Gossip on the Guys: Samu's New Jewelry Line

Samuel Eto'o was in Basel, Switzerland two days ago, where he launched his new line of men's jewelry. He's calling it "Eto'o World", and while it centers mainy around watches such as the one Samu's wearing here, it also includes other types of jewelry. The affair was quite a success, and poor Samu was kept busy signing autographs for quite a while before returning to Barcelona the following day to commence training for this weekend's Liga match.

We don't care much for men's jewelry (unless we're analyzing Vic's varying earrings) and especially not watches, but it's nice to see Samu expressing some of his personal style in this way. And we're sure the rest of the team will come to appreciate his treasures once he gives them all signature watches for Christmas.

Gossip on the Guys: Leo's Getting Married

More light has been shed on the topic of Leo Messi's girfriend, and the latest is that the two will be married.

Seem sudden? Yes, reports were that they'd met only last Christmas when Leo was home in Rosario for the holidays, but as it seems, this relationship has been a secret for quite a while. The two have been a couple for about a year now, and have known each other since childhood even before.
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Sources reveal that her full name is Antonella Roccuzzo, and that she is 19 years old, not 22 as tabloids claimed, and the niece of Leo's friend Lucas, and not his sister as was rumored.

Uncle Lucas Scaglia is one of Leo's closest friends, who, like Leo, played for Argentine club Newell's Old Boys, of which Antonella is a fan. She and Leo met for the first time at Lucas' place.

And now the two are planning on getting married. No definite date has been announced, only that the wedding will take place towards the end of 2010 in their hometime of Rosario.

Messi spoke of his ralationship with her in a recent interview with Catalan newspaper El Mundo Deportivo: "I'm growing as a player and as a person. And of course Antonella is helping me. I knew here since I was five years old, she's the niece of my best friend, she's from Rosario like myself. I saw her grow up and she saw me grow up. Our families know each other, so I didn't have any doubts."

While Leo was being linked with first one model, then another, all this time he's been with Antonella. We're really impressed by how well the secret has been kept; to quote Leo: "It's already one year that my girlfriend is with me and until now nobody knew about it. Well, people saw us together but they thought it was something normal. I didn't know that there would be paparazzi at the Sitges carnival. If we wouldn't have gone there, people still wouldn't have known anything. But it doesn't matter."
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Well Leo darling, if you're getting married then we guess it's high time the world knew. We see Leo and Antonella becoming Barca's new power couple in the near future—we're already imagining how adorable their babies would be. Good luck to the lovely couple; we wish them all the best!

Random: Training Shirts, Geri's Latest Stunts and Barca's Little Visitor

It seems Barca have changed the style of the team's training shirts, old and new pictured here on Sergio Busquets. We think the smoky purple streaks add a nice touch to the plain red-orange, which on its own is a bit too bright and flashy. The new design calms things down and of course, looks great on the guys.

U2 on Camp Nou: The new "360°" world tour for Irish rock band U2 will be kicking off on June 30th, in, where else, Barcelona's Camp Nou! That's how amazing and popular our stadium is. So popular, in fact, that the the Camp Nou show in Barcelona actually sold out in just 54 minutes, breaking all records in Spain! Becuase of that, while the band was only initially meant to have a single concert on Camp Nou before continuing to other venues across Europe, a second concert on Barca's home pitch has been scheduled for July 2nd.

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Dani's official site: Dani Alves has launched his own website, danialves20.com

Back to his old tricks: Barca prankster Gerard Pique's pulled his latest joke on the team during their flight back to Barcelona from Almeria. At fifteen minutes to landing, with most of the team still asleep, Geri graciously did everyone the favor of waking them up with his shout of "Viva la revolución!" as the song "El Vals Del Obrero" from Spanish anti-establishment punk band Ska-P blasts out of the speakers, which he actually connected to his iPod with the help of a stewardess.
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And of course Gerard couldn't pass up the fun of Samuel Eto'o's birthday reception. As he'd promised, Samu held the reception for the press in the media room at Barca's sports center, where around fifty journalists enjoyed food and drink in honor of Samu's 28th birthday. The always crazy Gerard Pique was the odd one out, as he somehow managed to sneak in and enjoy the party too.

Still on the subject of Eto'o, his son Etiene has been a frequent visitor at Barca lately, attending matches and training alike. Wonder if we'll ever see him playing for Barca one day? In any case, he's just the cutest thing ever!

Barca Buzz: International Field Diaries

With the players in camp with their national teams for the coming few days, Pep is wary of the trainings they will be undergoing away from his watchful eye. He continues to follow up on their performance even in their absence, as each player is required to keep a "diary" detailing each training session.

