After Wednesday’s Champions League elimination by Olympique Lyonnais, some Real Madrid players have expressed their plan to now fully focus on the domestic league. Despite this fact, Barcelona forward Pedro Rodriguez (22) believes that La Liga’s crown will not be decided in ‘El Classico’ in the Bernabeu.
The Catalán sports news site El Mundo Deportivo presented a report on the effectiveness of FC Barcelona forward and Argentine international Lionel Messi (22) and FC Barcelona forward Pedro Rodríguez (22).
When there is a chemistry between two forwards with an obsession for scoring goals, it is obvious on the field. This is the case with Pedro and Messi. Both have an unquenchable offensive hunger in common, and it is not unusual for them both to score goals in the same match. They are the most effective goal-scoring duo in the 40 official matches that Barcelona has disputed up until now. The last tally mark for their boots was Malaga.
The Argentine and the Canarian, who have been in the starting line-up together on only eight occasions, have scored together in seven matches and in four of the six tournaments of this season. Dinamo Kiev (2-0) in the Champions League, Cultural Leonesa (5-0) in la Copa del Rey, Sevilla (4-0) and Málaga (2-1) in la Liga, and Atlante (1-3) and Estudiantes (1-2) in the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi are this year’s victims. Neither the club members nor the fans will forget their goals against the Mexicans that served to complete the return to goal scoring and marked a job well done, but especially the two in the final against the Argentines. Pedro, with a superb header in the 88th minute, took the game to overtime, and Messi, 20 minutes later, conquered the title, scoring the goal with his chest, an action that will go down in the azulgrana history books.
THE EVOLUTION OF A ‘CRACK’
Source : Sport
Date Published : 01/03/2010
FC Barcelona forward Pedro Rodriguez (22) took a little time to express his feelings at the press conference after the loss this Sunday. Barcelona was defeated by Atletico Madrid in a very exciting game, and Pedro tried to reduce the pressure by explaining that the defeat was something that had to happen sooner or later.
“We had to lose someday and there is no need for any alarm bells to start ringing,” Pedro told Catalan sports paper Sport.
Pedro then went on to comment on the recent wave of injuries that have affected the club, “Injuries are things that happen. It is clear that we now have a bad run, but some teammates haven‘t been injured for a long time, and are recovering well and hopefully they will be with us soon again because they are all important.”
In an interview with Catalán sports paper Sport, Jordi Gil spoke with FC Barcelona forward Pedro Rodríguez and his former coach, ‘Chechu’ Rojo, who is now the sporting director at Santboià. In the interview, he had a few insights to share about the Barça ‘crack’ and his mentor.
According to Rojo, Pedro has been a player who has absorbed all of his advice. And the advice which he remembers best was that which he gave Pedro during a few days when the youth was a bit scatterbrained. The former Barcelona C trainer explained that:
“It was a crazy week, one in which Pedro wasn’t very focused; there were some friendlies and he wasn’t called up for them . . . I told him that I would call his father, the ‘note’ as we called them, and he begged me not to do it. That’s where it ended. It was just the silliness of youth.”
In the summer of 2007, the life of Pedro Rodríguez took a complete turn. The player from Tenerife had completed his second season with the youth club Barça C, when the second team, Barça B, was relegated and the third team was disbanded. Pedro found himself in the group of players which the club looked upon as its new destiny. However, an internal report indicated that Pedro trained better than he competed, and the intention of the club was to loan him out to second-division club Portuense. In stepped Pep Guardiola, the new coach of Barça B, who rescued Pedro for his “project.” But without the confidence of Juan Carlos Pérez Rojo, his youth coach until he was 17, Pedro’s current success would have been much more difficult.
Recently Pedro sat down with his former youth coach, “Txetxu” Rojo (who now works as the sporting director for Santboià) for an interview with Jordi Gil of Catalán Sports paper Sport.
Just three of Barca’s three strikers, Messi, Ibrahimovic and Pedro, have now notched up 50 goals between them in all competitions this season.
The trio have scored in the League, the Cup, Champions, Spanish and European Super Cups and the World Club Cup.
Nearly two thirds of league goals
The three strikers’ totals represent 64% of Barca’s 50 league goals, the 32 strikes having contributed greatly to the team’s position as the Spanish League’s leading scorers.
Messi leading scorer
THIS IS A FEATURED ARTICLE. PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR THE LATEST NEWS.
Yup. The subject is being brought up yet again. This time it’s your turn to do the debating, state the facts, and argue your points. The question is: Who should be the left-winger for next season?
In this EXCLUSIVE totalBarça article you’ll find:
- a list of over 40 possible candidates for the left-wing position that have been linked to FC Barcelona
- a link to the players profiles on Wikipedia
- a video showcasing their talents and skills
- a poll of the top-10 realistic candidates
- a place to discuss and share your thoughts and ideas about this issue
Only seven players from the senior squad took part in a training game on Wednesday along with players from the reserves and the youth team.
