barca 09/10: the review

Some incredibly disorganised thoughts about the past season:

horse race

I think Guardiola is absolutely correct when he says that Barca would not have reached the highs they hit this season without being pushed so hard by Real. In fact, Perez's spending spree was probably the most effective form of motivation money could buy for the Barca players, who'd won every single trophy they competed for by the end of 2009.

Winning the league this season was particularly satisfying for this Cule because I was so fearful at the beginning of the season that Real's spending (and hitting upon a good coach, seemingly by accident) would take them past Barca, who could never live up to the glories of the season just gone and would falter under the strain of trying. Once again, I'm eating my words and loving every bite. It certainly wasn't easy, and in patches I thought Real were the more likely champions, but in the end Barca's consistency (both collective and individual) and defensive solidarity won out.

elections

I've never hidden my dislike for Joan Laporta. As far as I'm concerned, the sooner the man stops speaking for the club, the better. However, to give the guy his due, he definitely left Barca in much better shape than he found it in, institutionally, financially, and on the sporting front. (Not difficult, given how the Gaspart era ended, but Barca have had very good years under Laporta.)

For now, the trend of me disliking the president looks set to continue, as Sandro Rosell is currently the presumed front-runner. My dislike of Rosell began long before this election season and has its roots in some of the proposals he put forward as vice president during Laporta's first term. It was cemented by his recent comments on the question of membership. On this issue, I highly recommend Ramzi's post, which lays it out better than I could. I'll just say that to limit membership goes against everything I believe Barca should stand for.

signings

How you can recognise a geeky Barca fanatic: when they're more excited by the kids graduating from the youth system than they are by big name signings. This has been me for the past 3 or 4 seasons. I'll just quickly mention a few names I'm looking forward to seeing more of next season: midfielders Jonathan Dos Santos and Thiago Alcantara (both born of Brazilian parents, but Jono plays for Mexico and Thiago plays for Spain at youth level), as well as defenders Marc Muniesa and Martin Montoya (both Spanish).

Moving on to signings, of course Villa is a fantastic striker who will score tons of goals, but he's 28. I can't help feeling Barca brought him a season later than they should have. Still, more than glad to have such a reliable goalscorer who will fit easily into the Barca system.

As for the midfield, if Yaya Toure leaves it will be a very sad day indeed, but I do understand his desire for more playing time. He'll need to be replaced, and my preference is for someone versatile like Keita who can play as a central or defensive midfielder. Lord knows who that will end up being at this point.

Ideally, I would also like one more defender. Alves, Puyol, Pique, Milito, Abidal and Maxwell are all fine, but from there things get a little dicey, and that's not good enough.

standout performers

Leo Messi: 47 goals and 14 assists in 53 appearances. The (ridiculous) stats say it all. Except they don't. He makes everybody else play better, not only because of the passes and runs he makes, but because he attracts defenders like few other players on the planet. Rightly so, because - and it's been this way since 06-07, really - when nobody else has anything, and the game looks like petering out, he's the one who makes it happen.

Xavi: As Guardiola said, best midfielder in the history of Barca. Insanely consistent, absolutely tireless, and the best passer of the ball in Europe.

Puyol: At the beginning of the season, people thought his career was over. Please. A tremendous competitor with the work ethic of a true pro and the physical conditioning of a man ten years younger. He'll be around for a while yet.

Pique: Has good enough feet to play striker, can pass like a midfield general, and somehow keeps up with CRon in full flight when in defence. I don't get him. Whip-smart, too, underneath the bluster.

Pedro: I had no idea he could play like that. Fortunately, I'm in some pretty good company there, as nobody but Guardiola seemed to have any clue. Pedro Rodriguez was about to be shipped out when Guardiola came on the scene at what was then Barca B 3 years ago. And now he's scored 23 goals for Barca in his first full season. Could maybe use a little more composure at times when being harried, but that's just a nitpick. Good with both feet, tactically disciplined, tracks back like his life depends on it, no ego to speak of. What else can you ask for?

guardiola's bias

Guardiola's pro-La Masia agenda is obvious. I think he might even admit it if you bought it up. As much as I approve of the idea of a team mostly made up of youth team grads, I was initially very skeptical of the practicalities involved. Well, surprise surprise, I was wrong and he was right. Players like Sergio Busquets and Pedro Rodriguez made the step up seamlessly, and of course Guardiola was lucky enough to inherit the likes of Xavi, Puyol and Messi. Would a team with 8 home-grown starters be possible without the tremendous luck of inheriting such a golden generation of players? Probably not. But equally, the explosive development of Pedro and Busquets would not have been possible without Guardiola's championing.

(Hey, look at that, all the standouts I named above are La Masia grads. Hm.)

a longer view

I hadn't actually thought about this until El Pais reminded me - Barca have won 10 league titles in the past two decades (1990-94, 97-99, 04-06, 08-10) to Real's 6 (94/95, 96/97, 00/01, 02/03, 06-08). Barca only have 20 league titles in total. I think if any statistic illustrates the way Johan Cruyff the coach (and the 'Godfather'/mentor) changed Barca for the better, it's probably that one. Cruyff's an infuriating man at times, but he deserves every accolade for his vision and achievements.

Lyon 2 - 2 Barca ('our forward line is how old?!' edition) and Barcelona derby preview

Against Lyon, a great European side, Barca's 3-man forward line had an average age of 20. Eto'o wasn't quite fit enough yet, Henry's body had finally given out after playing continuously while not 100% fit, and Ronaldinho was on the bench. Andres Iniesta, 23; Lionel Messi, 20; and Bojan Krkic, 17, a forward line crafted in the Barca youth academies, led the line in their stead. And they did a good job, I think it's fair to say, as did the rest of the team. A line-up which consisted of 6 home-grown players managed a good away performance against an impressive Lyon side without the superstar forwards, and without Deco.

