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Jun 9, 2014

Failures are finger posts on the road to achievement. C. S. Lewis

It's safe to say that everything that could have gone wrong have all went wrong in case of Bojan Krkić. From dubbed as the "Next Wonder Kid" out of La Masia, he has been relegated to the "Boy who lost his Way" quickly; and rightly so. His career so far resembles a Hollywood tragedy movie in full flow. Everything he has done to correct the course of his career has ended in bigger failures. But then fate alone is not to be blamed! Every coach he has worked with apart from Frank Rijkaard, have complained about his lack of intensity in training. It's the same story over and over again. Pep Guardiola questioned his intensity and attitude, it was the same at Roma and Milan and now with De Boer making it clear, he needs to take a good look at himself.

There is no substitute for hard work. Thomas .A. Edison

Jun 8, 2014

Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer. Rick Pitino

Germany lands in Brazil as one of the clear favourites to win the 2014 World Cup. They did suffer a set back in the form of Marco Reus injury. Any team will miss a player like Reus, that's a fact without any question. But with the kind of depth Germany has, his injury may not matter much at all. The squad strength of the current German World cup squad will give shivers to opponent coaches. They have so many options and quality players in every position other than the forward. It's puzzled many who have followed the German youth set up. Germany is struggling to find quality strikers to fill in the squad. Out of the all squad in World Cup, they could be the only one with proper center forward, an ageing Miraslav Klose. The personal feud between Stefan Kießling and coach Joachim Löw is not helping either. Will this deficiency hurt German at the World Cup?

Lionel Messi goal against Slovenia in a friendly in the build up towards the World Cup. It's always nice to see Messi getting in to scoresheet especially for Argentina's fans. The goal in itself was superb team play with a brilliant over the top ball from Angel di Maria.

Surprise is key in all art. Oscar Niemeyer

Many a times we underestimates people's capability to surprise us, especially in Sports. Greece's 2004 European championship victory is the one event which comes to the mind instantaneously. There was no way they could have won that. No one gave them a chance. No one actually had to! It was illogical to even think about Greece's chances. The best one could hope for them was getting out of that group having Spain, Portugal and Russia. They were not supposed to come out of that group, but still they did and kept on surprising us one by one. And that's what happens when people rise about the reasoning of logic. Not sure whether it was supposed to happen, it just happened. To an extent the hope of Surprise is what keeps England's dream living on in this World Cup. They are in a Group where everything could be decided by the smallest of details.

I'm not upset that you lied to me, I'm upset that from now on I can't believe you. Friedrich Nietzsche

Now they say he is not going to join us! For weeks we have been bombarded with stories of how Barca have identified Aymeric Laporte as one of teh defensive reinforcements. Stories were broken about how the player and the FC Barcelona Futball club has reached personal agreement; how it's just a matter of time before we see the player wearing the renowned Barca jersey. Now they have a different take on all this. Why? Because Aymeric Laporte have renewed his contract with Atletic Bilbao, so did the club announced. Now the media pundits are saying that his arrival to Barca is not going to happen. one could ask why i never reported anything about this story. That's precisely because I never thought this will happen.

Neymar's Amazing Goal against Rayo Vallacano GIF

Neymar's amazing Goal GIF against Rayo Vallacano. This one of the best goal yet by Neymar wearing Barca's Jersey.

Jun 7, 2014

Mascherano scoring the goal from a Lionel Messi Free kick that hit the post against Trinidad.

Jun 6, 2014

Big results require big ambitions. Winston Churchill

It's strange isn't it? The one player whose fitness mattered the most for you, whose form concerned you for the whole season, is the one you would be hoping to be injured! That might be how Liverpool fans might be feeling now. At least they are hoping that he miss the England match. Luis Suárez who is recovering from a knee surgery is expected to be fit for their second group match, against England. He is definite to miss the team's opener against Costa Rica, a match in which Uruguay hardly needs him. Their second match against England could define the destiny for both the team. So the "Group of Death" which features three former World Champions may in the end depend on whether a little Uruguayan named Luis Suárez recovers from injury in time.

Jun 5, 2014

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts Winston Churchill

People, especially critics have been too eager to write off Spain's chances in the 2014 World Cup. They argue that the 3-0 drubbing at the hands of Brazil in the Confederations Cup as a sign of the era of Spanish domination coming to end. It is quite strange, they almost said similar things ahead of the Euro 2012! They easily forgot that Spain was similarly poor in the last confederation cup, losing to United Stated 2-0. To read too much in to the poor performance in a single competition would be a folly. After all the players who were the rock behind Spain's success are still there and kicking, the reinforcements have been arriving in quick time too. The quality of the players in the squad is unbelievable, underlined by the fact that in the recently concluded Champions League final had nine Spanish players starting.