Although Wednesday was a day off for the first team, seven players who feature rather less frequently in the starting line-ups took the chance to get in some extra practice together with youngsters from the reserves and the youth team.
First team players
This is a featured post. Please scroll down for all the latest news.
Sunday, 10th January, 2010, 21:00 CET
Venue: Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez.
In a press conference after the team’s training session this morning, FC Barcelona midfielder Pedro Rodriguez said he is excited to return to his island home of Tenerife and the chance to play an official club match there, and made the pledge of not celebrating any goal that the Catalan team might have scored.
“It will be very special. I think I will love it. I hope I could play, and play well, but should the team scores, I will not celebrate it with the team out of respect for the people who have always supported me even though I have never played for CD Tenerife.”
“It is a dream fulfilled returning there donning Barcelona colours. When I was small, I could not have imagined any of this.”
Ahead of this season, no one would have expected that Pedro Rodriguez would get a lot of minutes on the pitch for FC Barcelona, especially with the likes of Zlatan, Messi, Henry, Iniesta and Bojan in the squad. However, Pedro took his chance, and has been remarkable so far. Pedro is the only Barcelona player who can claim to have scored in all six competitions in a single season, after he clinched the last one in Club World Cup back in Descember. So far, Pedro has scored 13 goals, which by many would have been deemed unlikely at the start of the season. In this interview from UEFA, you will get some insights on Pedro’s remarkable year of 2009.
What began as a spectacular showing of sheer brilliance by Pep Guardiola’s sextuple champions soon faded into the abyss as a dull Camp Nou night saw Barcelona move into an unstable position at the top of the table in which bitter rivals Real Madrid can come within touching distance.
Barcelona’s return to the Spanish Primera exploded into action in what could be described as fireworks as the team that was formerly playing a game every 2 days departed for what was a rejuvenated and replenished pride of raring lions.
In an exclusive interview with UEFA.com, Pedro Rodríguez Ledesma (22), one of the revelations of the Barcelona team this season, confessed that he is not expecting a call-up with the Spanish national team any time soon, even if it was pronounced by the La Roja coach, Vincente del Bosque himself.
“It will not be easy to break into the national team set-up and I know it. It is a very good team with outstanding players, but I think if I can keep on doing well why not, I could be there someday. It would be a dream come true.”
Touching on his meteoric rise with the Catalan outfit, the former canterano player said he is delighted for the confidence shown in his abilities: “I did not expect to have so many minutes because it is very difficult to compete with the excellent players that we have. Just to play a few minutes here and there is a privilege for me, and it is necessary that I take full advantage of them. Everything that had happened recently is too sudden for me, but I’ll treat it as casually as I can. I was fortunate enough to have lived through such a fantastic, unforgettable moments.”
This Christmas, Barca TV will air a special documentary about the life story of FC Barcelona latest sensation, Pedro Rodriguez. ‘PR17′ is the story of a child who wanted to be a football player and who, through determination and hard work, achieved it.
Pedro Rodriguez Ledesma, has already etched his name in the history books of this beautiful game, and doing so when he barely started his professional career – a feat that most footballers, some very promising, failed to do their whole life. Born 28 July 1987 in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, the 22-year-old will always be remembered as the Barcelona player who managed to score in every competitions that he played in, in the same year.
The documentary will chronicle his beginnings and the grandeur dream of a young boy who grew up frequently playing football on the streets with players bigger and older than himself. Those players, his family, friends, neighbours, former teammates and coaches, all want to lend their own account to the fairy tale story that came true.
Pedro Rodriguez’s two goals in the Club World Cup have secured himself an eternal place in the history of FC Barcelona, but the 22-year-old Tenerife-born player is not forgetting his roots and the importance of keeping his feet planted to the ground. The future is sure to hold a lot more glorious moments for him, but he thinks he won’t lose his personality and the work rate that has taken him to where he is today.
And he is only at the start of his professional footballing career with the Blaugrana’s first team.
According to a report on Catalan sports paper Sport, Spain’s national team coach, Vicente del Bosque is impressed by the goal-scoring abilities of FC Barcelona forward Pedro Rodriguez and is considering incorporating the 22-year-old into his 2010 South Africa World Cup squad.
After his history-making feat of scoring in six different competitions in one season, the player is starting to acquire international recognition and might benefit further with a Spanish selection call up, and the Rojas coach realises this in a declaration he made on Spanish ‘Intereconomía TV’ program ‘Punto Pelota’.
“Pedro has shown his shrewdness in managing to score in all of these competitions and might go to the World Cup,” acknowledged del Bosque.
totalBarca is proudly powered by Wordpress
