Is it too early to Dream about Silvervare?

You might ask, why the hell is he writing this. Justified, but I got this doubt when I saw an article in Sport.es discussing the amount to be awarded if they win the triplet. The article narrates about the amount that the club needs to pay their players if they win the triplets. Samuel Eto has already said that he would like to go full throttle for the Triplet this year. Why shouldn't it be the dream as the club hasn't achieved that feat in his whole great history. FC Barcelona are undefeated after the loss against Numancia and is continuing a hot streak of victory run in La Liga. This as usual has prompted FC Barcelona supporters and the Barcelona based media to talk more about the triplet. As a FC Barcelona fan that would be a great moment to cherish; but the doubt on our minds are whether the dream of silvervare a bit premature.

Two season ago we were the winter champions but had a horrible second half and ended losing the League to Madrid. But there was a fundemental difference between that season and this season; this season after a long time the players look motivated and good on the field. A dream of a triplet would be a distant possibility at this time; but not impossible. FC barcelona is preparing for the toughest times with matches against their major title rivals. I have a great belief that we will remain the winter champions this season; but that would not be enough to dream about the triplets. If we are able to continue our unbeaten run to January then I will surely start dreaming about the Triplets. But FC Barcelona's biggest hindrance to that dream could come from injury. Many might argue that we have great depths in our squad. I do agree to that to an extent; but if two of the fabulous four (Xavi, Messi, Eto and Inieasta) gets injured then we really would have a torrid time ahead. But whatever after two trophy-less season; I now believe we could grab one may be three.

Barca vs Recreativo Pictures on 16/11/08

Barca Player Rating against Recreativo on 16/11/08

Valdes - 7 - Had more interventions than he is accustomed to in recent weeks. Organised his back four well especially against free kicks. He should be happy that he once again produced an error free display.

Alves - 7 - Ok, a rating of 7 may be injustice to Alves especially his involvement in the attacks; but he was caught out on counter every time.Marquez and Toure had to produce vital interventions to sniff out any danger. Going forward he is once again a phenomenon. It is still yet to see how he will fare defensively against top opponents.

Pique - 7 - Had a quiet night. Did well to sniff out some danger. But was caught out on multiple occasions. It is difficult to see him holding his place when Milito returns to full fitness.

Marquez - 7.5 - Better of the center defenders. Did well while going forward also. Covered Alves many times.

Puyol - 7.5 - Another Captains performance.Covered his centre defenders many times. May not look convincing as a left back but is better than Sylvinho in that position.

Xavi - 6.5 - Was not involved for most of the game. Came to life in the second half.

Toure - 7 - Great performance but was shaky at times. Gave away balls from crucial position but backtracked get most of them back.

Busquets - 6.5 - It is tough for him to be slotted as a attack mided midfielder. he is more comfortable in the DM role. Still linked well with the attcking players but needed more creaticity for the role he occupied especially with Xavi Off-Colour in the first half.

Messi - 8.5 - Sensational is the only word comes to the mind. He alone organised the attack at times. Was very effective and capped a brilliant performance with a great goal.

Eto - 7 - Hard working day for the Cameroonian. But was shaky in front of goal at times. Back tracked to help the defense.

Henry - 7 - Usual Henry display for Barca. Hard working, Determined but lacking flair. Missed some good oppurtunities, produced a brilliant cross which resulted in the keita goal. Henry needs to improve a lot, he is not hurting the team but he needs to take mantle against team with compact defense. Remember that was what he was bought for. There are already cries of removing henry from the eleven; I would say he is much better than last season and is enjoying his game. We have to admit he will not reach his Arsenal day's form but I think he still can improve this season.

Substitutes:

Sylvinho (6), Keita (7) and Bojan (5)

