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

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.

Ball Boy

This morning FIFA announced the 23 candidates for the Balon d'Or award for the world's best individual player. Barcelona's squad featured 8 of the 23 names, including Abidal, Dani Alves, Cesc, Piqué, Villa, Xavi, Iniesta and the back to back winner of the last two years, Lionel Messi.


Last year's Golden Boys

The idea of individual achievement seems to be something of a double-edged sword for the beautiful game. As players excel, they become of vital importance to making their team perform more cohesively. Once they get a sense of their worth they are afforded certain indulgences and rapidly that excellence starts yielding diminishing returns (take a look at Carlos Tevez' ongoing soap-opera at Manchester City).

For Barcelona it seems that no matter how superb the results that their players net, if they do not subscribe to a selfless style of performance (both on and off the pitch), they will not last in Guardiola's squad.

Samuel Eto'o was Spain's highest scorer in 2008-2009, and it seems he was not sufficiently Barça in Pep's eyes, so he was despatched to Italy. The next year, Ibrahimovic scored a great goal tally for the Blaugrana (wearing the same no. 9 that Eto'o had just vacated), but he did not jive with the team's humble and light-footed philosophy and he was gone before the 2010 season started.

Messi has been the highest scorer for the squad since Eto'o left, but he has also come up with brilliant assists and shown how instrumental he is in raising the level of play of those around him. Of all the goals he scored last season, the most remarkable play he made may have been a pass to Villa for the fourth goal in the 5-0 routing of Real Madrid.


Mo and Pep react to teamwork from opposite sides of the scoreline

Above all other achievers and champions, this blog is really about Pep Guardiola. Pep has been at the helm of the ship after spending a lifetime building the character necessary to define and apply it's ethos. Now, for the third year running, Pep is nominated for FIFA's Coach of the year award and is a clear favorite to win the prize.

Originally a ballboy, Pep has come through the ranks from the bottom and learned how to embody the elusive esthetic of a squad that is "more than a club." Some successes are deliberate and willed; some are mystical.

The best are both.


Pep's early celebration at the Nou Camp

Why Italians Celebrate...

It seems like any time I see some clip from Serie A, if there is a goal the entire team explodes in the kind of celebration we are used to seeing in footage of VJ-day, or something. Dudes are pulling off their jerseys to show the messages emblazoned on their undershirts--referees are pulling out yellow-cards. The water boy runs off the bench in a back-flip.


Osvaldo gets excited for Roma, but Lazio still wins in the roman derby

I wonder why they make such a big stink from it? Even a penalty goal--which in the old days was always considered poor-form to celebrate--will get the same orgiastic response.

Well, this weekend of the 10 games played in the Italian league, a full half of them ended in 0-0 draws. By contrast in Spain only 2/10 ended goal-less. In England, Germany and the Netherlands, none ended scoreless. As for France, well, nobody watched the games so who knows how they ended?

The kind of defensive stranglehold that has become emblematic of the Italian style of play can be tough to watch. It's like a bad juju contest. For ninety+ minutes, let's get nasty. In the Italian philosophy of the game that came to dominance in the 50's and 60's, the ideal result for a game was a 1-0 win off a single goal scored as late as possible.

No, wonder they party like it's 1999 when it goes to the back of the net.

Yesterday Barça played Racing Santander and soundly outplayed them, winning 3-0.

Leo Messi was genius on the pitch, inspiring loud 'bravo"'s with each magnetic possession. The rest of the crew is still tenuously in and out with this dang'd epidemic of muscle tears.

God bless the child that's got his own...


Messi; Four sweet touches before the ball meets the ground


*** (added on October, 18)

Miroslav Klose, the German star that has signed with Roman team Lazio, has disassociated himself publicly with banners that were drawn in Nazi-esque old-German fonts.

The banners read "Klose mit uns," a play on the military mantra used in nazi Germany, "Gott mit uns [God with us]."

Lazio has perhaps the most outspokenly pro-fascist fanbase in Italy, and their ethical alignment with the WWII idea of Germany is not so surprising. Neither is Klose's willingness to run away from the pairing.

This is the thanks he gets for scoring in Lazio's 2-1 win over Roma?

