Seventh European super cup final for Barcelona

author: jordi clos
source: fcbarcelona.cat





Just by taking part in tonight's game at the Louis II, Barcelona are making history, as they equal Milan’s tally of seven appearances in a competition that has been held since 1973. The ‘rossoneri’ have a record five titles. Barça, despite competing six times before, have only brought home the trophy twice.

1979: Nottingham Forest The Cup Winners Cup win in Basel earned Barça the right to contest the trophy for the first time. It was a two-legged affair in those days, and things got under way with 1-0 defeat away to the late Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest, the English side hitting the post three times. In the return, Roberto ‘Dinamita’ put Barça ahead, but Scottish international Kenny Burns grabbed an equaliser for Forest to win the cup 2-1 on aggregate.

1982: Aston Villa Barça had another English side to tackle in their second appearance, and once again missed out on the silverware. This time the opposition was Aston Villa, and the 1-0 win in Barcelona, thanks to a Marcos Alonso goal, proved insufficient. In the return at Villa Park, the Birmingham club took the game into extra time thanks to a Gary Shaw effort, and eventually sentenced the tie with goals from Gordon Cowans and Ken McNaught (3-0).

1989: Milan Neither was it third time lucky for FCB. AC Milan, led by Arrigo Sacchi, were dominating European football in the late 1980s, and went ahead at the Camp Nou thanks to the great Van Basten. But Guillermo Amor levelled affairs to make it 1-1. At the San Siro, an Evani free kick made it 1-0 to the Italians, and Barça failed to conjure up a response.

1992: Werder Bremen After the famous win at Wembley, Barça qualified for their fourth Super Cup, this time against German outfit Werder Bremen. Johan Cruyff’s Dream Team collected an important 1-1 draw at the Weserstadion, Julio Salinas scoring for Barça and Klaus Allofs for the Bundesliga side. In the return leg at the Camp Nou, FCB were finally able to celebrate a win in this competition, beating the Germans 2-1 with goals from Hristo Stoitchkov and Andoni Goikoetxea (Wynton Rufer getting the consolation for Werder).

1997: Borussia Dortmund Barça only took five years to win the title a second time, and once again this was against a German side, Borussia Dortmund. This was the last ever edition to be played over two legs, and Barça got off to the ideal start with a 2-0 win at the Camp Nou thanks to goals from Rivaldo and Luis Enrique. In Germany, an early Giovanni Silva strike as good as sentenced things, rendering Jörg Heinrich’s consolation goal meaningless.

2006: Sevilla Barça have foul memories of their only experience to date of the new format of a single match played in Monaco. Frank Rijkaard’s star studded side led by Ronaldinho were delighting the world with their football, but not on this particular night. Renato, Kanouté and Maresca were all on target in a 3-0 win for the impressive Andalusians on a night the travelling Barça supporters will prefer to forget.

Barcelona's seventh visit to the United States

(source: fcbarcelona.cat)


Barcelona's 2009 US tour follows on from six previous ones held in 1937, 1969, 1984, 2003, 2006 and 2008.

In 1937, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, FC Barcelona crossed the Atlantic for a tour that began in Mexico and ended in the US. After playing nine games in Mexico in June, July and August, Barça, then coached by Irishman Patrick O'Connell, went to the US to play four more games in New York.

The Big Apple hosted FC Barcelona again in the summer of 1969, with the club playing two games against Juventus. The last game of the tour was against a world all-stars side.

In the early 80s, the side coached by Argentine César Luis Menotti played two games in the Transatlantic Cup against the New York Cosmos and Brazilian outfit Fluminense. Between 2003 and the trip that began this week, Barça have toured the US four times in six years.

read the full and original story here


Read more:
Top ten most official Barcelona appearances
1983: Maradona gets seriously injured

Statue of Kubala to be revealed

Catalan sports paper El Mundo Deportivo reports that the statue of Barcelona legend Ladislao Kubala, who played for Barcelona between 1950 and 1962, has been finished by sculptor Montserrat Garcia Rius.

