Heya! Because none of us are going to be in our houses during this match, we’re unable to run a Liveblog. If you would like to run it, please let me know ASAP and I’ll post it for you. Otherwise, use this as your comments post about the match at hand.

I’ll be posting starting lineups before heading out to Woodwork to meet up with my minipenya.

Creeeepyyyyy

Liga Preview: Barça – Getafe, Saturday 2pmEST, ESPN Deportes

Getafe. They of the Burger King shirts, of the “we’re tots second best in the capital now that Patetico sucks again”, of the inclination to drawing or beating the big boys. Welcome to our humble home, azulones. The last time we met, we ended up with a fairly lucky 0-2 victory with goals by Ibra and Messi. It was the second match of the year in La Liga and provided us with a measure of confidence ahead of our trip to Milan three days later for the first Champions League group stage match. It also catapulted us to the top of the league, where we have remained since, dominating most statistical categories and ever-so-slowly increasing our lead over Real Madrid.

Getafe are not one to do their Madrileño rivals a favor, but they’re in it for themselves first and foremost and with a European position on the line every time they take the field (they’re 3 points behind 6th-placed Depor and one point ahead of 8th placed Athletic Bilbao), they will not be taking this match off. They are looking, as always, to plunge their icy Morgul blades of reality into our backs in an attempt to keep us from running away with the title by mid March and to keep us on our toes, one horrible LotR reference at a time (see title for first one).

Continue Reading

Muniesa (upper left) and Dalmau (bottom left) watching the Messias.

I haven’t had my Barça fix in two full weekends. I haven’t had the blaugrana flashing around on screen since they beat 4-0. That was 18 days ago. Eighteen days. I feel like it’s the height of summer and I have nothing left in the tank, no more ability to aguantar this insanity. But it’s coming, this tide of fury and passion. And, if you’re lucky enough, you’ll be able to experience it with me as I’m looking to head to a new bar here in Brooklyn to test out the waters. It’s called Woodwork and perhaps it will become my stomping grounds for when Nevada Smiths is too far or the subway is messed up.

Regardless, there is news afoot and it must be discussed.

-Because of Carles Puyol’s impending suspension for accumulation of yellow cards and Eric Abidal’s and Dani Alves’ respective injuries, we will probably see a very uncharacteristic back four against Getafe on Saturday (2pmEST, 8pm local). Normally when Alves is out, we rotate Puyol to the RB position, but that is obviously not possible this time around, so canteranos Marc Muniesa and Albert Dalmau have been called up to first team training this week. Muniesa, if you remember, is a promising youngster whose first official appearance for the squad was against Osasuna last year and ended with a straight red, though he is still considered to be one of the better prospects to emerge from the cantera in quite a while and he’s still only 17. Muniesa did not train with the squad today, but Dalmau, who is also 17, did.

Continue Reading

Hey, it’s been a while since I updated all of you on Fantasy Soccer. Just in case you missed it, we’ve got a competition going through Yahoo!’s Fantasy section. Here is our group (you might have to log in to see it, but the ID is 1037).

To the info: There’s hardly anything to report. There is nothing going on here. Nothing whatsoever — sob — nothing. I’m not in horrible, horrible 19th place or anything. I’m not that far behind player Hat Trick who has 1,071.5 points compared to my 827.00, but I’ve only got 18 more weeks to make up the difference!*

Continue Reading

Money! Yeeeaaah, that's what I want!

The price of success can almost be quantified. Whether justified or not, every player involved in that success, if they have a contract that is anywhere in the realm of being up for renewal, wants more money. Mo, mo, mo, mo.

Dani Alves is no exception. We have fiscal complexities at every turn. Gerard Pique is up for a renewal, and we have to deal with the kids. But also, we have our Brazilian Hummingbird who, dependent upon who you read, is either unsettled or not going anywhere.
Continue Reading

Valley of Puebla and Popocateptl (LCP, funksterwtf.blogspot.com)

First, I’m back. It was a good vacation, but now I’m back and you will be seeing a lot of me around these parts over the coming weeks. If I slip accidentally into Spanish, please forgive me. It’s going to be a rough transition to not saying “oye guey que pedo” every time I see someone. (Above is a picture of Puebla, where I was)

Secondly, it’s time to get to know your Second Half predictions. I previously posted the competition rules and now that I’m reunited with my lovely laptop, I will be tracking how well everyone is doing throughout the rest of the season.

Continue Reading

Dammit, Wayne! I said no, dude!

Guess who is 23 years old today? If you guessed Gerard Pique, you guessed right. The central defender, a canterano who returned home last season, also has the distinction of being one of only three players to have won Champions League glory in consecutive seasons, with different clubs.

He’s been capped 13 times, but you can look for many more, as the man whom we have all affectionately dubbed “Piquenbauer” for his dashing forward runs with the ball, is only just learning to become the defender that he is. And who remembers that Piquenbauer’s first Spanish goal was a match-winner, in a Copa tie against Espanyol? Very cool.

So happy birthday, Pique, and many more (in the colors, of course!)
Continue Reading

As many of you know, it’s crunch time for our next generation of La Masia jewels. The contracts of Thiago Alcantara, Jeffren Suarez, Gai Assulin, and Jonathan Dos Santos who happen to be our best prospects at the Barca Athletic level ALL expire this spring. That means they can either resign professional contracts with Barca or leave on a free transfer. As can be expected, the (mostly EPL) vultures are out and circling. With elections being postponed until June, it seems that Guardiola and Txiki will have to force their hands before the new administration takes over. Adding to the tension is the proximity of a free transfer giving our canteranos’ agents a significant upper hand in negotiations. As much as it hurts, we will likely not be able to keep all of our guys. So, let’s have a little discussion about which ones will/should stay and which ones will/should go. Mug shots and profiles of our enfants terrible follow: Continue Reading

What just happened??!!

So, JMo is right: That was rather a pessimistic liveblog during that second half, and for good reason, right? We couldn’t put the ball in the net, and Sporting Hee-hone was playing with pluck and determination, pressing hard and playing for the equalizer that was going to screw up all of our Saturday.

Right?

Right?

Wrong.
Continue Reading