Thanks for Everything, Xavi.

After 17 great seasons, another Barça legend will walk away from the club at the end of the season. Xavi will bid farewell to the Blaugrana at the end of the season and joins the likes of Abidal, Puyol and Valdés who have recently left the club as legends.

I once referred to Xavi as the brains of the team while Messi was the spirit of the team and Iniesta was the vision of the team.  He was the team’s CPU who processed all the data in front of him and made sure which option was the best. Unfortunately, his powers lessened which is normal when you are dealing with problems to your Achilles and father time.

With over 750 appearances for Barça and nearly 900 for club and country, it would be a disservice to select Xavi’s greatest moment and no highlight reel would ever be sufficient to cover all of his magical passes and plays. The man was simply a genius at work and we have been privileged to watch him ply his trade since the late 90’s.

So the months of speculation are finally over. Xavi will be leaving the club at the end of season with 23 titles, which are the most in club history. He can win two more titles and exit with another treble under his belt. That would be the best way to ride into the sunset.

Hopefully he follows in the footsteps of Guardiola and return from his Middle East adventure and be involved with the club one way or another. Here’s hoping these final few weeks will be more memories for him and us fans. Thanks for everything Xavi and you will be missed. 

Crunch Time for Barça.

Barça’s chances at the treble are very legit now. A victory today against Atlético Madrid means they win the league title with two more to go.

What a week it was for Barça. Although they suffered a 3-2 loss in Germany to Bayern Munich, their 3-0 first leg result last week pretty much ensured that they would heading to the Champions League Final in Berlin in June. The chase for the treble is officially on and Barça can win the first title today in Madrid with a victory over Atlético Madrid.

Ironic that it was one year ago to this day when Atlético Madrid came to the Camp Nou and played Barça to 1-1 draw in the final match of the season for the league crown. Today, Barça can exact revenge by winning the league title on Atlético Madrid’s turf. With only two matches left on the schedule, and a four point lead over Real Madrid, it would be best for Barça to get the job done today and rest their players for next week’s final league match against Deportivo at the Camp Nou.

Barça have gotten this far thanks to the excellent form of the front three of Messi, Neymar and Suarez. They have all contributed in the big games and we expect them to continue to do so in these next three big games. The first final is today and the next two are on May 30th against Athletic Club for the Copa del Rey trophy at the Camp Nou and then for the Champions League trophy in Berlin on June 8 against Juventus.

This is the third time Barça and Athletic meet in a final in recent history while this is the first time Barça and Juventus meet on the European stage since 2002-2003 season. However, as Pique reminded everyone on Friday when he said, "The way people are talking it's as if we'd already won the treble, and that's not the case. The finals are against two historic clubs and we still haven't won anything yet. "We're close but and we have to keep our feet on the ground." He is right. Barca need to take it one match at a time and focus solely on today and not look ahead.