‘Iniesta generation’ flooding Barcelona maternity wards

January 29, 2010

The first week of May 2009 was a rather good one for Barcelona fans and it seems like many of them celebrated in the time honoured fashion.

An historic 6-2 humiliation of arch rivals Real Madrid at their Bernabeu home on May 2 that effectively wrapped up the La Liga title was followed on May 6 by Andres Iniesta’s brilliant, last-gasp goal at Stamford Bridge that took Pep Guardiola’s side through to the Champions League final at the expense of Chelsea.

According to a survey of hospitals and clinics by a local radio station, the euphoria (and other emotions) generated among Barca fans by those two performances has had a rather unexpected result nine months on.

Maternity hospitals say they are struggling to cope with demand for beds and the survey, by COMRadio, of four hospitals and a clinic showed births this week and those expected next week are 45 percent higher than the average.

“When we notice some sort of surge we look for the reason and it’s evident that the cause of the increase this week is the euphoria of Barca fans thanks to the huge win (against Real) and Iniesta’s goal,” El Mundo newspaper quoted Mercedes Rodriguez of the city’s Quiron Clinic as saying.

The babies were popularly known in Barcelona as “the Iniesta generation”, the paper added.

We did a story out of Berlin a couple of years ago that, disappointingly, showed expectations of a baby boom in Germany inspired by the 2006 World Cup proved to be little more than wishful thinking.

“It’s unrealistic to think that because there were more parties and people forgot their birth control it would make a statistical difference,” Nicola Huelskamp, a consultant at the German Economic Institute in Cologne, told us.

It seems thrashing Real Madrid and getting through to the Champions League final are pretty special events for the Catalans.

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta celebrates his goal against Chelsea during their Champions League semi-final second-leg at Stamford Bridge, May 6, 2009. REUTERS/Albert Gea

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Tags: Albert Gea, Andres Iniesta, arch rivals, baby boom, Barcelona, barcelona fans, CHELSEA, cologne, comradio, euphoria, gasp goal, Germany, last gasp, local radio station, MADRID, maternity hospitals, mercedes rodriguez, Nicola Huelskamp, pep guardiola, quiron, real madrid, reuters, stamford bridge, statistical difference, unexpected result, wishful thinking

Messi quietly stealing the limelight from Ronaldo

January 18, 2010

Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo has not not been shy in trumpeting his intention to win back the FIFA World Player of the Year award, but current holder Lionel Messi appears to have other ideas.

The monstrously-gifted Argentine has consistently stolen the limelight from the most expensive player in football history with a string of sublime performances for Barcelona in the first half of the season.

Ronaldo has not scored in three matches since Real’s 6-0 demolition of Zaragoza in mid-December, while Messi has netted five in his last two to go joint top of the La Liga scoring chart on 14, double Ronaldo’s tally.

The 22-year-old Messi, who was instrumental in Barca’s unprecedented haul of six trophies in 2009, netted his 100th and 101st goals for Barca against Sevilla on Saturday in his 188th appearance.

That made him the youngest player to reach the century mark for the Catalan club and took his tally for the season to 21 in 27 matches in all competitions.

“We don’t need to prove anything to anyone, not even to ourselves,” Messi, a product of Barca’s youth programme, said in an interview with the club’s TV channel on Sunday.

“We have the same mentality as last year, we want to carry on winning things and I believe we have demonstrated this.”

He said he was not letting the success go to his head.

“The truth is that, right now, as with all the important things that have happened to me, I don’t attach too much importance to them or I don’t notice them.

“I am taking it calmly, in a normal way and with a desire to achieve more.”

The contrast between the gifted pair, as players and personalities, could hardly be greater.

The diminutive Messi resembles a shy schoolboy, with a soft Argentine accent and modest demeanour, while Armani model Ronaldo, 24, oozes confidence and is fond of tearing off his shirt to display his bulging musculature.

With a low centre of gravity and tricky skills, Messi scampers around the pitch, bouncing off defenders, while Ronaldo is more like a racehorse, galloping past opponents and peppering his game with showy stepovers and flicks.

“I have the ambition to be the best,” the Portuguese told Marca sports daily last month.

“By God’s grace I have already won the trophy for the best player in the world and I hope to win it again, either this year or next, but I will win it again.”

