TROPHIES GALORE!!!!!

By: Isaiah | June 5th, 2007

GANAMOS LA COPA!!!! LA COPA CATALUNYA ES NUESTRA!!!!

Barcelona defeated city rivals Espanyol 1-1 (5-4) on penalties to win the Copa Catalunya today, with Thiago Motta of all people smashing in the last penalty in to ensure that the trophy room at the Camp Nou remains stocked with the latest hardware. Not that anybody really important played in the game. Motta, Oleguer, and Belletti are the only ones who ever see first team action who were out there and I have to imagine that was just for experience sake as Giovani Dos Santos also got to play. Apparently the game was end-to-end at first but then became a borefest, as if a whole bunch of English players had suddenly been put on the field. Aw snap take that, Wayne Rooney.

Goals:
Ezquerro 8′ 0-1
Pedraza 24′ 1-1

I’ll admit I don’t know much about the Copa Catalunya and was only dimly aware that it was even in existence up until today when I decided to “watch” the game from work via the textual wonder that is Sport’s “partido al minuto” (Gametracker, basically, but without the useless graphics). When I got home, I tried and failed to stream the penalty kicks. No extra time here, just straight to the decider, but all I could do was listen to some of the commentary and even that cut in and out. I mean, it was to the point that I was watching Motta run up for the final, decisive penalty and it stopped as he started his forward swing. At least it didn’t piss me off.

This year marks the 4th consecutive time FC Barcelona and cross-town rivals RCD Espanyol have met in the finals of this vaunted and historic battle of the teams who reside in Catalunya. I mean…it’s got some importance, right?

For those of you unaware of the Copa Catalunya, it apparently used to be called Copa Generalitat (between 1984 and 1993) but is now officially Copa Catalunya. Espanyol and Barcelona haven’t actually dominated this tournament like you’d think, but they’ve had their fair share of titles. Barca, ever the trophy hog, have collected 6 and Espanyol 4. Since the tournament is actually younger than I am, that’s a pretty high percentage of the total titles taken (10 of 23 is pretty decent).

Also, the Wikipedia page of the tournament was updated within 1 minute of the end of the final. Seriously.