What Guti's "Current" Success Tells Us.

This is my debut article at writing something that is not a review or a preview of a game. So bare with me as i ramble on. I will be helping Corey with mostly reviews of games and some fluff pieces, but i wanted to shed light on the following matter. So here goes nothing.
We are Real Madrid. We want the best of the best playing their football in front of the Bernabeau. Whether those players are home bread (Casillas and Raul), or imported (CR9 and Kaka), they should be playing for us! So after the big overhaul that happened after Perez took over his second reign at the club, we saw around 250 million being spent for players this summer. With around 7 world class players coming in this summer, and around 10 players leaving, the club got an overhaul in its exact meaning. A new coach was also brought in. As expected, the team took a while to gel and depended on players like CR9, that have the ability to lift the team on his own shoulders, to win games!

Coming Soon: New Ideas

I need something to write about for the midweek duldrums. I am currently fresh out of ideas for new posts, and I do not have much of a pipeline for posts in the future. I going to leave it up to all of you to provide me ...

Of Monday mornings, referees, interactive polls and other fantastic beasts…

Monday mornings are horrible things. Rainy Monday mornings are horrible, horrible things. Rainy Monday mornings when the first thing you see on your way to work is this should be outlawed by the Geneva Convention:

“AND STILL THEY COMPLAIN ABOUT THE REFEREES!”

Real Madrid mouthpiece sympathisers Marca had that lovely front page today, which greeted me from every newsstand in the city where I live, where taxis try to run you over if they see you wearing a Barça scarf (which is the reason why instead I have a pink Guti t-shirt, but that’s neither here nor there... and don't judge me for it, alright?!).
I then got to work and, whilst pretending to do something productive, browsed the Barça-centric newspapers in search of good news about the patchwork defence we’ll have to play next weekend, and instead, came across glaring headlines about how “In Madrid they keep poisoning the referees” (Sport) and how “They can’t even stop us with this” (Mundo Deportivo, with ‘this’ referring to the referees and their decisions).
So far, I have followed Pep’s Zen teachings that “Referees don’t exist” to the letter and refused to be drawn into debates about the so-called ‘Villarato’ (a world-spanning conspiracy named after the Spanish Football Federation’s president, Ángel María Villar, who apparently is so chummy with Barça’s Laporta that he’s willing to sacrifice kittens and bribe referees to help us culés), but I think the time has come for a debate (Madridistas and Didier Drogba welcome, as long as you are polite and not easily offended).

Espanyol Review

Hello everyone, I will be helping out Corey today by providing the review of the game. Well this was a game that no one expected us to lose, despite the injuries to the squad. Before the game though, a lot of the injured midfielders and Pipita were given the green light to start on the bench. Pelligirini stated after the game with Deportivo that the team that lines up against Espanyol is going to be similar to the “curse busters” that played at the Riazor. He was sure hell not kidding. The same exact players lined up in front of the Berbabeu faithful to take on Espanyol. The game ended 3 – 0 for the home team (that’s us guys!) with goals from Ramos and Kaka in the first half, and none other than the back-from-injury Higuain in the dying minutes. I will talk more about the game in what follows.

La Liga Review: FC Barcelona 2, Getafe FC 1, a.k.a. "Against all odds"

OK, we actually didn't suffer from a plague of locusts last night, but I think that was about the only thing missing from our battle for those three precious points.
Getafe FC (Real Madrid’s annoying little brother), who have more pressing engagements in their only chance at silverware with their mid-week Copa del Rey matches, came to visit us at nearly full-strength, with Codina, Mané, Cata Díaz, Rafa, Miguel Torres, Boateng, Parejo, Pedro Ríos, Albín, Miku and Soldado, only missing the injured Pedro León from their dream-team.
In response, Pep Guardiola prepared a slightly innovative starting XI, with Valdés, Alves, Piqué, Milito, Abidal, Touré, Keita, Xavi, Iniesta, Ibrahimovic and Messi. Thierry Henry didn’t even make the bench and Pedrito didn’t get a nod to start, but otherwise it was a good, solid team.

"TAKE THIS, REFEREE FATE!"
But things wouldn’t go well for us. The match hadn’t even started and we’d suffered our first blow: Dani Alves, who had been declared fully fit to play, re-injured himself while warming up (he’s said to be out for three weeks; excuse me while I go and cry in my corner). Seeing this, Maxwell suddenly had to change his Saturday night plans of gazing after Abidal in favour being thrown in the starting XI as a right-back (Puyol, who would have been Alves’ natural replacement, was suspended).

Liveblog: FC Barcelona vs. Getafe

Barcelona! Getafe! Josep! Messi! Balls! Goals!(maybe). Join us, for today's match. Coverage starts 10 minutes before kick off.

FC Barcelona vs .Getafe

Sevilla 2-0 Getafe; "One Foot in the Door"

What a relief it is to finally get the job done at home in such a crucial match. Playing at our once fortress which is the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán hasn't exactly been of any benefit to us this season. We've ...

Barcelona vs Getafe Preview: Josep's first league loss of the season?

OMFG, A PREVIEW!
A couple of months into the season and the talk of the town was still about whether Josep could replicate an insurmountable yesterseason. Of course, the presence of buzzards could also not be ignored, keenly pointing out the replacement of sure-fire Eto'o for Swedish question mark Ibrahimovic among other points of critique.
Now, half way into the season, it's definitive that Josep won't be able to replicate his previous trifecta as Sevilla mustered up enough goals and hung on at the edge of the cliff for dear life long enough to see Barcelona ousted from the Copa Del Rey.
The situation though remained swell. A verbal agreement to extend his contract, left Guardiola worriers with a recovered spring in their step. The clockwork performances and results have also rolled in during league action, as the club has experienced rather strange midweek hiatuses. You know, those mid week days that were normally reserved for sweat, goals and tiki taka.
But all good things come to an end, right?

Mallorca-Villarreal

Sometimes you need a subtle hint of inspiration. Things get a little off track and you need to be reminded of all that is good in life.

As with life, in most teams seasons there are multiple turning points that can make a great season turn bad ...