How long will Germany be seen through the prism of the second world war, which ended 66 years ago?

Well, it was a doozy...

But the war is still something that Germans get their faces pushed into, like a dog into his filth by a cruel master. The wrong-doings we've done; and the goals that we meet, they get weighed and tainted through the resonance of our achievement.

As a stain and glory you wont let go.

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

The Sword of Doom

Who started it?

The Supercopa has been played and since the Spanish Liga is in the midst of a labour dispute, it looks like we will not get much more football for a while. The season will be delayed a week or more. Perhaps til' the middle of September.

It is a good thing that the two-game series did not disappoint at all. The series saw a Barcelona team that had not played together in months and shown only a thin shadow of their champion form over the course of their three or four pre-season games, meeting a Real Madrid squad that has never looked tougher.

Madrid was physically imposing and looked ready to run up mountains. The scot commentator described them as "fit as butcher's dogs." Additionally, Mourinho had changed their style of play from the knee-breaking defensive vice, to a barrage of attacks and pressing for every ball at all parts of the pitch. They utilized their offensive force in a way that was more dynamic than they have shown before. As I said, Mourinho teams take a year to warm up before really getting into stride, and this one looks fit to be a demon.

In Sunday's game at Madrid, los Merengues outnumbered Barça in shots 20-3. It was also the first game in the three full seasons that Pep Guardiola has coached that Barça did not keep a majority of possession on the ball. While they usually get up to 70% of it, at the Bernabeu stadium they had to settle for chasing the action around and scoring on the break--much like Mourinho had coached his previous teams (Chelsea, Inter and last season's R. Madrid) to do against Barça. The shoe was on the other foot.

In spite of that bizarro-world flip-flop, Sunday's first leg score was 2-2. Madrid could not capitalize on their abundant opportunities. Valdes was a phenomenon in the goal, and Dani Alves performed admirably on defense.

It's funny, but though Alves is ostensibly a back, we get so used to seeing him break up the wing to get crosses in to the attackers that he looks almost out of place in his actual 'position.' Nonetheless, he showed that his defensive instincts are really unbeatable (at least if you're Cristiano Ronaldo...).

The games were a total tug of war with each team answering the other's goal through the course of it's three hours, ratcheting the drama tighter and tauter. The signing of Cesc Fabregas between the two meetings just pressurized the environment, as it became the major piece of sporting news on the continent and shored the attention of the football world on the cup Clasico. The Supercopa is usually regarded as a pretty minor championship, but these Madrid/Barça Clasico meetings always take on a lot of symbolic weight.


Who's gonna take the weight?

Messi, who had gone back home to Argentina to play in Copa de America only to return to Spain empty handed and salty, performed like the world's greatest player. He scored or assisted every goal that they marked over the two games. His first assist on Wednesday to Iniesta, who was clear to break free and chip the ball past Casillas, was brilliant. His play with the pass is the sure reason that he is the best.

As Madrid equalized to bring the score to two after Kaka had been brought in late in the second half Wednesday, the game looked set to go to extra time. But Fabregas' substitution (in his first adult moments on the pitch as a member of his boyhood squad) changed the energy substantially. First he collided with Pique to inadvertently gum up a break to the goal in front of Casillas' box. His first touch wasn't with the ball, but with his teammate who was looking to score. But then he redeemed himself by meeting up with Adriano who dished back to Messi for the game winner in the 88th minute.

It was at this point that Madrid, after so nearly beating their opponent at their own game, fell apart. In the extra time Marcelo sent a scissor kick tackle to Cesc to bring him down right in front of the coaches.


Marcelo gets down and dirty on Cesc

It was an outright red-card, and a clear reflection of the frustration that the team of the crown felt at still not being able to beat their rivals--who were weaker than ever and yet again managed to pull rabbits from their hats. The benches cleared and everyone started fighting.


Same as it ever was

Right away, the brilliant two games of play--probably among the best examples of football I've ever seen--are reduced to battles in the same dirty war that has gone on so long. In the ensuing scrum Mourinho walks over behind Barça's assistant coach Tito Vilanova and flicks his finger in his eye. In the 95th minute of the second leg of the Supercopa, three players get red carded-two of them (Özil and Villa) aren't even playing.

