Gerard Pique's baring of his sizzling abs is not why he is our weekly pick; although we can probably all agree that that would be reason enough. The picture is from last season anyway; no, he's done something else this week that's making us melt for him...
Geri was one of the few players given leave to stay away on vacation until the twenty-seventh; however he cut his holiday short and returned from the Maldives to Barcelona last Monday!

Most football fans would agree that Barcelona have got the best team in the World at the moment and Champions league final against Manchester United proved that. You can argue that United were not at their best on the day or that Barca were lucky to eliminate Chelsea, but nobody can argue that Pep Guardiola's team play the best football in Europe and still manage to win trophies.

The 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup is only a week away and all 8 teams have namer their rosters for the tournament. Headlining the field is reigning Euro 2008 Champions Spain as well as 2006 World Cup winners Italy, and perennial powerhouses Brazil. The other teams in the field are the United States, hosts South Africa, New Zealand, Iraq, and Egypt.

It was never a secret that Guardiola preferred Busquets and Keita to Toure when he started his reign at Barca. He entered into compromise with Eto early on the season but convincingly overlooked Toure many times during the start of season. But there are some talents you can't keep on bench, and Toure proved to be one of them.

Lionel Messi spent his last day of vaycay in the United States in LA, California, where he picked up the ESPN Deportes Latino Athlete of the Year award. He'll be spending the rest of his holiday in Cali with his family, before it's time to head back to Barcelona for preseason.
The best video ever.

Real Madrid mouthpiece Marca has officially become El Sun. The Madrid rag relegated the news of Lio Messi winning the Balon D'Or on their front page to mentioning that the Merengue players were attacked by "an organized group of fans"with lasers. This affected both Cristiano Ronaldo and Pepe.

Gallery, images, photos and pictures of FC Barcelona's match v CD Guadalajara Pre-Season Friendly match, August 2009. Includes Eidur Gudjohnsen, Jeffren Suarez, Daniel Alves, Jonathan Dos Santos, Bojan Krkic, Julio Nava, Maxwell, Yaya Touré, Sergio Busquets, Seydou Keita, Gerard Pique and Marc Muniesa images, photos and pictures.

Tonight, Barcelona travels to Valencia to play a tough away game against a team who has won their last 5 games including a 3-1 victory against Sevilla. Valencia are currently in 4th place and trail Sevilla by only two points. A win tomorrow could put Valencia into 3rd at least until Sevilla plays Real Madrid on Sunday.

Both Manchester United and Barcelona's appeals to overturn suspensions were denied by UEFA on Monday.

In the statement released by Europe‘s governing body it stated "All three players are therefore suspended for one UEFA club competition match and will serve their suspensions when Barcelona FC meet Manchester United FC in the UEFA Champions League final in Rome on 27 May"

Honestly, I am more than happy to give up Fletcher for both Abidal and Daniel Alves.

With yesterdays 3-2 loss to Villareal, REAL MADRID made FCBARCELONA mathematically the "Liga" Champions for the2008/ 2009 season. The celebrations & the fans exploded withjoy throughout the streets of the city of Barcelona with chantsuntil th early hours of this morning. (celebrations at Barcelona: photo Marca)FC Barcelona play Real Mallorca tonight resting Messi, Toure, Pique, Puyol & Busquets.

Better than Brazil?

Spain set a world record of 15 consecutive wins after beating South Africa 2-0 to reach the Confederations Cup semis.

Their latest victory means Spain have equalled Brazils all time record of 35 matches without defeat, (1993 and 1996). But are they better than that Brazilian team?

Gallery, images, photos and pictures of FC Barcelona's match v CD Guadalajara Pre-Season Friendly match, August 2009. Includes Eidur Gudjohnsen, Jeffren Suarez, Daniel Alves, Jonathan Dos Santos, Bojan Krkic, Julio Nava, Maxwell, Yaya Touré, Sergio Busquets, Seydou Keita, Gerard Pique and Marc Muniesa images, photos and pictures.

For the second time in a row, Atletico Madrid's visit to Camp NOu turned out to be a nightmare. But it was better than last time, I mean they score one more and conceded one less too this time around. With this heavy defeat Atletico's start to the season has gone from bad to worse. First half goals from Ibrahmovic, Messi, Alves and Keita, and an injury time strike from Messi condemned Atletico's to their heaviest defeat this season.

The two biggest clubs in La Liga met on Sunday, November 29, 2009 as FC Barcelona hosted Real Madrid. Who was able to win the El Clasico? Here's a recap of the match along with video highlights.

