Barcelona started their La Liga campaign on Sunday with a drawless, yet entertaining match, against Racing Santander away from the Camp Nou. Each team had their fair share of action and opportunities. Barcelona’s pre-season has been nothing short of perfect, with six our of six wins registered they went into this game with self-confidence and valour. It is clear to see from the various interviews that the Barca players and the manager have conducted, they are in a mind set focused on winning everything they can get their hands on.

Early Scare For Barca

Racing had their best chance when Colsa broke between Abidal and Oleguer to send the ball past Valdez to kiss the post and bounce back into play. Barcelona’s hearts went into their mouth. However, there was to be no such opportunity like that one again for the entire match. Barcelona’s best chance came in the same fashion. Leo Messi had been substituted for Henry who came on to make an immediate impact. In the 85th minute, Henry found himself just outside the area, he cut the ball inside and then laid the shot off to find it pass the goal keeper and hit the post.

Ronaldinho Makes Great Contribution

Throughout the match Ronaldinho created some great opportunities for his team mates, with crisp, precise passing which was unfortunately wasted a couple of times. At one stage during the match Ronaldinho was given a free kick outside the area. He stepped up to take the kick, to find his kick loop over the wall and whiz right past the left hand corner. A little lower and it was a definite goal. With this draw, Barcelona take on Inter Milan next in the Gamper Trophy match. Essentially a friendly game, every year, this match brings out the creative flair of both sides who play. It should be great to watch.

Ronaldinho Gains Spanish Citizenship

With the game aside, Ronaldinho is finalising his bid to gain Spanish citizenship. Ronaldinho was treated to a media frenzy when he visited court yesterday, near Barcelona, after he pledged allegiance to the Spanish Constitution to get the dual citizenship. This move once again proves Ronaldinho’s allegiance to FC Barcelona, with his contract ending in 2010. With this event, another spot in the team is open to Non-EU players, leaving Eto’o as the only Non-EU player.

Note: Ronaldinho is currently fulfilling international duties to play with Brazil.

I don’t think I’ve ever talked about the art of diving on the football field before, but it’s something that needs to be talked about because it’s always controversial. I don’t care what anyone says, I think it is just outright wrong and gives the game of football a bad name. Not only does it make football players look like, pardon me, pussies, it also brings heartache and anger for the opposing team to receive the shorter end of the stick. I can first hand tell you the frustrating nature of seeing a footballer take a dive when you tackle them fairly. You just want to pick up the player and slap them across the face, in order to say, get a hold of yourself!

Professionals Are Good At It

Recently, during the Chelsea vs Liverpool match which was played the other day, a pass which was going to Drogba was left by Malouda, but Liverpool defender Agger went in to challenge the ball and Malouda dived, resulting in a poor penalty decision. This was then converted by Lampard, leaving Liverpool with a undesirable 1-1 draw. Another incident that plays over and over again in Australian hearts is the match we had against Italy. In the dying stages of the match, defender Lucas Neill challenged the ball to find he had slid past the attacker Grosso and out of his way. The Italian then dived over him as to say Neill was holding him down. That is my interpretation of it. You can find the video below.

It still pains me to watch that video to this day because I honestly think we were hard done by. But you can now see the consequences of diving and the impact that has. Grosso’s dive cost Australia their place in World Cup history and people here still talk about that match to this day. On the other hand, Grosso not only put Italy through to the next round, he contributed to his country and Italy ended up winning the whole thing. It is very interesting to see that the game of football can favour those who play unjust and unfairly, like any game, but it is our job as footballer to strive to toughen up and not go down as easily as the Italians in this case.

P.S I’ve got nothing against Italians, it was just the best example I could use

With a great volley from Lionel Messi, Barca have secured 6 out of 6 wins in the pre-season so far and is just another confidence booster for the team. The fantastic strike came from the Argentinian in the 82nd minute and on a personal note, these kinds of volleys are really the hardest to pull off when under pressure. It is the first match the 20 year old has played since returning from the Copa America. In the first half, the attacking trident of Ronaldinho, Eto’o and Henry pressed the Bayern defence, with the best chance going to Henry who came one on one with Oliver Kahn, however, didn’t net the ball.

