Futbol Club Barcelona

Hi all, I'm new here and hope I'm not stepping on anyone's toes, but I enjoyed last night's game so much that I wanted to initiate a discussion with a few observations.


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The pretty sad thing for Santos in the Club World Cup final is that nearly every goal could have been prevented if the center backs could clear the ball. However that did not happen and as we know FC Barcelona went on to defeat the Brazilian club 4-0. This is a little look into just where Barca attacked from, how the goals were created, and where the shots from the players came from.

If you watched the final you know that Messi and Xavi ran the show. Now here is a little look into just how much.

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ummmm hi! I think this is my first post here, be nice to me. I was in Barcelona last week (I know, my life is cooler than yours) and I went to see the babies play! (btw if you are ever in Barcelona and the B team is playing at the Miniestadi, GO, the tickets are only 8-15 euros and the bbs need your support too!) my comprehension of what went on was pretty limited since (a) it was my first live match and (b) I was sitting on the lower level in the corner and thus could only see about a quarter of the pitch, but I will attempt to contextualize my pictures as best I can. but first, a picture which requires no context at all.



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Most importantly: Barca are safely through to the CL group stages.

The consequences of failure, both financial and sporting, would have been severe. I don't know about you guys, but I was pretty damn terrified at the beginning of the pre-season about qualification. New coach, new players and the boardroom a mess? Yeah. The powers that be were too, which is why they initially fought so hard to keep Messi. But the pre-season was great, and things went okay without Leo, which is nice.

My (hopefully balanced and rational) assessment of things below the cut. It's far too early to start getting hysterical, no? [That goes for the Catalan press: if Marca and AS are saying that it's no big deal, then there really is no need to make drama just yet.]

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[Barca will be seeded in the draw for the group stages when it happens in a few day's time.]

In conclusion, no need to panic, and I expect improvements in Numancia. [Sunday 7PM Barcelona time, guys. I can't wait. Even if Barca have never beaten Numancia away in three attempts.]


Also, before I forget: a very happy 18th birthday to Bojan Krkic for tomorrow!

Graphic swiped from Sport.

First of all, massive apologies for how late this is. So Barca played their first official game of the season, a crucial Champions League qualifier against the Polish champions Wisla Krakow, and did pretty damn well.

Full match report and lots of photos beneath the cut.

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For those of you who saw the game: what did you think? Did it make you more optimistic for the season ahead? How about the new players, what did you think of them?

Stadium: Jalisco
Capacity: 60,000
Attendance: 40,717

Line-up: Pinto, Alves, Caceres, Marquez, Abidal, Keita, Xavi, Iniesta, Pedro, Hleb and Henry
Substitutions: 46' Puyol in for Marquez | Guddy in for Hleb | Eto'o in for Iniesta | Bojan in for Henry

Goals:
0-1 Xavi (min 25)
0-2 Hleb (min 45)
0-3 Eto’o (min 48)
1-3 Padilla (min 58)
1-4 Eto’o (min 72)
2-4 Hernández (min 88)
2-5 Cáceres (min 89)

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0ntheverge has already kindly taken care of the rest [go to her post for goal videos, pics, and such], so I'll just be providing my rambling match report.

You'll have to excuse me if I'm even less eloquent than usual - my head feels like it's about to explode, so.

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In other news, the draw for the Champions League qualifiers has been made, and Barca have been handed a decent draw, although I'm sure the away leg will be a difficult test. Barca will play the winners of the tie between Beitar Jerusalem FC (Israel) and Wisla Krakow (Poland). The first leg will be on the 12th or 13th of Augst, and the return will be on the 26th or 27th.

I apologize for my lack of activity in the community lately.

1:3 to barça
Stadium: Artemio Franchi
Capacity: 47,282
Attendance: 40,428

Line-up: Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Abidal, Xavi, Touré, Iniesta, Pedrito, Keita and Messi.
Substitutions: 36' Jeffren in for Iniesta | 45' Sylvinho in for Abidal | 45' Caceres in for Puyol | 45' Busquets in for Xavi

Goal videos:
0-1, Puyol (min 28)
0-2, Jeffren (min 47)
1-2, Pazzini (min 68)
1-3, Bojan (min 72)

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Barcelona are currently in Chicago and will be playing Chivas de Guadalajara August 3rd. Then they head to NY to play the Red Bulls on August 6th, which I'll be attending. =) Anyone else attending one of these games?

Once again I apologise for getting this up so late - I wasn't able to get hold of the game until yesterday. Hopefully this trend won't continue, but I'm going to be quite busy with uni in the next month, so if you guys would like to chip in with match reports and picspams and such, I'd be very grateful.

But anyway, onto the second game in Scotland.

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In about nine hours Barca will play Fiorentina in the Artemio Franchi for a charity game, watched by a crowd of 40,000.

[Curiously, when Barca played Fiorentina in the semi-finals of the Cup Winners Cup in 1996/97, winning 2 - 0 in Florence, one of the goals was scored by Pep Guardiola.]

This game is being regarded as the biggest test for Barca before the CL qualifiers, and rightly so, given the talent possessed by the Viola, who are a fine team these days under Cesare Prandelli. Unfortunately, they are missing an important player in the form of Riccardo Montolivo because he's with the Italian Olympic football team, but I'm sure the likes of Pablo Osvaldo, Adrian Mutu, Alberto Gilardino, and talented new boys Stevan Jovetic and Felipe Melo [who you may remember being awesome for Almeria last season] will give the defence a hard time anyway.

As for Barca, everybody's now fit, but there's a doubt over Samuel Eto'o, who clashed heads with Victor Sanchez in training and was prescribed 48 hours of rest as a result. He may play if he's well enough - we'll see. Look for Sylvinho, Abidal, Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol to get their first run-out of the pre-season in this game.

Now for the difficult bit. Leo Messi has travelled to Florence, but having received FIFA's ruling on the Olympics issue, he is now probably set to fly out to Shanghai after the game in compliance with the decision. The latest from Laporta is that Barca will not stop Leo from joining the Argentina squad [thank God] but will appeal the decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to try and get him back. So more on this later.

For now, enjoy the game. It should be a good one.

Leading 2 - 0 from the away leg, they beat Barbastro 1 - 0 with a goal from Victor Vazquez [contemporary and good friend of Leo Messi].

[Match report from the official website.]

The club had made a massive effort to fill the Miniestadi, which paid off with more than 10000 there at the game, the sort of numbers not witnessed since the B team of De la Pena and co, years and years ago.

Overall, B team have performed admirably in the play-offs, scoring 9 goals in total and conceding none in two-legged ties against Castillo and then Barbastro. [God, I'm so proud of them.]

Coach Pep Guardiola [the incoming first team coach, for those of you who have been living under a rock] proved himself very similar to Frank Rijkaard in one respect: at the end of the match, he shook hands with the opposing coach and disappeared down the tunnel, leaving the spotlight to his players and their crazy celebrations.

He didn't spare his successor, Barca legend and good friend Luis Enrique any pressure at the press conference afterwards, stating that promotion to the Segunda Divison would be the B team's aim next season.

[The phrase 'the declarations of Pep Guardiola' put an enormous grin on my face. Seriously, though, the man needs more joy in his life. Smile, Pep, smile!]