In fact, they were excellent in the first 20 minutes, playing rapid, fluid football, and while the rest of the game was not as pleasing on the eye, what made me happy was the mentality on display, a sense of aggression and team work that had been missing from some recent Barca performances. That youthful forward line combined to produce a first goal made in La Masia from a swift counter-attack which took full advantage of their skills and pace.

It's good to see that the midfield doesn't get bossed around as much when Gudjohnsen is there to help Yaya out, but I think there's still a bit of bite missing which should hopefully be remedied when Deco returns from injury.

Both Yaya and Messi are one yellow away from suspension in the Champions League, which means that they'll probably be rested for the last game against Stuttgart, for which Carles Puyol is suspended because of accumulation of yellow cards.

One of the big talking points about the game was the fact that Ronaldinho was a substitute. I've already hinted at what I think is one of the reasons - the team configuration without him allows for more aggressiveness and speed, but I also think that if Rijkaard thinks that he's not ready to play due to either mental or physical fatigue, I trust the coach's judgement.

Rijkaard and the ref

The other big talking point is Frank Rijkaard's sending off. Stefan Farina, the referee, is fast turning into Rijkaard's semi-comedic nemesis. Some of you may recall that he was the referee in the controversial 2-2 draw between Barca and Chelsea at the Camp Nou last season, where he booked a billion players and attracted Rijkaard's ire for 1) deciding on 6 minutes of stoppage time when Barca were leading 2-1, and 2) ending the match on 5 minutes of said stoppage time after Chelsea got their late equaliser. I didn't blame him for the shambles both teams made of the game at the time, but this is the second time he's lost control of the players in a physical game, tried to regain it by booking everyone in sight, and made both teams unhappy as a result.

This time, Rijkaard's ire was attracted by what he saw as Farina's failure to spot fouls on Messi. To be fair to the ref, while there were strong challenges flying in, I didn't see anything especially outrageous. Frankie was probably in the wrong this time, although the fans seem to have appreciated his show of anger on behalf of his players. This is the first time Rijkaard has been sent off since becoming Barca coach.

The players claimed that Rijkaard was only expressing their frustrations, and Xavi has claimed that the players took the words of Rijkaard (in regards to having a 'winning mentality') to heart in their approach to the game, which enabled them to play the way they did.

individual players

defence

• Valdes really should have done better on Juninho's freekick. I know that the defenders bears some responsibility for not getting to the ball, but some of the blame has to fall on Victor. Made a couple of fine saves from the good chances Lyon did get.
• Zambrotta looked a bit better, but still seemed to lack an understanding with the rest of the team, and has somehow become a defensive liability through his lapses in concentration, which is worrying. Did alright against his fellow Italian defender Grosso.
• Milito was reliable as usual, and I've really begun to appreciate his ability to hit passes out of defence. It's something I really missed while Marquez was out of form.
• Like I wrote above, Puyol is somewhat responsible for the first goal, but the rest of his performance was quite great, and as usual, he led the team by example.
• Abidal did quite well on his return to his old stomping ground, and I don't really blame him for the penalty - he was in an awkward position, there was a chance that he might commit the foul, but it was a fair chance to take.

midfield

• I'll probably end up saying this most games, but it bears repeating - Yaya Toure really is a fantastic addition to the squad. He disrupts the opposition's attempts to build play through midfield, plugs the gaps in defence and his work rate is excellent. And I haven't even mention his underrated skill on the ball - after all, he started out as a central midfielder, not a destroyer. All that and a powerful shot as well.
• Again, something else I seem to repeat every game: Andres Iniesta. Fantastic. Passing, dribbling, tackling and tracking back, Iniesta does it all, and does it well, too. Even his shooting has improved.
• Barca fans give Gudjohnsen a hard time because he's not the most technical player, and can miss some frustratingly easy chances in front of goal (e.g. that terrible miss from Messi's cross in this game), but give him credit for hard work. Without his work ethic, Barca's midfield would have been completely dominated by Lyon's, and the spirit of him and Yaya seemed to inspire the rest of the team.
• Xavi's passing was as good as ever, although it's clear that he needs either Iniesta or Deco to partner him in order to be fully effective. By the way, congratulations to him for surpassing the man he models himself on - Pep Guardiola, for those who don't know - to become 9th on Barca's all-time appearances list, with Tuesday's game being his 385th for the club.

forwards

• Is it just me or has Messi looked increasingly frustrated in the last couple of games? Don't get me wrong, he's still one of our most threatening players, and it's because the opposition devote 2 or 3 players to keep track of him that the other guys get any space to run into, but being ganged up on by so many opposition defenders all the time has to take a toll mentally. He does seem to be trying to connect with the other forwards, but an understanding takes time to form, and he's been the only constant of a forward line that has had to change all the time because of injuries and form concerns. Utterly cold-blooded penalty, as always.
  
• As Sid Lowe said in the Guardian Football Weekly podcast, Bojan is still obviously a boy, and he looks frail out there being pushed around and physically overwhelmed by big defenders. Given the boy credit for trying, though, and for still managing to make an impact on the game with his penetrating runs and two great assists.
• Ronaldinho only played 20 minutes or so and looked...alright, I suppose. It was hard to tell given the state of the game at the time. Made a couple of great passes and tried to go past people, which is what we all want to see.
  

presswatch

"Now, he should not believe everything that is said in the press because it is great when they praise you, but the day that they criticise you they will not worry about how old you are." - Samuel Eto'o on his chosen successor, one Bojan Krkic.

Too true, Sammy. This and other sensible insights from Eto'o in an interview with the official website, where he also states how pleased he is about the way the team played against Lyon.

Aren't the Catalan papers supposed to be on Barca's side? The way I see it, Marca have been friendlier and less hysterical in their reporting lately than they have.

