Gearing Up for A Tough Task

El Madrigal stadium does not bring happy memories to many teams, especially Barcelona who failed to win there the last two times. The funniest fact is that Frank Rijkaard has never won there, the only time Barcelona has won there after he became the coach - Hen Cate was in charge. Villarreal is the most improved side in La Liga this season. Last season they were not at their best, but the last week 3-0 thrashing of Valencia should put them in the right set of mind (May be there is a curse associated with Valencia - Any team thrashes them will lose the subsequent game(remember El-Classico), I hope ;-) ).

As Rijkaard said in the pre match press conference "They are a team that can wait for to play in their half before launching counter-attacks or can come out and attack you from the first minute". They will be very tough opponent to deal with especially at home. As Lionel Messi said "We have to keep the return leg in mind when we play”. This Leg also has to be planned well like the Sevilla one. Barcelona definitely has an advantage with playing the return leg at home. Why not to use that advantage to full benefit? A 0-0, 1-1 or at worst 1-0 result will not do any harm to Barcelona's effort to make it to the semifinals.

The starting line up should give Barcelona a definite head ache. Deco should definitely be a no-no in the starting eleven. Marquez or Edmilson (I prefer Marquez as Edmilson returned just from injury) has to return back as DM as they will be much better equipped to deal with Villarreal than Iniesta in that position. Xavi is expected to make the lineup, but will there be place for Iniesta will be a question. I expect Iniesta to join the midfield as he gives a much better attacking option there. I would prefer Henry to start in the left with Bojan in the centre and Messi at far right. If Henry starts in centre then we can have Iniesta taking up that left position and Gudjonsen making up the midfield trio. Another big question is about who will start at the Goal- my preference will be Valdes as El Madrigal will be a very tricky place to give a new Goal keeper his debut.

There were some noises made about Giovanni’s attitude in the last match (mostly toward end which ended in some audience booing him) - get over it guys. He is just a kid, he needs to be protected and encouraged. It was wrong to start with two of the youngsters in the lineup, we cannot expect them to provide the attacking stint when the more known seniors were failing, at least this early in their career.

European Clubs Association - Killing National Football

UEFA on 21st January 2008 announced the creation of the European Club Association (ECA), a move it said would be the start of a new era of the game. "The creation of the ECA paves the way for harmony to return to football between the governing bodies and the clubs," said UEFA, the governing body of European football.

What is the sole aim of creating the European Club Association - Increase the buying power of Clubs when dealing with FIFA. And in the initial rounds the dominating clubs have won the round against FIFA. UEFA looks like very cleverly sided with ECA to isolate FIFA in the whole process. ECA has made some agreements with FIFA and UEFA about international matches. The first is the agreement with UEFA which involves the distribution of an amount from UEFA European Championship to these clubs. The amount will be approximately 4000 euros per day per player basis. Actually there was a big fight between clubs and FIFA in dealing with players getting injured in international duties earlier. Now this clause resolves that, as the clubs will be compensated for that through this method. This makes sure that the big clubs make huge amount of money whereas the smaller clubs make nothing. The irony will be that this clause will negate the effect of the smaller clubs in the development of these stars. For example, lets take the case of Wayne Rooney - he spent his youth years at Everton, indeed Everton invested on him when he was nothing. Now he may be a property of Manchester United, but nobody can deny Everton's share in creating such a player. From a National Association point of view it is these comparatively smaller clubs which unearths talents for the big guns to exploit. So from a National Association point of view it is these clubs that needed to be rewarded more than the greedy bigger ones.

