FC Barcelona v Gran Canaria Tickets, Sun October 8 at Time TBA; FC Barcelona v Pamesa Valencia Tickets Thurs October 12 at 19.00
October 4, 2006 on 8:16 am | In Uncategorized | No CommentsOnce all the excitement of facing the 76ers is over, it is time for Barga to get back to the daily grind and the domestic ACB league.
Things didn’t get off to the most promising of starts in the Catalan League last week, which features the four Catalan teams that play in the ACB, the Spanish top flight. A narrow victory in the semi final against Ricoh Manresa (76-75) was followed by a disturbingly unconvincing loss in the final to Akasvayu Girona (51-73).
Barga were eliminated 3-0 in the semi finals of last year’s Spanish league, but there is a fresh look to the side which plays its first two home games against the much improving Gran Canaria and regular title challengers Pamesa of Valencia. Barga play their games at the Palau Blaugrana, which is part of the same complex as the Camp Nou football stadium (it’s next to the club shop and museum).
The cheapest tickets generally sell for around 12-15 euros depending on the opposition.
FC Barcelona v Philadelphia 76ers Tickets . Thursday October 5, 21.00 at the Palau Sant Jordi: THE NBA COMES TO TOWN!
October 4, 2006 on 8:14 am | In Uncategorized | No CommentsThe 15,000 seater Palau Sant Jordi up on Montjuic (next to the Olympic Stadium) is the venue as FC Barcelona and the Philadelphia 76ers play the first of a series of games being played around Europe dubbed NBA Europe Live.
As was plain to see at the World Championship in Japan last month, in which Spain beat Greece in the final and Team USA had to settle for bronze, if there is any gulf left at all between European and North American basketball, then it is not a very wide one.
NBA sides have been coming across to Europe in dribs and drabs for preseason camps since the mid 1980s, but never in such numbers or taking it quite as seriously as in 2006. Along with the Sixers, the Spurs, the Suns, and the Clippers are all in Europe, and given the quality of the sides they will be meeting, it is more than likely that we could witness the first ever win for a European club against NBA opposition. And why not believe that the team to do it can be Barga? In fact, if the bookies are anything to go by, this game could go either way, and Barga, who are much further into their pre-season programme than the Sixers, look to be the better prepared of the two. The Catalans, Euroleague champions in 2003, became the first club to ever have a player on both teams in a World Championship final this year (Juan Carlos Navarro of Spain and Michalis Kakiouzis of Greece, both of whom led the scoring for their respective countries in that match). Denis Marconato and Gianluca Basile starred for Italy, while new point guards Jaka Lakovic and Roko-Leni Ukic are among the most promising talents in the world right now and new signing, centre Fran Vazquez enraged Orlando Magic when, after being drafted as 11th pick last year, decided he would rather stay in Spain. Meanwhile, the Sixers, who have been training in Barcelona since September 29, are anything but the cream of the NBA. The 1983 NBA champions (with Charles Barkley in his heyday) have been struggling big time of late, with just one post-season appearance in the last three attempts, and that one (2005) ended in first round loss 4-1 to Detroit.
On their first ever trip to Europe, they are now coached by the starting point guard of the 1983 championship winning team, Maurice Cheeks, but last year a miserable 2-10 streak at the end of the season doomed them to missing out on the play-offs with a 38-44 record.
Looking for big names on the Sixers roster and you need look no further than Allen Iversen, one of the most prolific scorers in the history of the game and ranked 53rd on SLAM Magazine’s Top 75 NBA players of all time. He has spent all ten of his pro years at Philadelphia, with only Kobe Bryant of the Lakers having been at the same club for longer.
But beyond Iversen, you ain’t got too much to look out for in the visiting team. There are Chris Webber and Andre Iguodala, while this will be the first test for the Sixers first pick in the 2006 NBA Draft, Rodney Carney. Also worth checking out is Hip Hop, the 76ers hare mascot. He’s class. This will be the third time that FC Barcelona have faced NBA opposition. The first was a loss to the Denver Nuggets in Rome in 1989 (137-103). Then in 2003, FC Barcelona played the Memphis Grizzlies (whose All-Star, Pau Gasol, is a former Barga player and a living legend in these parts), with the Americans winning 91-80.
All in all, the game is a cracking prospect, but getting to see it live is not going to be easy. Despite moving the venue to the Palau Sant Jordi, which holds 15,000 and considerably more than Barea’s usual Palau Blaugrana, all the tickets have long been sold out. Perhaps best if you have a word with our pals at the Spain Ticket Bureau (see cover). They might be able to sort you something out.