Usually, Sport are the ones in my bad books, but I see El Mundo Deportivo has now taken up the 'heroic' task of attacking Frank Rijkaard despite all evidence to the contrary. If that game was boring then I don't know what they were watching.

And the rising tide of opinion against Messi really proves that us fans are the most fickle creatures known to man. Like Eto'o said, criticism is a ruthless and blind thing when it turns against you. Football players aren't seen as human beings once they reach a certain level of stardom.

On a more positive note, Ronaldinho has been praised for taking to being a substitute without complaint. It's nice to see some of the papers ease up on him a bit (I wish Sport would follow suit), but the very fact that him not being disgruntled is news seems strange to me - for any other player, save perhaps Eto'o and Henry, it wouldn't be, and surely it's part of the professional conduct of any player to accept the coach's decision, if not with grace, then at least quietly?

player news ahead of the Barcelona derby

Edmilson has returned to training but is some ways from being fit, not that he's likely to play for us again, and Deco and Eto'o are both on track to appear against Deportivo if all goes well. (What I really want is to see both of them fit and firing in time for El Clasico.)

Our injury problems have hit a low point: Oleguer, Sylvinho, Thuram, Henry and Giovani are also unavailable, leading to poor Frank Rijkaard resorting to two youth team players in the form of Alberto Botia and Victor Sanchez to fill up the bench. Interestingly, this means that 10 out of the list of 18 are products of the Barca academy.

On the Espanyol side, our old friend De la Pena will not be fit enough to play, but the excellent Albert Riera has been included. Young Argentine (and personal favourite of mine) Pablo Zabaleta is once again fit enough to be named in the squad.

It's not just a derby - it's a match between two of the best teams in the league, third versus fourth. May the best team win.

Visca el Barca!

Barca 3 - 0 Recreativo (return of the match report)

(graphic swiped from Sport)

Any other team might be pleased to win 3-0 (especially with most players coming off two international appearances) and gain some distance on our rivals at the top of the table, but as always, Barca are our own greatest enemy. It feels like forever since I've done one of my rambling, player-by-player match reports, so here goes.

How much can one take out of a game against a side suffering second-seasonitis, who had only 26% of the possession and no shots on goal? Well, for one, it provides a good study of the difficulties Barca have had breaking down opponents who defend in numbers both home and away, and secondly our reliance on scoring the first goal.

One caveat, though: Barca's Jekyll and Hyde syndrome means that home and away performances should probably be judged by different standards. We almost always score at home (in fact, today's game was the 50th league home game in a row that Barca have scored in), contrasted with our many difficulties in that department away, and we have a 100% home record so far this season, but haven't won away since we beat Stuttgart.

defence

Difficult to find much to say about Victor Valdes, since he didn't have a lot to do, so we'll move right on.

Puyol and Milito are a great central partnership, as everybody had hoped they would be, so it was a shame when Puyol had to come off with an injury in the second half. The latest seems to be that while - thankfully - nothing is broken, Puyol is in a lot of pain (which makes sense, as he'd never have asked to come off without a serious problem), and the doctors have yet to make a decision on whether he will travel to Lyon.

Puyol's replacement, Marquez, hasn't quite regained the impervious form of 05-06, but neither has he been as bad as he was last season. Some decent play, and he's certainly a solid enough backup.

Milito had yet another good game in the blaugrana shirt. I have to say, he did cost a fair bit, but I think the purchase has been a wise one. Good central defenders are not that easy to come by these days. Great header for the goal, which is something I've seen from him several times in the Zaragoza and Argentina shirt. Hopefully he'll bring that form to Barca, too, since we're pretty dire at scoring from corners. This is our 93rd corner of the season, and the first time it has resulted in a goal. Not good stats.


The ESPN commentator for the Barca-Rangers game bitterly criticised Abidal and claimed - laughably - that he'd been very disappointing since joining. I don't know what he's been watching, but the general consensus amongst the fans and the press has certainly been that he's been a good signing who has performed the way we would want: good play going forward, solid defending. And so it was for this game. I didn't like him losing his temper and barging into a Recre player (in response to Recre refusing to put the ball out of play after Iniesta had gone down), especially while the team were 2-0 up, though. Not a wise move - what if he got sent off?

Is it just me, or has Zambrotta looked a bit off-colour in the last couple of games? I know he's coming off an injury, but he just hasn't looked quite right this season, especially going forward, and the neat inter-play that had developed between him and Messi by the end of last season has been missing. Still more reliable than Oleguer (who came on and did a decent job), but I'm starting to worry.

midfield

Another thing I'm starting to worry about: what are we going to do when Yaya Toure, who has provided a crucial link between defence and attack for us, goes off to the African Cup of Nations? Hope that Marquez is fit and well, I suppose, since Gudjohnsen's recent stint in midfield has gone downhill after starting well.

In this game, Guddy was playing a bit further forward - in the attacking midfield role he sometimes filled for Chelsea. He worked very hard, and deserves credit for that, but all the same old problems of last season still remain, namely: his ability to take chances is not great, and he's slow on the ball.

Xavi certainly struggled to partner him effectively, especially compared to his almost telepathic understanding with the injured Deco. As Marca pointed out, our third captain may not be a flashy player, but his contributions have always been vital to our performances, mostly via his passing. Had a hand in 2 of the 3 goals.

Iniesta started the game playing on the wing, but ended it playing in his natural midfield position, so I'll put him here. He was Barca's most effective player in the first 20 minutes in which the team laboured to create chances and continued trying to speed up the play and make the breakthrough in the rest of the game. Once he went back to midfield to partner Xavi, the forwards got much better service. By the way, he really is an excellent dribbler - one of the best at Barca, and that's saying a lot.

forwards

I have a confession to make: I don't know what Premier League fans are talking about when they say that Henry is a lazy player. He's worked pretty hard in every Barca game I've seen this season (and I've seen almost every game, even the friendlies), not only in attack but tracking back, tackling and harrying. An unselfish assist for Bojan's goal, and it's good to see how pleased he was about it, too - he couldn't have looked happier if he'd scored it. Speaking of which, there were a couple of opportunities in which he could probably have taken a shot instead of passing it, and if he weren't Thierry bloody Henry I'd say he's losing his shooting confidence. Almost every single refereeing decision went against him as well, which couldn't have been very fun. Just because he's a big, tall forward (by La Liga standards) doesn't mean he was fouling every time, dammit.

