What were you thinking?

Before I get down to brass tacks tomorrow with the first installment of my full on La Liga preview (I had to wait for the end of the transfer window…or at least that’s my excuse), there is news afoot in Catalunya that’s worth discussing. First and foremost, Carles Puyol, our beloved captain, injured his left calf in Spanish national team training on Tuesday. I’m not sure if the injury actually occurred during warm-ups for the Racing match, but regardless, it seems rather irresponsible that he then went to full training with the national team. It’s both Puyol and the medical staff’s fault for not keeping him out when he was obviously not 100%. There’s no official word on a timetable for his return, but 3 weeks is the going rate for such an injury, unless it’s less severe than previously thought.

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The team is back to training regularly and Piqué is talking up the quality of the team, deft jabs at RM being thrown in for the hell of it. It feels like April in that way. The Supercopa second leg looms and a recent interview with Chygrynskiy left it clear that Guardiola wanted him and Rosell discarded him for momentary financial reasons that scored momentary brownie points with some fans. Feels like July in that way. Ibra is going to Milan, but also isn’t going anywhere. Feels like any given day in that way. Hum-drum, piddly-pum. But it’s getting on now towards the end of August, towards the first match of La Liga proper and there’s little left to wonder about other than tactical approaches and lineups. Feels good in that way.

There are 5 B-teamers continuing to practice with the first team Thiago, JDS, Andreu Fontàs, Víctor Vázquez, and Oier Olázabal and 3 others all got to hang around while their fellow B-boys prepared for a friendly against Sabadell tonight (takes place at 2pm EST, or basically an hour after this post goes up; how’s that for warning?). There’s a closed-door training session in which the 22 first teamers and 5 B-teamers are going to learn about how we’re so going to beat the snot out of Sevilla on Saturday and win us a freakin’ Supercopa. They’ll be told to deixerem them some pels (again–I’m assuming it all grew back since May) and, in the immortal words of Kevin (or perhaps Kxevin takes responsibility here), get knee deep in that ass.

And with that I must leave you all to ponder the fortunes and fates of the good ship Barça as I finish packing my house for a move all the way to other side of…well not even the other side of town. Like 15 blocks away. Your second leg preview is coming to via Luke “Never Heard That One Before…” Skywalker. Settle down, folks, I’ll be returning on Monday with extra doses of chocolate-eating fun.

Hola! Sell Zlatan!

So, here’s the thing. I fully recognize that being the best club in the world (oh, yes we are, and you know it) means that we are a target. People love to love us but of late, love to hate us. It’s the height of transfer season, and it’s worth noting that the traditional newspaper and its attendant journalism has gone the way of the mastodon.

What we have now is the equivalent of a guy dashing about, robes aflame, saying “I’ll tell you anything you want, just douse me with water!” Because it’s now about clicks rather than real journalistic integrity. Made up quotes, ginned-up infatuations with mediocre BritBands (Oasis? Really?), all in the name of a few more clicks, and a few more page views. It doesn’t even matter if you linger. You clicked! Neener, neener! We made our stats for the month.
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We’ve seen the joyous news in the English footy press, that we have about a zillion dollars in debt, and will probably have to turn to the Camp Nou travestis for some sort of revenue sharing plan, anything to make the bills, because Barca is busted! Yay!

Um, not so fast.

They won’t be needing to hold tag days for us any time soon, which must frost some people’s bacon.

To recap, for those who have been sleeping through all of this. When Joan Laporta and his administration left office, they said we had an 11m profit. When Sandro Rosell and his administration took office, they said “Not so fast, that’s actually a 400m+ deficit.”
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Pep Morato/El Mundo Deportivo

Hmmm….wonder what these two are talking about? I’d rather imagine that it isn’t the price of xocolata in Barcelona.

For anybody who’s been living under a rock the past few days, it’s international friendly time, and we have been gutted. The list of players who have been called to serve their countries is a big’un: Ibrahimovic, Alves, Xavi, Busquets, Pique, Puyol, Valdes, Pedro!, Messi and Villa. Yes, that’s 9 of our starting XI. But we also have, in a week’s time, leg one of the Spanish Super Copa against a Sevilla side that will be looking to do what it did against us in the Copa del Rey last season.

So now what?
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The Kaiser of Michoacan, Rafael Márquez Álvarez, made his debut for Barça on September 3, 2003 against Sevilla and, 242 official appearances later, he has come to an agreement with the club to rescind his contract. Rafa has always been a team player for us, has always played wherever we needed him to, and has made little to no noise behind the scenes, but the arrival of Piqué and the resurgence of Milito have pushed him towards the back of the center back queue. That’s not a position Márquez feels comfortable in–he’s the captain of his national team, after all–and with several canterano centerbacks vying for a place in the first team, it makes sense for Rafa to move on and, hopefully, find a team where he can be a star.

There’s no reason I need to stop seeing him play just because he’s leaving the blaugrana, though, right? Yaya, you should have moved to Red Bulls too!

Take care, Rafa, and many thanks for your  7 years of service in blaugrana. Your leadership (and looks!) will be missed.

FC Barcelona are about to embark on the 2010-11 pre-season, so it’s probably appropriate to clue all of you in to what the plans are. Norway and South Korea. That’s it. Thanks for stopping by!

I’m obviously kidding with the lack of detail:

Friendly: Thursday, July 29: Valerenga – Barça in Oslo, Norway. Kicks off at 7pm local time (7pm Barcelona, 1pm NYC).

Friendly: Wednesday, August 4: K-League All Stars – Barça. Kicks off at 7pm local time (noon Barcelona, 6am NYC).

Friendly: Sunday, August 8: Guoan – Barça. Kicks off at 8pm local time (1pm Barcelona, 7am NYC).

SuperCopa de España: Saturday, August 14: Sevilla – Barça. Kicks off 10pm local/Barcelona time (4pm NYC).

Supercopa de España: Saturday, August 21: Barça – Sevilla. Kick off TBA.

Gamper Match: Wednesday, August 24: Barça – AC Milan. Kickoff TBA.

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What better way to start the season than with a photo of a man who people are probably convinced didn’t even go out during the day, our own Tiny Vampire, Andres Iniesta, hanging out on the beach. Yee-ha!

I’ll be brief with all this, but no less opinionated, because that’s how I roll.
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So, it feels like time has slowed down. Perhaps it’s that I’m in the middle of one of those horrible “gotta look for an apartment” moments where my antipathy towards brokers reaches a tipping point and I just want to scream into the phone that no, I really don’t want a [bleeping] [bleep] [bleep] studio in the middle of [bleep] [bleeping] [bleep] nowhere. And then there have to go and be rumors. Quickly, the daily wrap:

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I’m trying to get back into the swing of things now that the World Cup is over. It’s hard. I don’t know what to do with myself since I have no random international allegiances to wrap myself in. I was so totally for New Zealand! And also like 20 other nations because, really, I’m basically just a World Cup slut. I was for Uruguay against France, against them against South Africa, for the Dutch against Denmark, against the Dutch when they faced Cameroon, for them against Brasil, and then against them again when they ran into Spain. Tough to keep track of all these things. Anyway, it’s back to Barça here and that means News of the Day.

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