This wraps up our pre-season action, as the lads return home to prepare in earnest for the real season debut, the Gamper Trophy match. As this will be the last real game conditions tune-up, expect to see some real lineups, and some serious looks at the kiddies.

I know you’re all looking to natter away about it, and this is the place. Yay!

Valdes and Marquez are nursing niggling little things, and Iniesta is still recovering from his injury/intestinal thing.

This one’s pretty close to a real-life starting XI, so we should see some interesting stuff tonight. Will our lads go up like a Space Needle?

Comment away, kids!

P.S. Corinne got Hectored this time! So Hector’s conspiracy theories go out the window.

“I look down at everything you mere mortals throw at me, because my ambition is so much bigger.”*

The U.S. tour continues, this time in Seattle vs the Sounders. Training has been going along and these matches are part of it. Again, we should see wholesale substitutions as everybody gets a runout (except for The Nose, who should debut in the Gamper match).

So I won’t even speculate about lineups, or the weather, or the state of the world’s economy. Instead I’ll just say that the match will be available in beeeyooootiful HD, so we shouldn’t have any of those “Who was that who made that pass?” moments.

Excited yet? Expect the team to stay on mission, which is to give folks a show, and not break anything.

*Except for The Yaya

So, a funny thing happened on the way to the Spain Invitational. La Furia Roja lost to a scrappy United States side, courtesy of a most excellent assist from one Sergio Ramos, and some matador defense.

Which means they’re playing for third place. Some say they dumped the match to keep from having to lug around this ugly-ass trophy. Hmmm.

And then we have the final, that same scrappy United States side, vs Brazil who, just when they were looking lively and on the verge of jogaing some bonito, uglied about against South Africa until getting bailed out by a Dani Alves free kick (that didn’t look like it deflected off anything, says my rippin’ good high-def ESPN feed).

What will happen? Most of the free world predicted a poleaxing by Spain, and the 2-0 scoreline was rather surprising, for a side that had, frankly, stank out the tournament. Yet here they are in the final, a time during which anything can happen.

So go ahead and comment, why don’t ya?

Good luck with that. Spain has a couple of injuries to deal with, which is my biggest horror of what is really a C-list tournament.

Ugh.

At any rate, here’s a place for those match comments but mostly, here’s a new thread.

There will be another one later, with pictures even, on a surpriiiiise topic.

Yay!

This post has been edited. A couple of folks found the football-based humor in bad taste. Apologies to anyone who found it so.

Yes, it’s big. Damn right it’s big. This picture of Xavi is big because he isn’t just our biggest player, but Spain’s.

It’s Confederations Cup time, the 8-team tourney that some are calling the Spanish Invitational. Brazil might have something to say about that, however.

The 8 sides are: Gp A: Spain, New Zealand, South Africa, Iraq; Gp B: Brazil, USA, Italy, Egypt.

I’d love to say that I care about this tournament, but I don’t. Actually, I do, for two reasons: It’s footballs being kicked in anger, and I’m jonesing pretty badly; I don’t want to see any of our lads get hurt in this kickabout.

Matches kick off tomorrow on ESPN (check your local listings), and the one most of us are going to be interested in is Spain/New Zealand. After rolling over Turkey 6-0 in a match that wasn’t as close as the score indicated, the World Cup favorites will be looking to send a message in what should be a pretty good tournament, once the chaff (USA, New Zealand, South Africa) is weeded out.

They’re playing for a trophy that looks as if somebody tried to make a really ugly version of the World Cup trophy, and sort of succeeded.

Expect Spain to come out of their group with ease, while Italy, the USA and Brazil fight it out to see who gets to lose to Spain.

We won’t see Iniesta, who is recovering from an 8-week injury. But we’ll definitely see Xavi, Puyol, Busquets and Pique, who have all been capped for this outing. Let’s wish them well, but most importantly that they stay healthy for all of the really important footy that lies ahead. Dani Alves is on the Brazil side, of course, and let’s hope he’s recovered from the head knock that had him recommending Robinho to us.

Interesting note: Valencia have the most players on the Spain squad, with 6. Boy, you’d think they’d won the triplete or something.

For those wondering, no cap for Victor Valdes, as the Spain keepers are Casillas, Reina and Diego Lopez.

Have at it!

Barça: Pinto, Víctor Sánchez, Cáceres, Abidal, Sylvinho, Hleb, Xavi Torres, Gudjohnsen, Pedro, Eto’o, Bojan
Osasuna: Ricardo, Monreal, Miguel Flaño, Cruchaga, Azpilicueta, Puñal, Nekounam, Plasil, Juanfran, Masoud, Pandiani

Y’all know the drill. Lineups, bouquets (not Busquets), brickbats and various match-related natterings, all go here.

The pic is from our 3-1 win over Mallorca at the Camp Nou, with Captain Caveman doing what he does best.

Have fun!

Lineups:
Athletic: Gorka, Iraola, Ocio, Amorebieta, Koikili, Yeste, Orbaiz, Javi Martínez, David López, Toquero, Llorente
Barça: Pinto, Alves, Piqué, Touré, Puyol, Busquets, Keita, Xavi, Messi, Bojan, Eto’o

If you want to volunteer to run the liveblog, do it now, otherwise, comments go in the comments section where they belong.