Ronaldo has been hampered by an ankle injury this term but his season has failed to spark into life since his return and Real slipped five points behind leaders Barca after slumping to a 1-0 defeat at Athletic Bilbao on Saturday.

Silverware is key to winning the World Player award and with Real already out of the King’s Cup and lagging in the league he will need a spectacular performance in the second half of the season if he is to eclipse Messi.

The World Cup in South Africa and the Champions League final at Real’s Bernabeu stadium in May would be the ideal stages for him to prove he is worth the 94 million euros ($136 million).

PHOTO: Ronaldo and Messi shake hands before the start of the 2009 Champions League final in Rome. REUTERS/Albert Gea

Tags: Albert Gea, Argentine, barca, Barcelona, Bilbao, centre of gravity, Champions, demeanour, fifa world player, fifa world player of the year, fifa world player of the year award, football history, important things, limelight, lionel messi, MADRID, musculature, oozes, real madrid, ROME, ronaldo, s tv, scampers, schoolboy, SEVILLA, South Africa, tv channel, world player of the year, Zaragoza

Nakamura’s Japan snub a no-brainer

July 15, 2009

Japan midfielder Shunsuke Nakamura’s decision to snub a return to Yokohama and join Spain’s Espanyol left his boyhood club devastated.

Yokohama’s club president slapped himself with a 50 percent pay cut by way of apology to furious F-Marinos fans, but arguably the most surprising aspect of the protracted saga was Yokohama’s “shock” that Nakamura opted for Espanyol instead of them after leaving Celtic, where he won three Scottish Premier League titles.

The choice between playing against glamour sides Real Madrid and Barcelona or languishing in the backwaters of the struggling J-League was a no-brainer.

The 31-year-old had always wanted to play in La Liga, while Espanyol had been chasing the Japan playmaker for years.

Nakamura’s new club described their new signing as a “galactico,” heralding his arrival as every bit as important as Real Madrid’s acquisition of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka.

Hyperbole aside, the move makes obvious sense for Nakamura, and Japan coach Takeshi Okada is unlikely to shed any tears for Yokohama ahead of next year’s World Cup.

Picture by Albert Gea/Reuters

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Tags: Albert Gea, apology, backwaters, Barcelona, boyhood, celtic, club president, Espanyol, galactico, hyperbole, j league, Japan, japan coach, Jupiler League, LA Liga, league titles, MADRID, midfielder, Nakamura, no brainer, okada, playmaker, real madrid, reuters, ronaldo, Scottish Premier League, shunsuke nakamura, takeshi, Takeshi Okada, YOKOHAMA

Barcelona beat Manchester United — your views

May 28, 2009

Barcelona deposed Manchester United as European champions with an outstanding 2-0 victory in the Champions League final at the Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday.

Samuel Eto’o struck the opener after 10 minutes when he cut in from the right past Nemanja Vidic with surprising ease and his low shot beat United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar at his near post. Xavi cracked a free kick against a United post at the start of the second half before Lionel Messi sealed the win after 70 minutes when he scored with a beautifully timed header from Xavi’s cross.

It was a curiously subdued performance from United, while Barcelona got full value for a performance that was thoroughly professional but hardly brilliant.

Alex Ferguson was content to say the best team won. Do you agree? Let us know in the comments.

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Xavi (R) and Victor Valdes celebrate victory over Manchester United. REUTERS/Albert Gea

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Tags: Albert Gea, alex ferguson, Barcelona, champions league, Edwin van der, edwin van der sar, european champions, free kick, Goalkeeper, Lionel, lionel messi, Manchester, manchester united, nemanja vidic, Photo, reuters, samuel eto, samuel eto o, second half, stadio olimpico, UEFA Champions League, victor valdes, victory, xavi

Guardiola restores Barcelona’s sense and sensibility

May 18, 2009

When you consider the importance Barcelona attaches to its Catalan identity, and the number of great local players the club has produced, it seems strange that Catalan coaches, or at least first team coaches, have had so little influence.

There have been a few, from Roma Forns back in 1927 through Josep Samitier, the great former player, and more recently the likes of Llorenc Serra Ferrer (actually Mallorquin) and Charly Rexach.

But when you think back tn coaches who stamped their personalities on the club, who marked an era, you think of outsiders like Helenio Herrera, Rinus Michels, Johan Cruyff, Louis van Gaal, perhaps, and Frank Rijkaard.