The boys have to record the duration of each session, whether it was physical or tactical, mild or intense, on a large pitch or a small one, as well as the minutes spent on grass and those spent in the gym, and when the session was in two parts.

Pep will then analyze these accounts to plan the necessary workload for the players, in order for them to reach the match against Valladolid without being too tired.

Hopefully, this new strategy will be effective and the team's performance won't be as mediocre as it usually is after internationals.

And say what you will, there never was coach as devoted as our Pep.

Gossip on the Guys: Pep on Vacation

As the boys go off to join their respective national teams for World Cup qualifiers, Pep heads out to the Canary Islands for a four day vacation. He left yesterday accompanied by his family, eager to enjoy the sun, sand, and a secret passion of his: golf. Pep will take advantage of this international period to get some rest before the hectic match schedule ahead for Barca, what with the Champions League quarter finals coming up, as well as the run of Liga matches and the coming Copa Del Rey final.

International: It's NT Time

The third international break of the season is upon us, and while we wish the players and their teams good luck, we just hope that this won't cause any injuries or fatigue to the lads who will be participating with their national teams:

On March 28th

- Samuel Eto'o participates with Cameroon against Togo
- Martin Caceras participates with Uruguay against Parguay
- Rafael Marquez's team, Mexico, faces Costa Rica but Rafa won't make it due to a red card
- Lionel Messi participates with Argentina against Venezuela
- Seydou Keita participates with Mali against Sudan
- Thierry Henry and Eric Abidal participate with France against Lithuania
- Xavi Hernandez, Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets participate with Spain against Turkey. Andres Iniesta and Carles Puyol won't make it due to injury, and Bojan Krkic Perez is not called.

On March 29th

- Dani Alves participates with Brazil against Ecuador
- Yaya Toure's team, Ivory Coast, faces Malawi but Yaya won't make it due to injury

On April 1st

- Eidur Gudjhonsen's team, Iceland, faces Scotland but Guddy won't make it due to his suffering form gastroenteritis
- Lionel Messi participates with Argentina against Bolivia
- Martin Caceras participates with Uruguay against Chile
- Rafael Marquez's team, Mexico, faces Honduras but Rafa won't make it due to a red card
- Xavi Hernandez, Gerard Pique and Sergio Busquets participate with Spain against Turkey. Andres Iniesta and Carles Puyol won't make it due to injury, and Bojan Krkic Perez is not called.
- Thierry Henry and Eric Abidal participate with France against Lithuania

On April 2nd

- Dani Alves participates with Brazil against Peru
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Injury Report: Iniesta & Yaya

Barca's spectacular thrashing of Malaga last weekend came with a price to pay: the two week absence of each of Andres Iniesta and Yaya Toure. Both midfielders have torn abductor muscles in their thighs, Andresito in his right one and Yaya in the left. It's unfortunate for both of them that they will miss the coming World Cup qualifiers with their respective national teams, but they still might be able to make Barca's next match, against Valladolid. Although if they're not fully recovered we don't want to see them rushed back, when Barca is able to do well enough without them for this one... better safe than sorry, if they're back too soon that's risking overburdening, as has happened with Rafa and Puyol. So here's hoping for a thorough recovery for the boys!

Champions League: Drawn Against Bayern

Well, the draw for the Champions League Quarter Final has taken place, with Barcelona set to face Bayern Munich now. The complete results:

Barcelona-Bayern Munich
Liverpool-Chelsea
Manchester United-Porto
Villarreal-Arsenal

We don't think Bayern will be any trouble at all; Barca should be able to get past this stage easily enough. Things will get tougher though once we make it to the semi final, where our opponent will be the winner of Liverpool-Chelsea.

Champions League: FC Barcelona vs Olympique Lyon, Camp Nou, Wednesday, March 11 2009, 20: 45 CET

Barca are next set to face Lyon in the second leg of the Champions League last sixteen, and it couldn’t have come at a better time. The lads are back to their winning ways, and what with the 1-1 draw in the first leg and Barca playing at home for this one, the only way we won’t qualify is if we lose.
Which is extremely unlikely.
Seeing the way the lads played on Saturday, we’re just expecting them to give Lyon a good thrashing. We really can’t wait for this one!
Our darling Captain Puyol is set so miss this one following the injury he picked up against Bilbao, but he should be the only KO for this match. And seeing how lovely Pique and Marquez have been, Puyi’s absence shouldn’t be too much of a problem.