Messi and Dos Santos Come On

With the introduction of Messi and Dos Santos, more opportunities began to flow in, until in the 82nd minute with a cross headed up my Marquez landed down to Messi’s feet and the Argentinian let fly with a outstanding volley to fly past the keeper, hitting the post and bouncing back into the goal. You can find the video below.

Like I said before, the pure technical ability needed to score a volley like this is mind blowing, especially with the ball reaching those kinds of heights. I can say to you that these kinds of goals are the fruits of hours upon hours of skill work, which boils down to moments like that.

Barcelona recently ended their tour of Asia with a 4-0 win against Mission Hill of Hong Kong. The match which was played on Saturday, was originally supposed to be played a few days earlier, however, Hong Kong was hit with Typhoon Pabuk and the match had to be delayed. Nevertheless, the game brought with it some occasional showers, but the weather did little to relieve Mission Hill from the typhoon of goals coming their way. You can find my commentary on the various goals below.

Xavi - 22nd min

Rather lucky for Xavi here as the ball nutmegs the keeper, hits the post and then goes in for the goal. The movements up until this goal is great and the team work is spectacular. Take note of the turn by Samuel Eto’o and the sheparding of Henry to keep the ball away from the Mission Hill defender.

Eto’o - 28th min

The attacking trident of Henry, Eto’o and Ronaldinho continues to thrive with this great goal and lead up. Wonderful pass by Henry to split the defence to Ronaldinho and great flick pass by Ronaldinho to find Eto’o to calmly place the ball in the net.

Henry - 36th min

Great movement from Xavi to Iniesta. Take note of how Eto’o crosses the ball first time. Great vision by the Cameroonian to find Henry who dives on the ball to find it rockets to the top right hand corner. Great team work.

Dos Santos - 86th min

The wonder kid does it again with another great goal to add to his tally. Great run by the young Mexican and calm finishing against the goal keeper. (Note: The defender marking Giovanni should have done a much better job, he shouldn’t have let him make that run)

Success For Barca

It has been a successful campaign for Barcelona and Ronaldinho in particular who has made a solid 4 goal contribution to the team over the tour. Barcelona now faces Bayern Munich next who have already recorded their first win in the German Bundesliga. many say that this will be a high pressure game for Barca, but coach Frank Rijkaard maintains that the next match will be another practice game like all the others leading up to the Champions League.

Yes I finally got my hands on some 10R Ronaldinho Football Boots after my last pair was stolen. I thought that reporting on the recent Barcelona games continually would get  too repetitive so I thought this would be good to mention. Anyway, last month I wrote a post about how I’ve been looking at investing in some new football boots and after a month, it has come true. But there’s a catch, I’ll explain that a little later. To my delight I was able to get myself a replacements at the killer price of 80 USD and with shipping it came to 110 USD, which converts to just under 130 Australian Dollars. Pretty good when you consider that I was prepared to pay $280 AU a few months ago, so I saved myself around $150 or 60% off the retail price. I was foolish enough to go buy the boots at retail price, but now I’ve learn’t my lesson. Now some pictures and you realise something as you look at them.

The New Red Ones

I’ve expressed my liking for this latest version of the 10R boots and when I saw these Ronaldinho Tiempo boots being auctioned for 80 USD I knew that they were for me. They only had one size available, and that was my size Moving on, I saw this deal displayed on the ads in this blog and like I’ve said before, there are some great deals to be had here and even I click on these ads to get myself some merchandise. I’m happy with the investment and they look great. I had previously expressed the notion that I would be looking to get the creamy white version of these boots, but when I saw the red ones available and the fact that stores don’t have these in at the moment, I had to get them. What is your favourite colour so far? Has anyone heard of any plans to have any new colours? Please let me know