The second agreement is the most disturbing - National teams will be allowed to call up each player for no more than one friendly outside Europe. Here I believe that UEFA sided with ECA to isolate the other continent's National association. Obviously most of the friendlies involving UEFA countries will be in Europe and therefore they will not be least bothered. Nic from FCBNews.com says : this will benefit players like Ronaldinho and Messi who are sometimes made to travel across the Atlantic or further to play in meaningless friendly games. First of all these friendlies are not some meaningless games. These are the best way the coach can find the best starting eleven who gels well. If Thierry Henry can take this much time to settle in Barcelona line up, think about the hardships of National team coaches who has to find the ideal line up through this so called meaning less friendlies. Now you are taking those friendlies away from them, What they are now supposed to do? I see this as the clubs attempt to kill the big events of national importance like the World Cups and Euros. A team which cannot gel well will not play good football, and incidentally more viewers will prefer to watch club football than National teams’ performance.

The third decision is to change the days in which International matches are played, I have no objection to it. But the fourth is reducing the size of qualifying groups for European championship. This will limit the chances for the smaller national association to match with the big guns. Everybody is complaining that there is too much International football - but the fact is that there is too much club football.

I would love to see national associations taking some bold steps. If a player is reluctant to represent National side, let him go. Hundreds have come before him and hundreds will come after him. For instance, Argentinean football has survived long before Messi came and will survive after him. It should be who decides whether he wants to be a part of it.

A Boring Win ; Barca-1, Racing-0

Barcelona went in to this match trailing the league leaders by a massive ten points. They were looking forward to cut down the lead back to seven points and suceeded in just doing that. The manner in which Barcelona may raise some criticsm neverthless it was a massive three points, as it helps them to stay in hunt for the League title. For the first time Barcelona started with the two new kids - Bojan and Giovanni upfront, Iniesta was given the role of defensive Midfielder (may be inorder to give Marquez some rest ahead of Villareal match). But Iniesta staying in a defensive position cuts down Barcelona's attacking instinct a lot. Deco started the lineup ahead of Xavi and should be awarded by the Worst player on the pitch title.

Both the teams started the game very quietly, Racing looked like more settled in the early exchange, Barcelona was ver nervous with their passing. Racing came to camp Nou with the idea of keeping barcelona quiet for the first hour and hurt them when they are desperate for a goal. The first move of the game came in the 7th minute which ended with Henry caught offside. In the 15th minute Bojan had a more of hopeful shot for the Goal Keeper to perform a regulation catch. Next was Henry who shot awfully high from a decent pass in the 16th Minute. By that time Henry had switched to left where he looks more comfortable. In the 19th minute after a very good build up Giovanni shot hit the defender. In between Racing looked to attack on the counter but was reduced to some awful long range shot. The real chance came in the 24th minute when Bojan heads the ball wide from sylvinho free kick, can't blame him as it was due to lack of experience. He tried to put a lot of weight on the ball, but it would have been better he dircted the ball with a deft touch. By that time Deco was showing everyone that how terrible he can become. His passing was appaling, we can count the occasions when Deco's pass found the intended target. In the 31st minute Henry ends his two months La Liga Goal drought when he easily tapped the ball in to the net, after Racing failed to clear Iniesta corner. By the end of first half minute, the crowd was desperately trying to inspire their heroes on the fiel, but for no avail.

If somebody hoped the second half would be better, then they were mistaken. The crowd got frustrated such that there were huge cheers when Messi was asked to start up. By that time Barcelona defense looked so disorganised, for that much time they allowed the Racing side to dominate. That resulted in Valdes producing a spectacular shot in the 57th minute, valdes was so upset that he was literally shouting at his defense. By hour mark the crowd had enough, chants of messi were resonating all over the stadium and in the 66 minute there wish was granted. Immedietly he wins a free kick in an interesting position after a wonderful 1-2 with Iniesta, but only for Deco to waste it. Messi looked a little rusty, but can understand that after a long lay off. But he had the desire to get a goal. In the 84th minute he combined well with Bojan but couldn't reach the final ball.

If it was not for the ill equiped and unambitious Racing side, Valdes would have been in some more trouble in the later stages. Deco was the worst player on the field. Henry who did not had a good game proved it again that he is comfortable on the left than centre. There is no purpose in having the two kids in the starting linup, either one of them start. It like putting a lot of pressure on them, they need to be protected and comforted. Anyway a three point is the most important thing now.

Thiery Henry Goal