There are sure to be sanctions imposed by la Liga for the mud that was kicked up. The complete collapse of Madrid in the closing moments of the contest has resparked the spring's debate over the ill-temper of Mourinho and the rivalry. Is it worth all of the acrimony and nasty vibes? Will the anger on the pitch spill over into the streets and be played out by the team's supporters as proxies?

Pique has come out and declared that Jose Mourinho is "...destroying Spanish football. It's not the first time and it's always a number of players and the same ones so there has to be some way of stopping them. I hope they adopt the necessary sanctions because every game cannot end this way."

Yet almost all of them do.


One last thing

In the classic Okamoto film, The Sword of Doom, Toshiro Mifune is attacked by a group of assassins that mistakenly target him. He delivers all of them to their miserable snowy end, then scolds their ringleader. "An evil soul; an evil sword. Learn the soul to learn the sword."

As the conduct of Madrid's leadership has become so bitter and cynical, the games cannot help but devolve into static. The figures in Madrid's Olympus pavilion of elder statesman are displeased with the brutal character their squad has come to personify, but they are largely tied to the mast of their Ahab. As Madrid had tried to beat their nemesis by out-hustling instead of brutality and still came up short they are left with all their tactics frustrated.

They know there's no success like failure, and that failure's no success at all.


the scrum

Sporting

Barcelona went to Madrid yesterday and played the Europa League Champs, Atletico Madrid. Barça haven't beaten the team in three years, and Atletico is particularly hot in this year--what with their Europa title and the star performance of their Uruguayan captain Diego Forlan in the world cup this summer.

But though Messi was not hot to win games in the Cup and Forlan was, yesterday it was Messi who played brilliantly and scored while Forlan was shut out. Barça played their slinky attacking game and after Atletico equalized in the 23rd minute, Barça scored again from a great close range shot from Pique to lock the score at 1-2. They kept attacking for the next hour of play and Madrid never really got any momentum. Unfortunately, in the extra time at the game's close, Leo Messi got his foot stomped on by Atletico's Ujfalusi.

He rolled on the ground in pain and covered his face as he was taken off the field in a stretcher. Though the injury is said to not be too grave, it sends shock waves through the club whose system is apparently dependent on him. The immediate diagnosis: a ligament sprain and (at least) two games missed.

Its a tough week in La Liga. The team plays on Wednesday hosting Sporting Gijon, and then they'll play in Bilbao against Atletic Bilbao on Saturday. The Bilbao game last year was pretty tough, and this upcoming one will be a good one to watch.

That's still too far to look ahead to. The team have to perform on Wednesday. Now they have mixed momentum at their handling of At. Madrid, hobbled by the loss of Messi.

For the Sporting Gijon game, the young guys have to come up. Pedro has to connect, and Bojan better get into form already in the season's third week. There is no more Ibra to act like Shaq and hang out and wait for dunks. Boys, set your phasers on whoop-de-whoomp.

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.

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.

Jedi

El Clásico was just played in Madrid. Biggest game of the season.

Madrid has lost to Barcelona tonight. Barça are back in the top spot of la Liga after having been in a stranglehold tie for first with Madrid. That's exactly how the game was played--as a taut twisting grapple for dominance between two teams that are eager to stomp the other out of the picture.

The first half was a bitter war of inches and possession. The sides struggled against eachother and gave up fouls. Lot's of thrown bows and whistles blown. Still, Barça managed to eke out an advantage in possession and direction of the ball.

The team seemed to be playing in direct psychic opposition to the rough play of Madrid. Madrid were vicious. Each possession of Barça would receive a brutal challenge. Players all over the field; ankles twisted back and their eyebrows scrunched with pain. The refs didn't feel like calling the most egregious fouls and decided instead to blow the whistle when the guilt from negligence reared randomly.

It was after one of these violent clashes that Messi broke through off a quick pass from Xavi. Leo skated up through the center of the pitch and snuck to the box to shoot past the keeper. It was another in the current streak of successively more incredible goals for him. One for the ages.


