Messi and Higuain Lights up World Cup

After a dull first phase of World cup, the tournament has come to life with some splendid goal scoring in the second phase of group clashes. As more and more teams are forced to drop their defensive attitude, more goals should follow. There have been four second phase matches so far and those have already produced 11 goals. Argentina were rather wasteful in their first match against Nigeria. But against South Korea they took their chances and brought out the performance of the tournament so far. Lionel Messi would consider himself unlucky for not scoring goals in these two matches, but boy oh boy, he was involved in everything. Argentina won't mind him not scoring goals as far as he creates these many for his team mates. I have earlier written in my Argentina world cup preview, that it is essential for Maradona to play three of his best players upfront and also the necessity to play Messi behind the other two. It looks like he has done all those, but the selection of Guiterrez as right back could come to haunt him.

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Barça Atlètic 1-0 Sant Andreu

A 89th minute penalty taken by Jonathan Soriano gave Barca Atletic a valuable 1-0 win against local rivals Saint Andreu. Barca Atletic struggled to break a very compact Sant Andreu side and the penalty which could prove to be the difference was a controversial one. The next leg takes place next weekend. Chances were at premium in a tough match and Thiago, Muniesa and Nolito failed to take their chance. With a 1-0 advantage, Barca is in prime position to earn the promotion. Barca Atletic starting eleven : Oier Olazábal, Ilie Sánchez, Sergi Gómez, Marc Bartra, Víctor Espasandín, Oriol Romeu, Sergi Roberto, Thiago Alcántara, Víctor Vázquez, Nolito and Jonathan Soriano.

Sandro Rosell, The New Barca President

Rosell's election could see Barca moving away from it's traditional Liberal idealogies

Sandro Rosell, has been elected as the new FC Barcelona president bagging a whooping 61.35% votes in the election held on Sunday. Of the 57,088 votes polled, Rosell won 35,021. Benedito emerged second in the poll winning 8044 votes whereas Ingla and Ferrer won 7014 and 6168 votes respectively. The resounding majority has to be seen as an approval of Sandro Rosell's right-wing Catalan policies by the socios of the club. After the announcement of the winner, Rosell stated "I want a Barça that is Catalan, Catalanista and open to all supporters outside of Catalunya, I want a Barça that will recapture the world's imagination and one that unifies and does not separate while being committed to the country and to the causes of solidarity."

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Fans In India to Miss La Liga 2010-11 Season

La Liga fans in Indian sub continent will be once again deprived of the opportunity to catch 2010-11 season Live on television. ESPN-STAR has confirmed to me that they will not be telecasting the 2010-11 season, due to terms that were not acceptable to both parties. This happened last season also. Real Madrid's big spending saw the broadcaster asking ESPN to pay more which they were obviously not ready to do. La Liga telecast usually happens after mid-night in India and due to that ESPN-STAR is reluctant to pay more(due to lack of advertising, maybe). Last year when ESPN-Star announced their decision, we all hoped Ten Sports could do something. Even though they gave some hope, but nothing happened in the end. So this season also don't expect TEN Sports to come and save you as none of them are interested. The only hope is to stream via internet, like we all did last season. You can watch matches online at MyP2P.

Mr. Rosell, what about "Més que un club"

FC Barcelona has always remained as a something more than a mere football club as beautifully described by the club's motto "Més que un club". It was president Narcís de Carreras, in his presidential acceptance speech in January 1968 who was the first person to use these words to describe the social importance of FC Barcelona in Catalonia. FC Barcelona represented much more than just Catalonia and many progressive Spaniards saw the club as a staunch defender of rights and freedoms. Hence every President who represent the club at the highest level has to live up to the expectation laid by the essence of the motto.

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