Barça’s Reemergence Gravely Exaggerated.

Barça’s one week of positive results brought back praise from critics and supporters following their victories against Rayo Vallecano and Manchester City. However, all that exuberation was premature following this weekend’s loss to Real Sociedad. Barça no longer control their destiny but they can control their fate if they continue their trend of mediocre performances.

Since December, Barça have won six of their eleven league matches while losing three times and suffering two draws. Those results allowed Real Madrid to overtake them atop of the league summit. The poor trend of conceding silly goals continue and their lack of killer instincts along with subpar finishing has saw them relinquish that precious lead. These factors were also obvious in victories too but it seemed many preferred to ignore as if the ends justified the means.

Obviously, injuries are to blame but that is also part of the game. That is why teams invest in deep squads and are allowed to pursue other players in the winter transfer which the Blaugrana did not. However, the recent victories over Rayo and Manchester City made it seem that this club was back. However, I was not overly impressed. My issue was that those wins just were paints over the cracks. They demolished a poor Rayo team that are relegation food who cannot defend and even though they scored six goals, they were pretty wasteful early on. They also failed to go for the kill against a shorthanded City team by being too restrained and, wait for it, were wasteful with their scoring chances. They nearly allowed City to get back in it before Dani Alves scored in the final minute. The before mentioned poor habits reared its ugly head again when they looked flat and failed to finish most of their scoring chances against a determined Real Sociedad side and displayed comical defending that allowed Real Sociedad to score three goals.

Until Barça fix those problems, they will continue to fail to impress and to frustrate their fans. The quest for the treble culminates in a few months. Barça needs to kick start an impressive run in all competitions but they need to address their issues. Failure to do so will only lead to more problems for this club’s board and possible demise. 2006-2007 season is a perfect example of how everything can go up in smoke and Barça must avoid repeating that chapter again.

Barça condemning fans to relive the past.

Barça’s once five point atop of the standings lead has now become a thing of the past. They now find themselves three points behind Real Madrid.  Barça enjoyed most of the season being hunted but now find themselves as the hunters.  The time to find answers has to happen now or else they could end the season empty handed much like they did in the 2006-2007 season.

Yes, I am aware that Barça always drop points in the second half of the season, especially in February. However, I grow weary of such a trend especially when it allows arch rivals to be able to catch up and surpass our guys atop of the standings. Barça one had a commanding five point lead cushion but now find themselves three points behind Real Madrid. How could this have happened? Well, Real Madrid went on an impressive run where they managed to obtain 19 from 21 points in their last matches. Meanwhile, Barça, and Atlético, managed to only get 11 points from those 7 games.

The last time Barça was a in a three way race for the league crown was back in 2006-2007. They ended that season empty handed. Some of those players, the leaders of this team, were on that team too. The bitter memories of watching their club squander everything at the end was gut wrenching.  Now is the time for the team to fix their errors and stay focused for the next few months. Failure to do so will condemn them to relive the past and suffer in the present with doubts about the future. 

Copa del Rey needs a makeover.

Yet another Copa del Rey final will be upon us that will feature El Clásico rivals, FC Barcelona and Real Madrid. However, this will not be about these teams going at it again. Unless you have been living under a rock for the past 25 years, everyone knows more than enough about this rivalry. Yet, it seems that the RFEF still manages the Copa del Rey without caring for its domestic and international audience. It is such a shame that a historic competition is still run in such an incompetent manner.

Some of the biggest problems plaguing this competition are on display in the stands where attendance keeps dwindling. The interest in this competition seems to be decreasing because of the late kick offs and the minute chance that a small club will win this competition, let alone reach the final. Furthermore, the Copa needs to solve the issue of organizing the final with a venue and date already set in place.

The lack of fans in the stands this year was very discouraging. Copa del Rey is a historic cup for Barça, who are the all-time winning side of this competition, yet, the Camp Nou was hardly packed. It sure didn’t help that kick off was on Tuesday or Wednesday evenings at 10 PM. Other teams had late night kick offs too which is never a great idea for a midweek game. It’s pretty obvious what will happen when fans have the option of watching the game from the comfort of their home, or from the comfort of their bed with some of these late kick offs, or going to the game. They are most likely going to stay home and watch the game. Hence, RFEF needs to ensure the games kick off at a reasonable time of day since they will not pre-empt weekends for it or change to the format to a single leg competition like the FA Cup.

Speaking of the FA Cup, perhaps RFEF should look at the FA Cup’s blueprint and change the rules regarding the pairings for each round. Currently, Copa del Rey has starts off with random draws for each round until the competition goes down to 32 teams. The draw then allows us to know which teams will face each other all the way to the final. That basically can let fans know whether their club has a chance to make it to the final. RFEF should follow the FA Cup’s blueprint and have random draws for each round without any seedings to stop protecting the big clubs from facing one another early on. That would generate more interest for the fans and keep it unpredictable. Sure, the Clásico cup final would attract huge ratings but think of the long term health of this cup too if domestic interest diminishes.

The other big issue hurting this competition is that, unlike most countries, Spain does not have a “national stadium” to host a cup final. England has Wembley stadium in London to host the FA Cup, Germany has the Olympiastadion in Berlin as the venue for the German cup/DFB-Pokal final. Yet, RFEF opts to wait till the finalists have been decided before choosing a venue for the final. Clearly, a national stadium will never be built and I can imagine the outrage if the Santiago Bernabéu was appointed as such.

Perhaps RFEF should take a page out of NFL‘s book and select the venue years in advance. You don’t see the NFL deciding a few weeks before the Super Bowl on where it should take place. Heck, UEFA already have their venues selected for this season and next season’s Champions League finals. Sadly, the RFEF opts to just keep dragging its feet on decisions that any well run organization would already have figured out from the get go. However, this is La Liga and we have grown accustomed to where going forward is hindered by the league doing things backwards.