It may seem churlish to be unhappy with the B team’s performance given all the factors I have listed above, but if you have been watching the games over the last few years, you will have noticed that this season there has been a marked difference in the style of play. One of the fundamental tenets that Johan Cruyff introduced to the youth system at Barcelona is that all teams at all levels should play the same style of possession-based attacking football. This enables youths to move seamlessly from one level to another so by the time they “graduate” they will already know the system the first team plays. Not every La Masia product will be good enough or find a spot in the first team, of course, but the skills they have learned will serve them well wherever they end up. As Kari so eloquently ranted summed it up in a recent email:

“Barça B is meant to be a place where talented youngsters can learn the style, hone their skills, better learn things like positioning, patience and being team players.”

The primary function of a B team is to develop young players and many of us feel that Eusebio has sacrificed this development for results. The B team has played their way to a decent set of results this season, but how have they done it? Sloppily, for the most part. Undisciplined. Loose balls, lost possession, long balls from the back. Watching this B team at times this season you felt they were…well, a bunch of kids playing a park game, not the well-disciplined tactical squad Lucho molded them into last year. Partly this may be due to Euesbio having a less-talented pool of players to choose from to begin with (Kiko & Rodri being prime examples). It is also true that the constant absence of key players due to first-team call-ups has left the B team defense particularly frail and reliant on less experienced youth. With abundant playing time, however, and constant drilling in the components of the Barcelona style, one would expect to see those players improve over the course of the season and gel into a competent, if not always brilliant, team. This has not happened.

I’m not as tactically astute as some, but even I can see that the way this B team plays under Eusebio is lacking in, well, tactics. They may initially line up in the familiar 4-3-3 formation we would expect to see, but that is where the resemblance to the first team ends. The lack of pressing for the ball is the first difference you notice. If the opponent gets the ball there should be a swarm of angry Barça players snapping at his heels to make him give it up. Instead a lone player may run at the opponent, while the rest hold back and hope for the best. Big chunks of precious game time are spent sitting deep in our own half absorbing pressure from the opponent and hoping to make a break on the counterattack. When an attack is mounted, it seems to largely bypass the midfield in favour of simply lumping the ball up to one of the boys up front. Now and then you will see a spell of possession or breathtaking bit of teamwork that reminds us why we are watching this team in the first place, but by and large it is apparent that Eusebio has abandoned the fundamental principles of the Barcelona-style of football. These talented young players (and most of them are very talented or they wouldn’t still be here) are simply not being encouraged to develop the skills that would (should!) make them future prospects for the first team. In fact, some players in most need of playing time to further their development (Espinosa, Sergi Gomez) are consistently being passed over in favour of older, less technical players (Carmona, Armando) whose main purpose seems to be to add some “muscle” to the team. And not much else. From the outside looking in, one can’t help but feel that Eusebio is sacrificing the opportunity to develop youth players in order to win games by any means necessary. Yes, winning games is important, and avoiding relegation is crucial, but sacrificing talent in favour of expediency is a betrayal of the principles the Barcelona youth system is built on and a failure in the core aspect of managing a B team.

Sadly, Rosell and the Barcelona board don’t see things the same way and have renewed Eusebio’s contract for another season. We may be in for more of the same next year unless someone intervenes. This is one reason why I am very happy that Tito Vilanova will be the first team coach next year-I believe that he is just as committed to the idea of bringing players up through the system as Pep is, and will continue to give these boys opportunities to train and play with the first team. These opportunities are crucial for the development of these players as they can learn from the best. Playing with the first team forces them to raise their level correspondingly and play up to expectations. You will have noticed that when given the chance to play in a CdR, Primera, or CL game, the B players have impressed in a way rarely seen during their regular season. Partly this is because of the level of the other players on the field, but it is also because they were being coached by someone committed to the Barça system and capable of bringing out the best in them.

