International Results

The first leg of the world cup qualifiers are over. Here are some results in which Barcelona players were involved. The first and the most important has to be Argentina - Paraguay clash. Paraguay were the leaders in the South American qualifying group. Argentina despite their star power and majority of attack could only drew up with Paraguay. Paraguay went ahead with a Heinze bizarre own goal , while Messi who had a better second half set up Ken to score Argentina's equaliser. Undoubtedly Mascherano was the best player on the ground in that tie in which Manchester United forward Tevez saw red card for a twoo footed challenge. Argentina have so much to worry from that tie apart from the result as their Goal Keeper Roberto ABBONDANZIERI was taken out injured. But whatever there are signs of a new star being born - Angel Di Maria.

Martin Caceres was in the substitute bench for Uruguay's match against Colombia. He never got a chance to play as Uruguay saw off the Colombian challenge with a goal from Sebastian Eguren. Another new signing Keita didn't had a great night as their team went down to Congo from a Wilfrid Endzanga goal. Mali with a star cast of Keita, Diarra and Sissoko was expected to beat Congo. Mali still leads the group with 9 points but if Chad is able to beat Sudan then things will become extremely exciting. Ivory Coast was held onto a draw by Mozambique. Kone scored for Ivory Coast in the 48th minute, Miro equalised for Mozambique within four minutes. Ivory Coast lies in the top so could consider it as a good result. Else where Cameroon minus Eto defeated Cape Verde Islands after coming back from a goal down to score a 2-1 victory. Cameroon already has qualified for the next stage.

In Europe there were some surprises; the biggest of all was the French sides defeat to Austria. Austria demolished France with a 3-1 victory thanks to a Mexes own goal and another two fromAufHauser and Ivanschitz(pen). France may still make it through as it lies in a pretty easy group. But performances of this nature will not help them. Mean while, David Villa saved Spain's face with a 57th minute goal. The European Champions had four Barcelona players - Xavi, Puyol and Iniesta in the eleven and Bojan on the substitute bench. Bojan have to still wait to make his much awaited playing debut. Eidur Gudjonsen scored against Noway in a 2-2 draw. Belarus was beaten by Ukraine with a injury time penalty from Schevchenko. Aleksander Hleb started in the playing eleven.

Million Dollar Clubs

After the acquisition by Abu Dhabi United Group, Manchester City joins the latest to enter the club of rich owners (let's call them the Million Dollar Clubs). The group not only includes the clubs which started or looking to achieve greatness after their high profile takeover (Manchester city, Chelsea etc) but also the ones which have been more successful in terms of championship (Madrid, Barcelona, Milan, ManU etc). The supporters of these historical clubs are bound to oppose these takeovers questioning their morality. But more than the moral side; the actions of these big historical clubs are the one which makes these acquisition legitimate. They/their fans never had any problems in going in for any players in any part of the world but suddenly their moral sense rises when one of the newly rich clubs takes the same path. It is same as United States and United Kingdom asking Russia to respect Sovereign Borders of respective countries.

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International Call Ups

Sport.es reports that Guardiola gave the players a piece of his mind after their dissappointing performance at Numancia.Guardiola is reported to have understood from early on that the players were not performing according to the plan. he was mostly worried about Messi who drifted to the centre to anchor the attck. Now this surprises me as Messi was forced to shift his position after he was losing all the one on one with Numancia defenders from the right. Guardiola was also critical particularly about Iniesta, who according to him completely lost his positioning sense and Alves who didn't come forward enough. Its good to hear that Guardiola is taking these seriously and trying to solve the problem as early as possible. But he needs to add a bit more versatility as I mentioned in my last post The way Forward.

But sadly for Guardiola he only have a limited number of his players to work with now - Valdes, Pinto, Alves, Víctor Sanchez, Sylvinho and Eto'o. Messi has already joined the Argentinian squad; Xavi, Iniesta, Puyol and Bojan were called up for Spain; Henry and Abidal for Spain; Hleb, Gudjonsen, Caceres, Keita, Toure all are been called up for their respective teams. The pleasant fact is that mostly Bojan would make his debut for Spain this time around. Seeing the way Ronaldinho performed in the last match for Milan; let's hope all these players get enough motivation to play well for their country and club.