http://barcelona.theoffside.com News from FC Barcelona and the Nou Camp Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:15:35 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Well, we’re stuck in it now, aren’t we? With the quickest of glances at the upcoming schedule, you’d reckon that Pep, Tito and Co. will have to sharpen their knives and put on their cowboy boots for what’s about to happen. You see, they don’t just hand out stadium nicknames ... http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/barcelona-atheltic-bilbao-preview-cooking-lions-with-chef-guardiola.html So this is it, boys and girls, the end of international break. Let’s hear that sigh of relief and the raucous celebrations because (with the exception of Touré and Keita leaving for the African Cup), our boys are home to stay until the next year at least. And what did this ... http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/barca-players-and-the-international-break-this-time-we-swear-in-french.html An old Mexican man, worn from years of work and the testing weight of life, once told me as I stood in (for the night) the oddly contemplative McDonalds, waiting for possibly the most time-consuming six pack of McNuggets I'd ever ordered: "The broken man comes back strong and desperate, ... http://barcelona.theoffside.com/barcelona/marquez-contract.html So, yesterday was the first day of friendlies, World Cup qualifiers and playoffs of this maligned international break, and those of our boys who had been called up by their respective NTs were in the thick of things, as usual (except for Chygrynskiy, who didn’t play in the match that ... http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/barca-players-and-the-international-break-spain-argentina-and-the-meaning-of-%e2%80%98friendly%e2%80%99.html Forgive any typos you might find in this post, as I find that typing whilst bouncing gleefully on your seat and humming “Tot el camp” is not conductive to good spelling. Yesterday’s was one of those pretty, gleeful matches that culés (and football aficionados everywhere) can only sit back and enjoy ... http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/fc-barcelona-5-cultural-leonesa-0-a-k-a-%e2%80%9cwe-feel-pretty%e2%80%9d.html Yes, that’s a bit of an exaggeration. FC Barcelona players have way too much class to trample anyone in their rush to leave for international pastures. I assume they will politely excuse themselves before leaving, but the point remains that someone is going to actually have to go on the ... http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/fc-barcelona-vs-cultural-leonesa-stamped.html A solitary flag, claret and blue, stands where two lines meet. When it comes to Barcelona, a few keywords are in constant rotation: possession, eminence, Lionel Messi, brilliant, short (and yet the likes of Piqué, Chygrynskiy, Touré, Busquets, and Ibrahimovic tower over most), tiki-taka, Real Madrid, set-pieces (I can't include ... http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/review-barcelona-mallorca.html Even thought everyone seems to have forgotten in the face of the catastrophe that is our coming to a draw in our last two matches, we have an important match to play on Saturday. We need to re-establish our superiority over the whole wide world after having stumbled over Osasuna ... http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/la-liga-preview-fc-barcelona-vs-real-mallorca.html And so I command, and so it shall be done. Or at least, that’s what Pep wanted to have happen tonight. It didn’t quite turn out that way. Barcelona, traveling to the frigid unknowns of Municipal Institution Football Club Rubin Kazan and their home in Kazan. It was ... http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/barcelona-0-rubin-kazan-0-i-cant-believe-its-not-butter-better.html Marching to Kazan! You can feel the lack of satisfaction between Barcelona fans this season. It’s basically a result of high expectations. The satisfaction stocks rise and fall on weekly bases the same as the team performance varies. Every game has its own story, but still there are common denominators between ... http://barcelona.theoffside.com/team-news/champions-league-rubin-kazan-vs-barcelona-and-much-more.html