The new La Liga schedule was just released after a fake or “early” version was inadvertently uploaded to the internet last night. Rest assured, we here at BFB were not taken in by such tricks or falsities. So here you go, the new schedule, complete with some commentary. These dates are the weekends of these games, meaning that they will either be Saturday or Sunday or that particular weekend (or Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday if listed as during the week), which has not yet been decided.

First Half:
8/28 – @ Racing Santander
9/12 – Hercules
9/19 – @ Atletico Madrid
9/22 – Sporting Gijon
9/26 – @ Athletic Club (Bilbao)
10/3 – Mallorca
10/17 – Valencia
10/24 – @ Zaragoza
10/31 – Sevilla
11/7 – @ Getafe
11/14 – Villareal
11/21 – @ Almeria
11/28 – Real Madrid
12/5 – @ Osasuna
12/12 – Real Sociedad
12/19 – @ Espanyol
Winter Break
01/02 – Levante
01/09 – @ Deportivo La Coruna
01/16 – Malaga

Second Half:
1/23 – Racing Santander
1/30 – @ Hercules
2/6 – Atletico Madrid
2/13 – @ Sporting Gijon
02/20 – Athletic Club (Bilbao)
2/27 – @ Mallorca
3/2 – @ Valencia
3/6 – Zaragoza
3/13 – @ Sevilla
3/20 – Getafe
4/3 – @ Villareal
4/10 – Almeria
4/17 – @ Real Madrid
4/24 – Osasuna
5/1 – @ Real Sociedad
5/8 – Espanyol
5/11 – @ Levante
5/15 – Deportivo La Coruna
5/22 – @ Malaga

As you may have noticed, the schedules second half is a mirror image of the first, with the sides only switching locations. Preliminarily at least, it looks like Barça got a favorable draw without having too many brutal or far away games packed into small frames of time. Even the trip to the Riazor comes after the winter break. This looks like a wonderful schedule for our boys, hopefully we can navigate with only one loss again.

In Other News:

-Apparently we are loaning Henrique out to Santander again, huzzah!

- Big rumors that Marquez is going to become New York Red Bulls third DP in a move that should net us a few million here or there.

- One of our youth players, Thiago, scored during the Spanish U-19 game against Croatia at their World Cup to equalize. Spain would eventually win 2-1.

-Not sure of anything else at this moment in terms of transfer rumors.

As most of your realized sometime around 6 hours ago, FC Barcelona has made it official the signing of Sevilla Multi-Back Adriano Correia for €9.5 million up front, with around €4 million in incentives for later on. He will officially sign and take a physical on Saturday and be presented on Monday afternoon.

No idea?

Iniestazo… azo… AZO! Or, as Jose Antonio Camacho, former Madridista and Spain left back exclaimed: “Iniesta de my vida”. I couldn’t have said it better myself. I won’t say the World Cup final degenerated into an awful spectacle of fouling and anti-football, because in order to have degenerated into that, it would have had to have started out better. Regardless, La Furia Roja took home their first Jules Rimet trophy, and were the more worthy team in having done so. Please join me won’t you, for one final review before we move back into the realm of the club. Once more into the breach.

Lars Baron/Getty Images Europe

Today in the Sunday Times of Johannesburg there’s an advertisement displaying the beautiful South African flag taking up the whole page. Over it is written, “Today This is the Greatest Country in the World.” South Africa has done a remarkable job of hosting the Cup. The games have been organized and run with almost flawless execution and the people of the country have been extraordinarily open and gracious. Hosting the Cup has meant a great deal to South Africans both because it has brought them center stage in the world and because there a great deal of love for football here in this country. Hours away from the game the atmosphere in Johannesburg is electric. Some thoughts on what the atmosphere for the finals may be like and some pictures below.

Spanish National Team Making It's Way Through Johannesburg

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Ostensibly I should not have to write a preview of the World Cup final. You all read this site almost daily and have chosen a side for the final for better or worse, whether you are an old hat Dutchman, a lovely Spaniard, or just a fan of one of the teams. So instead of going through the inner workings of these two teams and telling you about how the Netherlands no longer play “Total Football” (nor could they or any other team in this day and age since the Germans figured out how to pick that lock about 35 years ago) or that La Furia Roja aren’t “Barça Lite”, they are FC Barcelona with 3 or 4 transplants. I will go through some of the myriad thoughts I have on the game and its players and you guys can knock it around in the comments as well.

Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images North America

[The following text was washed up on an oil slick off the Florida Keys. It has no known authorship except for an ‘Earnest H.’ scribbled in a margin. It is unknown if ‘Earnest’ is a given name or a simple adjective. Regardless of whether or not his parents could spell, the text bears a striking resemblance to current events and is published here unedited for reader interest. – Ed.]

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The semifinals of the World Cup are a rare and strange mix of art, circumstance, and tense interaction formed around the 4 teams lucky enough to be involved. Thankfully, this version saw two very exciting games, although they were exciting for very different reasons. The comparisons in style of play alone were staggering enough with neo-Total Football (which should more accurately be called a shell of its former self, having its spirit moved down to Barcelona and its corpse left rotting in a ditch behind Cruyff’s house — i.e., they have become boring and predictable, but football monikers hang around for a long time) facing off against Uruguay relying almost totally on Diego Forlan and cutting runs with little ability to adequately possess and the “youthful exuberance” of the “new” Germany opposing tiki-taka, Barca lite Spain. Two past champions attempting to regain the form of years gone by opposing the two best sides to have never won the Cup. It doesn’t get much better.

Clive Mason/Getty Images Europe

It is hard for me to continually write intros for these things. But this round of games, wow. It is rare that games incorporate excitement; open discussions of the ethics of punishment, utilitarianism, and the greater good; and brutal emotions usually not laid bare by such matters. So here we are, 4 teams left, every one of them gets 2 more games, although 1 of those games might be less important than the others. So come on in, and enjoy it, won’t you?

Michael Steele/Getty Images Europe

Now that the rounds have concluded, Argentina and Brazil are history and Spain has made history, but it’s a holiday weekend here in the States and we’re too busy burning our fingers on grills and sparklers to type and too buzzed on warm beer to care … So it’s time for some Trivia!

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The Cape Town City Hall is one of those quintessentially lovely colonial-era buildings whose gracefulness comfortably conceals the painful history it’s stone was carved out of. Today two banners honoring Mandela hung draped between the neo-classical columns adorning it’s entrance. On the curved railing in between the two silk screened Mandela’s, perched a small Africa made of red neon glass that hung like a heart that forgot to keep beating because it was so enjoying the opportunity to glow.

Watching Ghana vs Uruguay in Cape Town

When Sulley Muntari twirled around and struck what seemed like an impossible goal for Ghana as the first half closed, a luminescence ran through the thousands of people from around the world assembled in front of the Cape Town City Hall to watch the match together outside on a theater-sized screen. When Sebastian Abreu’s penalty kick found the back of the net for Uruguay, we turned from a collective into a crowd. That is we stopped being together in the same way. Ghana had given us a kind of common hope, the impulse needed for disparate people – for strangers – to share. As the match ended, thousands of people turned around and simply walked away, more alone than we’d been a few moments before.

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