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.

But will they? Continue Reading

That looks like my ball, Mr. Drogba.

The squad for Spain’s friendlies against Argentina and Austria over the coming week were announced and several Barça were included.

Casillas, Reina, Diego López; Sergio Ramos, Arbeloa, Iraola, Capdevila, Marchena, Albiol, Puyol, Piqué; Busi, Xabi Alonso, Xavi, Cesc, Iniesta; Silva, Pablo Hernández, Güiza, Negredo, Mata, Villa, Jesús Navas.

The Barça players that were included are Puyol, Piqué, Busi, Xavi, and Iniesta, but the obvious absence is Víctor Valdés. Really? Come on, now. I personally believe that Iker Casillas is the best keeper in the world, but what has Pepe Reina done this year to further cement his role as second choice keeper in friendlies? As I understand it, the third spot is kept for up-and-coming keepers, so why is Diego Lopez, who is older than Valdés, still given that spot?

After his most recent exploits against Webó (1:15) in Barça’s 4-2 win over Mallorca, what more proof can a national team manager require before calling someone up? His saves against Drogba in last year’s CL semis turned out to be par for the course rather than breaks from normalcy, though we all should have seen that coming, starting with his stonewalling of Drenthe in the Camp Nou clásico  months before.

Perhaps he has a defense that allows him to look good and yeah, he sometimes looks a little fishy coming off of his line during corners, but it’s not like he’s made any egregious errors this year. Others have, I know (1:25). Yet he sits at home while everyone else trundles off to international duty. Seems unfair and I, for one, am here to declare that Víctor Valdés should get called up to the national team.

Hi, ladies. Check out this thigh. Nice, right?

So you’re at this party in a gorgeous house, and the staff passing the drinks and snacks are supermodels. The music is perfect, and you’re having a great time. But there, on the corner of a rug that probably costs more than you make in a year, is a dog turd. It’s a little one, and nobody is really noticing it.

At least, they’re not actively acting as if they’re noticing it. And suddenly, you begin to notice other things …. that supermodel has nose hair, that other one has a sway back, you have a better music mix on your music player, if you really want the truth of it …. and so it goes.

And you’re cranky, because you should be having the time of your life but thanks to that little turd on the Bokhara, a little luster is gone.
Continue Reading

My hair is always perfect, like my goals.

On Tuesday when Cultural Leonesa visits the Camp Nou, Barça is going to honor an FCB legend named César Rodríguez Álvarez, a man known to many as the leading goal scorer in the history of the blaugrana. He scored 195 league goals in 287 appearances and 294 goals overall in 433 appearances. Just to let you know how great that is, in order for Lionel Messi to tie that record at his current scoring rate, he would have to be here until his 575th appearance, which, if he were to play 45 matches a year, would be when he was 31.

César Rodríguez played for FCB from 1939 until 1954 (on loan to Granada CF from ‘40-’42*) when it was known as CF Barcelona. His longevity was the key to his gaudy stats, of course, but he was also just plain good: he won the Pichichi in 1949 (28 goals) and played on 5 league-winning teams (‘45, ‘48, ‘49, ‘52, and ‘53). When he left the club in 1954, he headed to his hometown of Leon and played for a small club named Cultural Leonesa in the Segunda–that year they finished 4th and were promoted to the first team for the only time in their history as César scored 3 times in 15 appearances. He left the club after that year and went to Perpignan FC and then ended his career by playing with Elche CF from 1957 until 1960, during which time Elche rose from the Tercera to the Primera.

During his final year with Elche, César began coaching the team as well and then when he retired from active play, he took over Real Zaragoza as manager. He became Barça’s manager for one year, but was only in charge for 35 matches, earning a record of 21W-4D-10L. After FCB, he managed Mallorca and Real Betis, and then finished his managing career back at Real Zaragoza.

César passed away on March 1, 1995 at the age of 74.

Sport is reporting that the honors will be done 30 minutes prior to kickoff on the presidential balcony at the Camp Nou. Certainly a legend and certainly worthy of being honored in front of the Camp Nou faithful as well as the traveling Cultural fans.

—–
*Wikipedia says that the loan was forced upon him because he was posted as a member of the military to Granada that year, meaning he couldn’t play for FCB until his time in the army was over. Living under a dictator is fun, isn’t it?

Liga Preview: Barça – Mallorca, Saturday 2pm EST, GolTV (check local times here)

We have slightly fancier transport now...

The surprise of the season so far, at least to me, has been Mallorca holding tightly to a UEFA cup spot. They’re in 5th now, one point above Depor and they boats the best home record in the league (5W-0D-0L, 13GF 1GA) and the solitary goal they have allowed at home was let in against Getafe when the game was already 3-0. But they’re winless on the road (0W-2D-2L, 3GF 8GA) and they also lost their away fixture at Valladolid in the Copa del Rey 2-1. That must be somewhat distressing to a team that slaughters you in Mallorca, but just can’t seem to come up with the points anywhere else.

I watched their battling 1-1 draw against Atleti in which they went down to nine men and still should have won thanks to Atleti’s inability to be anything other than total crap for most of their matches. Mallorca really impressed me with their attack, which was fairly weighted towards the counter, especially after they went down a man, but what was even more impressive was that when they went down the second man, they began to control the match. They probably won’t have that luxury against us, but they’re not going to go down without a fight. Continue Reading

Are we going to make it, captain?

Quite frankly, I don’t know. This review isn’t going to be very long, because simply put, there isn’t a lot to say. Xavi came out after the match and said that we were the better team.

No, you weren’t. You know how I know? Because you didn’t win the match. Last time I checked they don’t give points for possession, or number of passes strung together to no avail.
Continue Reading

Hey, it’s liveblog time! If you’d like to run it, let me know, otherwise I’ll be around to approve all of you and keep things going as smoothly as possible (without mini polls cause I have a friend over and we’ll be, you know, watching together).

Ye gods, there’s a lot going on in the world, such as:

Strike? A strike? Labor action by a bunch of pampered, overpaid athletes?

You betcha.

There is more assuredly precedent, at least in America, so people shouldn’t be horrified by such things if you know your sports history. But the prospect of no La Liga because of tax issues, frankly put, has my bloomers all in a bunch.

But my bloomers wouldn’t be the only ones in a bunch. Thong Boy, for example, would probably have his string turn into a cowlick, so high would his dudgeon be. Why? Because if the Spanish government has its way, the tax rate for furriners would rise to to 43 percent, from 24 percent.

Starting in 2010.
Continue Reading