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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Party starts about 10 minutes before the match, so get those quality links ready.

Before we get started here, take the time, if you haven’t already, to check out the post about our new background design. We’re building a nice little collection, but please submit your photos  to bfbackground@gmail.com soon if you haven’t. Thanks!

Sport is a strange creature at times. It intermingles, interweaves, and, ultimately, lets you draw your own conclusions about destiny or coincidence. Take, for instance this man: he is from the northern reaches of Euskadi, more commonly known in English as Basque Country, and began his managing career at the age of 16. He rose quickly through the ranks to become the youngest ever first division manager in Spain at the age of 29 and then, ever-so-quickly became a journeyman manager, taking the occasional break to do broadcasting. He even ended up in Mexico for a year before returning to Spain. Take, then, this man: he is from the eastern coast of Spain, where he joined his hometown club, was spotted a man named Johan Cruyff, turned into one of the greatest midfielders in history, and became a hero to an entire region. His time at the club wound down quickly and he too became a journeyman of sorts, moving to Italy and Qatar before retiring.

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To start with, an apology: No new posts for some two days has the suck. We’re aware of this, and it doesn’t fill our hearts with song. It won’t happen again.

Now, to begin with, an interesting perspective on the Eto’o-Ibrahimovic swap. No, it doesn’t come from a “reputable news source,” but precious little does in this world of ours. The long and short of it is that we came out ahead. Now, I know that this startles some people, who believe that the Ibrahimovic experiment isn’t working and “Lord, how I wish we had Eto’o back.”

But the piece is worth a read.
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You requested it, I come through. Call me amazing.

As always, keep it friendly and keep it awesome. It’s France vs Spain, Henry vs the rest of Barça. Go time is 3pm (on ESPN Deportes and ESPN360).

Everyone's got a little Cap'n in 'em. Even Pep.

While many of Barça’s players are off on international duty (as summarized yesterday), the folks who remained in Barcelona had an intense day of training today, but will get Wednesday off while their teammates are playing internationals. Sounds like a fair deal.

Because it’s internationals, we’re stuck with absurd drivel about transfers, so let’s quickly cover all that is happening in that realm:

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