Adversity Revisited

Eric Abidal: More trials.

This is the point of the season that tests teams.

Barcelona are currently involved in three competitions, the Copa del Rey (who's final--to be played against Bilbao--is all that remains), the Champions League of Europe, and finally, the quest to win la Liga.

That the schedule of "top" teams becomes multiplied to double that of lower ranked teams, means that the most competitive had better have a bench of back-up players that are ready to step in when things inevitably go pear-shaped.

Case in point, right now Eric Abidal has been marked out from play until lord knows when, seeing as he is due to have a liver transplant. Apparently, the issues that took him out for several months last year have resurfaced more gravely and now King Eric needs to undergo a full removal of the cancerous organ.

And who is there to pick up the slack? Fontas, or Adriano or Dani Alves--all three of whom were out through injury and suspension from this weekend's game in Mallorca. Pep was forced to field only three defenders on Saturday, but this is actually an exciting thing.

The 3-4-3 formation that Pep has resurrected this year from the old-school total football playbook has been something of a revelation. The keys to its success lies in the fact that Barça, even when they field the conventional 4-3-3, are basically playing a 3-4-3 since Alves or Adriano usually spend as much time darting upfield on the wing as they do "defending." The only difference is mostly one of declared intent.

In Saturday's game the team was laid out more in a 3-3-4 with so many central attacking midfielders on the pitch making themselves available in the final third. The old joke about Barcelona being a goalie + 10 midfielders is largely true.

And hopefully there will be another one returning to the field in a short while.

Afellay and Pep

Ibi Afellay has been out almost the entirety of the season, but may make it back on the field (unlike David Villa) before its end. Messi has picked up the slack for a somewhat under-performing Alexis Sanchez and a non-scoring Pedro, though there has also been an increased scoring presence from Xavi--plus a banner year for Cesc--you get the feeling that the attack could especially use the Dutch-born Moroccan's skill at sending crosses in from the wing.

Since he has been gone, there have been other resources to explore, namely the B team and Isaac Cuenca and Cristian Tello.

The Boys from Company B

The two have been plucked from the B team by Pep, who has given over 20 members of the B team their debut in the A team since his arrival at the helm. Both players are explosive attacking in the box (with Cuenca possessing a particularly accurate cross and knack for blowing by defenders with his gnarly trick-footwork), and they have certainly raised the profile for B side upstarts already boosted by the advance of Thiago early this season.

So while it seems that as long as Barça have la Masia educating young players in football and molecular gastronomy (or whatever else they get into...), they will not run out of talent to pull from at a bargain price, but they still angle for bigger signings to keep them in all three races they run through the course of a year.

The rumored trades for the summer look to be Gareth Bale from Spurs, and David Luiz--the Brazilian back for Chelsea that looks and plays like Animal from the muppets.

David Luiz

Personally, I think either one would be a great acquisition, Luiz in particular, as he has the kind of die-hard engagement in the game that suits the team, but the issue is also tempered by the need of the team to balance their books. Either way, the cold-war-arms-race-style spending it would take to procure Neymar would be a dumb-ass waste of money that would do more to characterize the team as another Galactico, rather than the largely home-grown club that it really is.

Barça are currently 6 points behind Madrid in la Liga, after Madrid drew two out of their last three games during the week. At this rate, the possibility of winning the league perseveres. It would only take Madrid losing one more game out of the remaining nine, as well as getting beaten by the Blaugrana at the Camp Nou.

On Wednesday, Barça will travel to Italy to face AC Milan again in the Champions league, this time not just in an irrelevant meeting at the group level, but in the Quarter Finals. The return of Ibra... the cracken stirs up from its grumbling deep.

The Deuce

It is a tough time in Europe.

In England, Andre Villas Boas is dealing with the fallout from his rocky first few months at Chelsea. At the time of his signing and arrival for the club there was a great excitement at the prospect of another young Portuguese upstart coming to helm the london giants.

Roman Abramovic and AVB: Like Godfather 2

Since the departure of Mourinho under tempestuous circumstances, the club has had a few managers, most notably and recently Carlo Ancelotti--a Bond-villain if ever there was one--but Chelsea had not performed well in the Champions league. Billionaire owner--and also Bond-villain--Roman Abramovic spends big (£64m in four years on managers since Mourinho left), but knows no satisfaction without Champions league titles.

