Costa Rica vs. Spain, Group Stages, Game 1, FIFA U-20 World Cup
Estadio Palogrande, Manizales, Colombia (Capacity: 36,553)
Sunday, July 31, 2011 at 15:00 local time (22:00 CET) – Convert to your local time

FC Barcelona B youngsters Sergi Roberto, Cristian Tello, Marc Bartra, Carles Planas, and new signing Kiko Femenia are all part of the Spain U-20 squad for the tournament. Chelsea target Oriol Romeu is also part of the team. A complete list of the squad can be found here.

Links are after the jump!

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Pep Guardiola spoke in a press conference after yesterday’s 2-1 loss against Manchester United at the Fedex field, Maryland.

Watch the video after the jump!

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Canales will be loaned to Valencia but will not be able to play against Madrid

Canales: “The truth is that this of not letting me play against Madrid has no name”

Coach Emery: “Yes it does … THE JITTERS.”

Lionel Messi leads all goal scorers in the Liga since the 2006-07 season with 112 goals. Following on his heels for the same period are Villa (100), Forlán (93) and Kanouté (79). Last season, Messi scored in 20 of the matches he played in, compared with 18 for Cristiano Ronaldo and 17 for  Fernando Llorente.

Source: OptaSports

CESC’S NUMBERS

29 – Barça

6 – variables / sponsors

+5 – Cesc – a million annually from his signing

[Equals] 40 million

This week the transfer of the player, who yesterday watched  from the stands Arsenal tie [Boca Juniors], will be closed out

Barça 1-2 Manchester

Thiago scores another golazo

Barça dominated but Manchester won with two counterattacks

GOLAZO BY THIAGO

Friendly – Barça 1 – 2 Manchester

The fourth goal by Alcántara in the preseason, the best of an average Barça

Afellay suffered a muscle tear and the tour ends for him

Cesc, last offer – the directive prepares the final attempt to convince Arsenal

Ball with Kobe – The Lakers star will play a charity match together with Pep today

World Cup 2014 – against France

Spain has no luck in the draw and is in the same group as the bleus

The 4th friendly match of the season, held at the Fedex Stadium in Maryland, with a record breaking crowd of approximately 81,000 for the Washington area, ended with a defeat for the blaugrana. Watch some of the highlights and the goals from the match, including Thiago’s amazing curler, after the jump!

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Barça’s Dutch midfielder Ibrahim Afellay has been injured during the match against Manchester United. Afellay is suffering from a small tear to the hamstring of his left thigh.

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RESULT:

FC Barcelona: 1

Manchester United: 2

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FC Barcelona vs. Manchester United
Preseason Friendly, World Football Challenge, FedEx Field (USA)
Saturday, July 30 @ 19:00 local time (Sunday, July 31 @ 1:00 Barcelona time) – Convert to local time

FC Barcelona Chat: http://apps.facebook.com/fcbarcelonachat/ (direct chat through Facebook)
Direct link: http://fcbarcelona.hopto.org

Click here to chat!

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Barcelona initiated the transfer of Alexis Sanchez  mere days after lifting the Champions League trophy with a call to Udinese on June 1. The complexities of the deal were finally all ironed out on July 21, 51 days later.

Source: Sport

Yesterday, Spain sealed their place in the Under-19 European Championship Final with a 5-0 victory over the Republic of Ireland. FC Barcelona’s Gerard Deulofeu scored the first goal and was an integral part of Juanmi’s goal (the 3rd on the night), with captain Pablo Sarabia scoring the 2nd goal and Morata grabbing two late in the match. The Final will be on Monday at 19:00 CET, with Spain facing the Czech Republic. Full highlights can be found after the jump.

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Former FC Barcelona star Sergi Barjuan has decided abruptly to leave his position as manager of Barcelona’s Juvenil B youth squad, according to reports Friday in Sport.  Barjuan has been officially replaced by former Cadete A manager García Pimienta, who has in turn been replaced by Víctor Sánchez, former Cadete A coach.

No concrete reasons were offered for  Barjuan’s decision. In his Twitter feed, the former Barcelona defender said only that he had “decided to leave FC Barcelona to pursue coaching at a higher professional level.”

Sport is reporting on Friday that FC Barcelona defenders Pique and Maxwell will sit out Saturday’s friendly with Manchester United after both players sustained minor muscular injuries in training. The Catalan duo will join teammate Carles Puyol in solo recuperative sessions over the next days.