This is the other area where I feel Eusebio is lacking and that has made him a poor choice to coach a team at this level. To me (and do remember that I say this from the perspective of a home viewer with no actual knowledge of the man), Eusebio does not have the strength of character to be a true leader for the team. Even a mediocre coach can make up for multiple failings if he or she is blessed with a charismatic personality that can inspire a team to exceed their expectations. Players need a coach that believes in them 100% and makes the players believe in themselves. That is something Lucho gave them in spades. Compare the self-confident way Lucho’s B team carried themselves on the field last year to the disjointed, almost desperate air the team gives off currently. This is not a team that believes they are the best. It’s not even a team that believes they could be the best. Eusebio is not a hands-on sort of coach. You rarely see him shouting encouragement or instructions from the sidelines. You could say that’s just his style, and maybe so, but remember that these are young kids. They are still learning. If things aren’t going to plan they need a coach willing to jump in and correct them. To teach them, inspire them, berate them if necessary. How are they ever going to be good enough to get into the first team (which is, remember, the ultimate goal even if only 5% of them actually make it) if they don’t have a coach that pushes them to excel?

The most frustrating aspect of this season has been watching the regression of talented players who were expected to keep performing at a high level. Marc Bartra is a good example. This is his third season with Barcelona B, and he has been a linchpin of the central defense. Last year when a lack of defenders prompted Guardiola to call up Andreu Fontas to the first team for the remainder of the season, there were many who thought Bartra would have been a better choice. Last summer he was the captain of the Spain U20 side that made it to the quarterfinals of the World Cup. The leadership and confidence he showed in that tournament were those of a much older player. Watching him now when he plays with the B team he seems completely different. That confidence is gone. The communication and control at the back is rarely there. Rafinha has also not progressed as expected under Eusebio’s management. Thiago’s younger brother is incredibly talented and was supposed to be the Next Big Thing on the B team. He has definitely been a key player this season, but aside from a handful of first-rate games, has not been quite the game-changer that he should be. This may be partly due to Eusebio tinkering with his position, moving him from attacking midfielder to false 9 and back again, so that he has not been able to make any single position his own.

Won't someone think of the children?

So, having said all that, what of the prospects for the future? There are some rays of light. Several of the most talented players are due to be formally promoted at the end of the season (Muniesa, Montoya, Bartra & Jonathan Dos Santos). Nothing has been said about Tello’s situation, but it would be difficult to send him back to the B team at this point. Sergi Roberto is not being promoted this year, or at least we haven’t heard anything, and will likely be the heart of the midfield next season.

Gerard Deulofeu is another reason to be optimistic. The young striker has been touted for years as the “next Messi” to come out of La Masia. He is certainly not there yet and may never be (he is a different sort of player), but he has cemented his place in the B team and his future looks very bright indeed. He had a slow start this season, not getting many minutes, being benched in favour of Tello, Rodri, & later Soriano. When he did play, he often looked “off”. Ungainly, a little pudgy, not comfortable in his skin or in his position on the field. In the second half of the season he improved rapidly. With Tello and Soriano gone he has had plenty of starts, and he has lost weight and looks physically much more confident. He has lost much of the selfishness on the pitch that used to earn him criticism, and is one of the few players this season that presses relentlessly for the ball. Rumour is that Kiko Femenia may not be staying, and Juvenil A wunderkind Dongou will be formally promoted, so our main forward line next year could be Deulofeu – Rodri (yeah, well) – Dongou. There should be some goals in there! With Riverola leaving for Bologna, we can hope to see Espinosa get a lot more playing time in the midfield, as well as Ilie, who is finally back from a long-term injury. Well, we can hope.

OK, this turned out a lot longer than I expected and much rantier. I’ll stop now. Your turn.

The Rosell administration has responded with a double barreled attack in the form of an official club statement condemning Sostres by name and basically calling him a liar. The statement denounces El Mundo’s article and demands an immediate retraction from the newspaper or, in essence, there will be consequences.

One way to interpret this kerfuffle is to point out that El Mundo is Madrid-based, Sostres has had it out for Rosell in the recent past, and the club is merely responding to false accusations in a strong way. Each of those clauses is certainly its own interpretation, and they don’t necessarily follow along logically. Certainly Sostres has pushed the idea of Guardiola being forced out by Rosell as a major talking point, and it would appear that Rosell has had enough.