Hence, the arrival of AVB from Porto, where his side was undefeated and won the Europa league. Having worked previously in the Mourinho regime at Chelsea, the 34 year old Vilas Boas was hoped to bring a thundering return of energy.

After some direct antagonism in the media, AVB has seen pundits criticize him relentlessly as unprepared and immature. His side is currently in fifth place in the Premier league, but still in Champions league contention unlike current Premier league leaders Man City and Man U.

The billionaire boss has been having meetings with the team to see about the need for wins and potentially, no doubt, changes.

In Barcelona, the Blaugrana is currently 10 points off first and the outlook for winning la Liga looks grim. Their three-peat in the league may come to a close due to their sub-par away-form. They have drawn six times and lost twice, while R. Madrid have lost the same but drawn only once.

The Qatar foundation. A new #9. The monkey paw.

This year's team has had a different attack than last year. They have played a little closer to how they did with Ibra in 2010. Though last year, David Villa got caught off-sides all the time, the previous year it looked like Ibra lived there.

I am Ibra. I live offside.

Now, with speedy Alexis Sanchez, the team are playing the ball more out of the back to try and maximize his ability to outrun defenders. There is less development in the midfield, and though Cesc was thought to be joining the club as an alternative to Xavi, he has played more as an alternative striker as Pedro and David Villa have diminished.

Messi is showing fatigue. Heavy weighs the crown. He's a great play-maker and absolutely integral, but his shots are feeling slightly frazzled.

On the contrary, the team has felt the steely presence of Carles Puyol more than ever. The captain is back after a tough spell of injury and he is every bit the war hero. But his goal scoring through headers and set pieces shows the increased italian-style attack they have employed since the Supercopa victories over Madrid.

Capitá

The next Champions league games come on Valentines Day in Germany against Bayer Leverkusen, and the Kings Cup will be played for in Madrid against Bilbao.

It looks perhaps like 2010, this could be a two title year. Zubi, the team's sporting director, puts it tactfully: “If we consider that we’re in the final of the Cup, and if we win the Champions League, plus the three titles we’ve already won ... the season would be extraordinary. In any case, we cannot give up on the league.”

The Unlikely Underdog

Kill em' with kindness

Here it is:

The Clasico.

Though Barcelona are the reigning champions of Europe and Spain, this week finds the team in second place behind their brawny rivals from the capital. Real Madrid are currently widely regarded as the strongest team in Europe; dominating the power listings of sports journalists and sitting on top of the domestic table by three points with a game in hand--the widest margin since Pep Guardiola took over the Blaugrana three-and-a-half seasons ago.

Pep has only lost a single game in all of his squad's 11 meetings with the men in white, but as Madrid have just won every game in the Champions league qualifying round (the only team to do it since Barça in 2002), the challenge facing the Catalans is greater than ever. Though the season is not yet half-over, with the way things shake up in la Liga it seems that this game could be a deciding factor in the outcome of the 2011-2012 season.

Speaking of shake-ups, FC Basel beat Manchester United today in Switzerland to knock out the giants from the Champions league and into the second tier Europa league. It was a milestone achievement for the Swiss outfit, and a humbling shock for the English champions who got outclassed by Barcelona in the Champions League final in London this past May. It seems that the Sir Alex Ferguson has no antidote for claret and blue.


Brothers from another mother, FC Basel send Man U out of the Champions league

If Basel's uniform seems familiar, it should. The red and blue kit echoes Barcelona, as both teams were founded by Joan Gamper back in the 19th century. Though Gamper would move away from his Swiss homeland for the sunnier pastures of Catalunya and create what would become one of the world's most celebrated teams, he first hailed from Basel.

One has to wonder if he had some magic in place that would be the downfall of English teams.

Let's hope Pep has a similar juju to make meringue collapse.


Joan Gamper wearing claret and blue

Stutter Authority

Ibra shakes it off

Barcelona flew to Milan to play AC at the San Siro yesterday.

Both teams were guaranteed a place in the next league of Champions play, but though the results were irrelevant to the competition's outcome they charged head first at each other with the gnarly focus of intimate enemies.

The refs were very bad, nearly never carding the fouls and only then misguidedly. Hand balls? Not a problem. What game do they play in Italy?

Messi took a penalty to bring the team ahead 2-1 in the first half. As he approached the ball, he stuttered his stride, sent the keeper one way then dished the ball into the other corner. It reminded me of a penalty taken by Balotelli in Man City's win over Newcastle last week (although Balotelli managed to shoot without stopping step, and then glare at the keeper like a dickhead).

