Barça Lost in Transition.

Barça’s transition from the last regime to the new regime under Laporta is off to a horrendous start. Poor performances and results in La Liga and in the Champions league along with the loss of Messi has not made the Blaugrana faithful happy. Things were supposed to improve but instead, things are getting worse with no optimism on the horizon as long as Ronald Koeman remains.

Barça’s elections were supposed to usher in a new era under President Laporta. What we didn’t expect was for Barça to hang on to Koeman and lose Messi. Back in November, I wrote that

Elections can’t come soon enough. The longer Koeman stays in charge, the more hopeless this season feels for the fans, and for the players. A fresh start is needed with a new board and a new manager because the results are not there to save Koeman. Koeman was presented as the solution, but he’s become part of the problem.

Almost a year later, and Koeman continues to be part of the problem. Koeman has an abysmal record in big games while subjecting us to horrible football. Laporta should have fired Koeman during the summer but he did not because firing Koeman would result in Barça having to pay him €12 million. Nonetheless, this is the same club that haven’t paid Koeman’s predecessors Quique Setién and Ernesto Valverde after they were fired. Because money is tight, Laporta stuck with Koeman and informed the fans “Ronald Koeman will continue as Barca coach. We feel he deserves a certain amount of confidence for many reasons.”

Well, nothing has happened that reinforces that confidence or justifies holding on to Koeman as a manager. Barça have been awful in La Liga and the Champions League under Koeman. Last month, Koeman said “Thanks to me, this club has a future.” Well, if he meant an uncertain future, then he has done a marvelous job.

After Laporta won the Barça presidential elections, he promised us things will be different. “Before, if we lost, nothing happened, but with me there are going to be consequences.” Well, the consequences thus far have been that we lost Messi and replaced him with Memphis Depay, Kun Aguero, and Luuk “more dangerous than Neymar inside the box” de Jong. Well, things sure are not different, things are worse and we have yet to see any consequences; just videos from Laporta asking for support from us.

The transition from the rotting decaying Rosell/Bartomeu era to the Laporta era is one mired in confusion and frustration. Are Barça afraid of firing Koeman because of money? That didn’t stop them with Valverde and Setién, so let Koeman get in line and sue. Eventually Barça will be financially settled and can afford to settle those cases out of court. It sure beats hanging on to Koeman and risk early elimination from the Champions League and make it harder for his successor, Xavi or Francisco Javier García Pimienta (whose firing from Barça B is still a puzzling decision) or anyone else, to help this club finish in La Liga’s top four and qualify for the Champions League. There has been enough damage done under Koeman and this transition will never launch if he stays in charge.

Where Have All The Oranje Strikers Gone?

Over many years, the Oranje have been blessed up front with superb strikers. During the good times and bad times, the Oranje always had players who were a threat up front. However, as the team continues its revival under Ronald Koeman, the lack of quality strikers is a concern. With Euro 2020 on the horizon, can Koeman overcome this concern or will it impact his work in returning the Oranje to international competitions.

• By Ibrahim Ayyub
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The Oranje have had a great success up front since their glory days of the late 1980’s. Marco van Basten and Ruud Gullit spearheaded the attack during Euro 88. Dennis Bergkamp came on the scene during Euro 92 and later on with Patrick Kluivert becoming his partner in crime in the late 90s, they replaced the retired Van Basten and Gullit. The Dutch had such a dearth of talent in the 90s that saw them call up Pierre van Hooijdonk and Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink along with Bergkamp and Kluivert for World Cup 1998.

The competition to play upfront was so intense that even the likes of Roy Makaay, 2003 European Golden Boot winner, wasn’t able to get sufficient playing minutes once Dennis Bergkamp retired after Euro 2000. Ruud van Nistelrooy had burst onto the scene following Bergkamp’s retirement, but he along with Kluivert, Hasselbaink and Van Hooijdonk couldn’t steer the team to World Cup 2002. Ultimately, the latter three’s playing time for the Oranje ended as Van Nistelrooy became the top gun for the Oranje. However, his reign would be short-lived after butting heads with the Oranje manager Van Basten during World Cup 2006 and he would not feature for the Oranje after Euro 2008. In the meantime, the likes of Robin van Persie, Dirk Kuyt and Klaas-Jan Huntelaar emerged on the scene for the Oranje as they, along with Arjen Robben and Wesley Sneijder, helped guide the Oranje to their third World Cup Final in 2010.

