So. Happy. Right. Now.

So, rather than Man of the Match, we have Cuddly Toy of the Match, Bojan Krkic.

Just kidding. Our CT is a full-on MOTM, as much for his overall excellence of play as the in-your-face spitting at his critics. Could this be the match that marked his full-on maturation as a Barca attacking force? It remains to be seen, as Athletic Bilbao seems to make The Kid’s nature rise. But I can pay him one of the highest compliments I can pay these days, which is that I thought he was Messi on many a play, such was his alacrity of movement, sense for where the ball was and energy.

But this was an expensive victory, folks.
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Yes, it’s happening. So get those good links ready, and I’ll see everyone 10 min before the match starts.

What does the other half of this sign talk about???

Liga Preview: Barça – Athletic Bilbao, Saturday 2pm EST, ESPN Deportes/ESPN 360

A note on the time, before anything else: Europe has now had their daylight savings time, so we’re back to 6 hours of difference between here (New York) and there, which means that instead of a 3pm kickoff, it’s a 2pm kickoff on the east coast. The game is at 8pm local time. Check your local time here.

After an emotional week, it’s back to La Liga and all its glories. This is a huge match for us because it comes right before two titanic matches that could–and yes, this is how we’re rolling today–sink us in both our secondary European endeavor and our primary objective of La Liga. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t expect to win either, but I know we can and I hope we do. But, as with all things, first things first: Athletic Bilbao has come to town.

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Perhaps many of the regular readers here were surprised by my reaction to the outcome of Wednesday’s match. I still stand by my assertions that Fabregas dove, especially after having seen replays, though I’m tempering it somewhat as you’ll see. I have had time to think about it and I’ve found that I can’t assert that he is a constant diver simply because I haven’t watch him enough to know that sort of thing. For instance, I have watched Busi and Dani Alves quite a few times and I think that I can say that they’re both constant exaggerators and sometimes out-and-out divers. And I try to harangue them for it. Perhaps I should do it more aggressively and more pointedly–I will try to do so from here on out.

Kevin, usually the smarter of the two of us anyway, brings up the more important points than whether or not Cesc dove in his well-thought-out review, which is well worth your time if you haven’t already read it. I hope no one took my reaction as thinking that Cesc was the reason that we drew what should have been a clear victory–though I suppose there’s little chance of that. I was angry, indeed, and I’m still angry, but I think my anger is tempered now by the passage of time and a nice amount of sleep. And pudding.

First, before I discuss any of the actual match, I apologize–I’m sorry–if I offended anyone with my language and aggression in last night’s post. It was ill-thought out and needless. It won’t happen again. Obviously the post stays up so that I can look at it from time-to-time so as to remind myself and others what I shouldn’t do.

Okay then.

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“Let me up, so that I can score some more, please.”

Yes he’s under there, my Man of the Match, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who scored the brace and more importantly two precious away goals that give us a significant advantage going into the home leg. This was an oddball, bittersweet match that shouldn’t have ended the way that it did.

For that, we have nobody to blame but ourselves. Did Fabergas dive? This is debatable, and will be one of those matters of perspective, like Chelsea being cheated in last year’s semis. I’ve watched it a number of times now, and I have to say that I don’t think he dove. I think that he made the most of the contact with Puyol, but what player doesn’t do that in the box?

But if Puyol doesn’t whiff on clearing the pass from Walcott, who was busy making Maxwell his punk, then Fabregas isn’t in a position to dive. If Busquets doesn’t make a stupid, stupid play that gifts Arsenal possession on the break, then we don’t even concede that first goal. To win championships, you have to play championship football.
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Look. Fuck Francesc Fabregas Soler. No. I mean fuck him. He’s a diving, cheating, bitch. No, really. You don’t believe me? I didn’t want him before as a replacement for Xavi. Now I don’t ever want him. No, no, I’m not just bitter, it’s that I want real players. Players who believe in staying on their feet (therefore I want Yaya over Busi).

Don’t believe me with just that? Okay, well how about against dirty, dirty Chelsea?

1) The dive that got Pique his yellow was a dive. It was horrible. I’m glad his doucheitude sky-ed it.
2) The dive that got Puyol his red was a dive. It was even worse. It’s despicable that anyone would accept that as a real penalty. It was a blatant and horrible dive.

Not only do I not want Franny to transfer now, but I never want Franny to transfer. Not now, not in 3 or 4 years like I previously wanted, but never. Never ever. Fuck him. No, seriously: Francesc Fabregas is a diving, cheating whore. Don’t believe me? Just wait for the videos. I will post them.

Thank you to Eklavya for running this. Treat him nicely, everyone. It launches a few minutes prior to kickoff. And remember: Visca el Barça!

CL Preview: Arsenal – Barça, Wednesday 2:45pm FSC, Fox Soccer en Español

Before you read this, read this, an interview I did with Just Football.

After all the hype, all the vituperation, all the awesome iReports, the hand-wringing over injuries (Iniesta out, Cesc doubtful, I hurt my hamstring on Saturday as well), and the various opinion pieces here, it’s time for the real preview. I hope you can survive an extra 24 hours with only Frenchies surrendering to each other and Bayern attempting to deprive ManU of a third consecutive finals to get us through these moments and to our beloved. [ed note: I'm writing this while watching the second of those two matches and listening to Rufus Wainwright, so apologies if this is an absurd preview--actually, no I don't apologize, it's Arsenal Week!]

It’s London for us, with its torture-chamber towers and falling bridges, nice metro system, and, of course, it’s rich history of football. There are something like 84,234 first division teams in London, but fortunately we only have to play against one of them at a time. And, really, if we’re to play any team from London, I would like it to be Arsenal. I like their style and I think matches against them are generally really good or at least have the potential to be so.

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This is by no means a comprehensive list of who is good or not on Arsenal’s roster, but it most certainly is a list of people who are currently playing for Arsenal. And I think they’re all pretty decent at this here game of football. You might call them the danger men that we need to look out for–they’re the attackers that the team needs to look out for the most.

Samir Nasri: The little French wunderkid that could left provincial Marseille (that’s a dig at a local bartender who doesn’t read this site) for the bright lights of the big city on the Thames in the summer of 2008. Since, he’s been a producer of random gems and random stinkers, but has, at least, begun to impress on the European stage. He’s got 3 in 4 appearances in this year’s CL, which is a credit both to his own skills and the collective imagination of his team. Sure, he’s scored against “lowly” Porto, Standard Liege, and AZ Alkmaar and he’s only scored 2 in the Premier League in 20 appearances, but he’s certainly capable against anyone (and he just scored against Birmingham this weekend). He’s right-footed and could be tasked with slipping down the left side to keep Dani Alves honest or he could be pushed right to challenge Maxwell.

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A few days ago, Thierry Henry made headlines by stating in an interview with Sky Sports that he “does not want to play Arsenal.” A bunch of commenters here and on other forums jumped on that statement and claimed he should be run out of town on a rail covered in spikes while being tar-and-feathered. Conveniently lost in the whole deluge of nonsense was the sentence immediately preceding the oft-quoted part: “I’m not saying I won’t try to fight or whatever because that’s the way the game is. But I don’t want to play against Arsenal.”

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