Leo gets a yellow card, and the shot is done over. This time he sends it clean past the keeper on the same side he just sent him.

Ibra played a very good game in his first outing against the team of his former employment. He picked up a goal in the first half and generally managed to get in good crosses and position himself in the final 1/3rd. Prince Boateng, however was an outstanding talent against Barcelona. The second half goal he marked to equalize was stunning, but it would be drowned out by a key strike from Xavi off of yet another brilliant piece of teamwork that would be the winning goal for Barça.

The Catalans played in their third kit--mint green: same as last year's away jersey.

Whatever the uniform, the talent is the fabric of the outfit.

The Turmoil of First

The club has been slogging through a wilderness of corporate compromise and astronomical injury.

This is one of the keys to the paradox of the world's greatest club. In order to remain resolutely competitive at the highest level of professional sports, the cash coffers have to be loaded. To do this requires, among other measures, the corporate sponsorship of their jersey for the first time ever in the team's history.

Not only that, but the label Qatar Foundation seems to muddy the message of a squad that has represented the nation of Catalunya so vocally. It is part of the standard sign-off for the team in public: Visca Barça, Visca Catalunya!

They accepted the deal as a counter-measure against their €550 million debt last year. They also accepted as it complied with seven conditions for consideration (chief of which being that it be the most lucrative such deal on Earth).

In fact, the €150 million brought from the deal has been spent on, among other things, new talent for the team. Alexis Sanchez, Cesc Fabregas, and Ibrahim Afelay have all been significant signings since January. The money spent on them alone is over €60 million.

And currently all three players are out injured.

Cesc is gone for three weeks after a practice scrape, Alexis is looking at another month out for a leg mishap and Ibi Affelay, the golden boy from PSV Eindhoven--the new great Dutch hope--is gone for another six months following his surgery today to fix a ligament.


Ibrahim Affelay, get well soon

The injury jinx hasn't just gone to the new boys; Pique-out. Iniesta-out. Abidal-out as of Saturday in their 1-0 win over Gijon.

The game against Gijon, in their black away kits (just as black as R. Madrid's away jerseys), was a drag for the lack of finish that anyone showed. A 1-0 win for Barça feels like a draw or worse. They keep it and move it so much that watchers expect them to take it to the hole all the time.

Nonetheless, the win put Barcelona in first place in the league for the first time this season. The top six places are separated by two points. It's still a tight race.

Carles Puyol returned to the pitch recently after being out with leg problems since around the same time as the new Qatar Foundation deal was inked. The captain has come back just as Xavi was looking really comfortable wearing the band. Puyol is still not quite match-fit though, and with the current streak of injuries depleting their notoriously make-shift defense, each game is getting to be nervous to watch.

On Saturday, the key moment of the game for me was at the end of the first half when Mascherano took a tough leg to the head from Dani Alves. As the players headed to the locker rooms for their 15 minutes, Masche was laying on the field bewildered. He is already bearing the mean brunt of central defensive duties with so many lynchpins gone. If he was taken out of the frame as well there'd be almost no one left in the back.

Have the ghosts of Catalunya been haunting the team and taking the players off the field?

Have the psychic injuries inflicted by the sponsorship just dug the hole deeper?

Are we still the good guys?


Carles Puyol; Back in Black

ILOILO

Patron saint of Football.
Iloilo City, Philippines. 2002.
photo by janine lim


Today Barça played Portuguese champions FC Porto in the UEFA Super Cup.

The cup is put on before the start of the new season, and pits the Champions League winner against the Europa Cup winner. Though the Europa Cup translates to a second tier competition, the games are not necessarily totally lopsided.

Porto, who have gone over a year since their last domestic loss, were unstoppable under their coach Andre Villas Boas--but after they won the Europa League he left the team and returned to Chelsea where he'd worked with Mourinho, this time as Boss.


AVB: Goddamn that's handsome

Now that he has left (along with their pre-eminent striker Falcao), Porto looks potentially shakier than they had.

By contrast, Barça are getting their legs again, and their performance in the 2-0 victory over the Portuguese was a fairly invigorated display. Messi scored one and assisted Cesc to the second just before the clock ran out on regulation. Another cup; 12 major ones tallied up in the last 3 years under Guardiola.

