I can’t even find the words to express the joy that I feel. This brief post is mostly for the permanent record, so that we can all come back here and remember the joy that we felt when it was announced today that:
–Eric Abidal was training normally with the squad
–Eric Abidal convocado. Dude’s in the squad for the Camp Nou leg in the final edition of a nasty, bitter series of El Clasics.
For the cave-dwellers, Abidal had surgery recently, to remove a tumor on his liver. We never heard if it was malignant or not, but we can safely assume by the fact that His Royal Badness is back, that it wasn’t. Guardiola says that he can help some, but that he isn’t fully match fit and is a little overweight.
For those who don’t already know, Eric Abidal visited his mates in practice today. No, it wasn’t an April Fool’s prank. The mercurial left back, who only recently had surgery to remove a tumor from his liver, looked good, as you can see:
Practicing for his return tunnel exit.
"I want to score two goals this season. I have one to go."
Whispers "So when are you coming back? Can you be ready Saturday?"
I didn’t actually know until writing this what nitpicking came from, though I suspected something along those lines. This article isn’t quite as annoying or gross as having eggs in your hair, but it is sort of a random list of things that piss me off. Today is the Scotland-Spain game at Hampden Park (3pm EST on ESPN Deportes), so at least there’s the possibility of seeing some blaugrana boys in action, but it’s obviously not the same.
Let’s get started, though:
First, I’m going to attack Real Madrid for being afraid of their own players. Sport reported yesterday that RM included a clause in their loan deal of Royston Drenthe stating that it would cost Hercules €2m to play him against RM. Obviously that’s means a no go for Hercules who, like any club, cannot afford a €2m match. What babies. Fraidy cats. You loan out a player and you’re scared to have him play against you? Were we scared of Henrique playing for Racing on opening day? Of course not. Personally, I think Hercules should be able to start whoever they feel like starting against every team and to deny them that means you’re scared of your own players, in which case, why did you loan them out? Clausula de la vergüenza, indeed.
Tomas Ujfalusi can go to hell. And I’m saying this from a number of viewpoints: Barca fan and cule, sports fan, person who is against violence, human being who is averse to having to don hip waders to get through waist-high mounds of steaming bovine fecal matter.
Ujfalusi says that he isn’t a bad guy. The president of Atletico says that he isn’t that kind of a guy. Ujfalusi is saying that he tried to apologize in person to Messi, and sent him a text, and that he didn’t mean Messi any harm, blahblahblahblah. Fabio Capello is saying that he isn’t a bad guy, blahblahblahblah. Continue Reading
In the journalism business, we call what is about to happen, “burying the lede.” It’s shifting the thing that everybody cares about to later in the piece. Sometimes it’s crazy, other times it’s to make a point, as it is now.
Finish your chances!
We had about 913 chances to get the third, or even fourth goal that would have put this match to bed, done and dusted, and precipitated the Krkic for Messi swap much earlier than it in fact occurred. A match that is in the balance, in a place at which we haven’t won in three years, calls for your best players. And one of those best players is Lionel Messi.
Early in the match, as here as the ball is going past the Amazing DeGea for our first goal (you can just see the golden boot exiting the frame), Messi was razor-sharp and raring to go. He gave his all for the club, and shouldn’t have even been on the pitch. Look at the 5 straight times in which he ceded possession. It was a tired player out there, a player who should have been subbed.
And if we finish our chances, he is, and we’re discussing another very good match from Messi, rather than how long he might be on the sidelines. Continue Reading
This play disgusts me for so many reasons. I don’t think that another professional should ever deliberately try to injure a fellow professional. I also find it appalling that people who support other teams are crowing in joy over the fact that the above bit of violence has sidelined our star player. I mean, another human being’s misery will help their club, so why not cheer, right?
At some point, every football fan, at ANY club, should realize that if Ujfalusi did it to Messi, what’s to stop someone else from doing it to their star player? It’s a line that’s been transgressed before, but rarely with such premeditated malice. Anyhow. For those who haven’t seen it, here it is.
Early reports are saying that Messi will be out for two weeks, with the rather nebulous “ligament damage.” But the first step will be to get the swelling down, so that a proper examination can happen. We know more then.
For now, this moment of shame needs to be out there.
A very smart blogger on Twitter, Sonia Gelma, asked if everyone would be this upset had Ujfalusi injured Maxwell? The obvious answer is no. Or is it? To me, savagery such as Ujfalusi’s tarnishes the game, and drags it into a very different level, one that I’m not sure I want to see.
