Category Archives: Football
Suffering in the Nou Camp
I caught up with the Arsenal fan at Gerona airport as we were waiting to catch the plane back to London. He was at the news stand thumbing through a report in an English newspaper of his team’s defeat at the Nou Camp. He seemed a quieter man than the one who, with his mates, had pranced about near the stadium two hours before the match, rat-assed, and singing ‘We’ve got Cesc Fabregas’ over and over again. I felt kind of sorry for him and thought of nothing better to …
Miss hits
Some great ball control, wonderful passing movements, and a nice build up to the good Keita goal but only 1-0 in the end- and against Zaragoza. I lost count of how many lost chances. It was great to have Valdes back. But his anguished look every time he was involved in a clash with an opponent made him look fragile. As for Pep, God knows how many pain killers he was carrying in his bloodstream to get him on his feat. We need to make the most of Pujol’s …
I am a cule supporter of La Roja
The other day I travelled to Arsenal’s Emirates stadium in the company of friends from London’s Penya Blaugrana and some late arrivals from Barcelona. Half-way between the Embankment and Holloway station, we were joined by a group of Arsenal fans. At one point they tried to annoy us with the chants ‘We’ve got Cesc Fabregas, We’ve got Cesc Fabregas’ . Much as I wish that Cesc was at Barca I felt more annoyed hearing a young Catalan tell the Arsenal fans that Spain’s World Cup had left him cold. I …
Shakira Cule Part 2
The news- emanating from Bogota and reproduced in today’s Mundo Deportivo that Shakira has agreed to become a kind of roving ambassador for Barca as well as poor children without a voice can only be welcome. So we are told Shakira’s charitable Foundation Pies Descalzos – an educational trust for underprivileged children in her native Colombia- has formed a strategic alliance with Barca’s foundation, the Fundacio FCB which exists to promote the professed values of the club – solidarity, effort, companionship, friendship, sacrifice, and tolerance. The two foundations are set …
Qatar’s football card
Nooone really knows for sure how far and in what way the current upheavals among Arab nations are going, but I suspect the fate of Qatar is beginning to put some nerves in the football world on edge. Qatar was not only recently picked by FIFA as the host nation for the 2022 World Cup, it has also in recent months signed a lucrative sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona after pouring money into a far less successful Spanish Primera Liga club Malaga and reportedly showing an interest in Manchester United. …
A tale of goalkeepers
Let me admit it – yesterday I spent a long afternoon of mixed emotion, glued to sport on TV, switching effortlessly from BBC rugby at Twickenham to La Liga on Sky TV. After cheering on England’s inspired second half performance against France, I nearly fell asleep towards the end of the first half of yesterday’s Mallorca- Barca tie, took a short meal break, and then lay awake until the early hours recovering from the nail-biting excitement of the last minutes of the Deportivo-Real Madrid game that kept me, tensed, on …
Barca have a fight on their hands
Barca did not find it easy beating Athletic Bilbao last night. The Basques played their rocks off, playing a hard physical game not bereft of skill which forced Barca to up their game so as to fight as well as entertain. After the lacklustre draw with Sporting Gijon and the defeat at the Emirates stadium , the omens were not good. February we were told was always a bad month for Barca. And yet this was just the kind of hard earned victory that Barca needed to restore its confidence. …
Barca is down but not out
Ok , from the perspective of a cule, let’s be honest: it was not one of those magical nights we’ve got used to with Barca. Sure, we paid tribute to that Victor Valdes block, celebrated Villa’s goal, and forgot how many oles we cried- so many passes did Barca make, for long periods, without interruption. But Valdes later let in a howler, Messi threatened but was incapable of delivering, Pedro was non existant., and Pique got another yellow card which means he will miss the second leg. In the …
My team is back in town- Visca Barca!
Great evening last night aboard Bar & Co, the superb Latino bar on the Thames were Barca’s UK based fans –British, Catalans, other Spaniards and even an American from Washington DC-gathered to share a meal, a few beers, and a large cake emblazoned with the club colours between singing, exchanging old campaign stories- from Valencia to Rome via Manchester-, and celebrating a video showing the historic 5-0 victory over Real Madrid at the Nou Camp earlier in the season. Among the new members of our UK fan club , and …
Bilbao Revisited
Just back from a visit to Bilbao as part of my latest wonderings through Spanish football (theme of a new book I am working on). This City is much altered since I first visited it on a ferry from England some thirty years ago. The air is much cleaner, it’s got one of the best public transport systems in the world, and its river is a joy to walk along now the Guggenheim gleams nears its banks and there’s a Calatrava bridge joining one side of the city with the …