Messi looks set to mark himself as the team's all-time leading scorer in the next year or so. Up to now, that title has been held by a man who debuted one hundred years ago at the age of 15.


the net breaker

Paulino Alcántara was born in Iloilo Philippines in 1896, the sixth child of an Ilongga mother and Spanish father. He moved to his father's country to play football as a teen, and he was soon discovered by club-founder Joan Gamper and signed to the team. Thus, the first Filipino player entered into European football.

He was a total phenomenon and scored a goal for each of the 365 games he played for the team over the span of his legendary career. He ushered in the first Golden era of Barça. Paulino also represented the nations of both his parents--featuring in the Philippine whomping of Japan 15-2 in 1917 as well as playing for Spain against France and kicking the ball clean through the back of the net--cementing his fame.

The fact that one of the great legends of the club, nearly 40 years before Pele, was from the Philippines is really endearing and speaks to the culture of the team. There's a fair share of nationalism in the support of them and Catalunya (which are nearly inseparable in the eyes of the world), but the great figures of the club have been from other nations and come together under the shield.

Gamper was Swiss, Alcántara from Iloilo, Crüjff from the Netherlands and now Messi has brought Argentina to the league of distinguished gentlemen. Players of the world unite.


Mr. Alcántara and Mr. Gamper

Hogwarts

It feels like the team is going through the stage in Harry Potter where Laura Bush took over Hogwarts. The best they've got is like one Weasley brother at a time while their heroes are tied up.


spooky

Harry Potter is nowhere to be found. In the forests off in the hinterlands; recovering from national play disappointment. Finding a bogus hoarcrux in South America.



Last night Chivas beat the shit out of Barça. Well, more Pinto than Barça--but still. Indeed, the lessons of the game were (1.) that Pinto aint shit, and (2.) that Marco Fabian is a bad-ass.

His first goal to equalize at one was a straight cañonazo, and he followed it with a back-flipping scissor kick right past Pinto three minutes later to bring Chivas up 2-1. The Guadalajara side and near-national team for Mexican identity kept on attacking and when the clock finally stopped on the game it was 4-1.

Marco takes flight

Like dey say: "watch it like youtube, watch it like youtube..."

I am happy for the brothers from Mexico and Fabian in particular, who was gracious in the moments after:
''This is a dream come true, to score not one but two goals against a great team like Barcelona. Life continues but this is something I will cherish.''

SAMO

Tuesday Barcelona will be playing Arsenal in the second of two quarter-finals matches in their champions league draw. The first game on 2/16 was lost in London 2-1.

In a strange repeat of last year's second game with Arsenal in the champions league, Barça will be without their defensive backbone of Pique and Puyol (from yellow cards and injury). Last year Messi put the norf Londanas to bed with a hat-trick before the first half ended. Another goal after the break brought his tally to 4. Somehow this year's parallel situation is stunning - as if time had not really evolved and the weird comedy was prolonged in a warp.

Barcelona are at the top of the table in Spain, though their wins have been low scoring ones of late. In England, Arsenal are three points behind Man U for number one with a game in hand, but they have some serious issues closing the deal when they look to be on the cusp of big wins. The thing is that Arsenal play best when they play at their most Barsenal. This distinguishes them among so many other clubs in the Premier league. Facing the actual model for their style on the pitch in opposition at the enormous Camp Nou will they wither as they did last year?

After Barça beat them then, the Blaugrana went on to play Inter Milan, traveling by bus along the mountainy trip because the volcanic eruption in Iceland grounded all flights until the one that would eventually bring them home, having lost.

Last year was close, but no silver. What kind of story will be written now while the world watches the team. As talent meets the ashy winds, which play will be favored?


samo shit

EMF

I like watching Arsenal play, but why do they have to look like EMF? Right now it's the half of their first champion's league game against Braga from Portugal, and they are whomping em' 3-0. Cesc plays great for the team and it is easy to see why the club didn't want to let him go to Barcelona this summer. He's stands tall with the international outfit of London, but when he plays with his countrymen he seems intimidated. It's probably for the best that the switch didn't come this season.

Barça played yesterday and beat Panathinaikos, the visiting Greek champions. After scoring the opening goal (their only shot), the Greeks had to deal with a Messi answer goal within a minute, followed by two more by the half. The Greeks played like whipped donkeys. In the last moments of extra time, Messi got a great assist to Dani Alves for the fifth point header that closed it. It was a point you don't see everyday and it sealed the game and Barça's introduction to the Champions League season, 5-1.

