wednesday at the Santiago Bernabeu. Again, Madrid struck early and lead the game by one in the first ten minutes, and again, Barça came back and won the game with deft team play in the second half.

Madrid tried a different tack this time (their Barça playbook is getting well weathered at this point with frustrated strategies...). Last month in Madrid they pressed hard and wore themselves out, this time they stayed back and didn't chase but waited for their opportunities on the counter.

Same result.

The only difference was the return of some of the more egregious fouls and nasty play that we'd seen last year in the Supercopa. They get pissed off like Yosemite Sam and start fouling like assholes (the worst coming from Pepe [as usual] who went so far as to stomp on Messi's fingers as he was on the ground from a hit by Callejon). This kind of behavior comes from the top down and as Mourinho gets relentlessly shut down the only strategy that is left to him is brute force and intimidation.

Fuel for the fire

Though Ronaldo scored against Pinto in a strike that would more likely been stopped by Victor Valdes, the game was won for Barça on the strength of two goals scored by defensive backs: Captain Carles Puyol and Eric Abidal.

By opening up the entire squad to the goal and keeping a versatility in roles and relationships, Barça have had five different scorers for their last five goals against los merengues. Continued Voltron shit.

But even in his traditional role as defensive cleaner, Abidal was brilliant. His performance, in the wake of his re-upping his contract with the team, was jubilant. Let's look back at the last year for King Eric: Get diagnosed with cancer, kick cancer's ass, return to the team and score the winner in Copa del Rey qualifiers against Bilbao, play in the Champion's league final and lift the European Cup, re-sign with the Blaugrana, go to Madrid and score the game winner on Wednesday.

Domino!

The Copa del Rey is not really the priority championship that the teams play for. It is less weighted than Champions League and the League itself, but it was all that Madrid could console themselves with in the last three years (though they dropped it under their team bus while celebrating).

These early months in the calendar year are usually where Barça find themselves in a tricky position, just before they get all cylinders blasting again for the end of the season symphony. Behind by five points in the league, it's time for the superheroes to take charge.


How to foil the evil Professor Frinkle? It's simple really but quite clever.

Curse of the Monkey Paw

It has been a mixed bag for the club in the last few weeks, though most of it has been good.

Barça played Santos in the FIFA World Club Cup final in Yokohama to win the curious title of best club team on Earth. FIFA sets this up by pitting the continental champions from all over the world against each other. It was pitted as a match-up between Leo and the mercurial young upstart, Neymar.

...a couple of Silver Spoons

Before the game, as the two sides were lined up in preparation to take the field, it was something to see how the two stars reacted to each other: Neymar nervously looking towards Messi, trying to not look too hard and retain some semblance of cool, while Leo kept his head largely down in an inscrutable passivity.

But then they started playing and there was no trace of passivity. Barça shut down Santos 4-0. The first goal was a deft piece of play set in motion by Messi, as he doubled back away from the goal, only to turn around and dart up field setting up a triangle give-and-go with Cesc and Xavi back for his charge to the goal.

So the cup went back to Catalunya, but David Villa caught a bad one and sustained a nasty injury that will keep him out of play for some six months. Broken bone in the lower leg. Afelay is still mending from his early autumn surgery. The revolving door of injured players keeps spinning...

After the holiday break the team went on to play for the Copa del Rey against Osasuna, and handedly beat them, but then came the Catalan derby with Espanyol.

Espanyol, the Barcelona city neighbors, have a reputation for a fan base that is decidedly less diplomatic than their celebrated big brothers. Racism looms large in their stadium, as their own black keeper was subject to monkey chants for years. Their own goalie...It shouldn't be unexpected, then, that they gave monkey chants to Dani Alves every time he touched the ball.

The game was very tight and hard-wrought. Most teams tend to bring their most competitive spirit to the pitch against Barça, after all, the teams are then being seem by a global audience that quadruples (on average) from their usual broadcast draw. It was in the last few minutes of the game that Espanyol tied up at 1 and that was how the scoreline stood when the last whistle blew.

Are you fuckin' kidding me?

The result put Barcelona five points behind Madrid for first. This is a tough spot for the team, forcing them to not drop any more points for the entirety of the season, and beat Madrid, and hope that Madrid drops points as well.

It can happen, but it is not going to be easy and what's worse, it won't entirely be in their own hands.

On a better note for the team, Monday night saw them receive yet more accolades, as Messi was named FIFA world player of the year, and Pep named as the coach of the year. During his acceptance speech Pep thanked the thousands of people to have been involved in the club's history and dedicated it to his right hand, Tito Vilanova.

Tito underwent surgery to remove cancer from the salivary gland this year only a short while after getting his eye gouged by Mourinho in the Supercopa. He is clearly the supreme confidant of Pep at the club. That he was acknowledged as such was pure class. Though the league may not be in our own hands entirely anymore, either way that dignity will sustain us.

Tito and Pep