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We show you exclusively Mou’s arguments before UEFA (¿Por qué?) …and it went on for more than six hours

Sergio Batista’s stint as Argentina manager ended after just 17 matches, as he was fired by his national FA this week. Batista goes on the list with the shortest tenure as national coach since Vladislao Cap in 1974.

Source: OptaSports; Image: Reuters Pictures

CESC GIVES THE REST

Deal with Wenger, who will let him go

Cesc will pay the difference between the money Arsenal asks for and what Barça is willing to pay

Barça – Manchester (01.00h). “Champion’s final” in the small hours. Xavi will play his first match of the season but Piqué and Maxwell, feeling some discomfort, will not play

Barça in the White House

UEFA chickens out on Mourinho. They reduced the ban imposed for his accusations

ALMOST DONE

Wenger opens the door for Cesc because he does not want him to stay if the player does not want to

Barça directive staff seems optimistic and believe that the signing will be done soon

Revenge made in America. Pep’s men relive today the Champions final. Manchester – Barça (01.00h)

Blaugranas in the White House.  The players visited the presidential residence

Forgiveness to “Mou”. UEFA gave in to the pressure and lowers the ban.

This Friday morning, Guardiola’s team held their first training session with the ball in the United States. The session took place in one of the country’s emblematic stadiums, the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium.

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Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho saw the punishment for his behavior in last season’s first leg of the Champions League semi-final with Barcelona reduced after an appeal to UEFA on Friday, according to an official UEFA statement. Mourinho had initially been given a five-match ban for incidents during and after the match, won 0-2 by Barcelona. In the wake of the appeal, 2 of the match bans have been suspended. However, a three year probation has also been imposed, and the suspended bans will be reinstated if Mourinho misbehaves at any point during this time. The 50,000 euro fine imposed on the manager, and the 20,000 judgement against Real Madrid, for the behavior of their fans during the encounter, were both left intact by the UEFA panel.

Mourinho, who has already served one of the match bans, will sit out the next two Madrid Champions League games. The club has 10 days to appeal the decisions of the Appeals Body.

Spain vs Republic of Ireland, Semi-Finals, UEFA U-19 European Championship
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 20:45 local time (19:45 CET) – Convert to your local time

Two FC Barcelona youngsters – Sergi Gomez and Gerard Deulofeu – are part of Spain U-19′s squad.

Links are after the jump!

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Leo Messi was the brightest star on Thursday evening in a charity match held in Santiago de Chile. Messi led his team to a 7-2 victory against Marcelo Salas’ team. Messi’s team lineup included Cafu, Diego and Gaby Milito, Radamel Falcal, Lúcio, and Martín Palermo, among others, and despite the very cold night, Leo showed some of his great talent.

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FC Barcelona, the Fundació FC Barcelona, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have announced a three year collaboration deal to help in the worldwide fight against polio. Bill Gates, together with the FC Barcelona President Sandro Rosell and first team coach Josep Guardiola, and in the presence of Andrés Iniesta and Seydou Keita, announced the agreement this Thursday at the Newseum in Washington, DC.

Read more, watch the video and see the pictures from the event after the jump.
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Xavi Hernandez and Gerard Pique participated in a press conference before the game against Manchester United in Washington DC on Thursday. The players shared their thoughts about the team’s upcoming challenges, health problems and some other topics. Find out more after the jump. Continue reading »

After a thorough battery of medical tests, the prognosis for Barcelona B attacker Jonathan Soriano points to a 2 month absence from the playing field, according to reports Thursday in Sport. Soriano was injured in Tuesday’s Audi Cup final match after a clash with a Bayern Munich defender. This diagnosis confirms that the player will miss FC Barcelona’s US tour, and casts a shadow over his potential future with the first team.

Photo: Miguel Ruiz (FCB)

Possible conflict in Real Madrid: Benzema overshadows Cristiano Ronaldo a little bit.

The road of San Thiago 

“My idea is to go step by step, winning all possible titles… and return in May to the Alianza Arena to repeat the great game I had the other day.”

CESC DAY

The player and his agent will meet Wenger and Gazidis to force his transfer

Mata is close to sign for Arsenal, so that would open the doors of the club for Cesc

Bill Gates: “Guardiola is a genius”

The police suspended the training. The players weren’t allowed to run in a park placed near the White House

Barça demands 47.6 million euros to Laporta’s directive staff

Núñez, 6 years in jail