Vilanova hails Messi

 
Vilanova told the club's official website: "When you have the world's best player, who has this capacity to score goals, he usually marks the difference. He proved it once again.

"We were warned of Raja's quality after watching their match against Athletic Bilbao, but we were ready when we came into the match.

"The young players also always deliver and they played at a very high level."
One man who didn't feature was David Villa as he continues his recovery from a broken fibia suffered in December, but Vilanova believes he is making progress.

"We're talking about a serious and long injury," he said.

"When he's ready to play, we'll welcome him with open arms. He's made a lot of progress in the last month."

FC Barcelona Pre-Season Trainning Session

Blater urges footballers to follow the example of Lionel Messi

 

In an interview with ONS, the FIFA president said: "I think it is a pity that certain players are not here

"The former German player and coach Jurgen Klinsmann wrote in his book that he was a world champion, a European champion and an Olympic bronze medallist , and the most wonderful souvenir he had was that bronze medal.

"Everyone should embrace the spirit and play in the Games if they want to. The problem is that the national associations are not making the right contacts with the clubs.

"I think the players themselves would like to come.

"They should do what Lionel Messi did in Beijing in 2008. He made a stand with (his club) Barcelona and they allowed him to go to the Olympics. He won a gold medal. He was a champion.

"For 2012 and 2016 our congress made a decision that all players under 23 must be released but the national associations do not put pressure on the clubs. If they don’t we have no powers to free the players.

"The Olympics has something special for football. Those players who are here should stay in the Olympic Village. They stay in their own hotels and that is not in the Olympic spirit.

"But on the other hand football has taken the Olympics to the rest of the country — to Coventry, Newcastle, Manchester, Cardiff and Glasgow — and that is good for the spirit of the Games."

He said: "Football has always been a big and important part of the Olympics.

"Now with the Olympics having come to London, I feel that football has come home.

"Last time we had a big competition here was the world cup in 1966. England was so eager to get the world cup in 2006 and 2018 but was not able to get it.

Villa To Return Against Manchester United

El Guaje sets to return against manchester united 

 David Villa will make his long-awaited return from injury in Barcelona`s friendly against Manchester United in August.

The Spain international has been out of action since fracturing his tibia in the Blaugrana`s Club World Cup semi-final clash with Al Sadd last December.

 

humanity is the best.

Nice gesture by Messi yesterday, gave his shirt to a disabled fan in a wheelchair when he got subbed off.

 

All hail, King Messi !

Lionel Messi was brilliant Against Raja Casablanca, Braced a Hatrick.

Raja Casablanca vs Barcelona

 

Raja Casablanca - Barcelona (0-8)

Players with new kit

Happy Birthday Pedrito

 
Born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Pedro joined FC Barcelona's youth team at the age of 17, having arrived from local side CD San Isidro.

On 28 September, Pedro scored his first goal in the Champions League after replacing Iniesta at halftime in a 2–0 win against FC Dynamo Kyiv .

he did finish the campaign with 13 official goals last season, and we hope pedro will score more this season.
Good Luck.

Vilanova includes Messi in 22-man team

Messi in 22-man team Versus Raja Club Athletic match

The Argentine, who missed the match against Hamburg SV, is included in Tito's 22-man team ahead of tomorrow's match against Raja Club Athletic.

The Spanish Super Cup, suspended

The Catalan Football Federation announced that it has suspended the competition after FC Barcelona communicated that Barça B would represent the Club in the Catalan Super Cup

The Catalan Football Federation, after hearing of FC Barcelona’s intention to play the Catalan Super Cup with the Barça B team, decided to suspend the competition and the Catalonia Cup. The Federation announced its decision after FC Barcelona informed the organisation that the reserve side would represent the Club on July 31st.

Thiago Alcantara is a Barcelona Player Until 2015

Alcantara will Continue His Career at barcelona Further says Father
Mazinho, speaking to Com Radio had this to say:

“There has not been any offer for Thiago,” he said.
“He has a contract with the club until 2015 and I hope that he will stay at the club for many years and retire there.

“Everyone treats Thiago very well at Barca. In a couple of weeks, he will resume full training. It will not take him long to return to play.
“He worked hard during his holiday to be at the Olympic Games, so it is normal that he was sad when he learned he could not play in the tournament.”

Emotional moments of 2011/2012 season

 

Pep Guardiola vs Tito Vilanova (barça football indoor)

Pique backs Lionel Messi fornext Ballon d'Or to win

 
"It’s difficult to guess who will win the Ballon d'Or this year, but in my opinion, Messi is the best player in the world," Pique said to Tencent Sport.