Unfortunately, the Oranje have struggled to replace Van Persie, Kuyt and Huntelaar prior to and subsequent to Koeman’s arrival as manager. Koeman has relied on Ryan Babel, who is in his early 30s, to lead the charge upfront. Even though he is in mid 30s, Huntelaar has been superb for Ajax during their own recent revival, so it was a surprise to see him left out of the Oranje side that features many of his current teammates.

OptaJohan

✔@OptaJohan

322 - Robin van Persie scored 322 career goals in 695 games, including 50 for the Netherlands, making him the all-time top goalscorer for the Dutch national team. Farewell.

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1:54 PM - May 12, 2019

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It is disappointing that this Oranje revival comes at a time when there is a lack of excellent Dutch strikers. This decade alone has seen only four Dutch players lead the Eredivisie in scoring. Bas Dost, Memphis Depay, Vincent Janssen and Luuk de Jong. Only Memphis has been performing well for the Oranje but he is more of a 10 than a striker while the other three have failed to impress when called upon. Bas Dost is 30 now and seems to surplus to requirements, while Luuk de Jong is 29 and about to play in his fourth league in Spain with Sevilla, after playing in Holland, Germany and England. Vincent Janssen is 25 and his career stalled ever since moving to Tottenham in 2016 and is now starting a new chapter in Mexico with Monterrey which probably makes him an afterthought for now.

Time will tell if Koeman will continue to rely on Babel or will he entrust other players such as Wout Weghorst, Quincy Promes, Justin Kluivert to play up front. Who knows, maybe a new rising star, such as Donyell Malen, will appear and shine for the Oranje very much akin to Matthijs de Ligt and Frenkie de Jong. In the meantime, perhaps Koeman should not ignore Klaas-Jan Huntelaar while he tries to solve this issue.

OptaJohan

✔@OptaJohan

34 - Prior to tonight's game vs APOEL Nicosia, Klaas Jan Huntelaar averaged a goal every 34 minutes of play for @AFCAjax in the 2019-20 season (4 goals in 136 minutes). Executor.

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UEFA Forgets Rijkaard’s Barça in UEFA Legendary Moments.

UEFA is celebrating the 60th birthday of the European Cup, A.K.A Champions League, and launched a Legendary Moments video campaign that lets fans all over the world select the tournament's greatest moments. 60 moments were selected by UEFA with 9 of them involving FC Barcelona throughout its history. Yet, UEFA ignored the Barça team of Rijkaard.

UEFA chose 60 videos from the 50’s to the present, with the top five videos voted by the fans to be shown before the Champions League final in Berlin on June 5th, 2015. Barça have 9 legendary moments for fans to vote from. Sadly, there are no Barça legendary video moments from the era of Kubala, Luis Suarez and Ramallets, the era of Cruyff and surprisingly the era of Rijkaard and Ronaldinho.

The 9 Legendary Barça moments are:

• 16/04/86: ‘Pichi’ Alonso hat-trick helps Barça retrieve 3-0 semi-final first-leg deficit against Göteborg.
• 20/05/92: FC Barcelona beat Sampdoria in extra time thanks to Koeman’s fierce free-kickto win first European Cup.
• 02/11/94: Romário and Stoichkhov spearhead FC Barcelona's 'Dream Team' to emphatic group stage defeat of Manchester United.
• 06/05/09: Iniesta’s 93rd-minute effort earns FC Barcelona away-goals triumph over Chelsea and place in Rome final.
• 06/04/10: Messi scores four to take FC Barcelona into semi-finals after Arsenal briefly take 3-2 aggregate lead.
• 27/04/11: Messi scores twice – the second a virtuoso effort – at Barcelona’s great rivals in semi-final first leg.
• 28/05/11: Guardiola’s Barça team beat Manchester United at Wembley to win second European crown in three years.
• 07/02/12: Messi becomes first player to score five in a UEFA Champions League game in 7-1 defeat of Leverkusen.
• 25/11/14: Messi passes Raúl as top scorer in UEFA Champions League history with first goal of hat-trick against APOEL.

I can understand not picking a moment from Kubala and Cruyff eras since the club did not win a title at the time. Yet, Pichi Alonso’s hat trick from the 80’s Barça team made the cut. However, how can the era of Rijkaard and Ronaldinho be ignored? That team was a phenomenal team that left us with many legendary moments. 

