Deco is the only one late to the party.

Jenny, I’m with you on the confidence thing. I also wonder if having everybody back and healthy is doing a lot to help that confidence. The players hear so much about how great the side is going to be “if only when,” and you start to believe it as a player. Then when “if only when” comes, the confidence is suddenly back.

I was trying to figure out when I had last seen Barca play like that, and it was against Inter, in this year’s Gamper Trophy match. They pasted Inter, making an excellent side look like a Serie B one. The passing, the movement, Yaya’s rumbles up the center, Abidal’s slashing the wings, Messi and Ronaldinho. THAT was the last time I saw that side.

Good to have them back.

Ballbeav, I’m with you on Xavi. He had a great game! If he continues playing like that, it makes for a difficult coaching decision. Who do you start in the midfield? Obviously you start Toure in defensive mid, he was an animal yesterday! But do you start Deco and Iniesta or Xavi and Iniesta. I say it looks good no matter how you slice it. But I’d lean towards Xavi right now, simply because he’s been able to find the back of the net when we’ve needed it the most. I know some of you criticized his toe-poke goal against Osasuna, but you have to admit he’s the reason we’re two points back, not four. Well, and the fact that Real made complete fools of themselves yesterday. Now there’s a blunder for the history books!

I think confidence is everything right now. I know in the past I’ve said it looked like the blaugrana lack desire, I think I was wrong. It was confidence. There has been so much speculation and rumor this season I think they failed to believe in their abilities, which I still credit to coaching error. Now a healthy, and yes, more confident Barca look pretty amazing, don’t you think?

One last thing, did anyone happen to catch Messi’s statement after he scored? All I have to say is the man has class. If you can watch it again, check out what he does in the celebration. After a hug from Ronnie, he pushes everyone off to find Zambrotta. Now I don’t know if this was to thank him for initiating the pass that lead to that beautiful goal or to ward off the fickle fans in the Camp Nou for whistling at Zambrotta’s penalty, either way it was a classy and unselfish display by the young superstar. Personally I think it was his way of saying to the fans, “Shit happens, now have a little more confidence in your team, thank you very much!”

I’m with Jake. All are welcome, and John is good people. His choice of teams is unfortunate, but we can’t all be on the side of light now, can we?

I watched that Getafe goal again, and I have to say that the very same thing could have happened to any team….yes, even our lads. There was no indication that Raul was called off, even though he clearly was, and the question becomes was the initial effort a pass or a shot. Looked like a pass to me, and the question is: If Getafe knew it, why didn’t the Evil Empire?

And yes, it was very funny. But they were crap the entire game, and have been crap for a while. They’ve just been getting lucky breaks. I like what’s happening now: We’re getting stronger (ballbeav is right, however. The Celtic match was a LOT more impressive, though they had clearly dialed it back against Levante), and they are getting weaker. They now have injuries, like we did.

We’ll see about the rest of this stuff, and what a season. Plenty of games left, and we’re looking good. But everything can change with the plant of a foot. It’s all so delicate.

For that reason alone, I now root for the Blues in England. (Mind you, the correlation doesn’t apply to Cup wins, but still…)

My superstitions aside, I’m obviously delighted with the weekend’s results. It’s in our own hands now!

now, i said would never talk about franco’s kids again in this forum, but that was partly to get rid of john. i think in general it is best to ignore any RM supporters that come into this forum.

that said, i will now blab about RM. for pure comic value, the look on Robben, Gago, and Sergio Ramos’ faces when they realized that their goal had been disallowed (and that Getafe was off to the races) was priceless. i laughed out loud. it was the second biggest laugh i’ve had all season, after when henry scored against Racing and hiked his shorts up to his armpits (a tribute to Victor Valdes, it turned out).

While RM miss Robinho, Schneider and Pepe et al. (they’re back soon) i cant say they really looked any less spectacular today than many other times i have seen them this season. they dont always create that much. Today, they didnt have one shot on goal today until like the 70th minute, when Guti had a free kick turned around the post. They have won a lot of games this season without looking all that great. The only slight differences in todays match were (1) casillas didnt have much to do and (2) their offense didnt ever score that late-second-half goal that they always end up scoring. They played their best against Barcelona, i would argue — though i didnt see the 7-0 match.

De verdad, hay liga!

Only 2 points behind. Actually we are up by 1 point if you include the fact that we are going to win at the bernabeu. The triple is pretty do-able. Semi’s of the Copa, almost ahead in the liga, and going in to the next champions league match with a 3-2 previous score (and we are playing at the Nou Camp!).

I was so impressed when Bojan passed off that ball. So many young players come to the first team after dominating the youth ranks, so they think that they are the king of the team. That was so selfless, which is amazing to see in someone of his age. One for the future (and present.)