Las (ex) amistades de Sandro Rosell

Tal vez alguien se pregunte cómo la prensa no se enteró de los "presentos" chanchullos de Sandro Rosell, a pesar de que muchos de ellos eran públicos y notorios (e incluso los habíamos comentado aquí)...

"A la fila de dalt: Josep Maria Xercavins, empresari immobiliari, actualment “retirat” de la Promotora Immobiliària Metrópolis; Artur Mas, llavors només president de CiU, ara també president de la Generalitat de Catalunya; Enrique Lacalle, polític del PP, actual president del Barcelona Meeting Point; José Antich, director de La Vanguardia (Grup Godó); Josep Cuní, llavors periodista de TV3, actualment de 8tv (Grup Godó); Antoni Brufau, president de Repsol YPF; i Joan Maria Nin, director general de La Caixa.

A la fila de sota: Sandro Rosell, actual president del Futbol Club Barcelona; Antoni Vila Casas, empresari farmacèutic (Prodesfarma / Laboratoris Almirall) i mecenes cultural (Fundació Vila Casas); Arcadi Calzada, polític de CDC, expresident de Caixa de Girona, exdirector de la Fundació Príncep de Girona, president del Consell d’Aigües de Girona; i Antoni Puig, empresari de perfumeria (Grup Puig)." [Fuente]

El gol de Messi... era legal

No tiene este mensaje por objetivo poner en duda el título de Liga del Atlético de Madrid, sinó una totalmente distinta: reivindicar la diferencia existente entre la afición y la prensa del Barça y la del Real Madrid.

Todo ello, a raiz del gol que marcó Messi ante el Atético, y que Mateu Lahoz anuló indebidamente por inexistente fuera de juego. Inexistente porque, aunque Messi estaba en posición adelantada, el pase de gol no vino de ninuún jugador azulgrana sinó de un rebote en un jugador atlético, Juanfran, lo que validaba la jugada.

Es posible que, en el embrollo del área el colegiado no se percatase de esta circunstancia. Y aunque el gol daba la Liga al Barcelona, como hemos dicho ya, no se puede considerar que la mereciese.

Ahora bien, lo que nos interesa no es eso, sinó la reacción del entorno y la prensa barcelonista. Y es que le hemos atizado mucho a la prensa barcelonista pero, a pesar de ello, es de justicia reivindicar que están a años luz de la prensa madridista. Miren sinó la portada de Sport y Mundo Deportivo:

Ninguno de los dos hace referencia al gol anulado en portada. No es difícil imaginar qué habría sucedido si el Real Madrid hubiese perdido una Liga en la última jornada por un gol mal anulado. Dudar que sería portada en los dos diarios deportivos de la capital (los padres del villarato y la conspiranoia blanca), es simplemente impensable.

También es impensable que en el Telediario de La 1 de TVE ni siquiera hubiese sido mencionado (como ha sucedido con el gol del Barcelona).

No, aunque algunos pretendan convencernos de los contrario, no todos los medios deportivos son igual de detestables.

Otra de artículos desafurtandos

Francesc Perearnau está realizando una labor encomiable (aunque supongo que no gratuita) en defensa de los intereses de Sandro Rosell.

Así pues, ahora toca manchar el recuerdo de Pep Guardiola, uno de los demonios de Rosell (tal vez el segundo tras Laporta). Recordemos que Freixa ya abrió la veda al afirmar que "Tito está ganando todas las comparaciones con Guardiola, incluso en la faceta humana".

