Category: Uncategorized

I won’t lie to you: watching Getafe is not high on my priority list. It’s not high on anyone‘s list: their Estadio Coliseum Alfonso Pérez holds 17,000 people and they average right around 8,500 fans per match. I know it’s somewhat rich for a Barça fan to laugh at attendance numbers given all the empty… Continue reading Kicks Up the Back(side): Getafe-Barça

The symmetry is odd. This very weekend, the one where many culers will be winding themselves into knots over the Frenkie De Jong sale rumors, my suburb is having its annual Trash Day. No, De Jong isn’t trash, but this weekend makes you consider the possessions that you have and their usefulness to you. If… Continue reading Players come, players go …

In the 73rd minute of a fraught affair at a rocking Benito Villamarin, something very interesting, and potentially illustrative, happened. At the end of a beautiful move, Ferran Torres found himself in the Betis box, ball at his feet, in close. It was a moment. Torres struck the ball cleanly, and with excellent physical technique.… Continue reading Betis 1, Barça 2, aka “Moments matter”

One year, some friends and I decided to do a fun ride, a century. A hundred miles, just for giggles. At about mile 65 or so, we bonked. No energy in the legs. At mile 66, we came across a bakery. About 30 bucks worth of Pepsi and pastries later, we hit the road like… Continue reading Barça 0, Rayo Vallecano 1, aka ‘Hey, they set a record!’

Cliches are sometimes rooted in truth, and the overused word mentality is one of those. On the weekend, Real Madrid came from 0-2 down to win, 3-2 against Sevilla. People will point to various conspiracies, etc, say that Camavinga should have been sent off, etc, but does anyone really think that even a man down,… Continue reading Barça 0, Cadiz 1, aka ‘Mentality matters’

There is no more elegant way to say it: Barça got its ass kicked. In its own house. The day after, the tizzy in culerdom is that more than 30,000 Frankfurt supporters were in the Camp Nou, how did they get all those tickets, something must be done, blablabla. It’s a lovely, convenient distraction from… Continue reading Eintracht Frankfurt 3, Barça 2, aka ‘The woodshed is over there’

Many culers are still wrestling with the notion that their beloved club is in the Europa League. It’s not Champions League, right? It’s like that second-tier tournament where big clubs go to feel shame, and keep from getting egg on their faces at the hands of clubs that nobody except supporters ever watch, right? Right?… Continue reading Barça, for all the marbles … it’s Go Time

Football teams, at their highest-functioning level, are like electrical wiring. Without a complete circuit, something to close the loop, nothing happens. Sometimes that link comes through a player, sometimes a moment that catalyzes the proceedings, but without that linkup, that bit of solder, it’s just a bunch of dead wires. At the end of a… Continue reading Levante 2, Barça 3, aka “Links and redemption”

What a beautiful match the first leg of the Europa League tie against Eintracht Frankfurt was. Yes, there was lots of grumbling, lots of grousing about the quality of football, a ref that left much to be desired and more. Xavi all but called their pitch a cabbage patch. But that match was like medicine… Continue reading Eintracht Frankfurt 1, Barça 1, aka “KaPOW!”