Supercopa

FC Barcelona are lifting the Super Copa right now, having trounced Sevilla 4-0 at the Camp Nou.

Today was all about showing how the team is the perfect activator of Messi's talent. Messi scored a hat-trick and he was set up with grace and beauty by his teammates. Alves gifted him incredibly on a break, and Xavi found Leo with a world-class pass to set his score. It was like some best-of football from the team of National side players.



Pedro started off the scoring about 15 minutes into the game with a stunning run and cross that was knocked in by Konko of Sevilla. After that, the superstar from Argentina who'd had a disappointing World Cup took over the scoring. But though the game was dominated by one man, the team play of the side was second to none. They found their sneaky passes and breaks upfield with a unity that defines their style.

Barça have come back from a loss last week in Seviila 3-1 in the first game of the two-game series. Ibra scored a goal, but then the team unraveled from the absence of their linchpins. Xavi, Pedro, Valdes, Pique and Puyol were all playing for Spain's national team in Mexico (which ended in a 1-1 tie at the Estadio Azteca), and the World Cup goal winner himself, Andrés Iniesta was still resting. The team looked shaky and the B-team substitutes didn't rise. It was played like a lost cause to be decided in the second game, played today in Barcelona with their full squad.

Lot's of football being played. Too many cups and trophies. The Super Cup is less than 20 years old and played between the two winners of La Liga and the Copa del Rey. It was presumed that Barça would win the cup. When they play like they did today--so pretty and unstoppable--they lift it with class.

Expensive Beef

Season's over. Barça are Champions of La Liga.

It was the closest title race in the history of the Spanish League. Barça won the title with a total of 99 points. Real Madrid were in second with 96. It basically came down to a single game between the two of them.

99 points in a season is a record for most points earned for a team, not only in Spain but also in all of major European play. That puts Barça's squad at a summit of the very greatest teams to ever play the game.

Still, there is a bitterness there at them losing out on the Champion's League to Inter Milan. What can you do?


Laporta can't ever be satisfied

Since the season ended about a month ago, the business of the team has turned to establishing the drama of the next season. The team has made a formal offer for Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal. Fabregas, of course, came up through the Barça youth system and was pulled away to London at the age of 17. Now he is 23 and the team want to bring him back like the prodigal son.

As the club's president for the last seven years, Joán Laporta has to retire from his post this summer. It's like any presidency-there are term limits. The dudes who are vying to be his successor have all used the courting of Fabregas as a campaign promise to help them secure the position of club president. I never write too much about the larger curious political intricacies of the club that is 'mes que un clúb' [more than a team], because I honestly cannot really follow it. It's a bit ironic, I know. Mostly the club president seems to be the public face of the backers and administration of the team, but to weigh one from another is more difficult to gauge then the efficacy of Ibrahimovic as a striker vs. Eto'o.


David Villa looking Douchey

Though he is on the way out, Laporta has still been a busy CEO for the team. They signed David Villa from Valencia as a striker right after the season drew to a close. Villa is a badass. He scored the second or third most goals in the league and will be a welcome addition to the front line, as Henry is leaving for the bright lights and muddled play of the MLS in New York City for the, cough, Red Bulls.

Who the fuck comes up with these MLS names?? Pathetic. New York City Red Bulls? Really?? Were the Mountain Dews already taken? How about the San Francisco Yoo-Hoos? Too on the nose? Whatever. I can't blame him for going. The money is bound to be retarded-good, and who wouldn't want to play in one of the world's greatest cities at the end of his career? An ultimate cash-out for a prize fighter.

Though they were nearly unbeatable, too much of the burden of goals fell on the wunderkind, Leo Messi. Now with Villa there will be another go-to guy with golden boots. What is more tricky to figure is just how the team will be able to adjust to Fabregas in the line-up. After all, he is a mid-fielder where the team has a surplus of vital players in Iniesta and Xavi. The line-up will have to shift in ways that remain mysterious. Of course, the team's initial offer of 35€M has been rejected by Arsenal and they may have to go up to 50€M to bring him back to Barça.