FC Barcelona beats Real Madrid 1-0 Video Highlights

Both teams had chances in the first half but neither would score as it would stay scoreless through 45 minutes.

It's not just about footie! Our boys are devoted to the other teams wearing the Barca colors as well—we're refering to the club's basket ball team, Regal FC Barcelona. Ten players from the football team attended Regal's decisive match against TAU Cerámica: Carles Puyol, Leo Messi, Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto'o, Albert Jorquera, Sergio Busquets, Eric Abidal, Gerard Piqué, Bojan Krkic and Victor Sanchez, with Pique, who often attends Regal's matches, even showing up in a the team's jersey.

vs

Today head coach Pep Guardiola announced the 20 players available for tomorrow's Champions League match at home against Chelsea. With no real suprises Pinto, Sanchez and Rodriguez were the three that will not be present for the match. In additional Guardiola will have to drop two more players by match time tomorrow.

FC Barcelona - 4, Bilbao - 1
FC Barcelona ended their two year droght of silverware with an emphatic win against Athletic Bilbao at the Mestalla. Yesterday's triump also ends a eleven year wait for the "Copa Del Rey" title. The last time FC Barcelona won the cup Guardiola was a team member and it might be destiny that this has to be his first title as FC Barcelona coach.

REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni

FC Barcelona kicked off their US summer tour with a bang on Saturday night as the team took the pitch in front of the second largest crowd to every witness a football match on US soil. Guardiola fielded a mix of both A and B team players to start the match with Rafael Marquez making his first appearance after recovering from a knee injury suffered last season.

Tomorrow's the big day.

Valencia-Barcelona at the Mestalla and this one's more than a game.

There are Spanish championship implications for Barca.

There are Champions League implications for us.

There's the race to the Pichichi between strikers David Villa and Samuel Eto'o and there's going to be a raucous, rambunctious crowd filling the Mestalla looking to cheer their hearts out.

Liverpool have appointed the coach that helped to groom many of the current crop of homegrown Barcelona players as Rafa Benitez seeks to overhaul the Anfield club's youth set-up.
Pep Segura worked at Camp Nou with the youngsters in a two-year spell that saw him help discover such talents as Bojan Krkic, Sergi Busquets and Pedro.

The moment draws ever closer... just about twenty four hours separate us from the kickoff of this match of matches, the final of finals, Roma 2009... Barca heads out to face Manchester United, the team that has been, along with Barcelona of course, the best in Europe this season. We're nervous, excited, jittery, anxious, totally psyched and near to a panic attack waiting for this one.

Gallery, Images, Photos and Pictures of FC Barcelona v Seattle Sounders, Pre-Season Friendly Match, August 2009. Includes Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Sergio Busquets and Bojan Krkic.

Diego Maradona's term as Argenita's coach ran into deep trouble after his side lost a vital home encounter against arch-rivals Brazil. Brazil defeated Maradona's boy by a score of 3-1 in Rosario. Argentina lies in fourth place at this moment, but Columbia and Ecuador lies just two points behind.

This is the kind of space Xavi thinks he deserves.

The theory is that because of the low amount of scoring in football, using particularly protective and cynical tactics ruins the sport whose nature inhibits a high amount of goals per match. Football's common nickname is "The Beautiful Game," but from where did that phrase initially originate?

Barca pick up where they left off in the Champions League, meeting Russian club Rubin Kazan at home in the final match of the group stages first leg. We'll be looking not just for a win that will keep Barca at the top of their CL group, but also for a clean sheet that will maintain the team's current form of not having conceded a single CL goal this season, something only three other teams have accomplished so far.

The Spanish Primera Division or La Liga had several matches on Saturday including FC Barcelona v Mallorca. Here's a recap and video highlights of the La Liga match from Saturday, November 7, 2009.

FC Barcelona beats Mallorca 4-2 Video Highlights

Barcelona took an early lead in the 11th minute as Zlatan Ibrahimovic sent a through ball for Pedro who scored.

Poor Dani Alves. He arrived one minute late for training yesterday - and faces a fine by the club. Other guilty offenders included Gudjohnsen, Xavi, Eto'o, Messi and Toure. Oh come on, they wanted to watch reruns of Big Brother to celebrate Copa del Ray!