"Barca’s objective is to win, without a doubt. We’re going to fight to win each match, and we’ll try to play beautiful football.

"Tito [Vilanova], who has been with us as the assistant coach for a long time, will manage the team with the same philosophy."

Vermaelen: "Chelsea found a new messi"

 
Vermaelen believes Belgian team-mate Eden Hazard has the Potential to Play like messi.

Thomas Vermaelen, Arsenal skipper said : “I only know Eden. I don’t know his brother. I know Eden well from the national team and he’s a really talented player. He has exceptional qualities but it’s not easy to show that every week at a high level.

“He’s been player of the year in France for two years in a row and that says quite a lot and I hope he will do well at Chelsea. I think he will.

“Technically, he is very good. He is quick with the ball. He’s a little bit like the way Messi plays. He’s small with a low centre of gravity and has some good tricks.

“We wanted to give him a free role in the friendly against England (before Euro2012) because he has the talent to do that. You don’t have to give him too many responsibilities.

“Just leave him free to play. Allow him to enjoy the game and then he will be at his best.
“I’m confident he will do well but the Premier League is a high step. Everyone will say that. England is tougher and the tempo is much higher and the quality of defenders is much better. It won’t be easy but he will show his quality to the fans at Chelsea. He will do well, I think.”

“Maybe we’re doing something right. Dedication in Belgium is good and the players tend to leave early for other countries. You have to be lucky as well. If these players come through together as one, that generally helps.
“Vincent’s always been a very talented player. When he was 17 he was playing Champions League football for Anderlecht.

“But when he was young, he had some critics. He wasn’t always secure and he was making some mistakes. He is very technical for a defender and he wanted to show this with a few tricks.

“But in the last two or three years he has got this out of his game and has become a world class defender, one of the best in the world. He’s really focused. He’s a real professional and I see this in the national team.
“He works hard for himself and makes sure he’s fit for every game. He’s a leader as well and takes his responsibilities seriously. He’s good for his team.”

He said: “I signed my new contract last year and I’m proud to play for this club. When I was young, I watched Arsenal a lot and you could see the way they played was really attractive.

“I speak to players when I join up with the national team and everybody likes Arsenal, because it’s a fantastic club and that’s why I’m really happy to be here.”

FCBarcelona B to play in the Spanish Super Cup

 
Josep Maria Bartomeu, the Club Vice-President Explained  “we made the decision in view of the full schedule of games which our first team have to fill, together with the unavailability of the international players and especially bearing in mind what happened to Marc Muniesa we were worried about the risk of injuries. We decided to announce this well in advance, to avoid any possible disappointment for the fans”.

Lionel Messi 2011/2012 Records

I was never an Assistan Coach at Barca

 
Tito Vilanova Said "he never felt like an assistant to Guardiola given the great understanding they had with each other"

"With Pep, when it came to football, we agreed 99.9 per cent of the time. I never felt like an assistant coach, because I participated in everything," Vilanova stated while talking to reporters in his post match conference in Hamburg.

"I’ve coached the team before from the bench, but this time it's different. Previously, Pep would always be in the stands.”

"Now we have another team and we’ll try to make sure it works just as well."

Dani Alves on red carpet at Tito Vilanova’s premiere

 
The Brazilian full back gave a good account of his abilities in Barcelona’s first pre-season friendly match, opening the scoring at the stroke of five minutes play against Hamburg.

Golden signs came from Tito Vilanova first match in charge of Barcelona first team. The Catalan team took on the challenge of Bundesliga outfit, Hamburg, finishing the match with a 1-2 favourable score-line at the full time whistle.

Dani Alves opened the scoring for La Blaugrana with five minutes on the board. Arslan equalized for the German outfit, while Gerard Deulofeu made it 1-2 seven minutes before the interval.



It was the good performance of Dani Alves that was the highlight in Barcelona's win in Hamburg. The match marked the premiere of Tito Vilanova in FC Barcelona’s dugout, however, nothing can be concluded from the outing with a large number of first team players absent in the Catalan team’s ranks.
 
As expected, there was no post Guardiola revolution. Under the tautology of Tito, Barcelona are still playing the same, or at least trying to play the same football that has earned them rave reviews from critics across the globe.
Nevertheless, it was interesting to see Vilanova give home grown players the starting slots, leaving the neutral wondering what really they were missing in the absence of their majority of their star players.
Dani Alves made sure to point to the gap, as he was eager to please after his media debacle regarding transfer speculations and Barcelona FC’s antics in handling the matter.
 
