Ronaldinho may not be playing at the moment but Barcelona and in particular, Lionel Messi, proved far too hot for Real Zaragoza on Wednesday night. Messi, still only 20, inspired Barcelona to a 4 - 1 home victory at the Camp Nou with two goals.

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi

The young Argentine striker has stepped up to lead a side that started the season poorly and, in the absence of an out-of-sorts Ronaldinho, he has been the central figure in their three wins over the last seven days.

The game at the Camp Nou started at a break neck pace with Messi terrorising Zaragoza’s defence. It didn’t take long for the damage to be done as Messi scored twice in the first 11 minutes. Messi cut in from the right, ran across the edge of the area and curled in Henry’s deft lay-off, that was after 5 minutes.

However, Real soon levelled the scoring after Messi’s first through Alberto Zapater on 10 minutes. However only a minute later, the action was back down the other end of the pitch as Deco tried to get through a crowd of players on the edge of the area. Messi nipped in and tucked the ball away.

As well as scoring two of his own, Messi also set up the third Barca goal for Andres Iniesta. The fourth was added by the Mexican defender Rafael Marquez just before the break as Barca left Zaragoza chasing shadows and wondering what hit them.

Barca had a whole host of chances in the second half to add to their tally however, Henry in particular was guilty of missing excellent chances.

After the game the Zaragoza coach Victor Fernandez said of Messi, “He is probably the best player in the world at the moment, not only for the goals but for his all round play.

With this victory Barcelona climbed into third place in La Liga on 11 points, one point behind the leaders Villareal and Valencia.

Villareal moved into the top spot for the first time in their history with a 2 - 0 win at Racing Santander. Valencia Beat struggling Getafe 2 - 1 at the Mestalla with goals from the Spanish duo of David Villa and David Silva.

The current Champions Real Madrid have 10 points from 4 games and are in fourth place. They host Real Betis at the Bernabeu on Thursday night.

Meanwhile Real’s neighbours Atletico Madrid climbed into fifth place on eight points with a 2 - 0 win at Athletic Bilbao.

What’s interesting to me is when will Ronaldinho be back for Barca? When will Rijkaard pick him and will he be back to his best form? If he is, it will be a mouth-watering prospect with Messi in this form.

The Soccer Blogger

I reported on Saturday about Barcelona’s fall last season from the dizzy heights of a European and domestic double the year before where they were simply irresistible. Not only did they throw both crowns away but their arch rival Real Madrid picked up the pieces at home to win La Liga.

So this year that had to get off to a good start in La Liga, but with the Spanish season only just started, the Barca manager Frank Rijkaard will not be happy at his side already having to play “catch-up” after his team were held to a 0 - 0 draw by Osasuna on Sunday. It leaves Barca already 4 points behind Real.

Barcelona may have such attacking gems as Henry, Ronaldinho but they failed to score for the second time in three games and surrendered another two vital points.

Contrast that to Real Madrid having their best start to a La Liga season since 1992 [winning their opening three games] and the pressure is already firmly on Rijkaard and Barcelona but they failed to respond with any kind of an effective display at Osasuna, a team they would have been expected to beat comfortably.

Unfortunately for Barcelona it is not going to get any easier in the near future as they play the French champions Lyon on Wednesday then have to face Sevilla in the first big clash of the league season.

Sevilla, who moved into second place in La Liga courtesy of a 4-1 win over Recreativo De Huelva at the weekend, have played one less game, also have a perfect record and showed they are in fine shape ahead of the tough Champions League tie on Wednesday against Arsenal.

Barcelona rested Lionel Messi who was suffering from a muscular problem so Rijkaard handed the 18 year old Mexican wonder kid Giovani, who was recently capped by his country, his first start. The young Mexican went close to scoring in the 34th minute.

But overall it was a very disappointing display by a Barcelona side who, if they don’t start playing better and winning soon, the pressure will start to mount and the Barcelona public are very fickle and don’t generally have a lot of patience. I know, I used to live there! The white hankies could be waving very soon [a sign of disgust at their team] if Rijkaard and his men don’t start putting some results together and just as importantly for the Barcelona public, start playing attractive football again!

This is going to be interesting to follow!

The Soccer Blogger

It was only two seasons ago that Barcelona conquered all before them both at home and in Europe when they completed a memorable domestic and European Cup double, culminating in that 2 -1 win over Arsenal in the Stade de France.

Puyol lifts the European Cup in Paris in 2006 after defeating Arsenal 2 - 1

It was Barca’s second European success and it was a fitting reward for, at the time, the most exciting attack minded team in Europe. However, the Catalan giants made a very disappointing defence of those two crowns the following season and they frittered away that hard earned and well earned reputation.

They exited the Champions League at the first knock out stage after wilting to the competitions previous holders, Liverpool, who were far more determined and focused . They then went on to surrender what was a comfortable lead in the Primera Liga, which to make matters even worse, was grabbed by the arch and fierce rivals, Real Madrid. It doesn’t get much worse than that for Barcelona! So having wrested the initiative away from Real the previous season, Barca simply followed up by seemingly adopting some of their own worst failings.

There were serious defensive flaws. There were dressing room rifts and what looked like a belief that skill alone could substitute totally for good honest hard work. It all contributed to their downfall and any chances of maintaining their previously hard-earned success and in so doing, prompted a major overhaul of the squad during the summer.