When I look back at that era, you had some classic moments. There is the Ronaldinho game winning goal against Milan at the Camp Nou in 2004, Ronaldinho’s second goal against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in 2004, Eto’o scoring that gem when he lobbed the ball from outside the box and over the Panathinaikos keeper at the Camp Nou in 2005, Barça’s awayand home clashes against Chelsea in 2005-2006 Champions League knockout stages, and the unforgettable final in Paris in 2006 when Barça came back from a goal down to beat Arsenal 2-1 with goals coming from Eto’o and Belletti. 

UEFA got it wrong there with forgetting about the 2005-2006 team and that Final. The game is a classic that turned in Barça’s favor once the legendary goal scorer Henrik Larsson came off the bench and assisted on both goals. UEFA ignored the legendary Ronaldinho and the Barça team coached by Rijkaard and that is unfortunate.

Qué Pasa Barça? – Time to Adjust, not panic!

Greetings fellow Barça fans and hope you all were able to put the club’s latest loss behind you and not let it stress you out just as I have. I want to first thank FC Barcelona Supporters Club Miami-Penya Barcelonista de Miami for allowing me to do this and look forward on doing more in the future. My name is Ibrahim Ayyub and I have been a Barça fan since 1994, when I was teenager in Lebanon, and have been following them ever since. Big reason was thanks to the 1994 World Cup where I fell in love with Romario and Stoichkov and then discovered they were teammates at FC Barcelona thanks to the World Cup Panini sticker album for allowing me to discover this bit of information.

Growing up in a war country pre-internet era made it tough to follow football and back then, I only cared for international football and only cared for, and still do, follow the Dutch national team, yet I couldn’t believe it that Romario, Stoichkov and Koeman were all on the same team. Back then, I had just missed out on the glory years of the Dream Team but these years of following Barcelona have rewarded me with great football, great players and great experience of being with the club when things are great and when things are disastrous.

From Lebanon to America, I still have been following Barça and the icing on the cake for me was this past summer when I went to Chicago to see my first FC Barcelona game against Chivas and then went to the team hotel and was fortunate to meet Dani Alves, Iniesta, coach Guardiola and club president, Joan Laporta. That day ranks up there with my wedding and graduation from law school.

Just in case you were wondering who is my all time favorite player, then that honor goes to Luis Enrique, who displayed great passion and leadership that I think is at times missing from this current club.

This season was supposed to be a season of change and adjustments. Gone was the era of Frank Rijkaard and a new era of Josep Guardiola was ushered in. Many thought the move was a bit risky since Guardiola had only one years’ worth of experience and that was with the Barça Atletic / Barça B team in the lower divisions. I actually welcomed having Pep as the coach and actually wanted him to replace Rijkaard before the Champions League encounter against Manchester United.Pep is a legend of the club and is a true Culé, so he know what the expectations were and what the club’s history and legacy is all about. Sadly the team started off slow and everyone was criticizing him.

However, the results started going his away and soon enough the club was off to one of the greatest starts in the club’s history. Come late December, they had defeated Real Madrid at home and had a 12 point lead, were comfortable in their Champions League pursuit and managed to stay alive in Copa Del Rey. Unfortunately, that 12 point lead has now shrunk to four points and questions and tempers have flared about what has happened to the club.

What happened to this club is that they are human. These guys have played more games than their direct rival Real Madrid and fatigue and wear and tear is starting to set in. That’s the cost of trying to win cups. Barcelona are still in the hunt for a treble while Real Madrid crashed out of Copa Del Rey back in October and might crash out of the Champions League next week. Barcelona players were bound to get tired and it seems that’s just the case.

The defense in the new year has allowed 14 goals already following that gut wrenching loss to Atletico Madrid that I was fortunate not to have seen. The offense has been a bit stagnant, midfield not providing service, and the keeper Valdes starting to resort to his old shaky self. They have been playing twice a week for a while now because of International friendlies along with Copa Del Rey and Champions League games. Injuries have forced some players to play more than usual and thus, fatigue is a becoming a big cause of concern. Rotations cannot be implemented when players are hurt and because of that, players are playing more than they should with less time to rest and recover.