Birthday Boy: Samuel Eto’o

Would anyone ever believe that darling Samuel Eto’o is twenty eight years old ? We keep forgetting that he isn’t a young emerging talent, because every season he is just more powerful than the last. He just keeps on getting better, keeps on scoring, and keeps on stealing our hearts with his footballing strength and general amazingness. Yes, Samu is just awesome. He’s spectacular as a forward and utterly cute, and having him on our team is just too incredible! Here’s hoping Samu has a spectacular birthday and a great match tomorrow!

Match Report: Barcelona 2-0 Athletic Bilbao

Barca’s back! After the run of disappointing results and poor performance in Barca’s last five matches, finally, against Bilbao, it was the old Barca again. And not just because of the result, and not just because we won, but because the boys were playing so wonderfully, and truly are backing to their old ways!

Everyone, from keeper to defense to midfield to attack, was playing beautifully. Barca maintained ball possession, barely letting Bilbao near the ball and barely letting them attack. The attack was all ours—attack after attack, chance after chance, so many goals that should have been, but weren’t! This is one game in which the score does not reflect the performance, for while the lads secured a 2-0 victory, it really should have been 6-0 at the least.

They lost a lot of chances, yes, but the important thing is that the chances were actually created, and Barca are back in the game. Xavi has shaken off the exhaustion that seemed to possess him through Barca’s last few games, and he was all over the place for this match, attacking, defending, and linking the play. Our leftback Sylvinho was somewhat off form, but over on the right Puyol more than made up for the absence of Dani Alves. He was all over the place, commanding the team and getting everything going, a true Captain; he played a spectacular match and it’s just too bad that he got injured and will be out for three weeks after this.

Iniesta is always consistently strong, and never stopped being strong, even when Barca went through the tough time. And this match was no exception. Marquez was wonderful as always, but our best center back was actually Pique, who came out and proved just how amazing he can be. Messi is Messi, and he’s always on top, though his finishing was wanting in this match; likewise Eto’o and Henry, who managed to waste some lovely chances for inexplicable reasons.

Like we said, the score ought to have been higher. Eto’o in particular was a bit slow through the first half, but as the match progressed his performance picked up, and he’s getting there, back to his incredible goal-scoring self.

And Pep is really flaunting his trust in Victor Valdes, starting him for this match after second keeper Pinto showed how amazing he can be last time, and Vic did not disappoint. He made some great and decisive saves, and for the first time in a long time, Barca kept a clean sheet.

The first goal came from a free kick, beautifully executed by Xavi and beautifully finished off by Sergio Busquets from a wondrous header. Sergio’s performance was wanting in this match, and of course he had to get booked, but his goal was superb; it’s also a good thing that these tall players on Barca are proving to be an advantage for us in the air.

The second goal was a penalty, scored by Leo Messi with ease, taking the score to 2-0, but we repeat: so many more goals could have been scored, it’s just ridiculous the way the score ended up. The lads really need to work on finishing!

And as the cherry on top, over at the Bernebau Athletico managed a draw against a not-so-hot Real in the Madrid derby, snatching two points from them and widening our lead from four points to six. Sweet, sweet, sweet.

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Gossip on the Guys: Pep's Player Fines

When Pep was appointed the new coach of Barca, he brought along a lot of changes, like having obligatory team breakfast every morning before training, and fining any players who show up late. Although the team has mostly kept in line and Pep hasn’t had to dish out many punishments, there have been a couple of breechings, the latest being from Samuel Eto’o. Samu was fifteen minutes late showing up to breakfast yesterday, which will probably land him a fine of 500 euros.
Pep’s being strict about his rules, as Gerard Pique was also recently fined after showing up two minutes late to training! We don’t know if the rumors are true, but word goes round that Geri had been hanging out with Messi and Eto’o a bit before training, and all three of them were running late. Apparently Leo and Samu made a dash for it and reached the training ground just in time, leaving Geri behind; and by the time the poor boy arrived he was too late.
Again, we don’t know how much truth is in this report, but is that their way of getting back at Gerard for the practical jokes he pulls on them?

Transfer Talk: The Return of Cesc?

Seeing the mucho spectacular Cesc Fabregas return to Barcelona would give us one thing to cross of our wish list, and with recent developments, we’re feeling very excited about this once again.
There’s been much talk that Arsenal’s manager, Arsene Wenger, might be leaving the English club, and Cesc declares that if Wenger leaves, so will he. "I'm already living with the rumours about the coach leaving for the past three years. What I say is that if Wenger would leave, I would seriously consider to move on. I'm nevertheless happy at Arsenal because it's the ideal club. If at this moment there's one team in the world that plays like Barcelona, it's Arsenal."
And it’s mutual! Barca Prez Juan Laporta hints at the club’s possible interest in Cescy, too: "Cesc was born here and grew up in our youth academy. He has the Barça DNA, our way of playing, the passing football. We always go for the victory, we have an aesthetical ideas about football and that plays a decisive role. Players like Iniesta, Cesc, Xavi, Busquets, Bojan... all the youth players have that same idea. Does that mean we will sign Cesc? I don't know, that depends on the technical staff."
Get packing, Wenger! We need Cescy back home.

