Celebrate the weekend the only way we know how: a liveblog! Boxing rules apply: Keep it clean, above the waist, return to your corner when the ref tells you to. Also, keep up with my all-day football-watching blitz via Twitter.

Liga Preview: Barça-Sevilla, Saturday 4pmEST ESPN Deportes

I’m not even sure what to write about at this point. I didn’t realize what a nice break the Tenerife match was. The tedium of discussing, for the third time in four matches, what Sevilla brings to the table is wearing on me. I have no idea what to write.

Okay, so yeah, that’s a lie. I always have something to say, even though sometimes it’s a bit repetitive and almost like I’m saying the same thing twice. It’s Sevilla, again, which means another serious test of our strength, though this time it’s in the Liga, where there is no possibility of a remontada, really. I imagine that the last match was a wake-up call for our boys, to remind them of their vulnerabilities. They, like the rest of us mortals, can be brought back down to earth by the hard work of little David and his slingshot over there, though the analogy breaks down when you consider that we are not the typical Philistine description, with the exception of our giant size.

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Today is a new day, one in which for the first time since 2008, we have been knocked out of a competition.

And I will tell you right now, that I hate it when our club loses. Anything. Period, full stop. A match, a competition, its way, some keys, a Euro …. anything! Further, I know that I am supposed to feel pride in the way that this club fought in that second half, and the brilliant plays that just missed being goals by a whisker. I know that I am supposed to believe that since Sevilla had two perfectly legitimate goals taken away, justice was ultimately done in this Copa del Rey tie. I know that I was saying “Dump the Copa, so that we can concentrate on the big-time competitions.”

I know, I know, I know, I know.

But this morning, I still feel like Guardiola looks in this picture, dejected and lost.
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It’s hard to admit it, I think, but this loss is not, for me, devastating. I don’t want it to be devastating, of course, I don’t want to be sad, but it is surprising that I am neither. I am, partially, numbed by the up-and-down emotions of the match itself, which was end-to-end for almost 90 minutes, with blistering moments of genius, balls banging off posts, a brilliant golazo, a series of harsh fouls, a fantastic last-ditch effort by Puyol to keep a ball out of our net, and, at the end, the final whistle that did not bring us solace.

We did not have an Iniestazo in us, a Pedrazo. But we were facing a really gifted team, with grit and a plan. Perhaps you did not like that plan, but for the first 20 or 30 minutes, it worked to perfection. It worked as our midfield was anonymous to the point of me actually questioning whether they were on the field or not. It worked enough to get us frustrated. Then we went to the locker room and I can only imagine that Guardiola talked to the team, calmed them, assured them that we were the better squad, but that now we had to prove it. Don’t get tight, don’t get angry, get moving. Get going. Get rolling. And Xavi responded first in the second half and he ended up being the one to score our goal and draw us level on aggregate, but behind on away goals.

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Kicking off at 3:45pm. Keep it family-friendly, por favor.

Copa Preview: Sevilla – Barça, Wednesday 4pm ,GolTV

Obviously the first thing you should do when preparing for the return leg of the Copa del Rey is read my interview with Ryan Knapp. That will give you a head-start as well as, perhaps, introduce you to a very talented and informed writer dedicated to La Liga. Not to mention brilliant, brilliant questions from a genius interviewer, of course.

Let’s jump right into the preview, shall we? It’s going to be a tough match not only because we’ve got a remontada (comeback) to do, but because we’re playing Sevilla. They proved in the first leg that they’re no joke, regardless of who they’re playing and even though they lost to Racing this past weekend at the Sanchez Pizjuan, they’re still dangerous. In fact, they might be more dangerous now than they otherwise would be because absolutely nothing can be taken for granted. The loss put them 13 points behind us in the league, meaning they have virtually no chance to catch up, meaning the Copa is their only legitimate shot at a domestic trophy.

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This is the first installment of a new series: BFB Interviews. It is designed to broaden the horizons not only of this blogger (who needs it), but also of the blog as a whole by asking intelligent and qualified bloggers and thinkers from around the Internet to answer uneducated questions.

In preparation for our second leg Copa del Rey match at the Sanchez Pizjuan, I’ve asked fellow La Liga blogger and all-around smart guy Ryan Knapp to answer a few questions. Check out the Spanish-language blog he’s a part of called El Desmarque and his personal site here and then enjoy his responses.

Barcelona Football Blog: Sevilla obviously has the upper hand because of the result of the first leg in Barcelona, but will that result change the tactical approach? Will Sevilla park the bus, so to speak, and take their chances or will they try to compress our lines again with up-tempo defending? And if they do do the latter, do you have confidence against Barça’s A squad, assuming Guardiola opts for that approach?

Ryan Knapp: It is hard to tell what type of style they will play. The one thing that will hurt us for sure is the absence of Kanoute up front as he is playing in the ACN. We normally do play an attacking style, but we also have been having trouble with some of the smaller teams this season, which is always our MO, playing to the level of the competition.

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News of the Day for January 11, 2009

I am a happy man at the moment, as I have just received my belated Three Kings Day gift of the return of my lady from a long vacation in France. Naturally she came home horribly sick, but hey, a sick lady is better than no lady at all, though I am now charged with cooking for two instead of just one, which I was struggling with as it was. But nevermind the pharmacy runs and the all-night cough fests, there’s news afoot and it must be covered.

Today’s update will deal entirely with the African Cup of Nations, where The Yaya and Keiteee, along with a few other people you may have heard of, are currently playing for ultimate continental glory. One cannot forget, of course, the horrible incident involving the Togolese national team, but the games are going on nonetheless and I feel duty-bound to cover them.

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Bring it. Whatever. I'm ready.

Um. Wow.

The record will show that we beat Tenerife like they stole something, in a 0-5 runout featuring a hat trick for Messi, a passel of assists for Krkic and the kind of gaudy scoreline that we got so accustomed to running up last season, back when we were good.

Reality is that were it not for the man you see here, Victor “Human Wall” Valdes, that scoreline might have been reversed.

Which is why he’s my Man of the Match, by a country mile. Because we were pretty awful early in this one, and he came up with the key stops, time and again.
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Ah, a glorious winter day and we’ve got some football on tap. Great! Liveblog time, yay! Remember to keep it civil and try to keep it fun.