Deportivo -1, Barca - 3

FC Barcelona retained their lead at top of five points with a 3-1 comfortable victory against Deportivo at the Riazor. Messi gave Barca a deserving lead in the 27th minute but Deportivo equalised in the 39th minute. Secons half goals from Messi and Ibrahmovic then gave Barca a truly deserving victory. This was Messi's first match after winning the Balon d'Or and he gave a performance intune with the award. He easily could have got a hat-trick last night but was let down by his own finishing. Guardiola's choice of defensive midfielder might have sent enough message for Yaya Toure about his future. Busquets was preferred in place of Toure and he played his part well in Deportivo goal. Meanwhile Barca had their strongest possible line-up except for Toure. Alves, Pique, Puyol and Abidal lined up in defense infront of Valdes. Iniesta and Xavi formed the midfield along with Busquets. Henry, Ibrahmovic and Messi formed the attacking trio.

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Vote For UEFA Team Of The Year

UEFA has started the process of selecting UEFA Team of the Year on their website. You can pick your best Eleven ast UEFA Team of the Year. Eleven Barca players have been nominated for this year's award. Manchester United has six players in the list. The Barca players on the list are Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Txigrinski, Abidal, Touré, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and Ibrahimovic. Meanwhile ex-barca player Samuel Eto'o has also made into nomination list. I am not so happy with the way the formation has been selected. UEFA has gone for a traditional 4-4-2 formation while selecting the eleven. But what makes me angry is that there is no defensive midfielder position, a role which has become the most important one in modern day football. They have the central midfield, attacking midfield, right midfield and the left midfield position. The central midfield role should have been the defensive midfielder. Right now we have Xavi and Yaya Toure together in the central midfield role; it is clear that Yaya after having a great lst season, will not get any vote because he is paired with Xavi. Chelsea's Michael Essien mysteriously finds no place in the nomination list. My selection is on the picture have a look.

FIFA World Cup 2010 Groups are out

Last night the drawing of groups for FIFA World Cup 2010 was completed in Cape Town. Next year's World cup will feature two group of deaths - Group D and Group G. Out of both Group G looks terrible with Brazil, Ivory Coast, Portugal and North Korea. Argentina and Spain looks to have drawn into very easy group, but Spain has trouble in their hands with a possible meeting with either Ivory Coast or Portugal in the knockout stage, maybe even Brazil. Ivory Costa feature in the group of death in the 2006 edition and will consider themselves extremely unlucky featuring once again in the Death Group. France which was featured in pot 4 got into a very goood group. The Groups are



Group A
South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France

Group B
Argentina
Nigeria
South Korea
Greece

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Deportivo vs Barca Preview

FC Barcelona will be looking to preserve their five point advantage against Real Madrid by the end of this week. Even though Real has a match on hand the five point lead could assert enormous pressure on them. Gerrard Pique and Busquets has been included in the squad after their last match absence. Guardiola has selected a 18 men squad for the trip to Deportivo - Valdés, Pinto, Henry, Xavi, Piqué, Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Puyol, Pedro, Ibrahimovic, Bojan, Maxwell, Messi, Chygryskiy Alves, Abidal, Keita, Touré. Deportivo is lying in fifth place in the league table. they have the same point as fouth placed Valencia. Deportivo always have been a tough ground for us to travel. Eventhough this Deportivo side may not be dangerous as the likes which terrorised side in late nineties. But our away form has been far from perfect. Actually we have struggle in almost every one of our away match so far this season. This combined with the fact that our traditional record against Deportivo is not that great, makes this tie a very interesting one.

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Will Bojan and Toure Move out of Barca?

Bojan and Toure are two contarsting case. One is eager to prove his talent but has no oppurtunity and the other one has showed the world his worth but still won't get a decent playing time. It wasn't a secret that Guardiola never preferred Yaya Toure as the defensive midielder in his setup. The initial comments from Guardiola gave the impression that he was too happy to see the back of the most consistent player for Barca in those two pathetic years. The initial treatment also pointed a same approach but Yaya fought back into the team and was one of the major reason we had a great last season. During the summer there were all kind of rumours that Mascherano would be preffered to Toure but somehow in the end we managed to give him a proper contract. But now it looks like the presenting of contract was to ensure that the player don't leave cheap rather to ensure the player remain in the team. He is not getting any quality playing time and performnace against Xerex has been pointed out by some as a reason he should not. As far as I am concerned he along with Essien are the best defensive midfielders in the world. And not giving one of the best enough playing time is a crime. Some of Barca fans points out the fact that he will be out for one month during African Nations cup as a reason Busquets is preffered to him. That's quite strange - if there was a Copa America going on, would you have preffered somebody else to Messi and Alves?

Will Bojan and Toure Stay at Barca Next Season?

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