Sweet HeadAches

With the 4-0 away victory against Murcia, the spirits should be high in the Barcelona Camp ahead of the second leg match against Sevilla. In the form of the away Goal, Barcelona has a definite advantage in this tie. But as we have seen in the past barca also has a disastrous tendency of folding down at the crucial juncture. How much inspiration can be taken from the Murcia match will be another question, especially considering that we managed to lose to Madrid after an excellent away win against Valencia.

With that sense i will prefer the team start the preparation a little cautious. In the match against Madrid we could not carry the excellent form of the previous match because there were too many changes in the side. In this match also there will be some changes, especially centre forward position. I will come to that a little later. I expect Thuram to be replaced by Milito, apart from that and the Centre Forward position, there should not be anymore changes. Gudjonsen and Xavi looked good in the midfield role and should continue there. Marquez is the only choice available for Defensive Midfielder role. Don't even think of putting Iniesta there, especially in a match against Sevilla. Zamrotta should be the out and out choice for Right Back.

But the most significant of changes will be in the forward lineup. Many says in the forward position Rijkaard is facing a problem of plenty. Is he? I don't think so, that is the reason why I have titled the article as "Sweet Headaches". For the last two to three matches, Henry is our best player along with Marquez. Saturday he was marvelous. Many attribute his sudden change in the form to the prolonged rest he got during the injury. I do believe that rest might have done him a world of good, like in the case of Eto also. But I don't think that is the only factor contributing here. From the last two matches he is playing in a position which he was so used to at Arsenal. In Arsenal he may not have been playing so much to the left, but a little close to the centre. In the initial time in Barcelona, he donned the role of a Centre Forward and literally failed. But when he moved back to his natural position, because of Ronaldinho injury - he started giving the glimpses of old Thierry Henry. So Rijkaard should prefer him to stay at the front left. Now the question is that who will play the Sole Centre forward role. If you look at the option

1) Gudjonsen - He looks settled in the Midfield.

2) Ezquerra - He also prefers either of the flanks.

The only option left here is the two kids - Giovanni and Bojan. Out of these two, Bojan looks like a more natural Centre Forward than Giovanni. Now if you add the two injured players - Messi and Ronnie, none of them can don the role of a natural Centre Forward.

I believe that Rijkaard will move Henry to the centre of the plot. I totally disagree with that, he should move Bojan to the centre and have Iniesta at the right. Many may not agree with the my views, many believe that since Barcelona forward players interchange their position very effectively in the course of a match - they can start at any place. I don't agree with that. They all prefer to start at their favorite places. Maybe and I hope and pray, Henry proves me wrong if he is moved to that position. But I believe like a Centre back, the Centre forward is also a specialist position. Nobody can even think of pulling a defender back to open up space like Eto did in last match. Saviola would have fit to that position - but he is not here.

Now coming to the Sevilla side, watch for that Brazilian duo - Fabiano and Alves. they have hurt Barcelona in the past and could hurt us tomorrow. With the 2-0 loss at Bilbao, their spirits maybe a little low. So take the attack to them early. And like the last match Barcelona should defend up front, the forward line should keep on putting pressure on their defenders.

On the organization front Barcelona is contributing more to the society by means of tying up with United Nations Refugee agency (ACNUR). The formal agreement will be signed on January 22 in Geneva. This is in addition to the agreement with UNICEF. "The two bodies will unite their efforts to help work together with their respective programs and to build common initiatives that try and bring a new quality of life to child refugees. A delegation from the club's Fundaciò, headed by President Joan Laporta, will travel to Geneva to finalise the agreement in the ACNUR headquarters. The former Portuguese Prime Minister, Antonio Gutérres, will receive the delegation as his role as head of the agency." - FCBarcelona site. For the Barcelona fans these are moments of pride and honour. When almost all the clubs are running after money and more advertisement, Barcelona still care to look into the more complex social and economic issues related to the society. The founders of the club will be proud to see that the younger generation still believes in the purpose of this great club. And these measures are truly the one which makes Barcelona - More Than a Club.

Barca Getting Back to Best - Barcelona-4,Murcia-0

Real Murcia has surprised many by being in first half of the table. But their dreams of surprising barcelona was blown away by a resurgent Barcelona side,which looked like their old self in the second half. But still Murcia players walked away with their head head high. Especially in the first half they did make a match to the renowned Barcelona lineup.