Before I talk about Messi, a couple of wise words from Guillem Balague on the recent heavy criticism of him in the press:

...to have a go at Messi doesn't make sense because he has only had two bad games. Messi has had a year with hardly any rest and has been playing at a very, very high level.

Yeah, what he said. I was worried that Messi would be tired, having played the full 90 minutes in Argentina's 2 qualifiers, one of them at altitude and with Argentina down to 10 men for most of the game. He did look a bit tired at the beginning, but gradually came into it a bit more and became Barca's most threatening player, which meant that Recre devoted 2 players to marking him, with mixed success: he did create some good chances, but either the player on the receiving end wasted them (Zambrotta, Gudjohnsen, Henry), or he wasted them himself. Messi's passing continues to improve, and while one of his free kicks was rubbish, the other was quite good. (I'll be honest, whenever we get a free kick, I really start missing Ronaldinho and Deco.) The major problem now where Messi is concerned seems to be that his link-up play with Henry and Bojan isn't as good as it could be. Understandably, not much can match the interplay born of familiarity of the Ronaldinho-Eto'o-Messi front line, but there certainly could be some improvement to the current state of things.

Bojan continues to amaze. Here's a scary reminder: the kid's 17. What a cool finish, and his appearance certainly disrupted the Recre defense, with his speed on the ball if nothing else. He kind of reminds me of Messi a couple of seasons ago - a bit too individualistic, and he hasn't quite figured out when to pass and when to shoot, but that will come with experience. I'm certain he wouldn't shrink from a big occasion, either, to judge from his coolness in front of goal.

other observations

Good substitution by Rijkaard, taking off Gudjohnsen for Bojan. Not quite sure why he took Zambrotta off, but maybe we'll find that out in the next couple of days.

Because Barca played well when Ronaldino was injured near the beginning of the season, a lot of people are inclined to blame him for all Barca's problems. They do have a point, especially since Barca put in a few good performances when he was missing last season as well. However, not having Ronnie in this game didn't seem to make the team any less lethargic, although I suppose the fact that this game came straight after an international break may have had something to do with that. So, inconclusive on that front.

However, I think we've all seen what the two major injured players bring to the team by the effect their absence has had. I've said it enough times, but I don't mind repeating it: Samuel Eto'o drives the entire team forward with both his play and his mentality, and the same goes for Deco. Without both of them, we lack aggression, determination, and a bit of a cutting edge.

I see Sport are in full 'we hate everything about our team, except that one 17 year old, who should play all the time, and maybe sometimes that little Argentine we just trashed for having one bad game' mode. Great. (It's absurd to say Bojan was Barca's best player, guys, since he only played about 30 minutes, and while he had an impact, I'm not sure it was enough to override the 90 minute performances of players like Iniesta and Messi.)

Barca news ahead of the Stuttgart game and a quick update on the Phoenix

I picked a bad time to be away, didn't I? Events in the past week have been strangely reminiscent of the 04-05 season: great play, great sense of team spirit, tons of injuries. Perhaps it's a good omen, as Barca won the title that time, but I hope the squad remember that they did it by sticking together and working hard through the bad patches.

Here's an amazing statistic: it's been 10 months since we last won 4 in a row. 10 months! That goes some way to explaining why last season was a failure, doesn't it?

I liked this from the Independent:

When over 20,000 people turn up to see you sign, you want to give them what they want. Scoring three times on a ground where in the last two seasons Barça have only been able to pick up a point was a good way to start delivering.

Exactly right, and thank you, Titi. I can't help but think about what would have happened if he had signed a season earlier and been there when Eto'o got injured then, but I suppose it's just great to have him now in Sammy's absence.

Other related matters:

• Henry and Messi have really hit it off.
  
• A very happy birthday to Frank Rijkaard, who turned 45 and was able to celebrate with a victory.
• Henry did a bit of his post-match interview in Spanish, and was apparently pretty good.
• Congratulations to captain Puyol on his return. Hopefully his form will return with a bit more game time.
• Fair play to the Levante fans, who applauded Messi off the pitch. I believe they're the second (non-Barca) Spanish club to do so, after the wonderful fans of Cadiz a few seasons ago, who I still miss. (Come back to the top flight soon, guys!)

team news

Unfortunately, Gianluca Zambrotta is going to be out for a month with a torn muscle. This is a big blow given the sale of Belletti during the last transfer window. Having Oleguer and no one else in the rightback position for a month is not an ideal situation, much as I like the Catalan.

In the same vein, and arguably even more importantly, Yaya Toure is also out for a month with torn femoral biceps. Thankfully it seems that Marquez will be fit enough to take over the defensive midfield position for the next month, but Toure has really made this position his own and this is a bad time for him to get injured. On the other hand, Marquez does have cover - albeit inexperienced cover - in the shape of the uncanny Guardiola lookalike, young Marc Crosas.

Speaking of Toure, he has publicly apologized for injuring Zaragoza's Matuzalem with what was an unacceptably dangerous tackle. Having already made an apology to the player in private after the game, Toure wanted to make it clear that he had "not come to Spain to be dirty, but to play football", and I believe him. The tackle was wrong, but Toure's response has been impeccable.

Congratulations to Carles Puyol on a big occasion: the 29 year old will play his 350th game for Barca against Stuttgart.