Así que, ya que Tito desveló que la relación entre él y Guardiola se había enfríado, los rosellistas no podían dejar pasar la ocasión sin atacar un poco a Guardiola:

"A nivel de vestuario también se ha producido un fenómeno parecido. El contacto entre el ex entrenador y la plantilla se ha reducido a prácticamente a la nada desde que Guardiola se marchó. A quienes fueron testigos de la gala del Balón de Oro en Zurich, el pasado mes de enero, les sorprendió la atmósfera gélida y distante entre Pep y los siete jugadores que viajaron, entre ellos Messi, elegidos en el mejor once del año. Otra prueba de esta situación, que evidentemente no trascenderá a nivel público o de declaraciones, es que cuando el Barça se quedó sin Tito Vilanova y surgieron rumores sobre un presunto regreso de Pep, algo que la directiva nunca contempló, el vestuario le hizo llegar a la junta un mensaje muy claro en el sentido de que habría desaprobado esa solución." [Francesc Perearnau, en Mundo Deportivo]

Lo que me resulta más cómico es que tenga la desvergüenza de escribir "Otra prueba de esta situación, que evidentemente no trascenderá a nivel público" cuando él está siendo el portavoz que la hace trascender a nivel público.

Barça-Milan en la prensa internacional

"Brilliant Barcelona complete comeback for the ages.

Barcelona and Lionel Messi added another remarkable performance to their scrapbook on Tuesday, as the Argentine scored twice to help the Spanish side come from two goals down to knock AC Milan out of the Champions League with a 4-0 home win." [ESPN UK]

[The Huffington Post]

"Barcelona produced a scintillating display that will live long in the memory as they turned their 2-0 first-leg deficit to Milan on its head to move into the Champions League quarterfinals with a stunning 4-0 win at Camp Nou on Tuesday.

In a classic example of Barcelona’s incisive passing, Iniesta laid it back to Xavi, who, showing his satellite-like awareness of the field, threaded an instant pass inside full-back Kevin Constant to pick out Villa on the right of the area. With his left-foot Spain’s record goal-scorer produced a clinical finish as he placed the ball into the far corner of the net." [International Business Times]



"The end of an era? What an absolute hoot. With an utterly bravura response to the preposterous idea that their footballing majesty is on the wane, Barcelona, inspired by the unreal and occasionally unplayable Lionel Messi, bewitched and bewildered poor Milan to deliver one of the great European comebacks at a quite ecstatic Nou Camp.

Of all the statements of their greatness as a team, could this have been their most emphatic in the modern era? No side had ever prevailed after being 2-0 down following the first leg of a Champions League knockout tie but, even in the absence of their seriously ill manager and, after their most stuttering spell of performances for five years, Barcelona rediscovered all their old trigonometric élan to hypnotise and then slice through Milan with all their old thrilling purpose.

What could have been more fitting than Alba’s seal on an unforgettable night. A full-back charges all the way upfield to get on to the end a breathtaking counter-attack. That is Barcelona. No shutting up shop. Still doing it their own supreme, unique way.

It was not simply that Barcelona avoided the indignity of being bundled out of the competition before the semi-final stage for the first time in six years which provided the answer to their critics; it was the fabulous, fearless way they did it, turning the clock back to fashion the sort of snap-pressing, crisp-passing ­patterns, which has seen them twice win the Champions League in the previous four seasons.

How he delivered. Again. Within five minutes, after the most intricate of passing build-ups, Messi and Xavi, dealing in the sort of telepathy the game has rarely seen, somehow managed from Sergio Busquets’ rifled diagonal pass to contrive an extraordinary one-two on the edge of the 'D’ which ended with Messi, ­surrounded by six white shirts, curling the ball into the top corner. It was astounding.

Andrés Iniesta, who had one half-volley fantastically tipped on to the bar by Christian Abbiati, and Xavi were too good. Whether you love them or are tired of the love-in, it does not really matter. Barcelona remain simply the best." [The Telegraph]



"Hailed as perhaps soccer's greatest team ever, Barcelona faced a challenge no club had overcome: advancing in the Champions League after a 2-0 first-leg loss on the road.

Lionel Messi & Co. came through in spectacular fashion with another record-setting night.