Gossip on the Guys: Jose Manuel Pai Pai

Barca keeper Jose Manuel Pinto has got a dressing room nickname among the other players: Tao Pai Pai. That’s the name of a character from the Japanese cartoon series, Dragon Ball Z, and Pinto cops the name for his striking resemblance to the character, pictured here. The comparison between the two is quite in place, because aside from the similar features between the two, apparently Tao Pai Pai is as good as stopping bullets as Pinto is at stopping balls!

Transfer Talk: Pitiful City

Manchester City are at it again, trying to buy up all the footie stars they think they can get their hands on, and for some reason a lot of said stars seem to be Barca players. Oh wait, we know the reason. The players on Barca are simply the best. Duh.
We find the latest reports little more than hilarious: Manchester City want to buy Messi. Man City really are a ridiculous team. They announced their interest in Leo before the winter transfer window, but were too busy in their aimless chase after Kaka to actually follow up on the matter; so now they declare that Leo will be their goal for the summer.
Well, there goes City’s summer.
It’ll be the Kaka bid all over again. It’ll be like Madrid’s Ronaldo chase. A transfer period wasted stubbornly going after a single player, refusing to accept that neither he nor his club are interested. And not even the record breaking sum of 112 million euros can change that.

Gossip on the Guys: A Bit Too Carried Away

We’re really starting to feel how much Barca has been missing silverware. The team hasn’t even won anything yet, but the fact that we’ve reached the final of the Copa del Rey has got the players elated.
The draw against Mallorca takes us to the final on an aggregate of 3-1, the first time Barca get to the final since 1998, and the players went a little crazy celebrating afterwards. We all saw them rejoicing on the pitch, but the party continued when the players went back to the dressing room, in the mixing zone afterwards, and even on the plane back to Barcelona.
However, the celebration was greatest among the players in the dressing room directly after the match. The players were so excited that their cheering and singing—yes, singing—was so loud, that the sound actually reached the press conference with Pep in the media room, startling him as well as the journalists!
We’re not surprised to hear that Gerard Pique was the loudest, the craziest, and quite the one leading it all, along with Pinto, the hero of the night, and Dani, who’s one of the most adorably crazy players on the squad! Even Abidal was able to forget his injury and join in the merriment.
The players celebrating like this has to be just the cutest thing ever. And if this is how they are after qualifying to a final, then we can hardly imagine what they’ll be like after winning…

La Liga: FC Barcelona vs. Athletic Bilbao, Camp Nou, Saturday, March 7 2009, 20:00 CET

The hectic match schedule continues as Barca next face Athletic Bilbao in the Liga. We hope the draw-lose-draw-lose-draw cycle the team has been going through ends with this match, and finally, we see a win.
Dani Alves is set to miss this match becuase of a fifth yellow card, likewise Caceras for his red card against Mallorca. And what with Abidal injured, that leaves Barca with a somewhat shaky defense, particularly on the wings... hopefully something that won't affect the team too much.
Barca will also face Bilbao in the Copa Del Rey final, so this match will give the team a chance to test them out beforehand. We also met them in the first leg of the Liga, and it wasn't exactly a breeze, with Barca only winning 1-0; so we're looking for a better result this time around.

Match Report: Barcelona 1-1 Real Mallorca

Barca still hasn't managed to come off with a win for the fifth match in a row now, but things did look a bit better for this one.

Iniesta is looking great following his injury, and did a good job in leading the attack line where Bojan and Hleb just weren't as hot.
Behind the frontal three, Sergio did manage to go through a match without getting booked for once, despite his poor form, and what with Keita barely doing anything all match long (again), our pillar of strength Yaya Toure was holding up the midfield on his own.

Tall Pique seems to prefer Copa matches to Liga ones, as he always seems to play better in them. He was simply great last night, and made some great tackles, all in all contribuitng largely to the defense. Speaking of which, Barca's defense was a little weak on the wings last night, with Dani and Caceras both notably off form, Caceras also drawing a red card along the way and leaving Barca with ten men, as well as giving away a penalty which was thankfully saved by Pinto.

Ah, we've come to Pinto now! What can we say? He was simply incredible. Undoubtedly man of the match for us, Pinto was just on fire, especially for that penalty! And what with Vic's poor performance lately, Pinto will surely be getting much recognition for this, and we see him starting more matches in the future.

