not particularly fond of the portuguese... but a fresh start is always nice... welcome to the club boys

if all we needed was agressive, strong in the air etc. then any english defender would suffice, we would have kept chygrynskiy, hell even marco materazzi would have walked into the team... but 50% of what barca wants in a defender is his skills as a defender, the other 50% is his ability to pass and to read the play... we don't want another defender that would make the tackle and then punt the ball out of the air to safety, we want someone that would make the tackle, read the play think before he makes his next move... that is a skill in which the majority of defenders lack and it's a prerequisite to making this barca team... which is why i am in full support of barca's youth defenders - marc muniesa, martin montoya, andreu fontas and marc batra... these guys know the ropes, they know what it takes, they know what barca needs, and they are it...

the sad thing is, now that the whole world knows this pisses ronaldo off, any stadium he goes to whether in a madrid jersey or a portugal jersey, "messi messi messi" is going to haunt him... why doesn't the footballing world do the opposite to messi? maybe because messi isn't obsessed by the princess, maybe because hands-down messi is better or maybe because messi plays for his team and not for himself...

another sad thing is that messi is compared on an hourly basis to maradona, pele (barfs), zidane, cruyff etc and all the greats of the game but the ONLY way ronaldo is compared to these greats is via messi... never a direct comparison...

my new fb cover pic

i remember that entire season... we lost xavi that season due to ACL injury... we lost messi for the latter stages due to his recurring muscle problems...

i saw morgan de sanctis for napoli this season and all i remembered was "damn son, ronaldinho put three past you at the nou camp"... i remember serse cosmi (udinese's coach) dying for ronaldinho's jersey after the game just so he can give his son... i remember eto'o's hattrick vs panathinaikos, especially his third goal... i remember messi bamboozling stamford bridge... i remember ronaldinho doing the same to chelsea in the nou camp, making john terry look like a paper figure... i remember barca starting with thiago motta and olegeur in CB in portugal vs benfica and came out unscathed... i remember being on edge in the return game of that tie in the nou camp, first watching ronnie miss his penalty then making amends a few minutes later and then when barca were up 1-0 and benfica looked menacing, just before eto'o made it 2-0... i remember gattuso barking up ronaldinho's backside like a pitbull, totally forgetting that ronaldinho perfected his trade with a dog... i remember giuly's goal at the san siro from a glorious setup from ronaldinho... i remembered the sheer joy those players felt when they qualified for the final...

and yes, i remember the final - that fateful day in saint denis... i remember that game like it was yesterday... i remember pathetic arsenal fans furious after the game because terje hauge didn't bend the rules since "it was a final", saying that the ref "ruined it as a spectacle"... i remember emmanuel eboue's theatrical dive when puyol barely touched him - a yellow for puyol, and a free kick for arsenal and surprise surprise sol campbell scores... i remember panicking everytime henry got forward because he made our defense look weak (no surprise, olegeur was our starting CB/RB that entire season)... i remember ronaldinho not having his best game in the blaugrana shirt... i remember when larsson coming on, but while everyone says larsson changed the game (to a great extent, he did), for me, the game changer was don ANDRES INIESTA... i have two lasting memories of that game - the first being belletti's disbelief after he scored - his knees went weak, he dropped down on them, head facing heaven, hands covering his face... the second being giovanni van bronckhorst crying his life out after the game... to me gio van bronckhorst was always an underrated left back for barca... for some strange reason he was always one of my favourite barca players... i remember he started every single CL game that season... i was very sad when he left, but understood that he wanted to return to feyenoord to retire... i remember that season... i remember it like it was yesterday...

as i sat in my office at my desk, my eyes began to well up when i read his departing press conference... pep made barca the envy of the entire sporting world.. you gave barca fans a reason to smile, a reason to hope and a reason to love this club even more... we love you pep... we hate to see you go, but we respect your decision 100% as we have always in the past... we hope that one day you'll grace our bench again as coach, or if not, grace the president's box as the president himself... your time with barca has not ended, of this i am sure... take your break, take however long you need, know that barca are indebted to you and the door is always opened for you... thank you josep guardiola i sala for giving your life for this club, thank you for everything...

no one cares dude XD

what are you trying to accomplish by typing a longass post in capitals? is it your attempt to be heard? frankly i detest reading anything written in capitals and when i read your first six words i stopped reading altogether... maybe you should become coach AND president because clearly you know better than pep... dumbass... it's either you were born yesterday or you started watching football yesterday.. either way, it doesn't reflect well on you

look again, i was talking aggregate scoreline, which means we win 3-1 at the camp nou... no one goal win will see us through...

Chelsea defended smartly. They won not because they were better, but because we failed to capitalize on our chances - cesc x 2, alexis x 2, busquets in the last minute. Chelsea had one opportunity and took advantage so we're left with only ourselves to blame. The game was in our hands, but it's over; the tie is not. The tie is in our hands. In 6 days time we welcome them to the Camp Nou where width will be their enemy. I suspect Pep might bench Cesc and opt for Pedro to capitalize on the width of the field and stretch that Chelsea defence, opening them up. Chelsea have no reason to attack Barca and will be looking to defend which is why Pep needs to change his plan to suit the Camp Nou just like he did versus Milan which worked out well. Barca had no luck infront of goal, but that won't be the case next week. If it's one thing I know is that Lionel Messi does not like to lose. My bold prediction: either 3-1 or 3-2 aggregate win for Barca and onto the Allianz. I believe in this squad.