Man of The Match - Lionel Messi

Barca Extend Lead on Top; Recreativo-0, Barca-2

FC Barcelona beat Recreativo Heaulva courtesy of two second half goals from Lionnel Messi and Keita. Everyone expected FC Barcelona to ram through the Recreativo defense, but that wasn't the case to be. It took an exceptional strategy employed by the FC Barcelona players to break through the determined Recreativo defense. Doubts were raised about Barca ability to tame determined and packed defenses; the performance against Recreativo would reduce all those complaints. Lionel Messi scored from a great free kick and Seydou Keita scored in the dying moments to capture vital three points. In a weekend where all of the title contenders went off-colour Barca did well and now have a three point lead opened at the top. With Villareal drawing early on the day and Valencia and Real Madrid losing yesterday FC Barcelona was expected to increase their lead and they exactly did that. Guardiola lined up the strongest eleven available to him in the match. The defenese was formed by the combination of Alves, Marquez, Pique and Puyol playing as left back. In the midfield Busquests joined hands with Toure and Xavi. The front three remained unchanged with the mercurial Messi on the right, Eto on the centre and Henry on the left. With Xavi having being off-colour for the majority of the game; Guardiola choice of Toure and Busquests in the middle made it difficult to generate an attacking move from the middle. All the attack started and was organised by Lionel Messi. I have earlier written about the problem with having Toure and Busquests in the starting eleven. Both of them play similiar kind of role - the defensive midfielder and Guardiola should stop employing them together. With Keita only returning from injury it is understandable to have them together in this match but in the future I expect the midfield would be a choice between Busquests or Toure and Guidjonsen or Keita. This is all till Iniesta returns.

FC Barcelona struggled to find a way past the Recreativo defense early in the first half and on many occasion they were caught out on the counter. It was Recreativo who had the first shot on target with a free kick staright at Valdes in the 8th minute. In the 14th minute Barca was caught out on the counter with a great move which involved multiple Recreativo players but luckily that move only resulted in a corner. In the 20th minute Messi had the first Barca shot on target when he thundered a shot from outside the box straight at Goal Keeper Riesgo. In the 22nd minute Toure found Messi with a great pass in the box but the Recreativo goal keeper produced another brilliant save to deny Messi. In the 23rd minute Eto was denied by great defending by Bouzon after a great interchange between Messi. In the 27th minute Busquets saw his volley go high; the move started with Alves sending a great cross from the right side, Henry put that in Busquets path with a neatly cushioned header. In the 28th minute Eto shows great skill to get past defenders in the box but his shot was agains saved by Riesgo. The compact defense made Eto changing his position constantly from right to left and then center. On the other end Recreativo Player Sisi was diving all over the place getting alves booked in the process. In the 36th minute FC Barcelona was awarded their first corner and we almost conceded goal from that; it was a poorly taken corner which reached Toure at the middle of the pitch; Toure gave away the ball creating real panic but luckily the Recreativo players could not capitalise on that. In the 37th minute Messi produced his trademark run skipping past defenders and laying the ball to Henry but henry shot straight at the keeper. The first half finished with not much fanfare.

In the second half it was clear that it would take a moment of brilliance to break the Recreativo defense. In the 51st minute Barca was awarded a free kick for a foul on Eto on the right side five yards outside the box. Alves and Xavi both lined up to take the free kick; Alves's theatrics made everyone believe including the camera man that he is going to take the free kick; but instead Xavi laid the ball to Messi who by then have moved to the right behind the wall; that move put Messi one on One with Riesgo; Messi thundered a shot from the tightest of angles into the top left corner of the goal to break Recreativo defense. It is not still clear whether they used to practice something like this in the training or the players came with this tactic at that moment. Either way it was sheer brilliance. Recreativo immediately made double substitution and was rewarded with a double chance in the 62nd minute. First a great move was somehow deflected away from the post; but from the resulting corner Javier Camunas produced a great header which was denied by the bar. In the 64th minute Xavi produced a brilliant pass to Eto who was closed down by the brilliant Bouzon. In the 65th minute Eto saw another of his effort saved by Riesgo after a neat exchange between Busquets. In the 70th minute Sylvinho was brought in place of Puyol. In the 75th minute Eto shot wide after a great run by Xavi. In the 79th minute Guardiola took off Toure and brought Keita in. In the 86th minute Keita scores to make sure that FC Barcelona would lead the table by three points. Henry produced a great cross to Eto whose volley was off target but fell straight to keita who had only the job to tap it into the goal. Guardiola took off Eto and brought in Bojan. In the 2nd minute of injury time Marquez was denied by the post when his header from an Alves free kick beaten the Goal Keeper.

It was necessary for Fc Barcelona to open up some good gap between themselves and others to the build up of the toughest weeks. Now we have to face Getafe next and then Valencia the week after. The players will be leaving for International duties and hope they all return back without getting injured.

Recreativo vs FC Barcelona Preview

As a contrast to his recent ways Pep Guardiola has decided to announce his squad for the match against Recreativo De Huelva in Nuevo Colombino stadium. After the uninspiring win against Benidorm Pep has announced the strongest side available for the visit to Recreativo. Recreativo lies in the relegation zone as of now and could be hard done by this visit of Barca. But the teams which made us struggle this season are Numancia, Benidorm, FC Basel etc. A combination of team selection and complacency are to be blamed for the recent uninspiring results against FC Basel and Benidorm. I now believe that we need three out of our fantastic four (Xavi, Messi, Iniesta and Eto) to make the greatest of impressions against opponents. The squad announced for tonight's match is Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Sylvinho, Cáceres, Puyol, Márquez, Piqué, Sergio B., Touré Yaya, Keita, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Hleb, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan and Henry.