Why would the team go so hard for another superstar signing? It rivals the spending of Real Madrid a year ago in their cash-makes-right buying spree that netted them Kaka and C. Ronaldo. The answer is clearly because although they edged out Real Madrid for the titles this year, they just barely did it and La Merengue decided to hire Jose Mourinho from Inter Milan--the team that served as the thorn in Barça's side just a month ago. The stumbling block in their quest to be clearly recognized as history's greatest.


Mourinho being a prick when Inter beat Barça

This year was the most competitive ever in Spanish football--at least between the two top teams--and Real Madrid are dying to revenge-fuck Barça for making them settle for second best. The shit is so petty. Mourinho, being a bitter ego-maniacal douche, is thrilled at the possibility of amplifying his personal beef with Barcelona by coaching their arch-rivals against them. Plus, even he couldn't stomach how rife the Italian Serie-A is with corruption and crap vibes.

Before any of that manifests in August with the first pre-season games, there is the World Cup to watch. Lot's of people have "fever" for it, but me? Not so much. In the age of globalism and post-post-colonialism, the rivalries between nations seem less intriguing to me than the shit that's going down between the Catalans and the Castellanos of Spain. Of course, I will still watch with interest, but the nationalism inherent in the event puts me off somehow. Who even thinks about Canada, much less argues with them?

Still, I am eager to see if Maradona will go batshit on the sidelines as he coaches Argentina. If Messi will deliver in national play as he does for his club. If Henry will redeem his misguided tricky handball that helped to knock Ireland out a few months back with some beautiful goal that I had given up hope for from him. I want to see how bad England will be derailed by their personal soap-operas and injuries.

World Cup is more like NASCAR for me: I only really watch for the crashes.

The Long Arm Language

The team played Inter Milan. Internazionale. That name is a bit of a joke. What they are referring to doesn't seem to be trans-nationality. In Italy, citizenship is eligible based upon un-renounced citizenship of parents or grandparents. This stops citizenship for immigrants. No one is seen as Italian if they are not ethnically Italian.

During the time of Il Duce, Mussolini cheered his team Lazio and the stadiums throughout the country have had spectators flashing the straight-arm salute ever since.


Canio throws it up after a win for Lazio. 2000's. Source: BBC.

The game on Tuesday in Milan saw more of the twisted same.

Crowd shots of Milan showed folks casting horns at the field (ostensibly at Barça), and straight-arming as their team took a brutal lead. Bad ju-ju afoot... Pedro scored early in the game and got the coveted away goal which counts for more in the series.

But then Inter broke through from Barça's mid-field weaving and cracked the whip. Their strategy was to explode upfield when they got possession deep in their half. Lightning attacks that shot up field in a few short seconds to the goal and scored.

Ibra didn't hit nothing. Messi was shutout. There were glimpses of the attacking wonderment (a late-game bicycle shot that Pedro didn't get by the keeper), and the clever passing play the team throws around like witty reparté--but it was not enough to keep Inter off of them.

Diego Milito (Argentine-Italian citizen) scored a nasty goal that was clearly off-sides and overlooked by the referees. His brother, Gabi, was not a factor in the game for Barcelona's defense against Milan.

And then there was the story of Samuel Eto'o playing against his former squad. Though Ibra was part of the trade with Inter, his narrative is less involved than Eto'o's. This is because everyone sees Ibra as a mercenary prize-horse that is less personally involved in the game and more invested in his own worth. Not a public speaker. Samuel Eto'o, though, was the most outspoken critic of racism in football and Barça's high scorer. Then they switched their play up around Messi and decided to unload Eto'o to Milan for Ibra and 40mil€. Have fun playing at Lazio; See you in the Champion's league.

Eto'o didn't have a great game, and there was little drama around him aside from his punting the ball into the stands after he was disappointed at a call. That earned him a yellow. He caught pressure from Barça and they seemed to have his number. The other boys on the Inter attack were a different matter. They just blasted through at the urging of Mourinho, their coach punching his palms from the sidelines.

Barça got five yellow cards, though they looked to have caught the brunt of the abuse in the match. Fouls overlooked against them. Cold calls. Inter drew only two in the whole game, while they unleashed a battery on the visitors. The Camp Nou would not be like this.

As the Blaugrana boarded their flight to Barcelona after the match, they were no doubt relieved that they didn't have to sit in a bus for 14 hours as they had to get to Italy. Airspace was open as the air was deemed clear to fly while the game was played.