That’s what makes this season’s triumphs under Pep Guardiola so important to the club.

In less than a season in charge, Guardiola, who is about as Catalan as you can get, has reacquainted the team with the values he grew up with as a trainee at La Masia and the club have reaped the rewards with the Spanish league and cup already secured and a place in the Champions League final against Manchester United to look forward to.

Barcelona may very well lose that final against United and, who knows, with a resurgent Real Madrid under Florentino Perez things may not go this well for them for a long time.

But I get the feeling that whatever happens, Guardiola is set for a long spell in charge, whether as first team coach or perhaps in the future as some kind of sporting director.

Why? Because the more I think about it, what I think Guardiola has achieved is to give the club back its ’seny’.

Seny is a Catalan word and a Catalan concept. It stands for what the Catalans see as their native good sense, as opposed to the emotional lack of sense, or sensibleness, you might find in Andalucia or elsewhere on the peninsula — the ‘Latin” Spanishness the tourist board used to promote, all bullfights, flamenco dancers and sangria.

It’s a quality Barcelona seemed to lose during the time I was living and working there, when Van Gaal was winding the fans up as much as his team delighted them, and when the wily Josep Lluis Nunez handed over the presidency to Joan Gaspart, who often seemed to be running the club as a fan would.

Fortunes improved under Joan Laporta, who signed Ronaldinho, stood by Frank Rijkaard and presided over the club’s second European Cup win in 2006. Yet still, it seemed that players like Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto’o were bigger than the collective, bigger than the club even, and it is only since Guardiola took over that the Barcelona team has started to reflect the Barcelona identity.

It helps, of course, that the nucleus of the squad is Catalan (Xavi, Puyol, Valdes, Pique), augmented by players who were born outside the region but were educated at the club (Iniesta, Messi).

Under Guardiola, Barcelona have played some irresistible, at times mesmerising football and now stand as probably the most admired team in Europe.

Yet for all the pretty patterns practised on the training ground and deployed to such effect, that Catalan seny has its place too.

Guardiola showed it when he complained so vocally about the refereeing in the Champions League semi-final first leg against Chelsea. “How is it that the team that played all the football ended up with the same number of cards as the opposition,” he wondered aloud.

That was characterised as moaning by much of the press but I suspect it was a calculated message Guardiola was sending out.

And which team would you say saw the refereeing decisions go their way in the second leg?

PHOTO: Barcelona supporters celebrate after their team won the Spanish first division title for the 19th time at Barcelona’s Ramblas May 17, 2009. REUTERS/Albert Gea

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Tags: Albert Gea, andalucia, Barcelona, bullfights, catalans, Charly Rexach, CHELSEA, Europe, florentino perez, forns, frank rijkaard, good sense, helenio herrera, Joan Gaspart, joan laporta, johan cruyff, josep, LA Liga, la masia, local players, Louis, MADRID, Manchester, manchester united, outsiders, quality barcelona, real madrid, rinus michels, Roma, ronaldinho, samuel eto, spanish league, team coach, team coaches, tourist board, UEFA Champions League, Van Gaal

Majestic Barcelona leave Bayern speechless

April 9, 2009

“Perhaps if they only bring eight men to Munich then we have a chance.”

Bayern’s Mark van Bommel, a former Barcelona player, was brutally honest after Barca’s 4-0 win in the Champions League quarter-final first leg at the Nou Camp.

The rest of his team mates had nothing to say in the dressing room after the thrashing.

“After the match it was very quiet in our dressing room and nothing was said,” said Bayern coach Klinsmann, whose side also lost 5-1 at Wolfsburg last weekend.

“We were taken apart in the first half by a team that is currently setting the standard in Europe.”

Barca overwhelmed the Bavarians and were 4-0 up by halftime after a double strike from Lionel Messi and goals from Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry. Bayern rarely threatened and in truth the Catalans could have scored more.

Chelsea were almost as impressive in winning 3-1 at Liverpool in their first leg.

Sadly for them the draw for the semi-finals has already been made…..is there anyway they can beat Barca in this form?

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Lionel Messi (C) dribbles past Bayern Munich’s Bastian Schweinsteiger (R) and Breno during their Champions League quarter-final, first-leg match at the Nou Camp, April 8, 2009. REUTERS/Albert Gea

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