The former Arsenal striker and talisman, Thierry Henry, was the most high-profile new recruit and it is hoped that his signing wil help to make up for the loss of Samuel Eto’o who currently has a serious thigh injury. Of course, it was believed, at least their was a huge amount of speculation, that Henry would leave Arsenal for Barca following their Champions League final. However, Arsenal lost of course and there appeared to be a little bit a “bad blood” after the game between Henry and some of the Barcelona players.

Anyway, Barcelona also have two supremely talented young forwards waiting very impatiently in the wings. Firstly their is Mexican Giovani dos Santos and the under 17 Spanish international Bojan Krkic.

Perhaps more importantly for the team’s prospects for Europe this season, is last season’s wobbly defence. They have reinforced the defence with new signings Diego Milito from Argentina and France’s left back Eric Abidal. There is also the Ivory Coast international Vaya Toure who has been brought in to bolster the midfield. Are they all called Toure? There seems to be a least one Toure in every team these days!

Part of those dressing room squabbles that seemed to so disrupt Barcelona last season was Frank Rijkaard, the Dutch coach. There was certainly something going on behind the scenes (and quite often blatantly in public) between him, Ronaldinho and Eto’o. Maybe it was some sort of love triangle?! But there was huge speculation as to which of the three would leave the Camp Nou in the summer. It was definite that at least one of them, if not two, would move onto pastures new. However, they have confounded everyone and all three are still there!

Anyway, in the Champions League Rijkaard’s team have been handed quite a tough draw in the group stages. The group also has Olympique Lyon, who have dominated the French league in recent years and were actually some people’s tip for the Champions League last season, Stuttgart, who won the Bundesliga last season and Glasgow Rangers. You can’t bet there will be no room for slip ups in that group if Barca want to make it back to the knock-out stages!

Barcelona’s Sporting Director and their former player Txiki Beriristain said about the group, “With the champions of France and Germany and one of the two big teams from Scotland we’ve got three very strong rivals. The strength of the group means we will have to be completely focused for every game.” He’s not getting any argument from me on that!

So, it is going to be really interested to see how Barcelona can bounce back this season following their disappointment of the year. Just trying to win the title back off Real should be motivation enough for the Catalans!

The Soccer Blogger

So it looks like Arjen Robben is finally leaving Chelsea and is off to sunny Spain. Can’t say I’m too sorry to see Robben leave the Premiership, he’s too much of a diver and play actor for me. Drives me round the bend, all that rolling around.

Anyway, apparently Robben, along with Royston Drenthe from Feyenoord, will both be paraded by Real Madrid on Friday and could be available to play in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup to be played on August 11. The Super Cup similar to the Community Shield in that the Champions play the Copa del Rey winners who are Sevilla.

It’s no great surprise to see Robben finally go as he appears to have been a target of Real and in particularly the Real President, Ramon Calderon, all summer. Well he’s finally got his man after Robben, who is only 23 but looks more like 43 to me, played 104 times for Chelsea scoring 19 goals since joining from PSV Eindhoven in 2004.

Adios Arjen!

Sorry, can you tell I’m not a big fan!

[kqf=2]

The Soccer Blogger

New Barcelona striker Thierry Henry has warned Barca’s league and European rivals that he plans to win everything possible on offer this season with his new club.

Despite looking absolutely shattered on his arrival in Japan with his Barcelona team mates the ex Arsenal striker quickly made the Champions League and the La Liga title as his top priorities.

Henry spoke to reporters before Barca’s pre-season game against Yokohama and stated, “There are a lot of people in that dressing room who want to win a lot of titles. The objective when you play for Barcelona is to win everything. The aim is to win those titles. It’s a long road but you have to start the season somewhere.

“I’m playing for one of the best teams, if not the best team in the world, that’s where the excitement is.”

Barcelona had already beaten Beijing Guoan 3 - 0 on Sunday during a whirlwind tour of the far-east [all about money and merchandising, as all big clubs do these days] but the tour has been criticised by some of the Barcelona players.

Henry who is trying to coax himself back from an injury ridden final season in North London, put on a positive spin on the clubs hectic pre-season schedule by stating, “Yes we are arriving [in Japan] physically tired but during the season there’ll be times when it will happen. There will be ten minutes left in a game and we will have to dig in mentally. It’s not the first time we’ve arrived for a game tired. We still have to perform and keep working.”

Henry also praised the work of the Barcelona medical staff after he started a game for the first time since March. Henry said, “It was the first time I started a game for a long time and only the third time I played 45 minutes. The staff are working hard to get me back to top shape as quickly as possible. What I want to say about this club is there is a great feeling of togetherness.” You kind of get the feeling he’s been given that last bit to say following on from all the bad publicity at the end of last season with Eto’o, Rijkaard and Ronaldinho.

Anyway, the Barca coach Rijkaard wouldn’t be drawn on the issue of whether he would play Henry, Eto’o and Ronaldinho, in what is quite frankly a pretty awesome front line. Rijkaard said, “We will look to play an aggressive style of football again this season but I am not going to rush things.

“We will look to put things into place bit by bit and build up momentum at the right time. I won’t take risks with Henry or with any other player.”

It’s going to be very interesting to see how those three players, in deed the whole team, bond and blend together this season. And I for one am looking forward to seeing the fight for the Championship and to seeing whether Barca can reclaim the title after being denied three in a row by their arch rivals.

[kqf=4]
[kqf=5]

The Soccer Blogger