[Almogàver]

FC BARCELONA vs RCD MALLORCA
Camp Nou (Barcelona) | Thu, Jan 5 | 21:30

​

3 steps far from the glory. We're in the semifinals of the Copa, we have the chance to reach yet another final in our history. We can not fail.

The team must know that these situations do not happen that often. Minor tournament? This is what many people say until they realize that the fans respond when this competition reach this point. The newspapers talk about it, the fans start to move to get a ticket for a possible final, the rivals fear to see us rising a trophy. Minor? No, important.

To take this game seriously is to take our history seriously. 24 Copas shine in our museum and 11 years are too long, we need to fight for it again.

It will be important to achieve a good result in the first leg in order to avoid surprises and stupid extra efforts. If we already did an effort to reach the semifinals, it is a must to increase the level of exigence in this point. It'll be great to seal the ticket to the final in our home game. Let's hope to achieve a good result, not receiving away goals.

We have a date with history.


SOM-HI BARÇA!

 

[PetritH]

We should win by 2 goals at Camp Nou ... but i predict 3-0 win.

 

[Carles]

I guess Pep is gonna go with a mix of A and B teamers like against Espanyol. At least we'll have our regular back-line this time since all the guys are suspended for the league game on Sunday.

We'll probably see something like this:

Pinto
Alves-Marquez-Piqué-Sylvinho
Touré
Xavi--------Keita
Messi------------Iniesta
Bojan​

 

[Catalan05]

Plssssss no Gudy,

----------Pinto---------------
Alves-Marquez-Piqué-Sylvinho-
----------Keita---------------
-----Xavi--------Iniesta------
--Messi------------Henry----
---------Eto'o----------------

 

[Assassin]

I say go full force in this game, win with a good number of goals which is what you usually do this season and play with mostly the B team in Mallorca.

 

[Ramallets]

Xavi's out for this match. It seems he has an infection in his stomach.

http://www.sport.es/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=44&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=584305&idseccio_PK=803

I say go full force in this game, win with a good number of goals which is what you usually do this season and play with mostly the B team in Mallorca.

Yeah, as they did some seasons ago against Getafe? We won 5-2 at the Camp Nou in the first leg and lost 4-0 in the away leg. :yuck:

 

[Assassin]

Xavi's out for this match. It seems he has an infection in his stomach.

http://www.sport.es/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=44&idioma=CAS&idnoticia_PK=584305&idseccio_PK=803




Yeah, as they did some seasons ago against Getafe? We won 5-2 at the Camp Nou in the first leg and lost 4-0 in the away leg. :yuck:

Thats the planp

No, this time is different, this season the team is more balanced mentally and physically and it is going to be so very hard to beat home or away specially from this Mallorca.

 

[FC Barcelona9]

I guess Pep is gonna go with a mix of A and B teamers like against Espanyol. At least we'll have our regular back-line this time since all the guys are suspended for the league game on Sunday.

We'll probably see something like this:

Pinto
Alves-Marquez-Piqué-Sylvinho
Touré
Xavi--------Keita
Messi------------Iniesta
Bojan​

IMO, since Xavi is out Iniesta will slot in the midfield and Hleb will take his place up front. Keita is returning from an injury and needs some playing minutes, I see Guddy starting ahead of him and Keita will probably come in later during the game.

 

[Barcamaniac]

Athletic up 1-0 in Seville.

I was focused more on our side of the draw and didn't realize that Athletic have made it this far. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but they have the second most cups behind us with 23. A win this season will tie us.

Even more motivation for us to go and try to win this cup.

 

[Barcoslav]

They claim they are tied with us with 24 titles. The first cup was won by Vizcaya, a team made from Athletic and some other club from Bilbao, which one year later merged to Athletic Bilbao, anyway they claim this title belongs to them, while officially RFEF gives this title to non-existant Vizcaya.

 

[VBI]

They have 23, despite their odd efforts to change history. If we merged with Espanyol we couldn't suddenly claim that all the trophies they won as a seperate club were now actually our wins, could we? Vizcaya were a seperate entity when they won that cup, so it's not Athletic's win. So they can suck it.

As long as Messi is protected again, I'm not too bothered about the line up. I don't want us to put out the strongest team available though, the squad are jaded enough as it is.

 

[camer]

I'm worried guys. we've been looking a bit jaded lately. i know pep rotates a lot, but the team put so much work and energy everytime we play and i just hope we don't crash and burn later on in the season. the fact that we have a small squad doesn't help also. Those games are coming thick and fast. should been interesting to see how we cope.

 

[VBI]

Our squad is far too small for a push on 3 trophies. It's that simple. But nobody connected with the club wants to see that. We don't have anything like a Treble winning squad, so what's the point in trying? Added to that, Pep has the odd idea of scheduling training sessions on matchdays, tomorrow AND sunday have training before the game. WTF? I'm very concerned that our greed is going to cost us more than we can afford. Messi gets injured or too tired to pull wins out of thin air, we're in trouble.

 

[mv..]

We have little space to take a breath, but this is a big season and we have to be big and withstand. Here's visual February schedule.

