Champions To Become Champion

King of Kings: Barça became the champion of the king’s cup for the first time since 1998 last Wednesday in Mestalla; a stadium that oddly enough was the same where they conquered the same title 11 years ago. Barça entered the final with the handicap of having played three decisive games in a row against Madrid, Chelsea, and Villareal; each of those games meant a lot to the team and Pep did not hesitate to put his best men in every single of those games. Athletic, on the other hand, had been preparing the final with up to 2 month un advance; and since they had already saved a spot for the next year’s Liga they weren’t even playing their best men for a couple of weeks so they could be rested for the final. But this Barça is just too good and too tough to beat. Despite the fact that Athletic scored first, Barça was able to remain quite and soon take control of the game which led to a water clear victory over the “lions” of Bilbao. It is fair to say that Athletic put a lot of pressure on Guardiola’s men but Barça never gave up their style; something that caught up my attention was how Pinto never kicked the ball away but rather passed it to his defenders despite the fact that he had 2 rivals near him; even though this was a risky move by Pep it ended up paying as the first two goal started from the goalkeeper which is one of the elemental rules of this team.

La Liga Almost Ready: Even though winning La Liga should have happened last weekend at Nou Camp when Barça was playing Villareal, a tie played out to be the best to happen. It allowed the team not to distract from the King’s Cup final while celebrating La Liga. Sure, it would have been nice to win it at their home stadium accompanied by their people but realistically speaking after the victory against Madrid La Liga has already an owner; it’s just a matter of when they will officially proclaimed. This weekend they can start playing being champions already if Real Madrid do not comes from El Madrigal with three points; the best thing about winning la Liga before playing is that it would allow him to put a lot of bench players in the main team and give a well deserved rest to men like Messi, Eto’o, Xavi, or Pique. If Madrid wins, which is very unlikely seeing how well Villareal is playing, then Barça would only have to tie in their feud against Mallorca. Statistically speaking, they have added at least one point every time they have played in Las Palmas the last 7 years. Once this title of officially given to Barça they would be the first absolute champions of Spain (League & Cup winner) in 11 years.

Thinking in Rome: With the King’s Cup won and La Liga almost done, Pep has his eyes on only in the final of the champions’ League. Winning La Liga this weekend would give him a lot of time to think only in Rome, take the pressure of his men, and don’t let any euphoria enter the locker room. Just to show how serious Guardiola is about this tournament he fined six of his players for showing up one minute late for the training of today. Not even after playing such a beautiful final was Pep to go easy on his player. The message is perfectly clear: the job is not over. Barça is right now in a unique position of completing the hat-trick of titles; something that only four teams have been able to do and none of which are from Spain, Pep knows it and he wants his team to know it as well. Rome is in the horizon but for now let’s enjoy this weekend which will be when Barça claims the title for the 19th time.

...and to Mestalla We Go!

Barça is not having a sweet moment right now. The team dynamic is gone, the futbol quality is not present and on top of that they have not won in the last 5 games. Right now the question is: what has happened to this team that in less than 35 days ago was the envy of Europe? To make things worse, Real Madrid went from being 12 points away to being only 4 is less than a month!

The two Ps of Barça. I have come to an explanation for Barcelona’s successful game in the past months which consists on the application of these 2 Ps known as Pressure & Presence. Pressure refers to the defensive scheme that Guardiola had in which as soon as the rival team got the ball at least 2 Barça players would surround him thus making pressure on the pitch and make him lose the ball. This principle has been lost in the past month. For example, against Atletico Maxi Rodriguez would have the ball for 10 seconds and nobody would cover him. The end result was a dream coming back and a heartbreaking lost or Barça. The Second P refers to “presence” and it is about the presence of the so called “cracks” like Messi, Eto’o, Xavi, Puyol etc. these men have been away in the last couple of games and Barcelona suffer as a team. Messi seems to be getting back but sometimes even Messi is not enough.

The Path to Mestalla. Barça qualified for a place in the final of the King’s Cup for the first time in 11 years. However, to say that it was easy is to fool yourself. Atletico didn’t bring the best and neither did Espanyol; but tonight at the ONO Stadium Mallorca almost brought back the memories from Getafe 2 years go when they eliminate Barça while coming back from a 5-1. Pep Guardiola abandoned his principles yet again and the game displayed by Barca can be considered quite embarrassing. If the team is in Mestalla for the next final on May 13 is thanks to two men: Messi and Pinto. The Argentinean did what he does best; he came in the second half and scored the gol that tied the game 1-1 and sentenced the match. But the real hero was second goalkeeper Jose Manuel Pinto. The ex player from Celta stopped a penalty shot that would have been the 2-0 for Mallorca. Barca can be happy for being in the final but the way they are playing is way below expectations.

Morbid Weekend. This coming weekend the two final teams in the King’s Cup will meet in Nou Camp in the round 26 of La Liga. This will be a preview of what’s to come in May 13 at Mestalla. To make things more interesting Barcelona must get a victory to finally re-engaged in the positive dynamic they were in. The team cannot afford to give Real Madrid more chances to win La Liga. The memories of la liga 2006-07 are still fresh in the minds of the fans. However, it is not time to doubt but time to support the team. The qualifying for the final of the King’s Cup may be the beginning of the end of negative results.

Effortless Victory

Was that a semi-final? That is the question many people who followed the Barcelona VS Mallorca game asked after seeing such a low standard encounter. Being a semi-final of what it used to be the second most prestigious tournament in Spain turned out to be a pseudo- friendly match between these two teams. Let’s be honest, the king’s cup is no longer a desired cup for big clubs such as Barcelona; and it’s even worst for teams in relegation zone in the league as they basically care more for staying in the first division which is perfectly understandable. The script was well written. Barça: Top team in his way to winning the league and with hopes for their 3rd European crown. Mallorca on the other hand is battling to stay in first division and winning this cup will do nothing for that cause. The final result? Teams playing their bench players, fans not showing up to the game.

Barça takes a nap and win. Slow game, poor spectacle with only 2 players giving us a reason to care; I’m talking about Bojan and Iniesta. But I cannot blame Barcelona for napping all the game. Mallorca showed no desired, no ambition to do an effort to at least try to win. Add to that the fact that the referee wanted to be the highlight of the game giving up to 4 yellow cards in the first half of which only 1 was a “maybe”. The good news is that Barça, even when napping, was able to pull a nice result. 2-0 with 2 gorgeous goals was the best reward to the die-heard fans that show up for that game. This lead is important because should the score at Ono Stadi, Mallorca will have to score 4 goals to pass. Barcelona as of now has a foot and half of the other in the final

Good news for Pep. Guardiola had more than one reason to worry at the end of last game in Santander when he learned that he had no defenders available for this weekend game against Sporting. Puyol was out due to an injury; Marquez saw red card as well as Pique; and on top of that, Alves saw the 5th yellow card which cause a suspension of one game. Things could be worse for Barça as one of the reasons for their success attacking is their solid defence. Nonetheless, Puyol seems to be recovered sooner than expected and he might be playing this weekend and the committee of sport decision revocked the 5th yellow of Alves after Barcelona presented reasons to backup that petition. This weekend the defence will be better than expected and sporting is not in very good conditions. A tough game it will be but it is hard to see sporting resisting Barça’s arsenal.