It's time for internationals again and as per usual, almost all the Barca boys are called up, with
most of them facing off in the much awaited Spain - Argentina friendly.
Due to an injury in his left calf muscle, Puyol is left out of Spain's roster leaving his fellow
countrymen Valdes, Pique, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Villa and Pedro to represent Spain against their
Barca teammates from the Argentine squad: Messi, Milito and Mascherano.
Newly promoted Hercules made a mockery of the attacking talent Barca possessed by dominating a
match and winning it quite comfortably. This was suppposed to be a cake walk and I myself predicted
a 5-0 drubbing tonight at the Camp Nou. Instead Hercules gave an astonishing drubbing to the
defending champions.
I'm posting this away from home for the weekend, in the absence of my usual sports channel or a
connection that can support a stream - i.e. I wasn't able to watch last night's match, in the end
settling for following it on my twitterfeed and ESPN gamecast. And maybe not watching it was a good
thing after all.
It was 16 months in the waiting but on Saturday night Pep Guardiola and Barcelona experienced
their first home defeat in La Liga and it was to the most unlikely of opponents.
Newly promoted Hercules came to Camp Nou with more hope than expectation but left this great
stadium with the 3 points after a stunning 2-0 victory over the reigning champions.
Returning in high-spirited triumph from their 5-1 trouncing of Panathanikos in the Champions
League, Barca now heads out to the Spanish capital to face Liga contenders Athletico Madrid, in a
meet that's set to be anything but easy.
Barca hasn't had the best of luck on the Vicente Calderon in the past, not having been able to win
a match there in years.
David Villa struck in the second half to help FC Barcelona defeat his former club at the Camp
Nou. With Real Madrid winning yesterday this three points has to be considered more than valuable.
After a goal-less first half, Villa struck ealry in second half to down a team with whom he tasted
his first success.
The name Rubin Kazan does not invoke happy memories for Barca fans. Last season, they were the
one of the few teams who managed to gain an upperhand against us. Even against Inter we had a
record of two wins, 1 defeat and a draw. Rubin Kazan visited Camp Nou shocking us all with a
victory, and the return visit to Russia ended with a goalless draw.