Pep Guardiola is not expected to experiment with his side for today's match. This has been already a tricky week for the big clubs in the La Liga. Real Madrid lose to Valladoid and Valencia's catapulation at the hands of Gijon means that we have a clear cut chance to increase the lead on the top of table. Villareal is yet to play but a clear cut lead from Valencia and Madrid would ease out all the tension when we get ready to face them pretty soon. Puyol, Marquez, Pique and Alves is expected to form the defense ahead of Valdes. Xavi, Toure and Gudjonsen should form the midfield troika. Messi, Eto and Henry would be the attacking force ahead of the pitch. Puyol playing the left-back role should be a blessing in disguise for Guardiola in the future. When Milito returns he could form the centre defense partnership of Marquez and Milito in the middle. Last season Marquez and Milito showed good understanding of each other; but Milito when partnered with Puyol was a disaster. Whatever those are things for the future; I expect FC Barcelona to produce another sincillating performance and prerdict a score line of 2-6.

Arshavin and Xavi are the talk of the Moment

Andrei Arshavin rumour does not look like going to die out soon. Actually Sport.es is keeping it on the frontpage with their daily articles of a possible Arshavin move. Guardiola has been very careful in answering questions about the russian; when asked about his interest he answered with a broad minded phrase saying that "Arshavin is a good player". I have already written about teh Arshavin factor in Barcaelona - Have a look here - Arshavin and FC Barcelona. Will a move be materialising? onli time can tell. Actually with Robben and Van Nistelrooy both injured I believe Real Madrid might go hard for the player. But then with Henry and Hleb in the kitty we may not miss Arshavin that much.

From yesterday there is another transfer rumour that is being linked to FC barcelona. Only this time it is a Barca player who is involved in these rumours - Xavi Hernandes. Manchester United Supremo, Sir Alex Ferguson is reportedly looking to avail Xavi's service to strengthen his midfield. He is looking him as a possible replacement to the always injured Owen Heagraves. Alex Ferguson is looking to benefit on the apparent non-agreement between the player and FC Barcelona over a new deal. FC Barcelona has tabled a deal of about 7 million Euros plus addons for Xavi contract extension; but it looks like Xavi is not ready to settle for anything less than 9 million Euros. Xavi, the most valued player of Euro Championship is rightly deserving a salary in consistent with the best in the football. With ManU jumping into the fray; there are three clubs who openly looking to sign the player - Liverpool and Inter Milan. But everyone of the FC Barcelona fans knows that Xavi will not be leaving; this all rumours will help him in getting the package he has asked for from the club. In Barcelona it is pretty simple; if there is a President existing who will let go off any one of Messi, Xavi or Iniesta he might have to look for a better job from the next day.

Here Comes Arshavin Again

Andrei Arshavin, the russian play maker has been again linked with a possible move to FC Barcelona when the winter transfer window opens. This does not come as a surprise as I mentioned in my earlier post Arshavin Desperate to be at Barca that Sport.es is trying to get their favourite Russian in the club. Arshavin some days earlier gave an interview in which he made it clear that he doesn't want to be a Zenit player in the new year. During the summer many clubs were interested in the Russian star but a move was made impossible by the price tag Zenit atatched to their star player. But now since Zenit sees a possibility of Arshavin moving out for free in the summer, they have agreed to negotiate with club who are interested. It is yet to see where he moves to; but he has clearly stated that given an option he will chose FC Barcelona. Arshavin has been a Barca fan from the times of Romario and want to spend some time in the club.

Not surprisingly it was Real Madrid who seems to have shown the initial interest to sign him in January. Real Madrid is missing their mercurial star Robben and Van Nistel Rooy through injury and would like to have Arshavin as a back up for them. It is not yet clear whether Totenham or Arsenal will re-kindle their interest in him this winter. Arsenal for me would merit heavily from his purchase but the fact that he cannot be used in Champions League would make Wenger think twice. Now with Sport.es reporting a possible chance of Barca approaching Zeni for Arshavin; this could be a tough fight for the ultimate winner. Arshavin could be played on the left side of thepitch where we are certain to miss Iniesta for some time. Henry and Hleb has not made that position their own. But will Guardiola unsettle the squad in between a very good campaign is yet to see. If Arshavin moves in to Barca, there could be a high chance of Henry leaving to Manchester City.