FC Barcelona Thread - *Campeones de España y de Europa 2009*

Happier days in the cantera

http://www.fcbarcelona.cat/web/castellano/noticies/futbol_base/temporada08-09/03/n090301107353.html

Rochina and Dongou keep on scoring.

Gai Assulin will get his spanish passport later this month, and will now be eligible to play for the 1st team

La joven promesa del FC Barcelona, Gai Assulin, obtendrá dentro de un mes aproximadamente la nacionalidad española, hecho que podría abrirle las puertas del primer equipo.


Will he be our savior?

Can he defend?

3 barca players have been called up for spain U-17 european championship.

FC BARCELONA: Albert Dalmau Martínez, Blanchart Adria Domenech, Sergio Gomez Sola

They are all defenders

Master Yoda goes on the offensive

Johan Cruyff has hit out at Real Madrid, stating that they only benefit from the mistakes of others and that they are not as strong as Barcelona.
The Dutch legend has also voiced his discontent at the Blaugrana’s form, however, he feels that the los Merengues' effective style of football is unbecoming of such a famous club.

Madrid have reduced the gap at the top of the Primera Division table to four points in recent weeks. Despite this, Cruyff has not been impressed with them and thinks that Barcelona are sill a better side.

"Of course, Madrid are doing well, but I always expect something more from them, not just to take advantage of the failure of others,” he told La Vanguardia. “But it has produced results and they are benefiting.

"Barca have dropped eight points to Madrid [in recent weeks] but nobody would want to swap places with los Blancos, even if Madrid have won ten consecutive matches.

"For me, Barca are the strongest team. There are details to be improved upon to avoid any more problems. Above all, they must continue to believe that they are the best and start winning again.

"On Wednesday it will be Barca playing in Mallorca for a place in the [Cope del Rey] final, not Madrid.

"In ten days, Barca will go into the second leg of their Champions League tie as favourites, not Madrid.

"If the Blaugrana qualify and los Merengues do not then I do not want to hear people complaining about the congested fixture list they have while others have it easy.

"After losing El Clasico in December, they never thought that they would have a chance of catching Barcelona.

"But numerically they have and football can be like that. They strengthened their defence but I doubt that there has been much to enjoy about their wins beyond the results."

Reflecting on Barcelona's reverse against Atletico de Madrid at the weekend, Cruyff thinks that the defence needs to sort itself out and does not believe that Victor Valdes is the only one to blame.

"It was a repeat of the same individual errors," he continued.

"If the forwards do not score goals and those at the back gift them to the opposition then it is virtually impossible to win.

"Up until now, scoring three goals assured victory. Therefore, it means that there are mistakes being made that were not there before."

http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/fcbarcelona/index.html

check out the video of the players at the training ground, can the players at any other club do that?

DOUBT IT

Kerrison"i would love to play with messi"

http://goal.com/en/news/11/transfer-zone/2009/03/03/1135691/keirrison-i-would-love-to-play-with-lionel-messi-at-barcelona

Who wouldn't

Messiah wrote:http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/fcbarcelona/index.html

check out the video of the players at the training ground, can the players at any other club do that?

DOUBT IT

I imagine pretty much all teams in the first division of their country would be able to do that.

Hlebagone wrote:

Messiah wrote:http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/fcbarcelona/index.html

check out the video of the players at the training ground, can the players at any other club do that?

DOUBT IT

I imagine pretty much all teams in the first division of their country would be able to do that.

Hlebagone wrote:

Messiah wrote:http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/fcbarcelona/index.html

check out the video of the players at the training ground, can the players at any other club do that?

DOUBT IT

I imagine pretty much all teams in the first division of their country would be able to do that.

How gay was that...esp. their celebrations at the end

kas wrote:

Hlebagone wrote:

Messiah wrote:http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/fcbarcelona/index.html

check out the video of the players at the training ground, can the players at any other club do that?

DOUBT IT

I imagine pretty much all teams in the first division of their country would be able to do that.

How gay was that...esp. their celebrations at the end

Ooooh! Now that I've seen your training methods I'm quite confident you'll win the league.

Which one is the vid? Dont understand spanish so couldnt find it. Is that barcas new training ground?

How come it costs that much? seems way way too expensive. thought most training grounds were about £10-15 million???

cheers

In the "Media Center" section (there's currently an image of the team with "Creemos" written across it), click on the 3rd video from the left, which has a group of players in red training shirts in the preview. It's the one between interview videos of Guardiola and Etoo.

Txiki speaks about players and transfer rumors.

[qoute]

Asked about the coming transfer period, Barcelona sports director Txiki Begiristain has said in an interview with Catalan radio station Catalunya Ràdio that the club doesn't plan to be very active in the summer:

"If everything goes well, the squad of next year will be similar to the one of this year. We might be the team that spends the least money."