Speaking of which, here's the squad list. It does include Ronaldinho, Marquez and Gabi Milito (who requires more tests before he'll be cleared to play), and doesn't include Yaya Toure, Gianluca Zambrotta, Samuel Eto'o, Edmilson (injured) and poor old Santi Ezquerro (rested).

Presswatch

Coverage of the weekend from Sid Lowe (general round-up and Real) and Phil Ball (on Messi, 'the best player in the world'). As always, well worth reading. And Pete Jenson from the same Independent article quoted above on Henry, Messi, and Rijkaard's birthday.

The lecturer of my media class just said: "the media is not interested in anything positive. They're only interested in confrontation and negativity." Admittedly, he was talking about politics, but it applies equally to football. Sid and Phil are consistently good because they're balanced, interesting, and at the same time not obsessed with negativity and sensationalism.

Wellington Phoenix 4 - 1 Perth Glory

Congratulations to the Phoenix on their first ever home victory, which moves them up to 4th in the table. Great stuff, especially from Brazilian midfielder Daniel. When I was in Wellington, I was impressed by all the advertising around town for the Phoenix's games and the team's visibility, compared to what the late lamented Knights had in Auckland. The fans impressed me too, making a right old racket in the Cake Tin (otherwise known as Westpac Stadium) even though they only numbered about 10000. Very good signs for the team in general.

3 apologies and 2 thank yous (a quick note on Barca)

Dear Thierry Henry:

I'm sorry I ever thought you had lost your spark forever. I'm glad you play for us.


Dear Yaya Toure:

I'm sorry I doubted your suitability for the defensive midfield position. You have been wonderful. Get well soon!


Dear Txiki Begiristain:

I was wrong, and I apologize. You have signed well this time. Please continue in this vein.


Dear Frank Rijkaard:

I never doubted you, and I never will. Thanks for being a class act.


Dear Leo Messi:

Thank you for being unpretentious, and modest, and fantastic.


I'm now back from Wellington - which was great fun - so expect some catch up posts soon, including one about the Argentina squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers. Let's just say I'm not too impressed.

Barca news round-up: what a difference a day makes

Barcelona 3-0 Lyon

Positives

• 3 points against arguably our most difficult rival in the group
• Messi continues to improve all aspects of his game
• Henry really needed that goal
• Great to see Giovani and Bojan get their Champions League debut
• That defence: Zambrotta-Marquez-Milito-Abidal. Excellent, and they should start every game until Puyol is fully fit. Lyon only had one shot on goal.
  
• Deco has really responded to the pressure (credit to Rijkaard for motivating him once again), Xavi is as tidy as ever, and Iniesta is just brilliant. It's a hard choice for the coach to make, having to pick two out of three.
  
• Toure has made a great start to his Barca career, really earning the admiration of the fans with his work rate and skill. Same with Abidal.
  

Negatives

• Far too wasteful in attack. So many great chances went begging before Messi's goal.
• Ronaldinho still doesn't look quite right. I believe his substitution was the correct decision.
• Henry also looks a bit off the pace, although that should change as he gets used to the way Barca play.
  

news

The bidding to renovate the Camp Nou has been won by prestigious architects Norman Foster. The plans include the addition of another 10000 seats, taking the stadium capacity to a ridiculous 110000 and is expected to cost 250 million euros.

Congratulations to Xavi, who equalled the club record for most number of appearances in international competition with his 85th match for the club in UEFA and FIFA club competitions. Remember, he's only 27. The Catalan had this to say about the honour:

"It is a beautiful number to help celebrate an important win," smiled the 27-year-old Spanish international midfielder. "I still feel young. I feel important within this squad and the fans continue to show me great affection.

I damn well hope the club continues to make the third captain of the squad feel important. He's a hugely underrated player and always wonderful to watch.

Congratulations are also due to Bojan Krkic, who became the youngest player ever to play in the Champions League not only for Barca, but in the history of the competition at the age of 17 years and 22 days. The previous Barca record holder was the man who he replaced, Leo Messi, who was an ancient 17 years, 5 months and 13 days when he started the game against Shaktar Donetsk 3 years ago.

Lastly, it gives me great pleasure to announce that club captain Carles Puyol is finally back in full training with the rest of the squad, who gave him a warm welcome back. We've missed his leadership and his spirit.

However, Puyol hasn't been included in the squad to face Sevilla.

Barca news and La Liga teams in Europe

Barca are obviously Spain's crisis club, having drawn their first game away, a horrifying fate that has surely -

Oh for God's sake. Dictionary definition of 'leaping to conclusions', anyone?

Barca 5-0 Inter Reserves (Joan Gamper Trophy)

El Mundo Deportivo called Inter 'tourists', which is harsh but true, and who can blame the Italians with an important league fixture to come in the weekend? However, a sold-out Camp Nou - yes, 98,599 people attended a season-opening friendly (so much for the fans feeling let down by the Barca team) - probably would have wished to see a few more of Inter's star players.

The team carried a banner reading 'we will play for you' with a picture of the Sevilla defender onto the pitch. By the way, it was the squad themselves who decided on the tribute of wearing his no.16 shirt and not to celebrate the goals scored that day.

"At first the squad wanted the game to be postponed in order to show our respects to the Puerta, although after talking to the directors we agreed that the best homage was to play for him," Xavi said.

"It was a good way for us to send a message of support and our concolences. Before that none of the players had really fancied playing at all."

I feel quite bad for Santiago Solari, who I've always liked and who received a hostile reception due to his status as a former Real Madrid player. He was one of the few Inter players who tried to make things happen and departed seemingly injured. Hopefully he's alright.

Interesting, there was a lot of support for the beleaguered Deco amongst the crowd, which I'm very pleased by. Other than that, the crowd absolutely loved the immense Yaya Toure, chanting his name after his excellent goal. The others to received the same treatment included Giovani, and Messi (seemingly for just being on the field). But anyway, Yaya is awesome. I'm beginning to suspect he may prove to be our signing of the season.