Sostres’ arguments seem to have little significant backing other than his own bold proclamations. My own interpretation lies between where Sostres has landed (Rosell hates Pep) and where Rosell sits (the administration is doing far better than anyone else possibly could). Rosell is, from where I sit, clearly pushing to eradicate everything Laporta did, not Pep. Unfortunately for Pep, Laporta appointed him and Rosell is still grumpy about that despite the success Pep has brought Rosell’s administration.

If one is to believe Sostres, Tito Vilanova failed to discuss Rosell’s approaches throughout the final half of the season with his extremely good friend who has previously dedicated trophies to him and made it clear that the two would be inseparable as long as Pep remained coach. And that brings up a very serious interpretation of all of this: Rosell is more worried about protecting his personal honor (whatever that means) than running the club in a way that maximizes its successes.

I’ll let nzm take over for a second:

[Rosell] didn’t turn up to the RFEF when strong words and a show at the meeting were needed to voice the club’s dissatisfaction in the refereeing standards. Instead, they sent “a strongly worded letter”. There has been little in the way of public support for Pep and the team, nor any in the places where it counts. Give me Laporta any day. He would have been in there shaking hands, slapping backs and telling them jovially, “Don’t mess with us. Do your jobs or we will become too difficult for you to ignore. Now, enough of this nonsense, let’s go to lunch. I’m buying.”

Yet, whenever Rosell is in the firing line, they come out with all guns blazing. He’s taking it too personally – not able to separate himself from the role that he has. It’s a dangerous thing, because he can’t see the whole picture when he’s only concerned about what affects him.

It’s a fair point to say that when Tito was poked in the eye during a match, when he was, to perhaps put too intense a point on it, attacked by a rival manager (now his direct equal — though always beneath him in so many ways), the club said virtually nothing. Yet now the club is threatening legal action because a journalist pushed Rosell’s buttons, threatened his legacy, said something that didn’t paint the administration in the great of light.

Guardiola made the point that the club kept silent on a lot of things, took the high road. What high road is Rosell taking now? When it’s the players’ reputations, the staff’s reputation, the club’s honor, it’s time to take the high road. But Rosell’s honor? Rosell’s actions? Lawyers, sally forth.

Turning to nzm again:

The next board meeting is at the Dali Museum in Figueres. Wait? No money for colour copies, yet they can travel a couple of hours there and back for a board meeting in a museum out of Barcelona? Couldn’t they find somewhere in the city or at the club?

So much for Laporta being the only one who wants to lead the good life. If it comes out in the papers, will they take Joan to court for having arranged this meeting years in advance (and paid a premium for the reservation)?

With the season over for most European leagues, let’s do a quick wrap-up of some of the results.

ENGLAND

Yesterday, we watched one of the greatest finishes, ever seen, to an EPL season.  Man U won their game and then had to wait for 2 minutes until City, with an Aguero strike in the final minute, claimed its first Premier League Trophy in 44 years.

As a UK-based City-fan friend wrote to me, “Down to the wire just doesn’t describe what happened – no words can justify the gamut of emotions that we all experienced.  The first goal was like riding the most perfect wave; then we were dumped off our surfboards into the maelstrom of undercurrents, struggling for breath and doomed to drown. Suddenly, we popped up; could breathe again; found the sand beneath our feet and all was very right with the world.”

Somehow, Arsenal found its way into 3^rd position with Chelsea finishing out of the table’s Champions League places.  Tottenham grabbed the last CL position for the 3rd round play-offs. However, if Chelsea wins the 2012 Champions League, then Chelsea will be in next season’s CL and Tottenham will play in the Europa League.  (See Champions League 2012/2013 for more details.)

EPL:
1^st:  Man City
2^nd:  Man U
3^rd:  Arsenal
4^th:  Tottenham

ITALY

Over in Italia, it was more cut and dried.  Juventus (with ex-Barça, and on-loan from Sevilla, player Martín Cáceres) won Serie A and remained unbeaten in all 42 games played (a record 43 counting their last game win from the previous season).  It was the farewell game for legendary Alessandro del Piero who has played for the Old Lady for 19 years.