As expected there was not much surprise in the Barcelona Lineup.Marquez moved forward to take up the defensive midfielder role. Puyol and Thuram started in the Back along with Zambrotta and sylvinho as full backs. Marquez was parterned in the midfield by Xavi and Gudjonsen. Bojan joined Eto and Henry to form the attacking trio. Both the teams started the match pretty brightly. Barcelona started the attack pretty decently with Eto shooting twice in the spate of two minutes. The second attempt (even though the angle was tight) was kept away by an alert Murcia keeper Notario, who had a wonderful game. Murcia was not the one to be backed down, that too that early in the match. They responded well with Valdes making a wonderful stop of De Lucas attempt. On 13th minute Xavi played a wonderful ball to Henry, which should have resulted in the first goal but only for the linesman to flag a non existent offside. Slowly, Murcia was settling down in the defense and Barcelona found it difficult to penetrate the same. The dead lock was broken in the 27th minute when Marquez sent Zambrotta down the right flank and the Italians wonderful cross was met by an excellent finish by none other than Gudjonsen. The finish may not have looked exquisite but Gudjonsen did really well to control a difficult cross from Zambrotta. Its always good to have a natural Right Back down that side, Rijkaard are you listening? The goal might have settled the nerves in Barcelona side, but there was not clear cut chance until the 42nd minute when an alert Murcia defense blocked out Puyol from getting his second goal of the season off an eto pass.

The second half also started in the same fashion of the first half. But the turning point of the match came at the 50 th minute when Valdes did well on a one on one situation against Baiano, who was played onside by Thuram. If Murcia has equalised that moment, then the fate of the match may be different. Valdes looks to me as one of the best when it comes to one on one situation, its only his positioning sense when the an aerial ball is sent in to the box make him vulnerable. The attempt by Baiano was the wake up call Barcelona players needed and they responded well. In the 51st minute dribbled into the box from the left but to see his his team mates failing to get into the end of a wonderful cross. In the 53rd minute Henry once again dribbled past a defender from the left, this time Bojan received his cross to register his 4th Goal for Barcelona. Eto did well there to pull one defender away by moving into the centre of the box. Withe the two goal advantage Barcelona was in full control of the match. There was a flurry of attempts by Barcelona players on the goal. In the 55 the minute Notario brought an excellent save to deny Xavi. In the 66th minute Eto was denied off an Henry pass, next minute Bojan rounded off defenders after a good run but to see his shot go wide.

Barcelona's persistence was rewarded in the 77th minute when Eto scored off an Henry pass whch was set up by an exquisite pass from sylvinho. In the 85th minute Eto set up zambrotta after an excellent 1-2 with Iniesta only to see Zambrotta being denied by the crossbar. In the 87th minute Eto rounded off the good performance by scoring off an excellent setup by Dos Santos. But the best moment of the match was when the crowd gave a standing ovation to Pedrito, the debutent (who got a chance because Esquerra was sick). His first touch was welcomedby huge roar in the stadium, I just loved it.

The best player for the Murcia side was their Goal Keeper Notario, if it was not for him they would have lost by some more oal. For the Catalan side , Henry was their best player. He looked so confident and he is getting back to his best.

The Goals of the match

Giovanni to ManU? Are You Kidding?

Even if Barcelona is not involved that much in the mid season Transfer market, many of the barcelona players are getting involved. Marc Crosas has just signed a loan deal with Olympique Lyon for the rest of the season. Its rumoured that there is a clause for making this arrangement permanent and that disturbs me. Marc Crosas looked like a solid midfield player and did impress a little. How much playing time he will get in Lyon is also doubtful, I expect them to extend the Loan next year. But it will be disastrous if he signs permanently for Lyon or other club, it sets up a wrong precedence and a wrong notion that the talented players coming out of Barcelona Youth Academy needs to look somewhere for a permanent position.

The most wierd rumours coming out the transfer market is involving Giovani Dos Santos, he is being linked left, right, centre. the latest clubs which are linked to his transfer is Chelsea, Manchester United, Arsenal and Totenham. I don't think he will be leaving Barcelona or that Barcelona will let go of him. Another strong rumour that making the round is Gudjonsen's departure to Everton. This maybe a possibility as we did with Saviola. Gudjonsen is playing well now and should be rewarded with a place in sqaud. But Barcelona may do a Saviola with him also. Another one is Zambotta's departure to Juventus. Even if he makes such a move, it will be based on personal matters.

Barcelona will be looking to find a replacement for Jorquera. The latest player lonked with this option is Porto keeper Nuno.