They went home to cook something up. A dream game that will validate their wet grass magic of arcs and lines. That game will be played on the 28th in front of nearly 100,000. I'd love to be there instead of here struggling with my feed to the game. I have some cooking-up to do too.


Straight-Arm Salute

Catalan Derby

Yesterday was the Catalan derby, which played out with the local squads duking it out across town. FC Barcelona played Espanyol just a few kilometers from Barça's home at the Camp Nou. A new stadium for their brothers across the way with the pitch spanning into two different cities: Cornelia and Él Plat. Stats could be kept as to which city in the same stadium had more goals. Espanyol hadn't had their own proper stadium for 11 years and this was the first time they'd host Barça in it.

The two Catalan squads have an eerie rivalry. Espanyol have fought Barça on the pitch with a focus that is nearly unmatched in all of football. To look at the players on the field ~ where internationals hold such presence ~ we saw nine Catalans. Four for Espanyol and five playing for Barça. Local football, as exemplified by the coaching and captains of each team. Pochettino coaching Esp. had played and been involved with the squad since the days Guardiola played for Barça. They were former adversaries on the field who were now still battling via their coaching.


Pochettino and Guardiola

Barça were three points ahead of Real Madrid for first place and now they were to face a team that had consistently drawn or beaten them in La Liga. RCD Espanyol showed why they were such formidable opposition. They took the field among their rabid fans in blue and white. This was the game they looked forward to with the most bile. The chance to keep the local giants in check. Someone threw a coin and hit Messi with it. The field is closer to the stands than most arenas.

Dani Alves was playing hard, but he was thrown out in the second half for getting his second yellow. The squad was down a man. Messi was shutdown by the defense. Xavi was not hot. The thing about Xavi is that his primary instinct is to always set someone else up for the play. Too much of the team has been focused on activating the magic Messi and leaving the rest of the assault as gravy. Xavi gets key opportunities he could take to score, but then pauses to check for someone else and the momentum is broken. Drawback of the play-maker.

In the second half both Ibra and Henry were brought out to try and make some goals happen, but neither one looked fit. Ibra is nursing his recent injury and made his first appearance in weeks, and Henry has simply conked out for the season. This season has seen his playing age five years.

So it ended in a draw, and I'm satisfied. Espanyol are local boys. They couldn't beat their big bros, but they did draw a line and hold their ground. It was a Catalan thing.

Now the team is in Milan to face Inter for the UEFA quarter-finals. All flights in Europe grounded from the Icelandic volcano plume so the team has taken a coach. The last time the sides met was in September in Milan. A draw at nil. Now they go back for the first of two games this week and next. Eto'o vs Barça and Ibra. Milito brothers facing eachother's world-class squads.

But it's a different point in the season than it was in September. Last week Barça climbed to first in their jiu jitsu lock with Real Madrid, and Inter slipped down from first at the hands of Roma in Serie A. The end of the season is approaching and the screws are on in the races.

The only way to win a race; keep running, keep running, keep running.

Inter moving forward

Today Inter Milan is beating CSKA Moscow out of the champions league.

This means that the possibility of Barcelona beating Arsenal in the next game, and then setting up the series against Inter Milan is becoming tantalizingly real.

Eto'o, traded away from Barça to Inter for Zlatan Ibrahimovic and 60mil Euros, will be facing the club-mes que un club. Inter's Milito and Barça's' Milito are in fact brothers. A dramatic rivalry that could only be conjured in the Spanish Kingdom and Italian terra.

Today's team for the Camp Nou battle is looking good. The line up has me psyched. Alves is due for a great game, and Milito is on the pitch for Puyol. Abidal is playing with Keita, and in the front the young great attacking line of Pedro, Messi and Bojan. It feels like a good representation of the team's ethos. Who will wear the captain's band is yet to be seen.

What Goes Around...

That was a very very weird game.

In London, Barça and Arsenal have played their first of two in the Champions League quarter finals, and although Barcelona outplayed Arsenal in virtually every way, the north London squad still pulled out a draw under shady circumstances.

The game opened up with Barcelona lashing Arsenal's defense and taking shot after shot after shot in the first fifteen minutes of play. But as dazzling as their attacks may have been, the back of the net went unmoved. Ibra could not connect. It was a completely frustrating opening filled with the loud "Oh"'s and yells that accompany effort that nearly makes it, but somehow manages to fall short.