Mallorca were the first ones to score, but Messi soon saved the day for us. So what's new? He came on for Bojan and heated things up, and soon scored the equalizer with a goal that was beautiful, as his always are.

Xavi and Rafa also got some minutes, and while poor exhausted Xavi didn't do much, Rafa helped to strengthen the defnse after Martin was sent off. No need to mention how hot he was looking, as always, either.

We were hoping for a good performance from Bojan for this match, since he's barely playing as it is, but alas, this just wasn't his night. We blame the Econ exam.

Anyway, it's off to the final now! Barca is set to face Athletic Bilbao, who surprisingly gave Sevilla a 3-0 thrashing last night. But that doesn't upset us, as we know Barca will be able to win this one, and claim the first of our trophies for this season.

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Gossip on the Guys: School Boy Bojan

Baby Bo is quite the busy little footballer. When he's not training with the team, warming the bench during matches, or posing for comical photos such as these, Bojan's got homework and exams to attend to. At eighteen, Bo's still in school, and while tonight he's off to Mallorca to join in Barca's Copa match tonight, yesterday he had two exams, in each of Catalan and Economics.
We're guilty of frequently nagging Pep to play Bojan more often, and we've been quite annoyed by how few minutes Bo's actually been getting, but now it's occured to us, that it may just be our considerate coach doesn't want to distract him from his schoolwork. Probably, Pep takes him aside during training to lecture him on the importance of his school, and makes sure that he gives it as much attention as football...
Poor Bojan must find it a bit tough to juggle his studies along with a strenuous footie schedule, but that just goes to show how amazing he really is, to able to handle both.

Gossip on the Guys: The Most Fun in the Dressing Room

So, we all know that Gerardito is supposed be the prankster on Barca. But according to Xavi, Victor Valdes is the most fun on the team!

Apparently all the negative comments aimed at him don't really get to Vic, as he's still able to generate a light, cheery atmosphere among the players in the dressing room.

And Xavi doesn't approve of all the criticism Victor's been getting, either. Well, it's good to see that the boys support their teammate that way... Bravo Xavi!

Copa Del Rey: FC Barcelona vs RCD Mallorca, Ono Estadi, Wednesday, March 4 2009, 22:00 CET

Let's forget about the last couple of Liga matches, and pick up where we left off in the Copa now, shall we? Barca last beat Mallorca 2-0 on Camp Nou, which gives us a good lead and takes some pressure off of tomorrow's match. However, hopefully that won't mean the boys will be taking it easy for this one.
Iniesta has been given the green light to return to the pitch after he's missed the last three matches due to injury, while Henry and Dani are uncertain since they had to miss training yesterday, Dani because of a bruised ankle from Sunday's match, Titi because of tendon problems in his left leg.
It's very likely that Pep will be fielding the youngsters and the lads from Barca B; we're desperatley hoping that Bojan will be playing. We haven't been seeing much of him on the pitch in so long, and what with Eto'o's poor performance lately, playing Bojan could be very effective.

Birthday Boy: Albert Jorquera

He hasn't been getting alot of minutes this season, but we haven't forgotten our man Albert Jorquera. Alby enters a new decade of his life today as he turns thirty years old; here's hoping he has a great birthday today, and many more to come!

Match Report: Barcelona 3-4 Athletico Madrid

Despite scoring three goals, the team just couldn't manage a win last night. The team's results lately have been very distressing, but we still remain at the top of the Liga by four points, so there isn't too much cause for worry, as long as things get better soon...

Henry scored a wonderful brace, and Leo's goal was equally lovely, but Athletico still managed to net one more than us. And although we’re disappointed, we’re actually not too surprised, given the way Barca were playing. There was just… no effort. From anyone. The attack was weak, the defense was weak, as was the midfield… basically all the players, bar Henry, seemed to be simply walking through the match, really not taking it seriously at all, and that is basically where the problem is.

Messi scored a goal but was no where near his usual amazing level… Xavi could barely be seen all match long, it’s almost like he wasn’t on the pitch at all… Eto’o has been sleepwalking through the last four matches… the list goes on, but going on would be too upsetting. Apart from that, there’s also the fact that Athletico Madrid are an attacking team, and because of this, Barca should have been more concentrated on defense. That’s something Pep really needs to look into, that and whipping the players back into shape, and motivate them so they actually start taking these matches seriously once again.

Oh, and we’re sure everyone noticed Messi’s black eye during the match; it’s just bruised after a hit from the elbow by Lyon player Toulalan during last Tuesday’s match.