What IS this thing?

Liga Preview: Barça-Valencia, Sunday 2pm ESPN2HD/ESPN360

I have a thing against teams represented by oranges. Bitter, horrible memories associated with 2003 and the Syracuse-Kansas NCAA Men’s Division 1 basketball tournament championship game are really what keeps my hatred rolling. And the thing is, I kind of like Valencia in that secondary team sort of way. They’re fun to watch, generally play an open, flowing game. But I hate them. They are orange, after all.

And sure, they’re associated with bats, which Kevin discussed before, but that association is just a sleight of hand: los che are oranges and we all know it. They’re also an incredibly dangerous team that drew us at zeroes when we visited the Mestalla earlier this season—and yes, I recognize how funny it is that, as I discuss their scoring prowess, two of the most dangerous teams in the Primera had a scoreless draw. Anyone who watched that match, though, should know that it was surprising that no one scored and especially surprising that Valencia didn’t score.

Despite Barça’s upcoming Wednesday date with Stuttgart, this match isn’t until Sunday because Valencia had a Europa League match with Werder Bremen yesterday (Thursday),* which necessitates a non-Saturday date. So hopefully the snow that has inundated Barcelona is gone by then or, at the very least, the Camp Nou field is in good enough condition to facilitate some serious pass-and-move triangles.

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It’s Thursday, and I’m already pumped about this match. Let’s GO!!!!

Sure, dude. Can I get back to my UNICEF thing now?

Awwwww! Our own Lionel Messi has been appointed a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, a charity that also adorns the front of our shirts.

The deal is that he trots around, makes magic and does things that bring awareness to the plight of the young’uns everywhere. He joins Shakira, Roger Moore and Queen Rania of Jordan, who are also in the UNICEF ambassador ranks. And personally, I would do anything that Shakira tells me to. I’m just saying.
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This is the second installment of the series: BFB Interviews (the first was here). It is designed to broaden the horizons not only of this blogger (who needs it), but also of the blog as a whole by asking intelligent and qualified bloggers and thinkers from around the Internet to answer uneducated questions.

Before our Jornada 26 matchup with Valencia, I’ve asked fellow blogger Cesar to answer a few questions. Check out his blog over at The Offside.

Barcelona Football Blog: Thanks for doing this little interview, Cesar.

Anyway, let’s get this party on the road, shall we? Before the season began, there were lots of questions about the state of Valencia’s finances. Have most or all of those concerns been figured out? Pushed under the rug? Ignored like a giant gorilla in the room?

Cesar Benoit: Thanks, Isaiah … I’d say the money situation has been pushed under the rug, It’s something none of us VCF fans want to discuss or worry about. But we know it’s there. There’s a stadium we’re trying to get finished, creditors to satisfy and players to pay. The fans have been amazingly patient with the board, led by President Manuel Llorente and his assembled team. They’re trying to turn around the mind-bogglingly bad work of former chairman Juan Soler. It won’t be easy. The summer looms and the drama will begin again, with questions over David Villa and David Silva’s futures at the Mestalla sure to pop up again.

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Hey folks, I’ll be back in a few hours with the results of a fun interview with Cesar, The Offside’s Valencia blogger (or one of them), but for now, enjoy the sunshiny fun times of having RM drop out of the CL.

And yes, for all of you wondering, I am often the kind of guy who, were I a Red Sox fan, would glad chant “Yankees Suck!” at, say, a Celtics game. Or something completely unrelated to either of the two cities. But remember, when your headline moments after the end of a match is to get rid of your coach of 8 months, you deserve all the heat you get. And for the record, Marca stands for RM.

It’s another Champions League day, but instead of playing Stuttgart in the snow, we’re going to watch other teams battle it out in their second leg encounters. Arsenal host Porto (1-2 on aggregate) and Fiorentina host Bayern Munich (1-2 on aggregate) at 2:45 on FSC or Fox Sports en Español. Barça, meanwhile, has been practicing in this freaky March snowstorm. Let’s get to them.

-Once again, the team practiced in pretty crap conditions, but this time they were forced to a side field because it had artificial turf instead of real grass. Carles Puyol began the practice with the team, but was taken indoors with a back problem. The official site says the injury “doesn’t look like a serious problem, and he [Puyol] was able to continue working out in the dressing rooms.”

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Today on my lovely walk to the grocery store, I was able to think about a few things, as I am wont to do while walking. I had been reminded by reading this post at Avoiding the Drop before leaving the house that not all was right in the world and so I mentally revisited the tortuous ground of Spanish league tiebreaker scenarios. This is not a quick and clean set of rules, but RFEF spells them out in Chapter 4, Article 296.2 of their Relgamento General (see page 174):

Si al término del campeonato resultara empate dos clubs, se resolverá por la mayor diferencia de goles a favor, sumados los en pro y en contra según el resultado de los dos partidos jugados entre ellos; si así no se dilucidase, se decidirá también por la mayor diferencia de goles a favor, pero teniendo en cuenta todos los obtenidos y recibidos en el transcurso de la competición; de ser idéntica la diferencia, resultará campeón el que hubiese marcado más tantos.

This translates to:

If at the end of the championship, the result is two clubs drawing, the winner will be the club with a greater goal difference (the sum of goals for and against from the two matches played between them); if there is still no difference, the winner will be the club with the greater goal difference from the whole competition; if the goal difference is identical, the champion will be the club that has scored the most goals.

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Words fail me, but there it is, folks. Be sure to catch up with Isaiah’s News of the Day post.

[Note: there's quite a bit of NSFW language in the video below, but the video itself is SFW]

[Note: there's quite a bit of NSFW language in the video above, but the video itself is SFW]

It’s gorgeous outside. It’s like spring finally decided to come around and say hi after winter spent months dumping snow and icy winds on us. It’s supposed to rain later this week, so I’m going to spend as much time this week outside walking around and wearing only a sweatshirt. It’s freakin’ 55F here! Those of you in warm weather climates are shivering at the thought, but I’m actually considering going out without a sweatshirt.

-The opposite is true in Barcelona today, where the team trained in full winter gear as it snowed (here and here). Seydou Keita and Eric Abidal missed through their previous injuries while Dani Alves and Lionel Messi also both missed through injuries sustained during the Almería match. I don’t think either of those latter two are seriously injured, but precautions were taken, probably especially in light of the snow and slippery conditions on the field. Carles Puyol also trained separately from the group, as appears to be his usual routine these days. He’ll be ready to go for Valencia regardless of his physical situation. No legs? No problem! I’ll bite your legs off.

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La Diada de Sant Jordi, in Catalan culture, usually comes on April 23. Women are given a gift of roses, and respected men are given books.

In an early variant, we gave Almeria a draw. Rather nice (and charitable) of us, don’t you think? People can chatter all they want about officiating, and dives, and unfair red cards all they like, but the fact of the matter is that we played like crap for most of that match, and still came away with a draw.

Which means what? Lord only knows, from our team that doesn’t seem to be able to find a consistent groove.
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