The FIFA bug strikes again – Barça players and the International Break

By: Ade C. | October 12th, 2009

Now that the World Cup is everything people can seem to talk about, it’s been discovered that FC Barcelona suffers a particularly virulent strain of the dreaded FIFA bug (can we help it if we’re so good?), which has led many of us to follow the fates of several national teams around the world as if they wore blaugrana instead of whatever gaudy combination of flag colours they have come up with.

Worse than the dreaded swine flu, this wily and powerful virus decimates football clubs throughout the world…

For these days in which the happiness, pride and self-respect of so many countries is being gambled on, Pep has been left with a meagre eight first team players to order around the training ground, which has led him to steal Luis Enrique’s Barça Atletic to make up the numbers (which, seeing our dependence on canteranos, is anything but a bad thing). The other thirteen players have flown away to join their respective national teams, to win (hopefully), to bask in the admiration of their countrymen (as it should be) and to return to Barcelona uninjured (I’m willing to sacrifice my (imaginary) firstborn in exchange for this).

Vicente del Bosque, of course, knows a good thing when he sees it and called up five of our boys (Puyol, Piqué, Xavi, Iniesta and Busquets) to play against Armenia with La Selección.

We were proud to see Xavi as captain of La Roja (and setting up Cesc’s goal with clinical accuracy), Puyol lording over the defence in Armenia as he does in Barcelona, and Piqué coming in the second part in exchange for Marchena (who is not sure to be fit enough to play next Saturday for Valencia against us), but Andrés Iniesta’s return to La Selección after having missed eleven games due to injury was definitely the highlight of the game.

Until an Armenian (yes, Hovsepyan, I’m looking at you) took it upon himself to test the newfound wholeness of Iniesta’s legs, earning himself a yellow card and leaving our fragile, precious Don Andrés with niggling pain in the very same area of his recently-healed injury. To add injury to, well, more injury, Xavi was sent back to Barcelona with problems in his knee (yes, in *that* knee), though Del Bosque is keeping Iniesta for Wednesday’s match against Bosnia Herzegovina. Cue Pep’s ominous frown and our frantic speculation on what our midfield will look like in Mestalla…

The background noise you hear? Thousands of culés going, “Oh, no, no, nononononono, NOT AGAIN!”

Elsewhere in Europe, Thierry Henry and countryman Eric Abidal were an important part of France’s triumph against the Feroe Islands, our most elegant striker wearing the captain’s armband and setting up his team for the play-offs. In Denmark, all of Ibrahimovic’s magic wasn’t enough to let Sweden win, which puts a rather definite damper on their possibilities to qualify to the World Cup (they depend now on Malta beating a CRon-less Portugal… I know, not likely).

Over in Latin America, Leo Messi tried to play saviour with Argentina as the albiceleste earned a last-minute victory against Peru thanks to a “miracle” (Maradona dixit). The Peruvian defenders, of course, took the hack-Messi’s-legs-off approach, but apparently our striker survived the match intact and is ready for Wednesday’s equally dramatic match against Uruguay, which could ensure Argentina a place in the World Cup… or send them into playoff “hell”.

Meanwhile, Rafa Márquez helped Mexico qualify for the World Cup, playing for the full match in his country’s victory against El Salvador, and then returned to Barcelona, being suspended for Wednesday’s match against Trinidad & Tobago. Already qualified, Dani Alves played in the midfield of Brazil’s starting eleven, and lost a match of no importance in La Paz’s dizzying altitude as the Canarinha faced Bolivia.

Over in Africa, the great Yaya Touré defended (if only for the last minutes of the match) Côte D’Ivoire’s colours as they earned their World Cup qualification by coming to a draw against Malawi, and will stay to play Guinea on Wednesday, while Seydou Keita was part of a rather meaningless victory over Sudan (Mali is out of the running for the World Cup already).

As it is, eight of our boys are already qualified with their national teams (Puyol, Xavi, Piqué, Iniesta and Busquets for Spain, Márquez for Mexico, Alves for Brazil and Touré Yaya for Côte D’Ivoire), a few others are on the brink of either direct qualification or at least getting to the playoffs (Messi for Argentina, Henry and Abidal for France, and Chygrynskiy for Ukraine), while the rest will likely be left watching the matches on the TV, like the rest of us mortals.

So, it’s a time for us Barcelona fans to sit back, bask in our top-of-the-table position, and pray for the return of our players, safe and sound and free of injuries and jet-lag. Let’s not forget our next Liga rival is Valencia, who has a lot to prove and some very good players with which to prove it.

(I suppose I should now acknowledge that this is my first Offside post, and that I’m dearly hoping it won’t be my last… the transition from loyal reader to writer is odd, to say the least, and I feel like I’m lost in Kevin, Isaiah and Iggy’s shoes! Anyway, I’m really proud to belong to such a great team (blogging- and footballing-wise), even if I have to share one single chair with five guys…)