FC Barcelona: Controversies and Woooosah.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, this is the curse of being winners. Make no mistake about it, people are watching every game Barcelona plays to catch that one moment amongst a thousand that the camera shows the referee got wrong except last night was not the same.

If it was any other club (especially the Evil Empire), everybody including Cules(who are really a little too soft) would have said "The referee got it right". Culés in general would have added, "those lucky bastards! But yes, those were fouls in the box and hence penalties". This despite that diva they play upfront who has a tendency to exaggerate.

It is the way it is, people like Mourinho and Ibrahimovic have a lot of reasons to talk about Barcelona. They are our biggest rivals and even though they could beat Barca(at some point in the future), they simply cannot ignore this team. Why? Well, right now we’re the ones winning.

4 years of total and utter domination of everybody including ‘the world’s richest club’. As annoying as that can be to fans of Barca, who try a little too hard (in my opinion) to prove the nay-sayers wrong, what all us really need to do is use our pressure points and say "woooosahhhh".

Follow directions:

Hold both ear lobes and say "wooooosahhh". Smile, cause we won.

Nesta, Ambrosini,Ibrahimovic and Allegri all came out guns blazing about how the referees favour Barcelona. The rule book, says they were penalties. Pep Guardiola came out saying they were fouls in the box and that he was taught the same since he was a child. Nesta, himself, agreed that he was pulling Busquets’ shirt during that corner. Mind you, there is absolutely no talk about the two penalties Barca were supposed to get in the 1^st leg, just that the referee gave a soft penalty.

Well, I would think a brilliant defender like Nesta who is/was known for his elegance and really is something like the epitome of the art of defense, would also be an intelligent defender. I guess not. What I mean is, if the Italian side have made a habit of pulling shirts and hacking at ankles , and in turn knew early on in the game that this referee was not going to allow those fouls. Then why did Nesta continue?

In case any of you want further proof via quotes through pundits. Well read this interview by Manchester United’s defender Rio Ferdinand(to get an idea on his opinion on Defending) and then know that the following were his thoughts on the 2^nd penalty via twitter: "The ref has followed the rules there….shirt pull=foul. Messi=nerveless"

Now for my personal logic on penalties and how to make sure that they are as consistent and non-controversial as possible(this is for Culés cause I couldn’t care less what fans of other clubs have to say on the matter anymore). If a foul is commited and a free kick given OUTSIDE the box and if said foul is considered fair and even commonplace then if the same foul is committed INSIDE the box, it is a penalty. Plain and Simple

Would the referee give a defender a yellow card and Messi a free kick if Nesta had pulled Messi down outside the box? Yes and God knows, Milan continuted to do that, cynical and tactical fouls all day long which got worse as the game went on. Nobody says anything about that ofcourse but if that foul is given then it IS and should be given a penalty if its inside the box. Saying that referees in Italy would not have given a penalty is just nonsense. Nesta should have known better than to try that in Europe.

Barça have won 13 out of 16 trophies since 2008. I remember that I used to hate F1’s Michael Schumacher. When asked, I would go on a rant about something or the other, lack of sporting behaviour blah blah blah. Fact is, I supported Mclaren and I hated that Ferrari always seemed to have the better car and were lucky enough to have arguably, the world’s greatest racing driver. It really is the same with Barca, people will despise us,as fans and the club that we support for as long as this team continues to win.

When Barça’s cycle ends (and it will definitely end), another club will take over and after two years of winning, everybody out there will hate them too. They will claim favourtism by UEFA,the referees, the money etc. Just keep in mind, that in the end, we won last night and we were the better team by miles!.

So far, in this seasons Champions League. Barcelona completed twice as many passes as Milan,6608 to 3217. Lionel Messi has scored 58 goals in all competitions (does not include his goals for Argentina), how many has Milan scored for their league(Serie A)? Consider this mini-quiz till Arron comes up with a more challenging question in his piece and you can answer via comment (cheating by using Google is allowed and encouraged)

Over the two legs against AC Milan, the Italians had 3 shots on target. That’s right, THREE. 2 of those shots were in the first leg and 1 in Camp Nou.In fact, Milan took only 3 shots over the whole 90 minutes in Camp Nou(1 on target). Barcelona, on the other hand took 21 shots (8 were on target).

The better team won, period. Haters will hate. They didn’t like that Culés were complaining about the pitch in Italy. Most of us realised that Barcelona played way below their usual high standards and that Milan defended admirably. I, for one, can accept that draw even before the results of last night’s match were known but I stick to the fact that the pitch at the San Siro was crap. Now, they have complains of their own. Well, remember that age old saying? "History is written by the victors".

Our team knows all this and I strongly believe that they will continue to fight for all trophies despite the inevitable hate that will flow in. We are just going to have to even the playing ground a bit by supporting the team even more fervently. That said, I suggest you stay away from the conspiracy theorists. Don’t even try to explain it to them. In the end, we won and qualified and nothing anybody says will change that.

Pressure on the ear lobes and "wooooooosahhhh".

Visca El Barca