Messi started the revival with a pair of first-half goals, and Barcelona overwhelmed AC Milan 4-0 Tuesday to reach its sixth straight Champions League quarterfinal with a 4-2 aggregate win." [ESPN FC]



"Brilliant Barca turn on the style to thrash AC Milan and qualify for quarter-finals of UEFA Champions League.

Lionel Messi took his remarkable tally for the season onto 53 with a deadly double, while David Villa and Jordi Alba were also among the goals as Barca offered a timely reminder to those who have had the audacity to write them off on the back of a recent dip in their impeccably high standards." [Fox Sports]



"Milan three weeks ago was forgotten, the end of an era postponed. There was relief but there was also redemption. This was a brilliant Barcelona performance, bookended by a two goals. It had been a long night; it had also been a perfect one, even the nerves failing to disguise just how well they had played.

Barcelona screeched round, swift to every ball, passing with as much pace as precision. Talk of a Plan B sometimes misses the point; what they really needed was to get Plan A right. Here, they did. Milan were forced back, asphyxiated, unsettled, the game speeding past them.

When the clock hit 45, it flashed up a further three minutes of added time. The pitch of the whistles rose. And then it finally happened: Alba made it four. Barcelona had made it." [The Guardian]



"The word of the night was remontada. It means comeback. And this was the madre of all remontadas. If there was any doubt about the team to beat in this season’s Champions League, Barcelona reconfirmed the identity of Europe’s most potent force.

He shocked Milan with his brilliance, baffled them with his imagination, punished them with the precision of his finishing. It was one of the greatest performances in the history of this competition.

The remontada was complete. It had been a horrid and sobering experience for Milan, whose fans were hushed in their Nou Camp eyrie. A member of Europe’s traditional elite, they will have hated being so publicly mastered." [Daily Mail]



"Cancel those obituaries. No more "End of an Era" headlines. The blip was just that. Crisis averted. Once again, Barcelona has gone ballistic in the Champions League round of 16 second leg; last season it beat Bayer Leverkusen 7-1; the season before, Arsenal 3-1 and before that, Stuttgart 4-0.

On Tuesday, Barcelona became the first team in Champions League history to overcome a 2-0 first-leg deficit. This was the "remonatada," the comeback, that this team had never completed, had never needed to pull off, before. And just like that, we have a new favorite for the competition. A new, old, favorite." [Sports Illustrated]


"We may have doubted them, but they, thank goodness, never did.

It was the movement that made Barcelona so hypnotic. It was the spirit of players taught from an early age to love the ball, to work for it, to share it, and, most particularly, to work, work, work for it the moment the opponents think they have possession.

When Barça was at its best under the previous coach, Pep Guardiola, a couple of seasons back, there was a mantra, a voice inside the players’ heads. It depended upon the man nearest to the ball, or the man who lost it, taking no more than seven seconds to regain it.

That, as much as the movement to find space in a crowded area of the field, takes a monumental work ethic. And then there is the skill of Messi, of Xavi, of Andrés Iniesta and the rest.

This, undoubtedly, is the best team of our time; maybe the best of all time." [The New York Times]

[L'Equipe]

TRADUCCIÓN EN GOOGLE TRANSLATE.

Monográfico Champions League: Las portadas

Olé las portadas de la prensa deportiva de Madrid (como ya hemos dicho muchas veces, sería impensable que Sport o Mundo Deportivo reconociesen así un exito del equipo rival):

Portadas con la foto repetida en Sport y Mundo Deportivo (con la diferencia de que el primero cierra más el angulo y aumenta el contraste y la saturación de color para incrementar la fuerza de la imagen). Mundo Deportivo titula "CAMPIONS!" mientras que Sport sentencia que el FCB de Guardiola es "EL MILLOR DE LA HISTÒRiA":

Y de la prensa no deportiva, la portada de La Vanguardia, con un titular (¿homenaje al libro de Richard Matheson?) también contundente pero innegable "Son leyenda":