Of the other new guys, we already know what Abidal can do, but it was nice to see Gaby Milito get 45 minutes of playing time. He obviously needs more time, as there were some early communication issues, but it was good to see headers being won in the Barca area for the first time in ages courtesy of him, and his great sense of positioning was evident.

I've been pretty hard on Thierry Henry for a while, but I have to admit he's starting to win me over. He played 90 minutes of the Gamper game and looked very lively despite some rough defending from Inter. I was worried that his pace had gone with injuries and age, but was pleased to be proven wrong. My one concern is with the number of times Giovani has had the ball on the right flank, looked up to try and find Henry in the center with his cross, and discovered that he had drifted to the left, where Ronaldinho was, and that there was nobody to be found in the center. That has to change. Overall, though, I'm pleased with his progress and am happy to rely on his talents in future competitive matches.

I say this partly because unfortunately, Samuel Eto'o suffered a tear in his right thigh tendon about 2 minutes after he came on and had to be substituted.

How long is he going to be out? At least two months. God. I was afraid all pre-season that something was going to happen, and now it has. Good thing we haven't sold Gudjohnsen or Ezquerro yet. And now the thought of having Henry around is very reassuring, despite his own battle for fitness. Well, at least we'll be putting all that crap about the four forwards to one side, but I feel awful for Eto'o, who was still struggling to be fit from his last major injury. Those types of injuries are so tricky to recover from, too. Look at the nightmare Messi went through with his in 05-06.

The latest is that he will need surgery, which will happen on Saturday morning. Good luck, Sammy!

I hate to say this, but Ronaldinho needs to make just a bit more effort on the pitch, especially with Puyol's absence because of injury, since it's hard to have everybody giving their best when the captain's wandering around, too lazy to chase after a pass. His lack of movement was pretty worrying.

On the other hand, young Giovani is definitely a hard worker. I'm reluctant to admit this, given how much I like Messi, but in some ways Giovani has the greater tactical discipline, because he seldom holds onto the ball just a touch too long like Messi sometimes does. Of course, Messi's dribbling runs are just part of his playing style, just like his tendency to cut into the middle from the right, and it's good that Rijkaard has more tactical options, with Giovani more likely to stay wide. The young Mexican still has a bit to learn in terms of general tactical discipline, and sometimes his decision-making is suspect, but that will come with playing time.

Poor old Cristian Chivu had a torrid time against Giovani and must have been relieved to see the boy depart. Except that his replacement was one Leo Messi, who continued to torment the defender.

Champions League draw

Hey. we're in the group of death (again), isn't that great? To be fair, none of the groups look like walkovers this time around, but God. Of the Spanish teams, Valencia have got a tough job themselves. (By the way, how are Valencia still a pot 2 team after doing so well since the turn of the century?) The draw in full:

Group A: Liverpool, Porto, Marseille, Besiktas
Group B: Chelsea, Valencia, Schalke 04, Rosenborg
Group C: Real Madrid, Werder Bremen, Lazio, Olympiakos
Group D: AC Milan, Benfica, Celtic, Shakhtar Donetsk
Group E: Barcelona, Lyon, VfB Stuttgart, Rangers
Group F: Manchester United, Roma, Sporting Lisbon, Dynamo Kiev
Group G: Internazionale, PSV Eindhoven, CSKA Moscow, Fenerbahce
Group H: Arsenal, Sevilla/AEK Athens, Steaua Bucharest, Slavia Prague

UEFA Cup draw

I have to admit, I don't know much about the clubs the four Spanish participants have been drawn with:

Villarreal CF (ESP) v FC BATE Borisov (BLR)
Club Atlético de Madrid (ESP) v Kayseri Erciyesspor (TUR)
Aris Thessaloniki FC (GRE) v Real Zaragoza (ESP)
Getafe CF (ESP) v FC Twente (NED)

Also of interest to Barca fans, Henrik Larsson's Helsingborgs have been handed a relative tough tie against Heerenveen of the Netherlands.

And speaking of former Barca players, Gerard Lopez has joined Recreativo on a free transfer.

Barca 07-08: Introducing the new faces

Yes, after much procrastinating, I've finally written the long-overdue post welcoming the new signings to the club, including 2 'graduates' from the B team.

"Pressure? Pressure is what you feel when you're about to die or when you might go to jail; when you have no money, no food. But feeling the pressure while playing soccer? I've been playing since I was 17. I've played many games, some bigger than others. That's the way it is."

Name: Thierry 'Titi' Henry (France)
Age: 30
Position: forward
Squad number: 14
Transfer: 24 million euros from Arsenal

What's there to say? It's not as if anybody will be unfamiliar with his characteristics and abilities. Fabulous forward with ego to match, but there are doubts over how much longer he can kept it up due to a series of injuries last season. Has not looked convincing on the wings, but is undoubtedly a classy center forward.

"You can play hard football without a lot of fouls. It seems to me that lately some games turn into a physical battle where technique comes second. As a defender I think that what is most important is to earn respect inside the first 18 metres and commit as few fouls as possible so that your team does not suffer."

Name: Eric Abidal (France)
Age: 28
Position: leftback
Squad number: 22
Transfer: 15 million euros from Lyon

The leftback position has been a bit of a problematic one in recent years for Barca, and Abidal has been signed to remedy that problem. He's strong, quick, and very experienced, able to get into good positions defensively while getting forward a bit in attack.

"I know what it means to play with an advanced defence, but I think if you are well-positioned then the risks are not so great. The key is to be focussed, well-placed and to have good communication among the back four, especially when the team has the ball."