05 Feb FC Barcelona - RCD Mallorca
06 Feb
07 Feb
08 Feb FC Barcelona - R. Sporting de Gijón
09 Feb
10 Feb
11 Feb
12 Feb
13 Feb
14 Feb
15 Feb Real Betis - FC Barcelona
16 Feb
17 Feb
18 Feb
19 Feb
20 Feb
21 Feb FC Barcelona - RCD Espanyol
22 Feb
23 Feb
24 Feb O. Lyon - FC Barcelona
25 Feb
26 Feb
27 Feb
28 Feb
01 Mar At.Madrid - FC Barcelona

 

[DEportivo]

The team has been jaded but we are practically in the dark part of the season with a f-ing hectic schedule, and games flying in from left and right and winning them basically meaning we just have to win the next god knows how many games more to achieve something.

Also the card related suspensions are kicking in as are the injuries.

In the league we are on a magnificent run with a 12 pt lead over our nearest rival but we still have to keep the tempo up cause there still 17 games to be played with RMadrid finally this season getting some confidence;

The Copa has put so much pressure for the first teamers with all the extra games in january but we still have to get the result from 3 more games to get the title;

At this moment all of you should just forget about the UCL cause that is a very fvcking distant future/realm to be dreamt about or to be dreaming about being favorites.

Basically its the time where the big boys are separated from the wannabes. In England both Chelsea and L´pool have lost pts from left to right in the title race against ManU.
In Spain only us and RMadrid have been getting the points with other contenders pissing the points away to left and right. Same shit goes on Italy.

After the game against Mallorca we should have some breathing space during midweek. Just have to ride the tough spell out with different players stepping up and taking some of the load off the ones who are showing some signs of fatigue or who are suspended or just injured.

Its a worrying thing but every team faces it. Just have to keep believing the team is able to ride it out and find themselves again.

 

[mv..]

Imagine same months next year. Eto'o, Yaya and Keita at ACN.

 

[DEportivo]

Our squad is far too small for a push on 3 trophies. It's that simple. But nobody connected with the club wants to see that. We don't have anything like a Treble winning squad, so what's the point in trying? Added to that, Pep has the odd idea of scheduling training sessions on matchdays, tomorrow AND sunday have training before the game. WTF? I'm very concerned that our greed is going to cost us more than we can afford. Messi gets injured or too tired to pull wins out of thin air, we're in trouble.

I think thus far Pep has acted smartly. The team for Copa games has always been selected regarding the main objective La Liga. Messi has been given rest in La Liga games.

Anyways it is time for the likes of Bojan, Guddy, Keita, Hleb, Pique, Caceres to step up their game and take some load to their shoulders and its time for example Iniesta to be the guiding light of our game when other leaders fail to do it. In hindsight maybe it was lucky but the injury gave him some rest before. Also the return of Milito will be good influence.

Etoo and Xavi are the two face imo who from the leaders are starting to loose a bit of their spark.

Anyways we will know by the end of May if we had anything resembling a Treble winning squad. A title this year would be great. Two would be fantastic. Three would be absolutely fvcking brilliant. Have to keep our run in the Liga, this being the first one, then keep our concentration in Copa games and for me the last one should be the UCL.

Pep is doing things as he knows, physically well-prepared and tactically.

 

[DEportivo]

Imagine same months next year. Eto'o, Yaya and Keita at ACN.

This will be fvcking horrible. This is why we need a world-class striker and some dudes for the midfield in the summer.

 

[VBI]

There is more black and white TV era football next week, Spain are playing I know that much. The point is we're already suffering for the ton of games. We can't not take the CL games seriously particularly since everyone will think we have a good chance of getting past that. We can't rely on our back up players because they simply aren't that good. We're still a work in progress.

 

[DEportivo]

Yeah...its a friendly against England on 11th. Fvck the international friendlies.

But what are we supposed to do ? We just cant go and start loosing games intentionally in order to drop out from other competitions. I see Barca going all out in the UCL with La Liga games going to suffer somewhat as they already are with Messi for example starting on bench against Racing. And luckily for us we have been really lucky with injuries and that hasnt showed our relatively short bench. For example the FB positions are totally uncovered in this current team. And when you start covering them with CB able to play at FB you are short in the CB department. God forbid with both of that happening to us, then wed be fvcked.

The bad thing is that some of the squadplayers are not pulling their weight : First there is Hleb who still doesnt know what the fvck he is doing and how he got here, then there is Guddy who as an impact player can be sensational but when given a bigger spell starts shitting things up. Keitas impact could be bigger but hes doing fine more or less. Caceres has been total flop for the money we payed for him. If Alves would get injured we would just simply be fvcked hard in our arses as a big chunk of our offensive game would be blown to smithereens with no cover whatsoever. Also, the defensive part should be mentioned.

Then there is the CF position with Bojan forgetting where the goal is in La Liga and Etoo slowly loosing form. Its good though he scores his goals. And not to mention what would happen if Valdes would get injured...

So yeah we got room for improvement

P.S. going to find a herd of goats to sacrifice in order to prevent injuries...