Futbol Club Barcelona

[mido456]

Ibra hat sich beim Aufwärmen verletzt und fällt für das Arsenal-Match am Dienstag definitiv aus, zudem ist er fraglich für den Clásico nächsten Samstag.

Piqué hat durchgespielt, dürfte aber auch eine Verletzung davongetragen haben. Er ist für Dienstag sowieso gesperrt, und für Samstag fraglich.

Weiters mussten Jeffren und Yaya leicht angeschlagen ausgewechselt werden.

tut mir leid, aber ich halte barcelona ohne ibra für 2 klassen stärker als mit, und piqué muss fit werden bis samstag, und ich bin mir sicher er schafft das

Jeffren und Yaya schmerzen auch nicht so wirklich, ich bin nur froh das abidal wieder spielt, auch wenn er schon mal besser war

[Jorly]

Hab das Spiel gestern leider nicht sehen können, aber was für eine PK von Pep

http://www.totalbarca.com/2010/news/guardiola-with-each-passing-day-i-am-more-proud-of-this-club/

[Campione]

Pep

[lamasia]

tut mir leid, aber ich halte barcelona ohne ibra für 2 klassen stärker als mit, und piqué muss fit werden bis samstag, und ich bin mir sicher er schafft das

Jeffren und Yaya schmerzen auch nicht so wirklich, ich bin nur froh das abidal wieder spielt, auch wenn er schon mal besser war

Defensiv war Abidal solide. Und offensiv hat er 2 Assits gemacht. Was will man da mehr?

Ein Ausfall von Toure wäre für mich schon eine Schwächung. Yaya war zuletzt sehr gut in Form und seine Kampfkraft wird gegen Real von Nöten sein.

Jeffrens Ausfall würde zwar nicht so schwer wiegen. Aber auch hier würds nach dem Ausfall von Ibra und der Unform von Henry nicht Schaden, wenn wir einen fitten Flügel wie Jeffren in der Hinderhand haben.

[santiago_chile]

Mittelstürmer anyone?

Eventuell Henry - Pedro - Messi ?

Bojan vergessen?

[mido456]

Defensiv war Abidal solide. Und offensiv hat er 2 Assits gemacht. Was will man da mehr?

Ein Ausfall von Toure wäre für mich schon eine Schwächung. Yaya war zuletzt sehr gut in Form und seine Kampfkraft wird gegen Real von Nöten sein.

Jeffrens Ausfall würde zwar nicht so schwer wiegen. Aber auch hier würds nach dem Ausfall von Ibra und der Unform von Henry nicht Schaden, wenn wir einen fitten Flügel wie Jeffren in der Hinderhand haben.

ja hast schon recht, er ist mir nur manchmal noch etwas unsicher vorgekommen.

natürlich ist jeder spieler der ausfällt eine belastung, überhaupt weil die form dann meistens nicht die ist wie vor der verletung, aber ich bin für die nächste woche guter dinge

[rocket_korki]

Bojan vergessen?

->

[Jordi]

Es ist offiziell: Der heilige Johan ist Ehrenpräsident

[lamasia]

Geht im Trubel um das Clasico etwas unter, aber 2er-TW Pinto hat um ein Jahr verlängert. Wusste gar nicht, dass der sogar mal die Trofeo Zamora gewonnen hat...

[MESSIas]

Geht im Trubel um das Clasico etwas unter, aber 2er-TW Pinto hat um ein Jahr verlängert. Wusste gar nicht, dass der sogar mal die Trofeo Zamora gewonnen hat...

hier von totalbarca:

pinto verlängerung

[lamasia]

Milito hat übrigens scheinbar keine Verletzung davongetragen.

[Jordi]

Xavi pulls the strings as Barcelona leave Madrid dangling in despair again

Barça are the best side in the world and Messi is the best player on the planet. Without Xavi, they might not be

Barcelona's Xavi holds off Real Madrid's Fernando Gago. Photograph: JAVIER LIZON/EPA

One o'clock Saturday night, Sunday morning in the bowels of the Bernabéu and somewhere behind that mop of hair there's a look of surprise. There may even be a hint of disgust. "If you say so, mate," replies Carles Puyol, "but I don't agree. Maybe some people don't give him all the credit he deserves. Maybe you have ignored him, but we haven't. Not us. We know he's absolutely fundamental; we know that he's among the best in the world and I think everyone recognises that." Well, almost everyone. When Xavi Hernández was included in the top five at the Fifa World Player award ceremony in January 2009, alongside Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká and Fernando Torres, the Daily Mail's headline famously ran: "The best players of the world (and Xavi).

They could not have been more wrong, even if they frequently are. That much was again shown by the clásico on Saturday night. It was billed as a title decider and as Messi versus Ronaldo. But while the same picture – Messi, fists clenched in celebration; Ronaldo, head down, shirt drawn sadly towards his face – occupied the covers of both Madrid sports dailies, in the aftermath of the match it was Xavi that most people were raving about. "Xavi's eye decides the league," said Marca; "Xavi," added Público, "hands down the sentence." While Messi and Pedro got the goals, Xavi gave them, with two wonderful assists: the first, a beautifully clipped first-time ball; the second, a perfectly weighted through ball. It was his sixth assist in two trips to the Bernabéu. And just in case anyone missed them – the Madrid defence, for example – he reproduced both assists, only for Casillas to save from Messi.