AC Milan says goodbye to Inzaghi, Seedorf, Nesta, Gattuso, Zambrotta and Van Bommel with Galliani stating that it’s the end of an era for the Rossoneri.

Napoli lost out on a Champions League place (will Cavani leave?), finishing 5^th behind Udinese and Lazio.

Serie A
1^st:  Juventus
2^nd:  AC Milan
3^rd:  Udinese
4^th:  Lazio

GERMANY

Bundesliga results were settled a few weeks back.  Klopp’s BVB Borussia Dortmund won its 2^nd successive league title, beating Bayern Munich who sank, still claiming that they are the greater and better team.

Nails were driven into the Bayern casket when the team was trounced 2-5 by Dortmund in the DFB-Pokal Cup (German league’s Copa del Rey equivalent) on Saturday night for BVB to claim both league and cup trophies.  What a game that was – if you haven’t seen it, find a download and watch it.  Dortmund played like Barça at the end of Pep’s first season.

Third on the Bundesliga table was Schalke 04 which will be bereft of Raúl’s services next season, as he’s off to join Al Sadd in Qatar.

Bundesliga
1^st:  Borussia Dortmund
2^nd:  Bayern Munich
3^rd:  Schalke 04
4^th:  Borussia Mönchengladbach

FRANCE

Ligue 1 in France will go to the wire in the last round to be played this week.  If they win or draw, Montpellier, with wonderboy Moroccan Younès Belhanda, is poised to top the table and keep Paris Saint-Germain in 2^nd place.

PSG, (now re-invigorated with Qatari cash, Ancelotti as manager, and after a buying spree which included ex-Barça LB Maxwell), stuttered in the final weeks of the campaign, and Ancelotti has all but conceded the league to Montpellier HSC.

The third and fourth spots are already decided.

Ligue 1
1^st:  Montpellier HSC
2^nd:  Paris Saint-Germain
3^rd:  LOSC Lille Métropole
4^th   Olympique Lyonnais

NETHERLANDS

Despite their board room mutinies, Ajax managed to finish top of the Eredivisie for the season.  Twente didn’t have the best of seasons as they finished well out of contention for CL and into the play-offs for Europa League.

Eredivisie
1^st: Ajax
2^nd: Feyenoord
3^rd: PSV
4^th: AZ

SPAIN

With 1^st and 2^nd positions decided a couple of weeks ago, the interest lay in which teams would finish in the remaining CL spots, as well as those who would qualify for Europa League and who would be relegated.

First to go down was Racing de Santander – a team which not only suffered on the field, but was led astray by their new owner who hasn’t been seen since last season.

Sporting de Gijón was the next to fall, after sacking their beloved coach Preciado earlier in the season, and then not doing any better under Clemente.

At the other end of the table, Valencia claimed the 3^rd CL position, while the CL play-offs 4^th place depended on the last games of the season for Málaga and Atlético de Madrid.  Málaga had to win.

All the remaining La Liga BBVA games were played at the same time last night (Sunday 13^th), and the focus was mostly on the games which involved the teams facing relegation.  Rayo Vallecano, Villarreal, Granada and Zaragoza were in the danger zone and their games ended, as follows:

Getafe vs. Zaragoza  0-2

Villarreal vs. At. Madrid  0-1

Rayo Vallecano vs. Granada  1-0

~ Zaragoza won against Getafe, so they were safe.

~ In the final minutes of their away game, At. Madrid’s Falcao headed home the winning, and only goal, in the match, giving At. Madrid the win, and the hopes of a CL play-off spot if Málaga lost.  Villarreal staying up was now dependent on Rayo Vallecano losing.

~ In the dying minute of their match, Rayo Vallecano scored against Granada.  The Granada players sank to the pitch, thinking that their First Division run was over after just one season.  Someone let Rayo’s Diego know that Villareal had lost, and he went around telling the other players, and suddenly everything was ok for Granada once more.

When the news of Rayo’s goal against Granada reached El Madrigal, the scenes were heart-rending.  I thought that Villareal’s president, Fernando Roig Alfonso, was going to collapse as he made his way down from his seat to the pitch.  Fans, players and management were left desolated.  They stood or sat in numbness, and no one seemed to have legs strong enough to carry them away from the stadium and the pain.