He only played 45 minutes but was decisive in that time period. The former Sevilla player scored the first goal and supplied the ball for the second goal to complete a prolific outing.

Gerard Deulofeu scored the second goal and exhibited his talents in Bavaria. He left a good feeling amongst the fans, continuing his good performances from Spanish U19 team’s European Championship triumph.
The goal of the Germans came after a fumble by La Blaugrana in the midfield. It was the typical failure that needs to be rid off during these games. It was nothing of the sort that sets off alarms, but something that should be corrected before the start of the season.

Making of Gerard Pique 2012 for Mango52

Lionel Messi's absence from Barcelona's friendly

 
BARCELONA: Lionel Messi's absence from Barcelona's friendly at Hamburg because of a right leg injury cost the club more than just the loss of the world's best player.

Barcelona confirmed to The Associated Press on Wednesday that the Argentina forward's failure to play in Germany on Tuesday will cost the club 30 percent of its contract money, about (euro) 360,000 ($436,000).

Mascherano agrees to extend Barca contract until 2016

 
the club said in a statement on their website.

"Mascherano has become a key player for us,"
"Since Guardiola played him in central defence I don't think he has had a bad game,"the World Player of the Year added.

Mascherano feels a complete value player at Barca

 

Mascherano said on Barcelona official Website:

“When you’re in a big team and when that big chance comes along you have to take it and not let it slip away.”

Madrid And Barcelona--A Look At The Numbers Behind The 2011/12 La Liga Season

 

Madrid And Barcelona Numbers
Points and Goals

These are the raw 38-game numbers. The goals totals are within the range of one another. So why the 9 point gap?
Possession

No surprises are seen here, we know Barcelona are the best possession team in the world. Madrid's possession total would have led the EPL.
Shot Totals

These are total shots per game which include shots off target or on target.
We see that Madrid, despite 10% less possession of the ball every game managed to shoot more than Barcelona did. But were they efficient, did they manage to convert those shot numbers into on target numbers?
Shooting Efficiency



These are the percentage numbers of shots on target from the total shot numbers.
eg, 6 shots on target from 12 total shots gives a team a 50% shooting efficiency rating.
Overall, Barcelona were the far more shot efficient team.Madrid were pretty consistent across the board. But how many of these shots were on target?
Shots On Target

So Madrid, despite having 3 shots more per game only managed 0.42 more shos on target per game than Barcelona.
But shots on target numbers need context and that require scoring% (shots on target/goals for)
Scoring%

Note how similar the overall scoring% numbers are.
Barcelona edge this category by 0.22%, although the respective teams went about achieving that number in different ways.
Madrid were consistent home and away despite seeing their away shooting efficiency dip sharply. Barcelona were very strong at home but only had a 31.78 scoring % number away from home and I think we know that Barcelona's away form will be the area most scrutinized.
How about shots against?
Total Shots Against

So, Madrid having 10% less possession per game meant they conceded more shots against than Barcelona did, this we expect. But remember Madrid had more shots for, again despite less possession per game. Madrid were simply a higher shot event team.
Shots On Target Against

We see Barcelona concede less shots on target against per game than Madrid. Barcelona were simply better at restricting the oppositions shooting opportunities.
So why did Barcelona concede only 3 goals less over the course of the season?
Save%

Madrid were simply better at keeping the ball out of the net. This can be due to tactics, team defense and goalkeeper skill level.
The overall difference is 2%, League wide save % is 65.5%. Both teams are well above mean but the telling difference, as illustrated above is teams away save%. Madrid have a 10.3% better save % away from home.
It's all about the away form.
PDO

Here is a stat called PDO. It's a method borrowed from Ice Hockey and adapted here. It's the combination of scoring% + save%. Each individual game has a 200 number that is divided up by the 2 teams depending on how they performed in scoring% and save%. PDO is expected to regress toward the mean (100) over time. Man City scored 116.2 in the EPL.
We see both teams are exceptional by this measure and by far and away the league leaders.
Barcelona are the home kings of PDO with a staggering 125.6 number. But Barcelona fall behind Madrid by the away PDO number.
Barcelona, by pdo and it being an accurate reflection of points totals (which it is not), would seem to have had a better home season than Madrid. And vice versa for the away form.
Did it pan out that way?
Points home and away

