If you haven’t already sent in your wonderful pictures for our background, please do so by the end of the week so that we can really get this photo mosaic going. Check out the whole deal here or simply email your submissions to bfbackground@gmail.com. Do it. Do it now.

It’s mini-international break, which means that many of our players are away with their national squads. So we’ll start there before getting into other nonsense.

-The Spanish national team takes on France in the Stade de France, with Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Piqué, Carles Puyol, and Andres Iniesta being called up by del Bosque. I hope they don’t get too much playing time. The same goes for Thierry Henry, who has been included in the squad by Raymond “Einstein” Domenech. The main thing I’m hoping for here is few minutes and no injuries for all of our players. What I’m assuming will happen instead is that they’ll all play 90 in a bruising encounter. Sweet. Gametime: Wednesday, March 3, 3pmEST. [a Barça-related aside: do you think that these players will talk about the '06 CL final played at the Stade de France? Will Henry get pissed if they do it near him?]

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I did it again. Sweet!

This game, this beautiful game of ours that we play oh, so well, is about doing the right things with the ball. Seems simple, right?

It certainly should be, given that we have so many players with such incomparable skill on the ball.

But we spent much of our well-deserved win today doing the wrong things with the ball. And it was easy to tell when we did the right things, because the ball went into the net in a match in which Maulaga didn’t stop us from scoring, as much as we stopped ourselves from scoring. Despite all of the exquisite football that was so much fun to watch, too much of the time it was like noshing on one of the best meals of your life, only to break a tooth on the last bite.
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Keep it family friendly, folks.

Dear Malaga,

Welcome to my home. You’re a thousand kilometers from your own warm and wonderful home, so please make yourselves as comfortable as possible here in the Ciudad Condal. I know you’re used to beaches and sun, but perhaps you’ll be able to enjoy yourself at our humble waterfront or in one of our many delectable dining venues throughout the Gothic quarter. Perhaps you will partake in a little bit of the nightlife later off Las Ramblas? Regardless of your personal tastes, there’s certainly something for you here. I’m sure we’ll get along just fine.

Wait, why are you angry? What have I don’t to disturb you? I apologize for whatever it was. I’m sorry to have offended you. Please calm down. Good, sir, I must protest! This is uncalled for. Please calm down. Let me just dribble through here real fast and we’ll get back to–why did you just do that? This is outrageous and now, sir, my friend, compatriot of the league, you must die. Release the BANGS!

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To tide everyone over until Isaiah’s vengeance-laden post goes up, turn your brains to a task: Guess what this is a picture of?

As with any first-person experience of Barça, we’re willing to publish your experiences. Reader Cesc Blanc had the good fortune to attend the Stuttgart match and was kind enough to do a write up. A quick disclaimer: the views expressed in this post are those of the author and do not reflect official BFB policy or position. Enjoy and thank you, CB!

Our intrepid man on the scene

The good people of Google maps said that the trip from Vienna to Stuttgart was exactly 666kms, quite a strange number. In the end, it turned out to be less for whatever reason, but that number should have been warning enough for me: we’re dancing with the devil. The trip to Benztown turned out to be 6 hours and 36 minutes exactly. As you can see, there’s a pattern with the 6, which we will come back to later.

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I can carry more of you, if you want.

So. Four times I watched this match. Once on a craptastic Web feed at work. Never again, I say. Again bleary-eyed at home last night, whereupon I cost myself a shiteload of sleep, banging out a screed whose vituperation would have been unmatched by any document offered up by modern man.

After the morning viewing, I calmed down a lot. After this evening’s viewing, I was even more calm, because things really weren’t that bad.
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Christof Koepsel (Bongarts/Getty-Images)

At the end of yesterday’s 1-1 draw with Stuttgart, I was struck by one of the commentators babbling on about how the result was terrific for the German club. That suggests, then, that it was the opposite for Barcelona. Perhaps what he was suggesting was that Stuttgart was happy not to have lost to us, but that, I think, is insulting towards a club that could very well have come out the winners themselves.

Still, is Stuttgart happy with this result? Are we? Obviously the match itself was frustrating for a Barça fan used to the squad turning in controlled performances rather than a first half filled with grievous errors that really should have been punished by Stuttgart–Die Roten, or The Reds, as they’re known–but instead a missed handball in the box by Pique and a missed handball on a goal line clearance by Molinaro kept the aggregate score lower*, which is a good thing for Stuttgart in many respects. A 2-2 draw would have given Barça the absolute upper hand because only a win or a 3-3 draw or greater in the return leg (March 17) would put Stuttgart through.

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Champions League is back, as is the liveblogging! This game is being broadcast on Fox Sports en Español as well as your local Fox Sports affiliate in HD (for me in the NYC region with Time Warner it’s MSG+). Check your local listings. Kickoff at 2:45pm, this liveblog will be starting a few minutes prior to that.

The Hlebian Ballet Company: Grace and Art Combined

CL Preview: Stuttgart – Barça, Tuesday 2:45pmEST, Fox Sports en Español/Fox Sports HD Affiliate

Seventy-seven. That number sounds big even when you don’t know what the units are. Put on days and you’re suddenly looking at over 2 months. Seventy-seven days since we last played Champions League football. Seventy-seven days since we beat Dynamo Kiev. In that time we’ve won the Club World Cup, recorded infinity plus one injuries*, and have lead the league by as many as 5 points. And now we return to the tournament that cemented us as the team to beat, as the media darlings of last year. Finally.

I’ve missed you, my twice-weekly previews, with your absurd taxing of my mental capabilities (they are rather small, after all) and your always welcome taxing of my liver capabilities. When there’s no on-the-field action to distract them it seems like the Spanish rags can’t get enough of shouting Cesc! Ribéry! Ochocinco! But now we have something to consider between now and Málaga’s visit on Saturday.

And, indeed, it’s a trip to Stuttgart, to southern Germany. The city itself is located in the state of Baden-Württemberg and is known primarily for its vroom-vroom car industry: Porsche is headquartered there and even stole the city’s coat of arms and adapted it to its own needs when it was founded in 1931 (along with some of the Württemberg coat of arms. Mercedes-Benz and its parent company, Daimler AG, are also based in Stuttgart while Bosch is located just outside of the city in Gerlingen.

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