Málaga won the match against Sporting, and secured a Champions League play-off position for the first time in club history.  What a great start for the club in Manuel Pellegrini’s first full season.  Dutchman, Ruud van Nistelrooy, announced his retirement and will now leave the club.

Real Madrid won their game against Mallorca, and achieved a record 100 points haul in La Liga.

Levante, after topping the Liga table for a few weeks, also created history by finishing in 6^th place, thereby qualifying for Europa League – the first European championship for the club.  They needed to win their last game to qualify and did so by beating a struggling, still down-hearted, Athletic Bilbao, 3-0.

Barça’s Victor Valdés created history twice, as he won his 5^th Zamora equalling FCB’s Ramaletts’ record of 5.  Victor also recorded his 4^th consecutive Zamora – a new record.

Lionel Messi won his 2^nd Pichichi with a record 50 league goals and, with one game remaining, has a record total of 72 goals for the season.  Messi also won Europe’s Golden Shoe, and broke so many other records that he deserves a post of his own.

La Liga
1^st:     Real Madrid
2^nd:    FC Barcelona
3^rd:    Valencia
4^th:    Málaga
5^th:    Atlético Madrid
6^th:    Levante
7^th:    Osasuna
8^th:    Mallorca
9^th:    Sevilla
10^th:  Athletic Bilbao
11^th:  Real Sociedad
12^th:  Real Betis
13^th:  Getafe
14^th:  Espanyol
15^th:  Rayo Vallecano
16^th:  Real Zaragoza
17^th:  Granada
18^th:  Villarreal
19^th:  Sporting de Gijón
20^th:  Racing de Santander

La Liga Adelante (Second Division)
Galician derby rivals, Deportivo de La Coruña and Celta de Vigo will be promoted to La Liga BBVA for the 2012/13 season.  Depor is back in the first division after only 1 season, and Celta is back after 5 seasons.

Valladolid, Hércules, Alcorcón and Córdoba will contest each other in play-offs.  The winner will also be promoted to the first division.

*Edited to add:  silly me didn’t realise that Adelante isn’t over, so the above will only happen if no positions change before June 3rd.  Ha!

And that, my friends, is that!

Well. We scored 115 goals in La Liga this season, a number that nobody accurately predicted. Four readers (in chronological order of entry) guessed 113 goals: pr17, lea_terzi, G60 and Messiah10. None of those readers got the Clasic goal total right, guessing, respectively, 4, 2, 3 and 3. As so many of us painfully recall, we scored one measly goal (yeah, yeah, I know).

So the tiebreaker of tiebreakers becomes who went least over. lea_terzi is the winner of the signed copy of the Graham Hunter Barca book. Yup. Congratulations, and please fire your mailing address to kevvwill@yahoo.com, and I will take care of the rest.

Thanks to all.

Enjoy the way this brilliant side play. It’s been a treasure to be able to see them grow under Pep.

What the heck are we going to do over summer?  Feed Cuenca? Thank goodness for the Euros.

Barça travels to Seville to play Real Betis Balompié who are going on a promotional pre-season trip to China in July.  I’m sure that Roque Santa Cruz would much rather spend time on the beach working on his tan, but this is the price when you make it into La Liga.  There are bigger bills to pay.

Betis is mid-table with nothing really left to play for except pride, and the chance to brag about beating Barça on the green, green grass of home.

Puyol, Pinto and Alexis are out and injured. Blaugrana thoughts are already on the Copa del Rey, so they just want to get the game done and dusted, without further injury.  Messi will be looking to score at least 10 to match the number on his back.

The game happens at 22:00 local time.  Use this link to see what time that will be in your little corner of the world:  Real Betis Balompié vs. FC Barcelona

If you need to watch the game and it’s not on a TV channel near you, look here:  Links

If you were Barça Manager for tomorrow’s game, who would you play from who is available?  Should Pep play in midfield?

Go wild in the comments.

