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.

Avocados

"...So much is crowded into the middle –
the guitars of Spain, piles of ripe avocados..."
-Aristotle by Billy Collins

In Mexico, the price of avocado is climbing ever-higher and putting the squeeze on people who often eat only a select amount of vegetables to begin with. The Mexican parliament has officially re-designated many vegetables as 'meat' in order to get people to eat more of them. People are pissed.

Here's something I did not know before today:
Aguacate, Spanish for Avocado, is derived from a Nahuatl word for nut. Like testicle-nut. Not like a brazil-nut. Like, a ball. Thank you BBC.

In Spain the focus of the shitstorm of la Liga politics has returned to the owner's hands after resolving the player's strike--a strike which delayed the season a week. Currently on the bitching block are tv broadcast rights and revenues.

Madrid and Barça split almost half of all revenues (though they get 3X the viewership of all other teams) and the other teams say that the additional money helps them reinforce their choke-hold at the top of the table. This issue isn't a threat to play, though.

On the field,the season is sputtering into gear and focus as the Champions league tournament is set to start. Barça will play AC Milan in their group's first round. They last played them in the Gamper cup right before last season. It was not a game as much as an embrace between Ronalidnho and Barça two seasons after his leaving for Italy, and a kick in the backside to Ibrá, sending him back to Milan after a mal-tempered, though mostly successful season. His last game at the Nou Camp.

Tomorrow there will be no Ronaldinho, having gone back to Brasil to teach Neymar how to play, and even Ibra has pulled out citing a practice injury. It seems a little auspicious since Ibra was traded away from Barça after costing a net loss to the team of around €40 million. It's poor form then to go and play against them in their home.

The Italian league, Serie A, just started this past weekend after being--you guessed it--on strike. Serie A and by extension AC Milan should be out of form for a while. Barça would have been presumably in good shape to win, but they drew 2-2 at Real Sociedad on Saturday.

Up in the Basque country games usually are pretty spirited. The history of Spanish football has always had a very strong corner in the northeast. Though Athletic Bilbao is more decorated, Sociedad have shown that they can bring heat to Barcelona and after capitalizing on two weak defensive plays to equalize in the second half, they managed to hold the stunned champions of europe to the draw.

Barça, two games into la Liga, are in fourth place behind Madird, Valencia, and Real Betis. I'm happy for Betis. they were elevated from the second division recently. Enjoy third place while it lasts.

Another cost of the game was Alexis Sanchez tearing a thigh muscle and now being out for about two months. Inversely, Carles Puyol, our team captain, is looking set to play after being almost entirely out of commission since January.

So many players, so many people are pressed into the middle of a struggle between opportunity and time. People are aware of their decay, and fear the deadlock of inactivity while their sell by date comes running to them.

Squeezed under a mountain of avocados,
that nobody can afford.


Ronaldinho vs Neymar, summer 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.


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.


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...

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.

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.

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