Atletico Madrid vs Barca Copa Del Rey Preview

FC Barcelona's quest for Copa Del Rey restarts today with a tough away game against Athletico Madrid. This is one competition which Barca failed to master in recent years. Pep Guardiola would want to correct that this time around. The last time when this two team met, Barca thrashed Atletico Madrid at Camp Nou with a scoreline which read 6-1. This time around it could be a different story. First of all Athletico Madrid is not an easy place to travel; secondly Guardiola has decided to rest four of his main players. The players who won't be travelling are Gudjohnsen, Xavi, Valdes and Eto. Puyol, Marquez and Hleb are all carrying knocks and hence are rested as a precaution. The squad selected for the match is Pinto, Jorquera, Alves, Piqué, Caceres, Abidal, Sylvinho, Victor Sanchez, Toure, Busquets, Keita, Iniesta, Messi, Pedro, Bojan, Henry. Athletico Madrid's defense are pretty vulnerable but they have a very potent attack and it could be a real test for FC Barcelona defense who would be without the service of Puyol and Marquez.

Jorquerra would be picked ahead of Pinto in this match, eventhough he had a pathetic outing in the last Copa Del Rey match. He should be trying to redeem himself but then Athletico Madrid is not the place or the team where you try to pick your form back. He is destined to have a torrid time. Abidal and Alves would be the two full backs and would be called upon many times to help out the defense. Toure, Keita and Busquets may form the midfield. Iniesta is most likely to occupy the front left, with Henry moving into center and Messi on the right. With such an inexperienced Central Defense Guardiola may prefer a more defensive oriented midfield. There could be another possibility of Iniest moving into the midfield with Bojan spear heading the front three. The key to today's game would be to come out unhurt. FC Barcelona is bound to get goals especially considering the fragile Atletico defense but we are also in danger as our central defenders are more error-prone. My prediction would be FC Barcelona winning by a scoreline of 1-2.

SoccerPro - The Best Place to Buy Barca Merchandise

There are hundreds of online sports merchandice shop, but Soccerpro has slowly carved out an individual identity. SoccerPro.com first opened its retail store in early 2004 and launched SoccerPro.com in July. Its owners, Curtis Stelzer and Tony Marrero, both saw a chance to support the development of soccer by creating a fun soccer environment for its customers, employees and anyone and everyone who loves the game of soccer. Almost four year since their launch, it is good to see that they still retain their spirit of Soccer. WE have seen many start-ups making similiar claim earlier, but SoccerPro tends to be different. They have recently started a Soccer Charity named SoccerGrow in June 2008. "SoccerGrow aims to create and maintain a network of partnerships with charities, not-for-profit organizations and individuals through which SoccerPro can donate soccer equipment and money to those who cannot afford it." If you check SoccerGrow.org site you will find that SoccerPro has agreed to match every donation made to Kicks4Kenya. To many this might seem strange; but not to a Barca fan. FC Barcelona believes in the principle of bringing happiness to the less fortunate's life and have to agree that SoccerPro also is doing their best.

I recently received FC Barcelona Line-up Jacket from SoccerPro. SoccerPro provides a decent enough discount on almost all the products purchased from their store. The product was shipped in time but it took some time to reach. But none of that is SoccerPro's problem as the Inidan Post office have to be blamed. Best thing about SoccerPro is that they will ship items to literally everywhere in the world. There is no need to discuss of the quality of the product as it is a Genuine Nike Jersey of top quality. You can find almost all of Europe's top clubs licenced merchandise in their store. The drawback I saw as far as a La Liga fan is that, they only have Real Madrid and FC Barcelona Jerseys available with them. The fans of teams like Valencia, Sevilla, Villareal etc may be a tad dissappointed. Hope they will add more team merchandise very soon. They have some speciality sections in the store like soccer watches, soccer referee apparels, Posters, videos and Magazines. But the best two are the option to Shop By Colour - they have specialised sections for colours like pink, orange, green etc; isn't that a great idea? But the best feature about SoccerPro is the Soccer Gift Ideas. How many times you have been in the embarassing situation of buying gifts for friend which won't fit; Those are things of past as with Soccer Gift Cards you can leave the tension of selecting the product to your loved ones. Overall I was pretty satisfied with their service and I hope they remain true to their ideology.

FC Barcelona vs Mallorca Pictures 03/01/09