Real Mallorca vs Barca Preview
FC Barcelona finally became the Champions. As Eto said last week, we didn't have to play again win the title. Real Madrid's last night 3-2 defeat to Villareal means we will have two weeks ahead to focus clearly on Champions League final in Rome. Manchester United, Barca's rival in Rome also grabbed their title last night with a draw against Arsenal.

I suppose you want to know who's going to win the Champions League final, or at least who I think it going to win (those two answers may not always match, of course)? Well come on in...
Man Utd will win 1-0 with a headed goal by Cristiano Ronaldo. There, my work is done.
Flippancy aside, that is my actual prediction for tonight's final in Rome.

Wow, did you see the Champions' League final? Barcelona are on another planet.

I put my amateur analyst hat on and tried to work out how it is that they can play such an adventurous game and not concede lots of goals. It's hard to tell on TV, but some things stood out:

1) Busquets hardly ever went forwards.

El seleccionador nacional, Vicente Del Bosque, dio a conocer la lista de 23 jugadores que llevará a la Copa Confederaciones de Sudáfrica, que se disputará entre los próximos 14 y 28 de junio. En una convocatoria marcada por las lesiones y las ausencias, la llamada de Juan Mata (Valencia) y Albert Riera (Liverpool), así como la de los culés Andrés Iniesta y Gerard Piqué (ambos con molestias), se antojan como lo más destacado de la comparecencia celebrada este mediodía en la Ciudad del Fútbol de Las Rozas.

After the most amazing results Pep achieved in his first year coaching Barcelona, others are now looking to take lessons from him. Pep gave a lecture before a hundred and fifty managers yesterday - isn't it funny how a man who is one of the youngest professional coaches out there is teaching these much older, much more experienced ones?

After completing the most incredible season in history, the important thing now is to prepare for next season.
Barca's preseason will kickoff with a friendly against English club Tottenham Hotspurs on July 24, however the team will be assembled before that to begin training, and all players will undergo physicals on July 20.

Joel Santana's squad needs to work on stopping those back breaking free kicks which seem to doom them at the last minute. This time it was Xabi Alonso's extra time free kick in the 107th minute that sank South Africa.

Vicente Del Bosque went to his deep bench strength. Sergio Ramos whose poor clearance led to Dempsey's goal was replaced by Raul Albiol.

The first match is near, and we can barely contain our excitement. It seems like ages since we've seen the boys play (in reality only about two months) and we just can't wait for this!
Barca opens preseason against English club Tottenham as part of the Wembley Cup friendly tournament, which also features Scottish club Celtic and Egypt's Al-Ahly.

Head coach Pep Guardiola announced the 26 players that will be making the trip to the United States for the US Tour. Two names missing from the list are Alexander Hleb and Martín Cáceres both who are rumored to be going out on loan for next season.

The 26 players are:
Valdés, Jorquera, Jorquera, Puyol, Alves, Sánchez, Piqué, Márquez, Henrique, Abidal, Maxwell, Xavi, Touré, Keita, Busquets, Gudjohnsen, Iniesta, Henry, Pedro, Messi, Bojan, Ibrahimovic, Muniesa, Font s, Jonathan dos Santos and Jeffren.

Gallery, images, photos and pictures of FC Barcelona's match v CD Guadalajara Pre-Season Friendly match, August 2009. Includes Eidur Gudjohnsen, Jeffren Suarez, Daniel Alves, Jonathan Dos Santos, Bojan Krkic, Julio Nava, Maxwell, Yaya Touré, Sergio Busquets, Seydou Keita, Gerard Pique and Marc Muniesa images, photos and pictures.

Athletic Bilbao vs Barca Preview
In contrast to the other major leagues in Europe, the Spanish Super Cup is a two legged affair. The first leg will be held tonight at San Mamés ; the second leg will held at the Camp Nou next sunday. Guardiola has announced the squad which is travelling to face Athletic Bilbao - Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Maxwell, Abidal, Puyol, Piqué, Font s, Muniesa, Touré, Keita, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Busquets, Bojan, Pedro, Jeffren, Henry and Jonathan Dos Santos.

via Reuters

Uncle Del Bosque thinks that Spain's critics need to start eating their paellas and chill out as they prepare to face Belgium in a World Cup qualifier.

"The criticism I take is normal. When you lose, the critic sees fit to criticise. Football is a debate.

FC Barcelona will be looking to register their first victory in this season's Champions League tonight when they face Dynamo Kiev at the Camp Nou. At the Guardiola described how important is this game and a failure to win will put emnormous pressure on the Barcelona side, especially we have to play at Ukraine and Russia in the onset of winter.