Fabregas, playing against his boyhood team, his country and culture--went into the game with one yellow card. Around the twentieth minute he picked up another against Busquets and cancelled himself from playing in the next. Arsene Wenger sent Arshavin off the field after he picked up a yellow, looking to avoid a similar misfortune for next week's game at the Blaugrana.

By the half it was level at nil, with the British commentators left to marvel at how outplayed Arsenal was. Something like 15 shots to Arsenal's one. 70% of possession. The game could have been 4-0 by the half.

It was with that frustrated momentum that Barça took the field for the second half, and on the first play, Pique passes to Ibra who breaks free and taps the ball to send it arcing just over the keeper to bounce and land softly inside the wall of the net. 1-0. A minute later he's there again with only the keeper to beat. He does. 2-nil.

Within a few minutes, the crowd seems to be turning on their team. The London fans are pissed at the adolescent performance of their side. The sounds get surlier. Just when I start to pity Arsenal, they come up with a slick goal. We've got a game.



The problem is that the officials want more than a game; They want a vengeful miracle for Arsenal. This comes when Fabregas breaks out in front of the goal to take a shot in the games closing minutes. Puyol comes forward to him and tries to get some coverage on him from behind, sending the shot wide. But Puyol's block is ruled not only a foul, but a Red card. Barça's captain is sent off the pitch and will miss the next match as well.

The call was pure venom. It was like a hobbling of the team out of spite. "Oh, our captain will miss the next game in Barcelona? Guess what, tio, now we'll take yours out of the mix for that one too." On top of that, the penalty shot comes and Fabregas sends it past Valdes for the tie.

Fabregas immediately starts limping away from the goal. He is feeling a sharp pain. That's shame. A bullshit call has allowed him to equalize against the team of his country and family. The consolation is that he won't have to play in Barcelona and have his relatives booing him next week. In fact, his fitness is completely scalded. They weren't sure if he'd be up for the match after having some leg injury, and now after the game the ruling has come down that he will not play for the next six weeks. Wegner took chances with his line-up and put in players that were of questionable health. Their team next week will be softer than this one.

Though Barça's side next week will be short Puyol and Pique (who also got a damning yellow card in the second half), the team will surely have a vicious payback on their mind. They should have scored more. They got almost nothing out of Leo. Ibra didn't deliver on ten or more opportunities. Henry? Oh, he's the guy who walked around on the pitch for the last five minutes and got the applause that Kareem Abdul Jabar gets for showing up to watch the Lakers.

The teams played out the last minutes of the game resigned to the draw, as if the outcome had been determined long before the formality of the match. Maybe Barça were just putting us on. This is an aggravation on the road to their inevitable hoisting of the Cup at the end of May.

Maybe.

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.

Barça and others on a Sunday

First of all, welcome to my blog about football. That is to say, Soccer.

I am living in Los Angeles, Half a world away from Barcelona, yet they are they sun of my football solar system. Though I appreciate the game in general, it is the way that Barça play it that inspires my interest. Hence, most all of my postings will be centered on that team.

The following is some accounting of Sunday 10/25/09 football as it stood at about 2pm Los Angeles time.

Cheers!

At the half, it is 3 nil barcelona over zaragoza

Keita has two ( a header and strike-both assisted by Ibra) and Ibrahimovic had a penalty shot.

I'm thinking that beyond a defenestration, we may be preparing for a clown-car-circus-fire-disaster; in which the opposing team are herded into a clown car, which is set ablaze in the center of a circus. This occurs at a 6-nil score.

Dani Alves and Henry are out with injuries. It seems that they are preserving T. Henry-who has yet to make his presence felt for the side-- to be in good shape for the thanksgiving real madrid showdown.

Of course, earlier Almeria got their asses handed to them by Valencia in a strong second half. I'm always stunned and thrilled when Almeria loses. One bad day in a town can turn you into a hater of their sports clubs forever.

In England, West Ham United came back from a two point deficit in the second half to draw with Arsenal.

Here comes the second half in the camp nou.

jason gaav

p.s.

so now the game has ended, and it has continued in the explosive steel-o of the first half. Keita scores his third after Ibra comes up with another and Leo finally gets rewarded after a ton of attempts to make it through the goal. Zaragoza comes up with one, so the score is 6-1

It is a beautiful game that features the stunning re-setting pattern of Barça. They always bring the ball back to the goal and insure their control while trying to coax the opponents out of their defense.

Chivas is about to play America.

Should have people amped.