Today is a new day, one in which for the first time since 2008, we have been knocked out of a competition.
And I will tell you right now, that I hate it when our club loses. Anything. Period, full stop. A match, a competition, its way, some keys, a Euro …. anything! Further, I know that I am supposed to feel pride in the way that this club fought in that second half, and the brilliant plays that just missed being goals by a whisker. I know that I am supposed to believe that since Sevilla had two perfectly legitimate goals taken away, justice was ultimately done in this Copa del Rey tie. I know that I was saying “Dump the Copa, so that we can concentrate on the big-time competitions.”
I know, I know, I know, I know.
But this morning, I still feel like Guardiola looks in this picture, dejected and lost. Continue Reading
Copa Preview: Sevilla – Barça, Wednesday 4pm ,GolTV
Obviously the first thing you should do when preparing for the return leg of the Copa del Rey is read my interview with Ryan Knapp. That will give you a head-start as well as, perhaps, introduce you to a very talented and informed writer dedicated to La Liga. Not to mention brilliant, brilliant questions from a genius interviewer, of course.
Let’s jump right into the preview, shall we? It’s going to be a tough match not only because we’ve got a remontada (comeback) to do, but because we’re playing Sevilla. They proved in the first leg that they’re no joke, regardless of who they’re playing and even though they lost to Racing this past weekend at the Sanchez Pizjuan, they’re still dangerous. In fact, they might be more dangerous now than they otherwise would be because absolutely nothing can be taken for granted. The loss put them 13 points behind us in the league, meaning they have virtually no chance to catch up, meaning the Copa is their only legitimate shot at a domestic trophy.
Well, now what? We let an undermanned Sevilla club with no stars come into our home and rub shit in our faces. They walk out with not one, but two away goals, goals that allow them to park the bus at home. Yes, Ibrahimovic scored a goal for us but really, who would bet against them on their home pitch, against a club that seems to have, however temporarily, lost its swagger.
I have one and a half pages of notes for this match, that was not only awful, but boring. If losses can be wake-up calls, this one was the equivalent of someone stringing every alarm clock in Spain together, amplifying them with an 8×12 Marshall stack, roping the lot to some church bells and turning it all loose.
Copa Preview: Barça – Sevilla, Tuesday 4pm, ESPN Deportes
It’s probably clear by now to even the most rabid of Sevilla fans that the rojiblancos only have one legitimate shot at a trophy this year. They’re in a battle with Mallorca for a Champions League spot in La Liga and they face CSKA Moscow in the first knockout round of the current CL. A trip to February in Russia sounds like quite the vacation, indeed, but at least they host the second leg. So what’s left to them is to battle for the Copa del Rey title, which they last won in 2006-07 by beating Gimnástica Segoviana, Rayo Vallecano, Real Betis*, Depor, and Getafe in that order.* So they weren’t exactly going through a tremendous gauntlet of teams, though they would have faced Barça in the final had Getafe not produced the miraculous 4-0 destruction of the blaugrana in the return leg, after Barça won the first leg 5-2 and one Leo Messi officially arrived on the worldwide stage with this stunner.
I wasn’t expecting this one. We all laid out predictions of a tight scoreline from a club content to just get the job done, and move on to the next round. But the kids weren’t going to allow that to happen. They wanted blood, and blood they received. Yes, Messi and Xavi scored, but this was about the groundwork done by the young’uns, who ran and capered about, colt-like, peppering the Cultural goal with chance after chance, parried by their hard-working keeper, until suddenly, the finger popped out of the dike, and thus began the great flood.
It’s time, of course, for another Liveblog! Yay! This one kicks off 15-20 minutes before the match, some come early and check it out or follow our updates, including lineup announcements on Twitter.
And, in case you’re interested, here’s some pre-game fun:
CDR Preview: Barça – Cultural Leonesa, Tuesday 4pmEST, ESPN Deportes/ESPN360.com
One order of happiness for the youngsters, please!
While our babies bandy about their abilities in the U-17 World Championship in Nigeria*, our slightly older crew of youngsters will be playing host to Cultural Leonesa in the second leg of our Round of 32 Copa del Rey tie. The aggregate score is 0-2 in Barça’s favor thanks to Pedro!’s fine finishing in the first leg and a solid enough defense to get away with, um, not losing 4-0 to a Segunda B side.
First, let’s go over the possibilities: in order to advance to the Round of 16, Barça can win with any scoreline, can draw with any scoreline (2-2, 4-4, etc), and can lose 0-1 or with any scoreline in which they only lose by one goal (1-2, 2-3, 3-4, etc). A 0-2 loss would send the match to extra time. Because of the value of away goals, I think we’ll be able to come out and play our way through this match, especially if Cultural decides that they want to win this and comes out of their defensive shell.
If it’s another tight, sloppy match, it must be Pedro! Time. Anyone who wonders why his name carries the exclamation point need look no farther than today’s Copa del Rey opener, against a Cultural Leonesa side that really didn’t have much interest in the attack. Those thinking this would be a wide-open match as the Segunda minnows were buoyed by the giant killing yesterday, were to be bummed. Continue Reading