The bottom line though is that should not be an excuse. To win titles, these are things a club must be ready to face and endure and the club captains should show the leadership to not allow the players to relax. Inter Milan and Manchester United are in the same situation and they still are hanging in there. I believe the lack of leadership is why this club has thrown away points. Some would say it’s injuries; some would say it’s players creating distractions by what they say through the media – Eto’o and Yaya’s agent’s comments to the media; or some would say it’s because of Victor Valdes, and I would like to throw in the curse of Kobe Bryant declaring he is a Barça fan thanks to that ESPN Magazine cover back in January. It’s not that farfetched when you look back at what happened in 06-07 season. He declared back then that he was a fan too during the California visit of the club’s USA preseason summer tour and then look at what happened next. Bad Karma repeating itself again?

Seriously, the club’s leaders need to make the players focus and not lose track of what is important.

Now is not the time to talk about contracts but time to think of the next game. All Pep should do is play last season’s 4-1 loss to Real Madrid to wake them up. Just the part where they welcome the Madrid players alone should let their blood boil. My life motto is “It’s not how you start, but how you finish.” This club started well but that means nothing if you blow it in the end.

Pep has a big task ahead of him and must adjust and not panic. I still have faith in him and think he tries his best to accommodate and appease everyone. Coaching is not just about tactics, but also about managing egos and keeping spirits up. Basically he is a manager, a father and a psychiatrist. He can get the job done but the players have to step it up. Eto’o, Xavi and Valdes need to play better. The defense needs to stop playing sloppy and the midfield needs to provide better service. Eto’o and Henry have eight and seven goals in this new year, with Henry scoring in six games while Eto’o has only scored in five games in this new year. Too many goals have been conceded from dead ball situations.


Time for now is to adjust and not panic. Maybe Pep needs to be a bit more considerate of protecting a lead and not expanding one. If you’re winning 2-0 or 3-0, then slow it down and control the game and be more counter attacking than continuing to look for more goals. I am not saying to become negative football and depart from the club’s beautiful football, just be smart in when to play beautiful and when to sit back and then go for the kill. Protect the lead with two defensive midfielders. Adjustments and not panic means maybe playing Pedro on the wing and giving Eto’o a breather and let Henry or Bojan start as the center forward. Now would be a good time to let Caceres play in place of the injured Abidal and not over use Puyol as a fullback. Maybe it also means time to bench Valdes for Pinto.

A long time ago, I defended Rijkaard’s decision in playing Valdes over the Turkish keeper Rustu. He was young and smart and benching him would only ruin his confidence and he repaid that opportunity by leading this club to two league titles and a Champions League trophy in that magical night in Paris. However, it now seems that no matter what, Valdes will never stop looking shaky. Four consecutive shaky performances where he has let down the team with his decisions have cost the club. He is 27 now and just don’t see him ever letting go of his cartoon Johnny Bravo image; the image of he looks good but is oblivious to what’s going on. Valdes is a good goal keeper but there are times where you just wonder what was he thinking. Pinto has been playing in Copa Del Rey games which are never short of pressure, experience in the Champions League with Celta Vigo and is a past winner of the Zamora for those who want the argument that Valdes is a past Zamora winner and should start this weekend in my opinion and go the rest of the way. By the way, Casillias just won his first Zamora award last season and don’t tell me he wasn’t the best until he won that award.

The fans need to support the players too and not jeer them when the going gets tough too. Jeering Valdes is not going to help his confidence at all. Mallorca semi-final leg away this Wednesday will be vital indeed and then have to get ready for Athletic de Bilbao at home this weekend. Good news for us fans is that these two games a week will be getting less. Advancing to the Copa final or being eliminated will mean more rest for the players and of course we all want them to advance. Additional good news is that Iniesta will be back soon too.

Finally, I would like to address one thing before I sign off. FC Barcelona updated their official site not too long ago and one of the new features that they added was a legends section. I think that was something that the old site lacked and was great to see this feature added. However, when looking through the listed names of the players, I could not get over the fact that there was a one glaring omission. José Mari Bakero.

The club has updated that page since its introduction but Bakero’s name still is not there. This man was a member of the “Dream Team” and won 13 titles in his time as a member of the blaugrana. His last second header goal against Kaiserslautern helped save the club from elimination through away goals rule in the Champions League (back then was the Champion’s Cup) which they would go on to win that year. Hopefully the club will add his name to that list soon and if anyone knows those in charge of that section, please mention it to them.

Well I hope you enjoyed this and please stay positive and remember that the season is not won or lost in February, but in May. Until next time, keep the faith Barcelona fans and don’t give up.

Visca Barça!