A quick one, on migration, from casual viewer, to fan, to lover, to cule. I can imagine some long-time FCB fans, making this speech that Yoda made as he dismissed a young Luke Skywalker:

Ready are you? What know you of ready? For eight hundred years have I trained Cules. My own counsel will I keep on who is to be trained. A Cule must have the deepest commitment, the most serious mind. This one a long time have I watched. All his life has he looked away … to the future, to the horizon. Never his mind on where he was. Hmm? What he was doing. Hmph. Adventure. Heh. Excitement. Heh. A Cule craves not these things. You are reckless.

If, tomorrow, your local news program said that a meteor was going to be visible, streaking across the night sky, what would you do? Damn right, you would. You’d get yourself to the best observation point, and watch that once-in-a-lifetime sucker, gawking at it like the marvel that it is. Now imagine this Barcelona team as that meteor.

Not only here at BFB but in the world at large, we fans are many, spanning a range from “They lost. Whatevs,” to “They lost. I’ll be in my room with a pillow over my head.”

And constantly, whatever the sport, long-time fans scoff at bandwagon fans, as if they are these silly Johnny Come Latelys, who have no right to discuss or enjoy a team. But you know what? Many years and a pile of soci cards ago, I too was a newbie, stumbling across a highlight of a wonder goal and thinking “Boy, what the hell was that!”

Today, I love my club. Over everything. Players, presidents, boards, sponsorships, comings and goings. It is always, and always will be, the club. Does that make me any more of a fan than the person who saw that meteor streaking across the footballing sky, and said “I’m in!” No. Many of us, at the end of this season, have said “Well, the bandwagon will be a little lighter, now,” and we’ve said it for different reasons. I wrote a while back that you know you’re a true fan when a team can break your heart. And I believe that. But you can still be a fan.

Further, the glory that is Barca isn’t diminished because people are flocking to it because suddenly, our club is all the rage. It’s pretty funny to go from wearing a Barca shirt and having nobody react, to having strangers scream “Meessssiiiii,” at you, or give you the thumbs up. And that’s good funny, because casual fans become devoted fans become cules become (if someone decides to undo what RoSELL did) socis. And the club’s beating global heart continues to get stronger.

There is a certain arrogance endemic to sport, contained in the “Oh yeah? Well I’ve been a fan since even before the club was born. When the Big Bang was about to happen and that first piece of matter split, I was a fan. Neener!”

I have a seatmate at work who is a crazed Chicago White Sox fan. She has followed the club her entire life, as has her husband. One part of me wouldn’t be surprised if it was a condition of marriage. Her three children are all Sox fans. She has had a season ticket for decades, and bought a townhome in the shadow of the ballpark, as soon as they went on offer. In 2005, the White Sox won the World Series, and they did it in a swashbuckling, home run-bashing way that for many, was as captivating as our Barca is for casual baseball viewers. And she said of those casual fans, “Good! Bring them on. Even if they don’t become real fans, the team that I love deserves the attention.”

And it’s true, even as it runs deeper. Every now and again, during a particularly heated battle with a Premiership club, we will get some of those divine fans, who say “Hmph, how can you be a fan of Barca. You don’t even go to matches and probably don’t live in Barcelona! Hmph!”

As if that freakin’ matters. This season was the first in some time that I didn’t have a chance to get to Barcelona for a vacation, and matches. Life, circumstance all conspired to deprive me of the singular joy of clutching that ticket in my hand, sliding it under the scanner and having my heart leap as it beeps and goes green, even now, as if this is somehow a dream that can be snatched away — the scanner will buzz, flash red and I will wake up from my nightmare. And you walk into the Camp Nou …. and even when it’s empty, you swear you can hear things …. screams, bellows of rage, echoes of long-gone joy and sorrow. I didn’t go, and I miss it so.

None of which makes me a damn bit better than a Barca fan who lives in Canada, or India, or Nigeria, who might never get to a match, who follows matches on a craptastic Web feed and would say “Gesundheit!” if someone walked up to them and said “Benvingut!”

This place is extraordinary, in that there is none of that institutional arrogance. A fan who just decided to follow the club this season is as welcomed by the family as those who watched Gaspart grow up. And this is as it should be. Because nobody owns a meteor. It’s there for the world to look at, marvel at and discuss for years to come. The more the merrier. Welcome. Ain’t it pretty?