Name: Gabriel 'Gabi' Milito (Argentina)
Age: 26
Position: central defence
Squad number: 12
Transfer: 17 million euros from Zaragoza (rising to 20.5 million depending on trophies)

'The Marshall' as he's known has experience and temperament that belies his relative youth. He was turned down by Real Madrid supposedly on account of a failed medical, but has performed well consistently for Zaragoza ever since signing for them, and indeed captained the side. A lot of Barca fans joke that the club went him for because he looks just like our captain Carles Puyol. There is a bit of a resemblance, even in playing style, but I think where Milito perhaps isn't as good in sheer physicality, he's got a better sense of positioning despite a relative lack of pace. Great header of the ball too, even though he's only 1.79ms tall.

"My target was to play among great players in a big European club and I’ve managed to achieve that today. But the job is not done yet, because I have set myself even bigger objectives. I know I will feel comfortable but I have come here to achieve even bigger things."

Name: Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast)
Age: 24
Position: central midfield
Squad number: 24
Transfer: 9 million euros from Monaco

Toure was signed to fill the club's problematic defensive midfield position, but he's really more of a central midfielder who can tackle and head the ball. So far, he's taken to the holding position well, and shown that he's got skill as well as strength. Whether the position will suit him over the long run remains to be seen.

“I have always compared myself to Messi but he is a football superstar and I am just starting. Of course I’d like to be like him one day.”

Name: Giovani 'Gio' Dos Santos (Mexico)
Age: 18
Position: wing forward
Squad number: 17
Transfer: from Barca B

Actually, Barca fans like to compare Gio to Ronaldinho more. He even looks a bit like the Brazilian, and scarily enough plays a bit like him too. Of course, he's got some way to go, and his decision-making could be better, but he's got pace, strength, and sublime skill to spare, not to mention an audacity and confidence that Messi didn't have at his age.

"I have had two very good years and did not expect any of this," he said. "I am very conscious of that and it is for that reason that I am staying calm and am excited by the way things are going."

Name: Bojan Krkic (Spain)
Age: 17
Position: forward
Squad number: 27
Transfer: from Barca B

As Cesc Fabregas once said, if you're a teenager and you're playing for the Barca first team, you'd have to be the best in the world in that age group. So the fact that a 17 year old is going to be playing for Barca this season tells you something about him. Bojan has amazing goalscoring statistics in every single age group for Barca and at U17 level for Spain. He's simply got the instinct for goal that very good strikers have (personalised in archetypical goal-poacher, Pippo Inzaghi), not to mention skill and pace to burn. The only problem is that he could be a bit taller, but the kid's only 16, so there's hope for that yet.

(All currency in euros.)
In: Henry (24 million, Arsenal), Toure (9 million, Monaco), Abidal (15 million, Lyon), Milito (17 million, Zaragoza), Bojan (free, Barca B), Gio (free, Barca B) = 65 million
Out: Saviola (free, Real), van Bronckhorst (free, Feyenoord), Giuly (3.2 million, Roma), Lopez (2 million, Moscow), Belletti (5.5 million, Chelsea) = 10.7 million
Total outlay: 54.3 million euros

La Liga news round-up: we love loan deals!

Lots of news this time, so little to no commentary.

Barcelona

Rafa Marquez has opted to sit out Mexico's Copa America clash with Uruguay for third place (which they won 3-1) in order to start preparing for the club season early and make sure that the injury problems which plagued him in 06-07 don't return.

President Laporta talks about Barca's movements in the transfer market (ignore the headline as usual from the geniuses at goal.com), blaming inflating for the amount of money we've had to spend.

The purchase of Yaya Toure has filled up Barca's 3 non-EU player spots (the other two being Eto'o and Ronaldinho). This will complicate the integration of Gio Dos Santos into the first team squad until his application for Spanish citizenship comes through. Hopefully, that will be done before the beginning of the season to avoid another fiasco like the Messi row in 05-06. He (Dos Santos will probably not be leaving on loan, contrary to what that article says.)

Real Madrid

Defender Miguel Torres signs a contract extension after a decent first season in the first team squad.

New forward Javier Saviola is presented.

Valencia

Coach Quique Sanchez Flores can't wait to get Asier del Horno and Curro Torres out the door. Valencia has done some brisk spring cleaning already, with David Navarro joining Racing on loan, and Miguel Pallardo and Pablo Hernandez signing for Getafe.

Hugo Viana heads to Osasuna on loan.

Goalkeeper Butelle joins Valladolid on loan with the arrival of Timo Hildebrand limiting his chances.

Uruguayan forward Regueiro goes to Real Murcia on loan.

Sevilla

Boulahrouz joins on loan.

The club claims that contrary to press reports, there have been no bids for Dani Alves.

President Del Nido with a feeble attempt at topping all the other priceless statements made by other club presidents in this transfer window: "Boulahrouz has left the second best team for the first."

Goalkeeper David Cobeno goes to Almeria on loan after refusing to play for Sevilla's B team.

Zaragoza

The club explain that they had to sell Gabi Milito because the player had asked for a move and pays tribute to his years of service.

Former Real Betis striker Ricardo Oliveira will arrive on loan from AC Milan for a year.

In a shock move, Zaragoza have stolen a march on Villarreal by paying up for the 6 million euro release clause of Roberto Ayala and snatching him from the Submarines before he'd even played a game for them. Villarreal get a nice bit of cash, having gotten Ayala for free from Valencia, but they've also been left scratching their heads and one defender short. It's kind of fitting, because Zaragoza and Villarreal do sometimes look as if they're competing for the title of Most Argentinean Club in La Liga. Round 1 to Zaragoza - Ayala is definitely a good short term replacement for Milito.

Athletic Bilbao

Joaquin Caparros has been named the new coach after Fernando Macua won the club elections.

Sevilla's Aitor Ocio has signed for the club as they begin the scramble for players in order to reinforce the squad.