Begiristain also commented on some specific names:

Ribéry
There's nothing going on with Ribéry, I can be as clear as that. We have a great relationship with clubs like Bayern Munich and AC Milan and the people from Bayern can be sure that if we want a player of their team, they will be the first to know. It's an excellent player but there are others who can adapt to the style of Barça.

Eto'o
He's a great player who very easily creates chances. I think it's not fair to ask him to finish 70 or 80 per cent of those. He scored in all competitions and he's still growing. We want him to stay for many more years. He has a contract until 2010 and we've decided to postpone the talks until the end of the season because we don't want any distractions. We only have to focus on the game now.

Benzema
I don't know if he's the star of the future. We already have that player. In Europe, no one can compete with the numbers of Eto'o. You have half a dozen of great strikers but Eto'o has the best numbers.

Henrique
There's a chance he will return but Bayer Leverkusen has asked us if he can stay another year. He is doing well there. We'll see what will happen when the season ends.

Milito
We'll see him out there on the pitch this season.

Henry
He'll stay next season. , but it was expected

Villa and Silva
Valencia had the same financial problems last year but they renewed the contract of both players.

Valdés
People aren't acting right towards him. Watch the dvd of the final in Paris and go mad again. He's a homegrown player, a great profesional and he trains like a best. We're not looking to sign a goalkeeper. The renewal talks have been stopped for a while because we couldn't find a deal.

Bruno Alves
We don't need another central defender.

Messi
It's a spectacular player, the best in the world. And he should be valued for that. If you look at the market, there are players who are worse than him but who earn more. He hasn't asked for a better contract but we're aware that we should be monitoring the issue.

[/quote]

kas wrote:In the "Media Center" section (there's currently an image of the team with "Creemos" written across it), click on the 3rd video from the left, which has a group of players in red training shirts in the preview. It's the one between interview videos of Guardiola and Etoo.

Cheers Kas. So is that a diagram of Barcas new training ground? If it is how come they expect it to cost so much money?

Thanks

Edit - Just watched it. Was just some guy talking in Spanish. What did the barca guys do at training that is so amazing? Was expecting some amazing skills from someone like Messi????

The Quiet Earth wrote:

kas wrote:In the "Media Center" section (there's currently an image of the team with "Creemos" written across it), click on the 3rd video from the left, which has a group of players in red training shirts in the preview. It's the one between interview videos of Guardiola and Etoo.

Cheers Kas. So is that a diagram of Barcas new training ground? If it is how come they expect it to cost so much money?

Thanks

Edit - Just watched it. Was just some guy talking in Spanish. What did the barca guys do at training that is so amazing? Was expecting some amazing skills from someone like Messi????

Didn't you know? Everything the cules do is AMAZING!

A merry-go-round gay charade with the ball bouncing inside...is what they were doing..

The plans for the MLS franchise in Miami have been scrapped because of the poor market conditions

I'm glad, had the same concerns about getting sucked into a project that's not viable financially.

so am i, we didn't need that at all.

The list of players or a possible line-up?
I dont want to see kids (bench) runnig around and screwing the chance of getting to the finals.

Marca's prediction is:


--------------------Pinto

D. Alves-----Pique-----Marquez-----Sylvinho

-----------------Toure Yaya

----------Keita------------Iniesta

Hleb-------------Bojan---------------Henry

That's ok.
Are Messi and Eto'o on the bench or they havent been called up at all?

I didn't see the full convocatoria so I'm not sure who's on the bench. I expect Pep would at least dress Messi so if things are going badly he can throw him on for the last 10 minutes to save his arse.

Looks good, but Busquets will start for one of the midfielders, most likely Iniesta/Yaya.

D.Alves really needs to get some rest, he as played almost every game this season.

Going by his last game slyvinho shouldn't start, so i hope we get caceres a chance, it won't happen.

2-1 to mallorca.

the entire squad was called up, excluding milito.

Messiah wrote:the entire squad was called up, excluding milito.

Everyone traveled to Palma de Mallorca but you still have to pick only 18 for the matchday squad.

How s that an entire squad when Eto'o is not there?
Nevetheless, i want to see a win, not just the passage to the finals.

No that will be the squad for the game.


I was reading another forum yesterday and a poster said it would be a good idea to start Helb in the midfield for this game and i kinda agree with him, these are the reason he put forward

1) Xavi needs the rest
2) Iniesta shouldn't be starting a game yet
3) Helbs 2/3 best games for us was when he came off the bench and played in midfield, his two/three assist came for games where he played in midfield.

So with that said, this should be the starting XI, I hope pep checks this before the game.


--------------------Pinto

D. Alves-----Pique-----Marquez-----Caceres

-----------------Busquets

----------Keita------------Helb

Pedro-------------Bojan---------------Henry


Alves can start this game because he is suspended for the league game and iniesta will start for henry come saturday.


Ps I tired helb in Midfield on FM and he is awesome.

Why no Etoo? He should be starting instead of Pedro.