Club Wold Cup: FC Barcelona - Atlante

Today at 16:00 (GMT) Barça plays semis of the Club World Cup against Atlante. In the final awaits Estudiantes that won 2-1 against Pohang Steelers. Messi is said to be playing as he's recovered enough from his ankle injury. Stay tuned for stream and p2p broadcast links soon.

Possible lineups:

Barcelona: Valdés; Alves, Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Abidal; Xavi, Touré, Iniesta; Pedro, Ibrahimovic y Henry.

Atlante: Vilar; Miguel Martínez, Fernando Navarro, Guillermo Rojas, Luis Velázquez; Daniel Arreola, Joel González, Daniel Guerrero, Christian Bermúdez; Santiago Solari y Rafael Márquez.


Related links:

- Messi's World Club Cup hopes boosted after beach workout (The NYT)
- Barcelona eye global domination (ESPN)
- Eight-man Pohang Steelers lose to Estudiantes (Herald Sun)
- Estudiantes reaches Club World Cup final (USAToday)

Prematch: Barcelona - Cultural Leonesa (Copa del Rey)

Tonight we play Cultural again in the second match of the Copa del Rey. The two goals advantage will make Pep put a similar lineup to the previous math against Cultural with none or few main players on the field. This may be the lineup:

Barcelona: Pinto; Alves, Fontàs, Márquez, Maxwell; Sergio Busquets, Iniesta, Jonathan dos Santos; Pedro, Jeffren y Bojan

Cultural: Calzado; Cerveró, Roberto Carlos, Pereira, Salva; Segovia, Chema Mato; Ferrán, Yahvé, Alberto Suárez y Jito

The player to watch is Jito, the top scorer of all the spanish soccer leagues. Also, we'll have the chance to see young Barça promises as Jonathan, Jeffren or Pedro (who plays with the first team and scored two goals on La Copa and two more against Mallorca last weekend in La Liga). Bojan has another opportunity to prove himself as he Pep doesn't put him much on La Liga.

Fontàs, Benítez, Jonathan Soriano, Jonathan Dos Santos y Gai Assulin
 from the FC Barcelona Second Team

Match is played at 22:00 Spanish Time (that is GMT+1). Stay tuned for info on where to watch online.

Let's have a mini quote roundup:

We're not yet on the next round. This is the most dangerous round in Copa del Rey, we've been defeated several times on this same situation. Sport sometimes brings undesired susprises

Pep Guardiola

Tonight there'll be few people at the stadium, but anyone who comes we'll thank him. There'll be very good players on the filed tonight

Pep Guardiola

Of course Madrid can pass to next round, they've spent 260 millions on reinforcement, it's possible enough!!

Pep Guardiola

I've always dreamt of playing at the Camp Nou and in the end the dream is coming true

Jito, Cultural's top scorer

Prematch: Rubin Kazan - Barcelona (Champions League)

Wednesday is the day we get some vengeance!! Wait, it sounds a bit rude... Let's see, today Kazan, tomorrow Europe!! Mmm, not getting there quite yet. So, we win  Kazan, we get ourselves half the ticket to next Champions League round. Ok, now?

This match is more important than it seems, as the next match would be against Dinamo Kiev in what may be worse weather conditions. It's the time to assure Barça's classifies.

These are the ones that go to Kazan:

Valdés, Pinto, Puyol, Abidal, Maxwell, Márquez, Piqué, Touré Yaya, Sergio Busquets, Keita, Xavi, Iniesta, Henry, Messi, Pedro, Jeffren, Ibrahimovic y Bojan.

Also, Alves may be back, he has recovered from his muscular injury and is travelling with the team just in case. His side of the team is hurting without him, Osasuna's goal came from that side and Marquez's shape isn't helping either.

Henry and Touré are also going with the team and may play as both are also recovered and ready to play.

Tomorrow we'll post the usual lineup guess. (even Kazan's)

There's a lot of talk in the press about the weather in Kazan. It's expected that at the playing time, 20:30 local time (2 hours less in Barcelona) there could be from 0 ºC to -6 ºC with some wind wich could worsen the overall cold feeling. We have not to worry about the playing field, as Russian stadiums are prepared with under earth heating.

Weather forecast for this week at Kazan (at least it won't snow tomorrow!!)

More info:

- Barcelona looking to get back on track in Russia (ESPN Soccernet)
- Champions League Preview - Rubin Kazan vs Barcelona (World Soccer News)
- Dani Alves makes early return as Barça travel to Russia (ESPN Soccernet)

Prematch again: Osasuna - Barcelona (Liga BBVA)

We're back on track and ready to kick ass! (Mmm, maybe we should continue keeping our low profile and not bragging about mighty Barça too much, you never know when they can pull an Alcorcon on you.)

Let's see, with most of the players recovered from their injuries (we got Henry back, but not Alves or Milito), we can count on a full strength team at Pamplona. This may be a possible lineup:

The full list of players traveling to Pamplona is this:

Valdés, Pinto, Puyol, Piqué, Chygrynskiy, Márquez, Abidal, Maxwell, Keita, Touré, Sergio, Iniesta, Jeffren, Xavi, Messi, Ibrahimovic, Pedro, Henry y Messi

Osasuna is the opposite of Barça in soccer terms. Their coach, Camacho, is all about strenght and fight, old school style. They have been doing ok on La Liga with 10 out of 15 point won. Guardiola remembers for sure last year's 2 - 3 win with a last minute goal but Messi as that was a turning point for Barça in the fight for La Liga. Expect a tough start, with much pressure on Barça's midfield. That will be the key to winning the match and Xavi must have plenty of help from Busquets and Keita in order to succeed. Beware of Osasuna striker Pandiani, a frequent scorer and also his attacking mate Aranda.