Last season Xavi provided more assists than anyone else in La Liga; this season, only five players (Alves and Messi among them) have given more. But it is not only about assists. The clásico was no classic. It was built up as the match of the millennium but wasn't – unless the next 990 years really are going to be rubbish. The ball was in play for less than half of the 90 minutes, there was a foul every 180 seconds, and there was little of the stunning brilliance of last season's 6-2. But in its own way it was just as painful for Madrid, and in its own way Barcelona were still impressive. They might not have torn Madrid apart, but they did control them – certainly once they had ridden out the opening storm. "The best team won," said the cover of AS simply. The concern for Madrid, argued editor Alfredo Relaño, was that "Barcelona passed by the Bernabéu without even looking nervous, winning without expending energy." "Barcelona are a better team than us," shrugged Pellegrini.

This was not the Barcelona that amazes. It was, though, the Barcelona that anaesthetises. Moving the ball around, controlling the game, avoiding Madrid's lunges, frustrating them, exasperating them. This time, in short, it was as much Xavi's Barcelona as much as Messi's.

Xavi is, says the Sporting coach Manolo Preciado, "the personification of simplicity". He is also the personification of Barcelona. Even when the passes are not telling, they are fundamental. Maintaining possession, using the ball quickly and accurately, is the key: Xavi completed twice as many passes as any Madrid player. "Xavi," said El Mundo Deportivo, "was gregarious, majestic, an exhibition, his football was a recital that never ends." In Marca, Miguel Serrano described him as "an extraterrestrial": "He ordered, he played, he directed, he slowed it down a sped it up. Every time he touched the ball, the very foundations of the Bernabéu wobbled." "He read the game like no one else. He carved out space, moved cleverly, and built football," said El País. "As always."

Well, quite. Everything Barcelona do is based on possession. Even defending. Even resting. As one of Guardiola's closest collaborators says: "Barcelona are the only team that can take a break in possession." "Receive, pass, offer," is the simple message, the obsession, a badge of identity that they insist runs right through the club, driven into players from the moment they join. Xavi joined in 1991 and no one represents that obsession better than him. "I am basically a passer," he says. Guardiola calls him maquí, the machine. The late commentator Andres Montes used to call him Humphrey Bogart because, like Sam in Casablanca, he was asked to play it again. And again. And again. And again.

Last season, Xavi completed almost 100 passes at the Bernabéu. Last week, he completed more than all of Arsenal's midfielders put together. This season he has made over 400 passes more than any player in Spain; in the Champions League, he is 400 passes ahead of anyone from any other club. Even his own team-mates are 300 behind. As Alex Ferguson joked: "I'm sure I saw him give the ball away once."

"I need team-mates, people to combine with," Xavi says. "With team-mates football has no meaning. I am no one if they don't make themselves available." But it is not just that he sees the movement first, it is that he often sees the movement before it has happened, that rather than passing to the movement, he passes in such a way as to oblige the movement. He makes players' runs for them. "Xavi plays in the future," says Dani Alves. Coaches at Barcelona privately admit that sometimes he moves into areas that he should not – but that his technique is so good, his passing so precise, that ultimately it ends up looking like the right thing to do. Then there's the commitment. Xavi is a football anorak that can wax lyrical on Matt Le Tissier and Paul Scholes, he looks after himself and there's not a trace of arrogance. "When he has a day off, he goes and picks sets [mushrooms] in the countryside," reveals Guardiola, "and someone who picks mushrooms can't be a bad bloke."

At the Under-20 World Cup, the Spanish Football Federation presented a formal complaint after Seydou Keita was named the tournament's best player ahead of Xavi. But, despite having made his debut under Louis van Gaal in 1998, he has not always had such a telling impact on Barcelona's game. So much so that he admits to thinking about walking away, with Manchester United, Milan and Madrid among those that approached him. The arrival of Frank Rijkaard and Edgar Davids in 2003 changed his future, giving him protection, a competitive colleague and freedom to step forward – away from the deep lying midfield position. It was a liberation. A revelation.

It is no coincidence that Xavi is the man imposing the style on both the finest national team and arguably the finest club side Spain has ever had. When Xabi Alonso returned from training with Spain for the first time, he could not get over his midfield namesake. At Euro 2008, Xavi was named player of the tournament (although, personally, this column would have been tempted to go for Marcos Senna), completed over 100 passes in the semi-final when Russia didn't even see the ball and provided the assist to Torres in the final.

When the inevitable question is asked about why Messi has not played as well for Argentina over the past year as he has for Barcelona, it is tempting to give a one word answer: Xavi. The last week has reinforced the belief that Barcelona are the best side in the world and that Messi is the best player on the planet. Without Xavi, they might not be.

Sid Lowe hat brav aufgepasst. Artikel wie immer aus dem Guardian: http://www.guardian....nandez-sid-lowe

bearbeitet 12. April 2010 von Jordi

[mido456]

toller artikel, auch wenn das jedem aufmerksamen fussballfan schon vorher auffällt wie extrem wichtig xavi ist

vl wird er heuer weltfussballer, wenn spanien weltmeister wird dann bin ich mir dessen ziemlich sicher

[revo]

Ich würd das jetzt aber auch nicht nur auf Xavi limitieren. Ohne seinen fußballerischen Zwilling wären Barcelona und auch das Nationalteam nicht dort, wo sie sind. Das hat der alte Aragonés richtig erkannt und die beiden im Nationalteam unverzichtbar gemacht.

[mido456]

ja is sowieso klar, aber man beschränkt immer alles nur auf messi, dann sagt man es ist mehr als nur messi und beschränkt alles auf xavi

natürlich hast du mit iniesta auch recht, aber auch was pique leistet is phänomenal, diese wahnsinnsspieleröffnung, der könnte wahrscheinlich bei anderen manschaften ohne probleme auch den 10er spielen