The Barcelona press reckons that the club would let Santi Ezquerro go for free if he wanted to rejoin Athletic, which would be very nice for everyone concerned.

Others

Atletico's young forward Braulio doesn't want to be loaned out anymore. He demands either a first team place or to be sold. Looking at their forwards list, maybe they could use him as backup if he's any good at all, especially since Mista seems to have misplaced his scoring boots.

Espanyol announce the signing of midfielder Milan Smiljanic from FK Partizan.

Hector Cuper has been officially confirmed as coach of Real Betis.

Newly released former Villarreal captain Quique Alvarez signs for Recreativo.

Racing Santander are participating in the Peace Cup in Korea. Unfortunately, they're not doing very well. (Thrashed 5-0 by Chivas? Really?)


Finally, I fully agree with this post from Sideline Views. I hate diving, but I hate deliberate, dirty fouls more. At least the former doesn't put one's victim in the hospital and amount to a criminal offense.

Welcome Toure Yaya and associated news

No, that's not a typo. The younger Toure has announced that he would like to be known as Toure Yaya while at Barca, and that's what's going on his no.17 shirt as well. The 24 year old was presented today after finalizing his 9 million euro move from AS Monaco.

I've only ever watched him play at the World Cup, but have heard very good things about his ability, and it's good to see the management aren't blind to our needs in the defensive midfield position. Hopefully he'll prove to be a success for us.

The club have apparently told youth academy product Thiago Motta he is surplus to requirements with the capture of Toure. Motta was a very promising young player when he 'graduated' into the first team (he's actually been capped for Brazil a couple of times), but horrible luck with long-term injuries have derailed his development and his inconsistency when not injured has been frustrating the fans for the last few seasons. It's sad to see a youth system product pushed out in favour of a big-money signing, but in this case it was inevitable, despite Motta being a particular favourite of Rijkaard's.

The same announcement would seem to indicate that Rafael Marquez and Edmilson will both be staying at the club, the latter largely because he's going to be out injured for six months following a knee operation. Otherwise he would probably have been offloaded for criticising the board's call for greater discipline within the squad and general loss of form, not to mention frequent injuries. On the subject of Marquez, the club would seem to be holding out hope of his eventual return to form after a horrible season from the Mexican.

still blogging about TH14: links round-up

Thierry Henry was unveiled as a Barcelona player today amidst much fanfare. Exactly how much fanfare? Well, the man himself was shocked by the number of journalists there, eager to grill him. (By what I'm going to assume was a highly unfortunate coincidence, the press conference was held in the Paris suite, named after the place of Barca's Champions League victory over Arsenal, not to mention Henry's own infamous rant about the Barca players that evening.)

He was greeted by a very enthusiastic 30,000-strong crowd in the Camp Nou itself, who chanted his name as he went through the usual presentation routine. (Marca says 20,000, but all the other sources I've seen say 30,000, so I'm keeping that.)

So all in all, not too bad. Here's some of what he had to say.

On his aims:

"I want to win the Champions League with the club, and with my new teammates."

""The club have shown a lot of faith in me, and now I want to show them what I can do. That is what I will be trying to do. Hopefully, I will prove to be useful for the club."

"Barça is a club that, at the start of every sesaon, wants to try and win everything. It will be a team effort and I am here to listen and learn. There are people that have been at this club for a long time and I hope that they will show me the way."

On friends within the team and especially Samuel Eto'o:

"Nobody persuaded me to come here. However, I am friendly with quite a few of the players that are here. I know Samuel Eto'o, Ronaldinho, Lilian Thuram and Ludovic Giuly well and talk to them regularly about all kinds of things.

"Eto'o and I are close. When I was injured he came to see me in London and that gave me a lift and when he was out earlier this year I came over to visit him. I have known him since he was at Mallorca. As much as the media would like us not to be friends, I am sorry to say that we are."

Having begun by speaking of Barca as 'more than a club', as the motto goes, he concluded with a sentence in Catalan ("estic molt content de jugar pel Barça") courtesy of Cesc Fabregas. Very cleverly, he managed to speak the language of the club in both a literal and metaphorical sense, which is always something that will endear a player to the fans.

Update: the inimitable Sid Lowe on the presentation.

In related news, Leo Messi, for one, is pleased at the arrival of Henry, despite the increased competition:

'Titi' (Henry) has shown during all these years that he is a great player. Cesc (Fabregas) has always said that 'Titi' is fantastic in training and that he is even better away from the pitch, as a friend and a leader.'

And so are Ronaldinho, Xavi, and anyone else who the media could reach for comment while they're on holiday. (Reason that Messi quotes on the subject are so easy to come by: he's not on holiday.) I did see a very sweet quote from Puyol who lamented the fact that he was recovering from an operation and couldn't be there to welcome Henry himself, but I'll be damned if I could remember where it was from with the amount of Henry coverage I've had to read in the last few days.

While the likes of Ronaldinho, Eto'o and Messi are probably not too worried about their place in the team, one of the players set to be most heavily affected by the transfer is probably Eidur Gudjohnsen. He insists that he's going to stay and fight for his place, and I have no reason to doubt that so far. Good for him if that statement holds, but it's hard to see him getting much playing time.

Barcelona have denied that they're after Arsene Wenger to replace Frank Rijkaard. I have a great deal of respect for Wenger, but surely this is not the time for him to be going anywhere. I'd argue it's also not the time for Barca to be changing coaches either. So that works out fine.

Lastly, contrary to what you've been hearing in the press everywhere, Samuel Eto'o is not available for sale. Really. And until the club and the player change their tune publicly, I'm just going to laugh at all those tabloid reports insisting that 25 million euros will do and Arsenal are competing with Milan or whatever other rubbish they've dreamed up.


Phew. Now that's Barca news dealt with, at least before Yaya Toure is presented tomorrow. Next up: Argentina's starting line-up against the United States.