tuesday night

the other night, puyi received his check for 100000 euros for being voted captain of uefa’s team of the year.  el capitan donated his prize to the international committee of the red cross, who shall then use the money to fund rehabilitation programs for land mine victims.

 “I am greatly honoured to be voted the UEFA.com users’ Team of the Year 2010 captain. I realise how privileged I am not just to play football but simply to have my health and two good legs. I am happy to make this contribution to do something to help people less fortunate than me and hope it can go some way to improving their quality of life.”

i love our captain!!

oh yeah, and i almost forgot — there was a game that night as well 🙂  more on that after the jump

that match!  it was 2 million kinds of amazing!  the only thing that could have made it better was if puyi had been on the pitch, but seeing him mesmerized in the stands is enough

 

it took me an entire day to finally get over my endorphins, sit still and write a post about that match.  the atmosphere at the camp nou must have been electric.  i have been swamped with work for the past month or so, and i haven’t had much time to devote to following barça (and really, not having puyi play is just disheartening) — but my god! that game just made my world stop.

our 11 players on the pitch were on fire!  adriano finally in the starting lineup made me so happy, and his movement up and down the pitch was incredible.  and masch – monster masch was a titan!  he was a powerhouse out there, and that last slide that denied arsenal a shot at glory — that was epic!  i jumped out of my seat and stopped biting my nails long enough to say “that’s so puyi!!”

what it must have been like for puyi and pique to watch that display!  they must have been so proud of their team.  dani alves and abidal were superb as usual, and i really love that dani took time to comfort poor busquets after that own goal.  he must have been crushed!  but it says a lot about how good a player he is that no one has made him feel like a loser for it.  he was great in the backline, even though he was not playing his usual position.

villa and pedro were great as well.  pressuring and pressuring, advancing over and over again!  what they lacked in finishing, they more than made up for in the exhaustion and frustration they brought upon arsenal’s defense.  and xavi, iniesta and messi — there are simply no words to describe how unbelievable they are.  i’ve watched messi’s first goal more than 20 times and i’m still in awe.  iniesta with his brilliant eye for opportunities and xavi with usual maestro magic.

the only person who didn’t have much to do was (as always) valdes, but he still completed more passes than nasri.  almunia, on the other hand, deserves a hero’s welcome back in london — if it weren’t for him saving one shot after another, the scoreline would have been more reflective of how the game really went.  here’s a video of the highlights:

before i end, i want to share what my commentators said about pep during his celebratory arm-flailing for messi’s first goal —  he said that pep had been in and out of hospital for a bad back, probably from lifting all those trophies 🙂

tooooot el camp *clap clap clap*….