flywoman | Entries tagged with javier mascherano

You're viewing

flywoman's journal
Create a Dreamwidth Account Learn More

Reload page in style: light

Jordi Alba and I apparently feel the same way about this result...

Even biased Barcelona fan that I am, I would never have predicted this victory. Barca arrived at the second leg of this Champions League round without an away goal, having lost to AC Milan 0-2 at the San Siro. In order to stay in the tournament, they had to score at least two goals in regular time AND keep a clean sheet, which they had not managed to do from mid-January to their Saturday match against Deportivo. In that recent match, I had seen promising signs of a sharper Barca, a hungrier Barca... but they had still only scored two goals total against the lowest team in the league standings. Tonight they were going to have to do much, much better.

( And they did. )

2012-10-02_BENFICA-BARCELONA_45-Optimized.v1349215374

(Not just posting this for the rare glimpse of Masche's abs, but because I think it shows how upset and scared the players were after Puyol's accident last night and how the captains really stepped up and comforted their teammates.)

2012-09-15_GETAFE-BARCELONA_34.v1347740927

Not gonna lie, I was really anxious about this match. Not only did last season take a turn for the worse after our loss to Getafe in November, but most of our first string players just returned from FIFA world cup qualifiers, Iniesta and Alexis came back with injuries, and Jordi Alba had to have his tonsils out. I had prepared myself to be grateful for a draw, especially given that Getafe beat our arch rivals Real Madrid last month.

( Boy was I pleasantly surprised. )

BFFs Gerard Pique and Carles Puyol celebrate this season's final victory

( The Copa del Rey: Pep's first and final trophy as manager of Barcelona )

( And, of course, there were locker room photos. )

Now it's off to the Euros for many of the Spanish players from both teams, who will miss tomorrow's friendly game against Serbia due to the late date of this Copa final. We won't see our boys in blaugrana again until the start of next season - when hopefully they will all arrive well-rested, injury-free, and ready to reclaim the Spanish league.