Pintocalypse Award: Javier Mascherano, for his brilliant headed save in the box after Pinto got caught out metres outside his box. Yet another reason why Masche has been worth every cent they paid for him.

Barça DNA Award: It’s always good to see former players doing well. Victor Sanchez has played for a few clubs since leaving Barça, first on loan in 2009, then permanently in 2011. He joined Espanyol in January 2012 after being released from the disastrous Swiss club Neuchatel Xamax. He knew Guardiola well from his days as part of his B team, and I’m sure he appreciated the sendoff Pep was given. He had a cute moment during the game when, after picking up a yellow card for barrelling into Iniesta, he trotted over to pat him on the head in apology. Because everyone loves Iniesta.

Room For Improvement Award: Speaking of Iniesta, he takes free kicks now. Because he needed to be even more awesome than he already is. This is one of the (many) reasons I love this team: No one rests on their laurels. Everyone can still learn things, can still get better. That’s what Pep brought to the club, and what I expect to see continued under Tito.

Perpetual Motion Machine Award: Pedro, who is darned close to earning back his punctuation, and had another excellent game with full windmill action activated. See, he just needed some consistent playing time to get his groove back! Sadly, he will likely miss out on going to the Euros as VDB has plenty of other options to choose from, and these last few games may not have been enough to get him back in the running. I think Pep actually feels a little guilty about that, as he mentioned something in a recent press conference that he thinks he could have played Pedro more. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Keita Face Award: Huh? What?

Closing The Barn Door After The Horse Has Bolted Award: Four Penalties in 2 games? Little late to start getting those calls now, guys. I’m waiting for Marca to break the story that we are bribing the refs to get penalty kicks now just to drive up Messi’s pichichi stats. I’m sure that’s what they are thinking. (And on a serious note, something has to be done about these ridiculous handball penalty calls. Whether for us or against us, there have been so many bad calls where it was a clear case of unavoidable ball-to-hand. It’s madness.)

Resistance Is Futile Award: Pep, pretending to throw a punch at Puyol in an effort to avoid being given the bumps. Trust me, if Puyol wants to throw you in the air it’s going to happen. Just resign yourself and enjoy the ride!

Next Generation Award: Marius Guardiola i Serra, who has already been practicing his coaching technique on the sidelines of Camp Nou. Future head coach? Watch this space!

Cast A Giant Shadow Award: What do they do with those giant banners after the game is finished? Put it in the museum, I suppose. I would love to buy that Gracies Pep banner and just drape it over my house. It would keep the sun off in the summer and retain heat in the winter. Most importantly, I could continue to live under Pep’s beatific gaze and pretend nothing has changed. Nothing at all.

Never Gonna Give You Up Award: Messi, for That Hug. The hug that wasn’t only a sign of personal affection, but a public acknowledgement of just how important Pep has been to Leo as a player. Messi would probably still be the best in the world under any coach, but it was Pep (and Tito!) who guided his genius, found out how to get the best out of him, and allowed him to develop into the absolute monster he is now. 72 goals. In one season. Messi isn’t stupid. He knows exactly what Pep has done for him, and for the game he loves to play. Oh, and also? You have all just been Rick Rolled.

You’re having this party, right, and you’re thinking of every possible thing that can happen, every permutation that can go into making your party a memorable one. You have all the right foods, great music, the occasion is right, it’s all working, all planned to perfection. You have all the bases covered, then something happens, and the party is suddenly elevated from sensational, to once-in-a-lifetime.

That was kinda what happened at the Camp Nou yesterday, an extraordinary series of events that elevated a maudlin, sad event into something celebratory and memorable. Pep Guardiola coached his last first team match at the Camp Nou. The plaudits have been raining from the heavens for some time now, some beautiful, some saccharine, some silly, some heartfelt. His players had said many things, made many gestures and through it all, there was also nonsense:

–There was a falling out between Leo Messi and Guardiola
–Messi didn’t come to the announcement press conference for nefarious reasons

Messi answered all of those bits of silliness with a glorious display, his second in a row, laying four goals on our hated neighbors Espanyol, one of the teams that fought and clawed its way to stolen points from us in this extraordinary season. And after the fourth goal, Messi eschewed the usual group hug, as he was a man on a mission. He trotted over to the sideline, and hugged his coach, Pep Guardiola.

