Crowds confirm Barca’s drawing power

The 93137 spectators who attended Barca’s game in LA was a clear indication of the popularity Barca enjoy in the States, The next two games in Seattle and San Francisco look set to confirm the club’s drawing power in the U.S.

It’s certainly not a normal sight to see so many fans turn out for a “soccer” match in the land of Gridiron and Baseball, as can be understood by a look at the average gate in the MSL – just 15515 aficionados, but Barca are pulling the crowds in like nobody else as the American fans flock to see the European champs.

Following the example of 2006

In the summer of 2006, Barca, Frank Rijkaard’s team toured Mexico and America having just taken the Champions and Spanish League titles and they filled all four stadiums in Monterrey, Los Angeles, Houston and New York.

The LA game was a sell out against Chivas at the Los Angeles Coliseum with 92650 spectators attending the game to break the previous record attendance of 92216 who’d watched LA Galaxy and Tampa Bay at the Rose Bowl Stadium.

More fans than Chelsea-Inter game

Obviously, European football is enormously popular in America and has become a favourite place for visiting teams to Tour. The recent Chelsea-Inter Milan game as part of the I World Football Challenge drew 81224 fans to the Rose Bowl, but nothing has been on the scale of this Barca Tour so far.

‘94 World Cup and ‘84 Olympics

The 1994 World Cup in the USA saw the biggest crowds ever for the game in the country with (94194) attending the final between Brazil and Italy at the Rose Bowl and three other games beat the number who turned up to see Barca on Sunday: 93869 saw the USA vs Columbia game, 93869 attended the hosts match against Rumania and 93194 saw the Cameroon vs Sweden game. In all , the average gate at the Rose Bowl during the tournament was 89478.

The same venue also hosted the semi final and final of the Olympic Games in 1984 and 97000 saw the semi final whilst 101799 saw the final between France and Italy.

source: fcbarcelona.cat

Bojan + 40m for cesc?
Erm, thats quite expensive isn't it?
And i rank Bojan quite highly, maybe on par with cesc..cesc is a bit overrated dun ya think?

Goalkeepers: Valdés, Pinto

Defenders: Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Abidal, Maxwell, Muniesa, Fontàs

Midfielders: Xavi, Touré, Keita, Busquets, Jonathan dos Santos, Gudjohnsen

Forwards: Pedro, Bojan, Henry, Jeffren

Rafa: “Muniesa is a player with some rare qualities”

FC Barcelona young defender Marc Muniesa has only recently been plucked from Juvenil A to appear for the first team, but coach Pep Guardiola has begun to take on the ambitious, but achievable, task of turning Muniesa into a pillar of Barça.

However Pep will not be alone in his project, as FC Barcelona and Mexico defender Rafa Márquez has offered his help to the coach.

Talking of Muniesa, Rafa did not hold back on his praise for the youngster.  “He is a football player with some rare qualities . A few months ago I spoke with Pep and I asked him if he could leave me to work with Marc, so I can help with everything he needs to polish out his errors”.

The entire program is designed so that the defender, who is just 17 years of age, can be the natural replacement for Rafa.

“I have already said that he has some innate qualities,” the Mexican pointed out.

“In spite of his young age, he is usually very well positioned on the field and we have already seen that he has an excellent touch. We should not rush, be he has everything to be a great player”.

Pep and Rafa seem to share the same philosophy of football.

“I have a style of play that I picked up when Lavolpe trained me [at Atlas in Mexico],” Rafa explained.

“And you already know that Pep has said on many occasions that he has a certain admiration for [Lavolpe]. In his day he insisted on working the ball forward from the back, improving his touch of the ball, and having more tactical options against defences of three, four or five players. It is a way of enriching the players that Pep likes”.

Muniesa has so far featured in all 5 of Barça’s preseason games. Pep sees such qualities in the youngster that he called Muniesa into the first squad straight from Juvenil A, rather than wait for him to follow the natural progression of being promoted from Juvenil A to Barça Atletic, the youth team just below the first team.

source

as usual
streaming

Can i know who played? and the formation?
Anyways kudos to Xavi and Pedro...
Big boo to astro who increased price of sports package but not improved service. Cant even watch such a match. Shame on astro

witout any doubt Messi will win Forward category, according to performance and medal either  Xavi or Iniesta will grab Midfielder title, i pick Vidic for defender but where is our solid rock captain?

broken fingers or hand smthng like that.

Ibrahimovic Hands Pep Guardiola A Fright As Barcelona Train

Zlatan Ibrahimovic gave Pep Guardiola a scare in training for Barcelona when he attempted an audacious overhead kick forgetting about the injured hand that required surgery only last week.

The Swede leapt into the air to connect with a ball during a practice session in Seattle and came down on his left arm in a move that left the coach gasping.

"No Ibra! Not that!" Guardiola was quoted as shouting at Ibrahimovic as he rose rather sheepishly to his feet.

Despite appearing to be fine, coach Juanjo Brau insisted that the striker left the field to allow medics to inspect the hand that has kept the player out of action in the United States.

Ibrahimovic joined Barca from Inter last week in a mammoth swap deal for Samuel Eto'o, but has yet to play after sustaining a broken bone in his hand during his last game for the Serie A outfit.

The Blaugrana medics insisted that he had an operation to ensure the bone healed and pencilled in the Trofeo Joan Gamper game against Manchester City on August 19 as a possible debut date.

i think he wont join this summer. coz MU oredi sell 2 key player.

hes quite lost for his first game wif barca. btw, xavi or iniesta needed. we lose.

any possibility we bring Cesc this winter?
i really love to watch Xavi-Cesc-Iniesta trio

lolz at ur siggy.that was Xavi`s freekick hit the post right?
i still keep 2-6 siggy instead of put TriCampions siggy, score 6 goal at Bernebue > win La Liga+UCL

But i din understand why bojan needed to score his goal like that, i mean, isn't that a bit corky?just bury it and celebrate la, dun need to dribble into goal.

maybe bcos he score just after one minute on the pitch
so we win 1st cup out of six

first cup for this season

i love messi 1st goal.
and we got alot of chances.

hey,congrats to Messi for winning the European Footballer of the Year.it's Ballon D'or rite?

really pissed off with espn just now.just when they're about to announce who's the forward of the year,they showed ads.

FC Barcelona : Spanish champion 2008/2009

Inter Milan : Italian league champion 2008/2009

FC Ruben Kazan : Russia league champion 2008/2009

Dynamo kiev : Ukraine league champion 2008/2009
group of death IMO. but..yeah...cannot wait barca vs Inter.
ibra-eto

dani - maicon

milito - milito 

and ..of coz..PEP - JM. pep n JM nevr goes head-to-head before i guess.  

yeayyyyy.....we got another player ...is he good?.....btw..why we didn't bid for robben and sneijder