Jun 4, 2014

Believe you can and you're halfway there Theodore Roosevelt

The only reason why we should be allowed to call Belgium the "Dark Horses" has to be their lack of pedigree in the World Stage. Or a better reason could be our unending craving for a superlative narrative. Otherwise what's the logic? Ok, agreed they were never considered as the main contender by many pundits. Then that's precisely due to their uncanny ability to overlook hard core facts. These are the same pundits who used to pip "England" as firm favourites every World cup only to be left wondering what went wrong! Belgium currently lies in 12th position in the FIFA Ranking, one below England and two below Greece. Then that count for nothing as there is no other European squad which has quality spread across all the position like Belgium has. At least in terms of squad strength, Belgium is miles ahead of England and Greece. One look into final squad announced by Marc Wilmots, you all will understand I am placing them as a Genuine contender rather than a "Dark Horse".

Jun 3, 2014

A leader is a dealer in hope Napolean

Lionel Messi, the natural heir to the throne of Diego Maradona, had emulated Maradona in more than one occasion. The best of it was that replica of Diego Maradona's goal in 1986 and the worst was the shameful handball goal against Espanyol. Messi had grown tremendously in terms of skill and gamesmanship since that hand ball incident. It's quite rare to see Messi diving to get penalty or foul nowadays. There could be one or two minor incidents at the heat of the moment, regardless of those he has been an excellent ambassador for the beautiful game in all these years. Since the time he has decided to play for Argentina instead of Spain, his countrymen have been waiting for him to deliver the cup. Lionel Messi, without doubt would love to do that and emulate his idol Diego Maradona's feats in 1986 World cup. But to do that he may have to put behind the poor performances of the past, especially in 2010 World Cup.

May 27, 2014

The night when Ronaldinho was given a Standing Ovation at the Bernebeu was one of the most memorable moments in the last decade. The two goals mesmerized even the arch-rivals fans.

I hate to spread rumours, but what else can one do with them? Amanda Lear

That's the fun in all this! It doesn't have to make any sense, just being there will do. With the current state of affairs at Barca, anyone can create one, spread it like wild fire and almost make us believe that it's the truth. One have to admit the Catalonia based mediahouse, Sport is doing a good job at it. Let's admit it, we love them too. It's all fun to get up every morning with your club getting linked with a new star, the hope of endless possibility driving you crazy. The only problem is the usual disappointments that is associated with all this at the end of the transfer window. Barca fans have been subjected to that in the last two seasons. So it's better to take every rumour with a pinch of salt.

May 26, 2014

A brilliant compilation of Neymar's first season at Barca. May not have been spectacular and have been controversial at times. But the video shows the prospect of a very bright future ahead.

May 25, 2014

It’s déjà vu all over again.

With strong reports of David Luiz's impending transfer to PSG (this time from a much trustworthy news source) , Barca fans cannot help having that worse Déjà Vu feeling yet again. We have seen this earlier, isn't it! It happened last season, the season and will continue again this season, many a times. It's not a surprise any more, we have been trained to expect this and this alone for sometime. A week ago we were told that David Luiz transfer is all done and dusted. Of course the story was broken by Sport and some could argue I am a bit crazy to have believed this in first place. But once again, they were good at selling the dream and normally we couldn't stop ourselves from believing.

May 20, 2014

Barca's troubles of this season were beautifully described by La Liga when they announced the Team of the Season". Not even a single Barcelona player made the cut. The Champions Atletico Madrid as expected, dominated the line-up. They have Courtois, Godin, Luis, Juanfran, Koke, Gabi and Diego Costa in the line-up. Real Madrid have three players in the line-up in the form of Ronaldo, Bale and Ramos. It's been some time since Lionel Messi has missed out on the Team of the Season.

It's too easy to criticize a man when he's out of favour, and to make him shoulder the blame for everybody else's mistakes. Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace

In the end it was impossible for this to continue. From the heights of driving their fans to ecstasy with their performance in the field Barca has come a long way. There were too many occasion where one simply felt that the team was merely going through the motions. Even though we were so close to winning the League, we have indeed given up at many occasions. So there was no way Martino could have survived this, there is no point in surviving this. At Barca, how you win matters most, more than how much you win. The way we were playing in recent weeks turned the table completely on Martino. As a matter of fact, we weren't exactly winning also! So that didn't do him any favour either.

Luis Enrique appointed FC Barcelona Manager

As widely speculated, FC Barcelona has confirmed the appointment of Luis Enrique as the First Team Manager for the next season. The two year deal would see him manage the club till the end of 2015-16 season. But then whether he will continue or not will depend definitely on the success of next season. This announcement was just a mere formality. Everyone knew that Luis Enrique would take over after Tata Martino announced his departure following the La Liga loss to Atletico Madrid. A day before Luis Enrique has announced in a press conference his departure from Celta de Vigo. Long before that there were serious speculations about him taking over from Martino, especially a very much publicized secret meeting between him and Barca Sporting Director Zubizarreta. It is believed that Luis Enrique is the Sporting director's pick.