In the coming days, the date of the unveiling of the statue, which wille be placed near the Camp Nou stadium, will be announced. The statue is financed by the fans (read more and donate here). For every euro paid by the fans, the club adds another one.

Read more:
Plans to create a statue of Kubala
Top ten most official Barcelona goals
1983: Maradona gets seriously injured

Plans to create a statue of Kubala

On Thursday, FC Barcelona and the Barça Veterans Association unveiled a project to commission a statue in memory of Ladislao Kubala (1927-2002).

The monument to Kubala is in recognition of what he represented to the Club and to Catalonia, especially internationally. It was partly thanks to him that a new stadium was built to replace the old Les Corts, as it had become too small for the large crowds. In addition, Kubala combined his leadership skills with extreme generosity to his most needy former team-mates.


read more and see the statue here

Messi scores league goal number 5000

Messi's second goal against Racing Santander yesterday was Barcelona's goal number 5000 in the Spanish league.

"That goal was for all the fans. I didn't know it, they told me afterwards. I had heard about it being close, but I didn't know my second was the one. When you're on the pitch, you don't think about these things. You only think about winning. But I'm very happy to enter the history of the club that way. I will take the ball with me. I won't keep it, that one goes to the museum of the club."




1
Parera
12 February 1929

1000
Marco Aurelio
22 October 1950

2000
Zaballa
12 january 1964

3000
Quini
24 January 1982

4000
Amor
9 March 1996

5000
Messi
1 February 2009

Top ten most official Barcelona goals

Barcelona's official website put out a list of players who have a scored the most goals in official games wearing the Barça shirt.



235 César (1939-1940, 1941-1960)
196 Kubala (1950-1961)
130 Rivaldo (1997-2002)
124 Mariano Martín (1939-1948)
122 Rexach (1965-1981)

122 Kluivert (1998-2004)
118 Escolà (1934-1937, 1940-1949)
117 Stoichkov (1990-1995, 1996-1998)
112 Basora (1947-1958)
111 Eulogio Martínez (1956-1962)
111 Eto'o (since 2004)



Read more:
Top ten most official Barcelona appearances

Top ten most official Barcelona appearances

Barcelona's official website put out a list of players with the most official appearances in a Barça shirt.



548 Migueli (1973-1989)
452 Rexach (1965-1981)
436 Xavi (since 1998)
421 Amor (1988-1998)
411 Puyol (since 1999)

410 Zubizarreta (1986-1994)
402 Segarra (1949-1965)
401 Rifé (1964-1976)
399 Alexanko (1980-1993)
396 Asensi (1970-1980)

1983: Maradona gets seriously injured

From 1982 to 1984, Argentinian legend Diego Armando Maradona (now 47) played for Barcelona. The club's official website has today the story of how the Argentinian got severely injured at the beginning of his second season at the club.




Wednesday night marks the 25th anniversary of the day when Goikoetxea made his infamous tackle on Diego Armando Maradona. That night, as Julio Alberto remembers, the Argentinian’s ankle “went crack!” and the team’s hopes took a frightful knock.

It was a Saturday, the 24th of September 1983 to be precise, the night of the Mercè Festival in Barcelona. Barça were entertaining Athletic Bilbao at the Camp Nou. In the 13th minute of the second half, Goikoetxea hurtled in on Maradona’s lower leg.

César Luis Menotti was manager of the side back then, and looking back on the events said “I had the two great soloists of the time, Schuster and Maradona. So, my job was just to get the orchestra playing in tune. I knew that as long as the orchestra got the tune right, the soloists would appear. But I would sadly miss them for many, many games, especially Diego”.

Champions in town
It was the fourth game of the 1983/84 season. Barça were the defending cup champions, and Athletic Bilbao had won the league. [read more]

See the video here




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