Category Archives: Blog
The rivalry that defies Logic
A long-term friend in Barcelona and wise cule thinks that Pep Guardiola, having assured himself of qualification tomorrow for the semi-finals of the Champions League , should go on to the Bernabeu with his reserve team. His reasoning? Beating Mourinho that way would make an even bolder statement about the philosophy of La Cantera – and even if Barca loses, it would not mean losing La Liga, while strengthening the first squad for the other challenges left in the season-the Copa del Rey and the road to Wembley. Of …
The ghost of Olivares
Let’s be honest- watching Mourinho and Real Madrid thumping Spurs last night would have been an unsettling feeling for most cules. Not only has the wishful thinking that Barca might face Redknapp’s boys in the semi-finals evaporated (what a pity for us Londoners) , but its biggest rival looks like a tight army unit that has identified the main target and will relentlessly pursue it. Mourinho has clearly given up on winning La Liga and is hoping to pull off something of a record by taking yet another club to …
Bad losers & Good Lovers
There is nothing worse in life but a bad loser, but then there is nothing better than a productive love match. Wenger continues to cry foul over the match at the Nou Camp, thus in denial about the extent to which Arsenal were systematically out played on all fronts. Not only were they pressed successfully by Barca everytime they tried to hold the ball, but struggled throughout the game to contain every avalanche of attack from the opposing side, not to mention their inability to destroy a skilled game …
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 SpanishPrimera Liga club Malaga and reportedly showing an interest in Manchester United. Ever since …
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 …