Messi scores

Ibra was out for the game, so the team employed a different lineup that moved Messi to the center. This was not ideal, as his lack of height made the chances for headers slim to none.
Pedro was on the side.

Pedro did deliver through out the game with a lot of possession and brutality endured. He then came up on a goal in the second half. 0-2.

But where was Ronaldo?

The Madrid star was consistently denied by the defense of Pique. The two players, both of similar stature and alumni of Man U. were well matched. Pique had his number. That combined with Valdes' supreme handling of the net created a hull that Madrid found they couldn't breach, no matter how many rusty cannonballs they lobbed.

Madrid mostly showed their confusion in the face of Barça's game philosophy: The deft handling of the ball at all times kept la Merengue always one step back. The world's most expensive team couldn't break the code of Barça's frequency.

It was easily the most difficult win of the season so far. They were met at all times and were contested with more audacity than by any other team in the spanish league. The team of the Empire used all of the sinister tricks available to them to try to claw the eyes out of Barcelona, but it was trumped by adherence to their philosophy. Guardiola directed his team to victory by playing their unique game and not getting into a slugfest. Same way they won against Arsenal-who showed a surprisingly physical game in the face of their diminished chances.

How do you kill a sith lord? With a jedi.

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.

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

Enemies: A Love Story

Barça played Deportivo yesterday and beat them 3-1 on the strength of a driven performance by Leo. Messi scored twice and looked like lightning on the field. Relentless.

To satisfy the gods of superstar trades, Ibra also scored once.

In Madrid, meanwhile, Real Madrid played Almeria. This game makes me conflicted because as much as I dislike Real Madrid, I have a personal grudge against Almeria that ought to supersede grudges that I accumulate as a result of my support for Barça. Lucky for me, there is a perfect confluence of mutual misfortune for both teams. Almeria lose to Madrid 4-2, and Ronaldo gets Red carded.

And what did the superstar get ejected for? He got his first yellow for taking his shirt off after a goal, and the second for a nasty foul in the last minute of regulation play. The hubris of this jock inspired him to pull his shirt off and show his chest muscles in front of the world.



Only a few minutes before, his penalty kick was rejected by Almeria's goalie. Though his teammate knocked the ball in for a goal as it bounced away from the keeper's hands, Ronaldo did not celebrate the score--after all, it wasn't his goal, but the team's. The goal he scored a few minutes later was then celebrated with the kind of bully gusto that over-compensated for the disappointment he felt at not being the guy who broke the tie.

There's no "I" in "Team", big guy. Smell you later.

As for the city of Almeria, I got my grudge after a long day spent roaming through the town waiting for a bus. I had been pretty mercilessly ejected from where I'd been staying and ended up with an impromptu layover in the city. It seemed everywhere I went, I was told to leave. I walked into a café that was full of people, was looked at sideways and told they were closed.

Spent the rest of the day walking around listening to the Stooges on my walkman. No fun to be alone, Walking by myself. No fun to be alone, In love with nobody else.



But if all you have is love for yourself that burden can ruin what soul you were born with. Talent; Strength. Beauty and Ego.

Some of us can juggle.

Some know how to play football.

Voltron

5-nil over Cultural Leonesa.

The team was pretty unstoppable. Messi looked super focused. Everybody pulled their weight and got goals from a few different players, with only Bojan standing out clearly among the lucky and gifted squad.

He put the first one in off a sharp center from Jefrens, and then made a classic goal not long after. Sliced it just right through to the net's wall from a skinny angle to the left.

These kid's have talent.



There're not going to be any more club games until the 22nd, when the team start their three game week with Bilbao followed by Internazionale, and finally, Real Madrid.

In the meantime Brazil will be playing England, which should be culturally interesting. English Football is great to watch. Generally, I think the bar is higher there than in La Liga. Arsenal, man. That team is looking tough to beat right now.

And later on tomorrow, Spain and Argentina will be going at it. It should be a little weird to watch Messi play against his Barça team mates as he wears the colors of his country. Plus, with Mike Tyson recently being jailed for fighting at the airport, Maradona will be hatching some nefarious stunt to cement his place as the world's craziest sportsman.