Well Barcelona despite the better home PDO and home possession and a slightly better scoring% managed only 2 points more than Madrid did.
Madrid's 50 points total at home was by right of having superior home totals in shots for, shots against and save%.
The away points column is the real kicker for Barcelona as they were just not sble to keep up with Madrid's relentless away form and this was underpinned by their away goals totals.
Goals

The goals for totals are crazy high for both clubs, but it's on this chart that we see another big sign of a separation between the two teams.
Madrid conceded 8 more goals at home, which didn't hurt them. Away from home Madrid were +38, Barca +23. A 15 goal differential and that is significant.
Madrid's superior shot numbers, and save % enabled them to outscore Barcelona by 10 goals away from home and concede 5 goals less. This is where the 11 point gap between the respective away form comes in.
The only stat in which Barcelona were superior to Madrid was possession. Possession needs context and the above stats provide that context to Barcelona's possession.
So why wasn't Barcelona's excellent away possession converted into more points?
The shots on target +/- don't tell us much on an individual game-by-game basis. Madrid were out shots 3 times (losing only 1 of these). Barcelona were out shot only twice away from home ( 1 draw, 1 win).
So what went wrong with Barcelona's challenge, why did the away form falter?
Let's look at scoring and save %, result by result, in the form of PDO to see if it shows us a trend?
Madrid's PDO (38 games)


Madrid have 17 results that feature under their individual mean line PDO. 11 wins, 4 draws and 2 defeats. Their other 21 results above the PDO mean were all wins.
Game 3 was a loss at Levante (a). Madrid were outshot 4-3 and outscored 1-0.
Game 15 was a loss against Barcelona (h). Madrid were outshot 5-7 and outscored 1-3, despite taking a 1st minute lead.
Real Madrid were incredibly consistent.
Win % above the mean line was 100%.Win % below the mean line was 64.7%
Barcelona PDO (38 games)

Barcelona had 16 results below their mean line. 7 wins, 6 draws and 3 losses. All other results were wins.
Game 13 was an away loss to Getafe. Barca outshot Getafe 6-1 but were outscored 1-0 on Getafe's only shot on target and thus recording an extremely rare 0 pdo score.
Game 22 was an away loss to Osasuna. Barca outshot them 8-3 but were outscored 3-2. getafe scoring on all 3 shots on target
Game 34 was El Clasico in the Camp Nou. Barcelona were outshot 3-6 and outscored 1-2 despite having 72% possession of the ball. Mourinho's tactics and Ronaldo at his very best were enough to effectively seal the title.
But, in essence, it was Barca's 6 draws were led to the 9 point gap between the teams, all 6 draws coming away from home. It's no coincidence that when Barcelona suffered a low PDO score they were highly likely to be unable to win.
Below the mean line win% was 43.7%. Above the mean line the number was 100%
Away form was the over riding factor that prevented Barcelona from keeping pace with Madrid's relentlessly strong form.
But was Barcelona's away form poor in comparison to seasons gone by?
2011/12 39 points (2nd)
2010/11 46 points (1st)
2009/10 44 points (1st)
2008/09 42 points (1st)
Overall we can say Barcelona were a poorer away side than years gone by, but why? Fans of Barcelona may be able to tell that story better than I, but as I hope I have shown in the above numbers and charts, this seasons away form was what prevented them from being closer to Madrid.
How about Madrid's sensational away form in 2011/12 in comparison to recent years?
2011/12 50 points (1st, best away form)
2010/11 43 points (2nd)
2009/10 42 points (2nd)
2008/09 34 points (3rd)
Madrid are trending in the right direction. But we are still talking of a 7 point jump from recent seasons away form.
A few thoughts.
Madrid and Barcelona are both sensationally good by nearly every stat count. Both teams' home form is outrageous. Madrid's away form in 2011/12 is probably the highest points total I have ever seen, and that fact, more than Barca's 4 or 5 point drop off from historical away form is what enabled this Real Madrid side to win La Liga.
Madrid's away form may not be sustainable to the tune of 50 points a season.
These two teams are the two best sides in the world, who is the best is a debate to be had among the fans of both clubs.
La Liga is not in a good place at the moment. The lack of competition from other clubs, whether due to financial mismanagement or a cruel and unfair tv deal, is something that really needs to be corrected. Only 6 teams scored more goals in total than Messi did individually. Generational talent though he is, this doesn't reflect well on the league from an outsiders perspective.
I shall leave you with one last graph!
The Race For The Prize