Messi's goal last year against Osasuna

Thinking of watching it online? It's a bit soon, but you can start with our guide on watching Barça online we posted last weekend. Remember the match is played on Saturday the 31 of Octorber, at 20:00h spanish hour.

Cultural Leonesa - Barcelona : Watch online (UPDATED)

UPDATE!! Here are the links:

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NO	iraqgoals44	ar	Ustream	350	Play
P2P	Television_Española	es	Tvuplayer	145	Play
NO	Sharing	es	Justin		Play
NO	razelec	ar	Justin		Play
NO	nawaf_almzeed	ar	Justin		Play
NO	almdridi7	ar	Justin		Play
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NO	peter20021	ar	Justin		Play
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NO	tododeportetv2	es	Justin		Play
NO	saiass	es	Justin		Play
NO	saidsport_saidsport6	es	Justin		Play
NO	futboltotal01	es	Justin		Play
NO	On Tv Mix1	es	Justin		Play

Stay tuned, I'll be posting the links soon. Meanwhile, I recommend you read my blog post with a small tutorial on watching Barça matches online (just after the links table). Anyway we'll be posting here the links to the stream websites and P2P channels that broadcast Cultural Leonesa - Barcelona when we have them. Remember the match is at 10pm Spanish time.

Prematch: Cultural Leonesa - Barcelona (Copa del Rey)

Tonight is the return of La Copa del Rey. Cultural Leonesa plays in Spanish 2a División B, that is the 3rd division of Spanish Leagues. This should be an easy match, but, beware, as Real Madrid suffered yesterday a humiliating defeat (4 -0 to Alcorcon) against a rival of a similar level.

The most probable lineup, as newspaper are reporting is: Pinto; Abidal, Márquez, Chygrynskiy, Maxwell; Sergio Busquets, Touré Yaya, Keita; Jeffrén, Bojan y Pedro

If you're planning on watching the match tonigh, remember neither Carles Puyol, Gerard Piqué, Xavi Hernández, Andrés Iniesta, Zlatan Ibrahimovic or Lionel Messi will be playing. Finally they are getting some rest. Five Barça's youth team are going to León and will start the match on the bench.

Fontàs, Benítez, Jonathan Soriano, Jonathan Dos Santos y Gai Assulin
 are the five Barça's youth team players going to León

Who is Cultural Leonesa?

First of all, Cultural Leonesa is the team of the President of Spain, Rodríguez Zapatero. Wel, it's one of both teams, being the other one... Barça. He even is a 'socio' and has a seat. Anyway, he's said not to be attending today.

As we've already said Cultural plays on Spanish 3rd Division and is not doing very well (they are in the last places of their league) Their main player is Jito, an exbarcelonist that has scored 9 goals in 10 league matches with Cultural this season.

Fifty years ago (1956) Barcelona played against Cultural Leonesa in Cultural's one and only First Division year. Nowadays they struggle to survive not just sportwise but economically.

Remember, the match is the first of two matches against Cultural and is played tonight at 10 pm Spanish hour.

We never throw away a match, even less a whole tournament

- Guardiola, asked about the absence of his top players

To score a goal would be incredible

- Jito, Cultural's best and only scorer




Related links:
- Copa del Rey preview (goal.com)
- Barcelona will treat the Copa del Rey seriously (goal.com)

Prematch time: FC Barcelona - Real Zaragoza

Ens hi deixem la pell - We give it all

It's comeback time, baby! Well, maybe not that critical, though, but we all want our Barça to be back. For what is worth, it has been only two matches and that may not constitute as a crisis, but it's election time at Barcelona's and anything can be used to disrupt the sensation that we still have the best team in the world.

Chygrynskiy back for sunday?

Luckily, we'll recover Henry and Chygrynskiy (has somebody thought of a nickname yet??) for this match. At least, they may play some minutes if all goes well. Also, Puyol has renewed his contract with Barça until 2013, that means all that crazy talk about him being in the Robinho's transfer package will be over.

We have some quotes for you:

Talking about end of an era it's quite silly.

-Xavi

My hopes where that Puyol would stay

- Txiki Begiristain

Barcelona it's not doing bad, they're just humans

- Juan Pablo Carrizo, Zaragoza's goalkeeper

(the picture is from FC Barcelona's new campaign Ens hi deixem la pell - We give it all, wich tries to encourage people to go to the matches and support the team as match attendance hasn't been that good, lately)

Prematch: Barcelona - Rubin Kazan (Champions League)

Tonight we expect goals and good play. But you never know, this is the Champions League, and matches have to be fought from the beginning. I believe Barça players are willing to prove the draw against Valencia was just a bump on the road and that they are as fine as ever. Even more, it's a great opportunity to establish as group leaders and be half way to next round. Also, Ibra is back to the team after his absence in Valencia. He hasn't scored yet and this may be a great chance.

Winning against Rubin would be a huge step

-Pep Guardiola

Russian teams are always dangerous

-Touré

I hope God will listen to our prayers

-Berdyev, Rubin Kazan's coach

It would be a mistake focusing only in Messi

-César Navas, Rubin player