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 LA Galaxy

In Los Angeles. The crispy meat of summertime.

Off-season friendlies are underway, and the leftover victory stains are slowly being wiped away from the eyes. To follow a team from far away makes the experience take on a butterfly-effect. You are there by virtue of being psychically attuned, but there is nothing that remotely resembles the immediacy of the game on the field:

Grass that's cut, wet and smelling faintly of chemicals sharing the air with the bodies of 90,000 people there in the arena. Cosmetics and body sprays. Heat on flesh and the sweat of the players themselves as the game moves onward.

Those elements are replaced by the local drama of the internet connection and the missing focus of helping cook dinner while getting ready for an imminent appointment. The blindfold is being put on and Yoda is telling me to strike at the ball with my lightsaber. But all around the galaxy, things are looking ominous.


Let's have a look in my crystal ball...

A few weeks ago Real Madrid played in Los Angeles against the Galaxy. David Beckham and Landon Donovan posed for pics and swapped shirts with Iker Casillas and Cristiano Ronaldo. The boys from Spain looked über-tan, like bionic George Hamiltons--and they proceeded to take the pitch and defenestrate the Galaxy 4-0. I didn't go, because what am I an asshole?

R. Madrid in California

Of particular note was Ronaldo's solo effort goal up the wing across the keeper. Damn! Madrid have also signed Coentrao, who played for Benfica and the national team, and he looks to be a pretty bad motherfucker. There must be a lot of portugese being spoken in that clubhouse. I wouldn't be surprised if everyone on the team can speak it.

In Barcelona, the boys are probably still speaking Catalán, although who knows what they are saying. They have not played a game as a full first squad since the Championship, and now they are donning these funky-ass new colors and the team is still publicly courting Cesc Fabregas back from Arsenal. This makes two summers in a row of this frustrating rumor. I don't think he's coming back, though, and that should just be dropped.

We have sent Jeffren to play in Portugal. He scored the fifth goal in the Clasico last fall, but that only showed that he could on occasion make the most of his very limited minutes on the field.

Also gone is Bojan, who couldn't sit idly with as much sweet understanding as Jeffren. Before packing for Roma, Bojan had a weird press conference where he kind of cried and complained about the side and Pep Guardiola not believing in him. Still you can kind of understand him as he has to leave the world's top team to go someplace he will actually get a chance to start nearly every game as the favored attacking option.

Bojan leaves.

On Saturday Barcelona played Man U in Washington D.C. No Messi or Xavi, and a limited contribution from many other traditional starters. It was mostly a showcase for Thiago to see how he could meet up with the wizard Iniesta. Iniesta is clearly a genius. Thiago looks very hungry and happy to be getting his playing time on the first team. He obviously wants to make an explosive impression, hence his three goals in the last two games. He scored a pearl to equalize with Man U, but then they answered only a few short minutes later. Let's hope he performs more consistently than his two former teammates.

Last season: Bojan, Jeffren and Thiago

Barça lost the exhibition 1-2, in their black colored kits with no names printed on the back in order to save room for the relocated UNICEF badge. A shaky start, perhaps. In a related bit of shudderation, Kobe Bryant showed up and put on the new Qatar Foundation jerseys at a team luncheon. Shit, man.

Tonight the team will play Chivas in Miami. It is all just a publicity jog until they return to Spain to play Madrid in the Spanish Supercup on the 14th. We just need to stretch out and get the feel for these new clothes. We don't know how to beat anyone else, but we know how to beat ourselves.