David Villa Brace Keeps Spain Alive

A splendid David Villa brace kept Spanish hopes alive in this World Cup. The performance was far better than in the defeat against Switzerland, but it cannot be denied that Spain was rather wasteful infront of the goal. David Villa who could have easily had his hat-trick, missed a penalty and another open chance. While his striking partner Torres, was rather wasteful wasting around four open chances. Now Spain need a victory against Chile to go through to the next round but that is not going to be easy. Iniesta started from the bench in this match whereas Jesu Navas got a rare start on the right. I have to admiot that I am far from impressed by Navas, as he looks a very one-dimensional player and the crosses were all poor. Hope Iniesta is called back for the Chile match.

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Barça Atlètic Secures Promotion

What a historic day for Barca fans, Barca Atletic has secured the promotion to Segunda División after a goalless draw against Sant Andreu. Barca B has earlier won the first leg by a solitary, somewhat controversial goal. Barca Atletic has joined Granada, Ponferradina and Alcorcón earning the honour to play in the Segunda División. The entire list of teams who will be participating in Segunda Division next season are Albacete, Alcorcón, Barcelona Atlètic, Betis, Cartagena, Celta de Vigo, Córdoba, Elche, Gimnàstic de Tarragona, Girona, Granada, Huesca, Las Palmas, Numancia, Ponferradina, Rayo Vallecano, Recreativo, Salamanca, Tenerife, Valladolid, Villarreal B and Xerez. That's hell of a list and to remain there itself will be a hard job for Luis Enrique's boys. The team has come a long way in last two season. Josep Guardiola took over the reigns of Barca B who were in Tercera División at that time and got them promoted to the Segunda División B. Luis Enrique continued the good work and within two seasons got the team promoted to the second level of Spanish Soccer League. To the benefit of teh readers let me remid that Barcelona Atletic will not be eleigible for a promotion to La Liga as the Parent team is playing there.

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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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