May 19, 2014

Highlights from FC Barcelona's match against Atletico Madrid at the Camp Nou on Saturday. The draw meant yet another instance of the title decider on the last day being ended up in a stalemate. Nice to see Camp Nou rising in standing ovation for the La Liga winner.

May 17, 2014

Atletico Madrid were not to be denied, their fairytale season continues, they have fought for this like no other team. They just had to win this. In a match which could be dubbed the best final ever or the best final we all have witnessed, Atletico prevailed. They didn't have to win this and the 1-1- draw was more than enough for it. In the preview to the match I have written about the possibility of Atletico breaking down physically, make no mistake - they did! They lost Diego Costa and Arda Turan, their two best players early in the first half, they appeared like not knowing what to do, they went behind when Sanchez scored. It was all turning against them, that too in the final game of the season. But a number of times this season, they found that inner spirit to drive them back into the race and the Godin header clearly described this team's motto "Fight till we Die".

Alexis Sanchez's spectacular goal against Atletico Madrid.

May 16, 2014

Fc Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid Preview

"One Game to Rule them All"

Finally it has come to this, just one game! That will decide the fate of La Liga. Who would have thought it would come to this? At the start of the season, it has only been a battle between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona like it always have been for all these years. Now at the end of the season, Real Madrid has been replaced by the other side of the capital. No one expected Ateltico to continue like this, they had to break down at some point. There was no way they could continue to play their brand of football till the end of the season; only problem was that someone forgot to tell that to them. Mean while, Barcelona's case was also similar but also different at the same time. No one expected them to be here, the league within their reach and one win away. Barca has time and again raised their hands to surrender, but was literally dragged back into the ring. How many times we all have thought to ourselves that it's all over, just to see the dream still intact the very next morning. It's that kind of season, and when it's over we all will be relieved.

May 12, 2014

FC Barcelona vs Elche Highlights

Highlights video of FC Barcelona's goalless draw against Elche last night. Some would say we missed a great chance to cut the distance between us and Atletico. Since Atletico drew yesterday, the equation remains same for Barca like last week. A victory and nothing less than victory will help Barca win the league next week.

Barca and Elche match ended scoreless

in the match between two teams who were fighting for their lives in the league, one has to admit both came unhurt thanks to other results across the League. The match started with three teams technically fighting for the league, but Real Madrid dropped off the race after going down 2-0 against Celta de Vigo. So next week clash at Camp Nou is the La Liga final with Atletico holding a huge advantage. With a three point lead Atletico wouldn't have to force a winner whereas FC Barcelona boys need to go full throttle for the title. Barca definitely had the chance to negate Atletico's advantage when they went down 1-0 against Malaga at the Vicente Calderon. But we couldn't find a goal and but once they equalized, we were definite that we will start the next week encounter on the back foot. The Atletico game will definitely take the aura of a cup tie, this is reflected in the betting too with odds reflecting a knockout phase bet rather than a league game. So after twists and turns of the season, it will all be decided in a single match; here Atletico definitely have the advantage.

May 11, 2014

David Luiz to Barca

David Luiz is getting linked back again to Barca. Now that is mostly like a annually repeating deal. This time the rumours are pretty strong. Things have changed for both Barca and Luiz from last summer, which strengthens the rumour. First of all we are desperate for a defender, especially with Puyol also leaving. Second is the crucial one, Luiz is not so clear about his role at Chelsea. He has been not so regular in Mourinho's plan. For Barca Luiz would be a great signing. He is more or less in the same mold of Puyol in terms of defending. The additional advantage is his presence in opposition box something we have been lacking recently. This story is still developing, so watch out this space.

May 10, 2014

Cesc Fabregas Transfermarkt - Should Barca sell Francesc Fàbregas?
The true value is very hard to determine, it's all smoke and mirrors

Cesc Fabregas has been subject of many a debate at Barca before he arrived from Arsenal. Mostly those were centred on how to get the boy back at Barca or should we get him back at Barca? Little has changed since his arrival at Barca. He is still the hottest property in any Barca centric debate! Only change has been a slight modification to the topics - earlier if it was how and should we sign him; now it's changed to how and Why we should sell him? That's a small but significant change. There is a tendency to put Barca's recent failures, especially after Fabregas was signed on his head. We all complain about how he goes missing in big matches and are a liability at times. But have we ever paused and thought for a while what is hampering him at Barca? Unless we do the same, we may not be able to answer whether Cesc is the future at Barca?

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