And hugged, and hugged, and hugged. Then a few teammates came over, then a few more ….

…. and suddenly, the whole group was over in an ensemble love-in. As usual, the littlest one would lead them, in figuring out exactly what to do, there was really nothing to do or say, only the simplest expression of love and affection that we know: an embrace.

To say that it was a remarkable moment would be an understatement. To say that it was a perfect moment would be about right, because in Guardiola’s last home match, against our bitter crosstown rivals, that our best player, a player who reached his fullest flower yet under the careful steerage of the coach he didn’t want to let go, physically or clearly, emotionally, that player dropped 4 goals. Yes, the churlish will note that two of them were penalties of the softest nature. But the other two were of such joy that, as our very own Isaiah said on Twitter, they should have each counted for two.

Messi was a player that wasn’t going to let anything sully his coach’s last home match. You got the feeling he would have played keeper, had it been required of him, in a match in which players rose above and beyond the call. Puyol rose from the pitch like a rocket on a set piece. Mascherano bailed out a woefully out-of-position Pinto with a clearance for the ages, one that sent him head over heels, rising to his feet almost with a “Did I make it?” expression on his face.

It was clear from the collective enterprise, the vigor at which the club attacked this match, that no player on that pitch was going to be responsible for allowing ANYTHING to sully the Mister’s last home match.

And it’s worth noting that before Guardiola, Lionel Messi was an injury-prone mass of potential. The seasons prior to Guardiola, both injury-hampered, he had 19 and 20 goals. Guardiola came in, put him on a regimen that covered every aspect of his preparation, right down the foods that he ate, specific exercises and other things to keep Messi in the state of Messi-ness. That first season brought 38 goals in all competitions, and a Treble. The next season, 45 goals in all competitions. The season after that, 50. Then this season, with a mind-boggling 72 goals in all competitions, a record that people had to go waaaaay back in time to find anyone who had done the like. Then he passed that dude.

And now, it’s just Messi, a player who has achieved so much under the steady hand of Guardiola, who is probably comfortable with the steerage of Tito Vilanova, and who is still improving as a player overall, in every aspect of his game.

We will leave it to others to question Messidependencia, whether it is wise to place such a burden on such a small pair of shoulders. We will leave it to others to natter about how all that Guardiola did was stand in the right place at the right time, as the armored car doors flew open and those bags of money flew out.

Because we’re too busy marveling at a player who has scored more goals by himself than many entire clubs.

Did the club play a perfect match yesterday, finally handing Pep Guardiola the one thing he had been seeking his entire FCB coaching career? No. But it didn’t matter. The same result would have befallen ANY team that showed up in the Camp Nou on that day, on that auspicious occasion. The players tossed Guardiola into the air, formed a guard of honor for him as he left the Camp Nou pitch for the last time, leaving him and us with memories, moments that he shared with his family as they occupied an empty stadium, a space that was almost certainly still echoing with the cheers of the almost 90,000 supporters that, in unison, showed voceferous appreciation for the man, the Mister, the legend.

What’s next? It doesn’t matter, just like the aftermath of that wonderful, amazing party that you threw, the one where it all came together. Yes, there is work, school or those other real-life committments that scrape away, making our existence a mostly mundane thing. But that is for the next day. For now, it’s the memory, reliving the delight and swapping stories of the night, that amazing night in the Camp Nou when love was so thick in the air that, like the blades of grass that some visitors reach down and swipe during stadium visits, it felt like you could have just scooped some up to take home, and preserve for posterity.

What a party, indeed.

Starting XI: Pinto, Montoya, Puyol, Mascherano, Adriano, Keita, Busquets, Thiago, Pedro, Messi, Iniesta

Bench: Valdes, Bartra, Alves, Fabregas, Xavi, Afellay, Tello

Match starts at 3:00 PM EST