CATALUNYA - EUSKADI TICKETS Camp Nou, Sunday October 8 at 18.30
October 4, 2006 on 8:05 am | In Uncategorized | No CommentsThe forthcoming friendly between the national teams of i Catalunya and Euskadi (the Basque Country) has managed to stir up a fair bit of controversy. In the eyes of UEFA and FIFA, neither the Catalans or the Basques are officially recognised nations, and therefore their players wear the Spanish colours on the international stage. But both sets of people take their national sides very seriously indeed, and many share the same hope of one day being officially welcomed into the world arena.
But the message in a TV commercial promoting this game made by the Plataforma Pro Selecciones Deportivas Catalanas has not gone down at all well in some quarters. The ad shows a group of children playing footy in a park. They are all wearing different coloured shirts that accidentally on purpose happen to be very similar to the shirts of various major international teams. But when a young lad wearing the Catalan national jersey stalks up to the group and asks if he can join in, the lad wearing the red shirt and blue shorts gestures that he is not welcome.
The red and blue is of course Spain, and clever although the ad might be, many have not been overly impressed. For one, the way the ad uses children to portray adult politics could be considered a bit tasteless, as is the strong and highly provocative anti-Spanish message that it carries.
Partido Popular de Cataluna president Josep Pique was one of the most vociferous opponents of the ad, saying “some people are constantly trying to distance the people of Catalunya from those of Spain. This advert is very dangerous, and will stir up confrontations between the people living in Catalonia”.
Xavier Vinyals, chairman of the group that actively promotes the idea of separate national teams for Catalunya argues that the idea was none other than to “portray the reality that Catalan federations cannot progress onto the international arena because the Spanish ones are preventing them”.
It has to be said that the Spanish federations have never done an awful lot to help promote Catalan teams, but then again, since when was that ever something they were supposed to do?
But in order to stir up support among fellow Catalans, there is nothing more effective than the time-honoured tactic of pointing the blame at Spaniards. Where Catalans just don’t seem able to get a grip is that it is not really Spain’s ‘fault’ that they don’t have Catalan teams. The reason the likes of Slovakia, Macedonia, Latvia and Andorra have national teams is because they are now officially recognised as independent countries. Catalunya is not and whether they should be or should not be is not for UEFA, FIFA or the IOC to decide. Why should the Catalans be treated any differently to Bavaria, Quebec, Kurdistan, Kosovo, Chechenya, Corsica or Cornwall (not to mention Galicia, the Basque Country, the Canary Islands, and who knows, maybe even the Aragonese will be asking for a separate team next)?
Become an independent country and you get an independent national team. Like it or not, that is just the way it is. Saying that, a spanner is very definitely going to be to be put in the works when UEFA and FIFA officially recognise
Gibraltar, something that will happen any day now following a Court of Arbitration for Sport decision in Gib’s favour. This could get messier. Perhaps rather than playing these games and doing a bit of harmless flag waving, it’s time for the Catalans to really start showing they mean business. It would be easy. All they have to do is withdraw Barga from the Spanish league it should not be in anyway, and set up a separate Catalan championship. Somehow, however, we just can’t quite see that ever happening. But so to the game, and this is the second the Catalans have played this year, following a 2-0 defeat of Costa Rica in Terrassa shortly before the World Cup.
Playing at the Camp Nou and with the potential to field a remarkably strong team, the Catalans have never failed to attract decent opposition for friendly matches, which have included two games with Brazil and one with Argentina in recent years. As ever, there is the problem that games can only be organised on official international weekends, which means most of the best players, including Barga’s Carles Puyol, Xavi and Andres Iniesta, are generally away playing for Spain (who have a Euro 2008 qualifier in Sweden on Saturday). Other potential Catalan internationals include Cesc Fabregas of Arsenal, Barga’s Victor Valdes and Oleguer Presas, Espanyol’s Raul Tamudo, Ajax’s Gabri, Deportivos’s Albert Lopo and both the Luis Garcia of Liverpool and the Espanyol one. The Basques meanwhile, have also played several major international teams over the last decade or so, including wins against Uruguay, Ghana, Yugoslavia and Nigeria. Their most recent match was 1-0 defeat to Wales in May.
The core of the team is traditionally Athletic Bilbao, who have their ongoing all-Basque policy, with Real Sociedad, Osasuna and Alaves also supplying plenty of talent - not forgetting (pending injuries and selection for Spain) Xabi Alonso, Asier del Horno, Ivan Campo and Gaizka Mendieta. Depending on who gets to play this could be a fascinating game, and the atmosphere is always special for these occasions.
This will be the first meeting between the two sides since a testimonial match for Juan Gardeazabal in 1971, in which the Catalans won 2-1 in Bilbao.
ESPANYOL v OSASUNA TICKETS: Sunday, October 1, 2006, Estadi Olimpic. Another fresh start
October 4, 2006 on 7:58 am | In Uncategorized | No CommentsDon’t Panic! That’s the message coming out the Espanyol camp this week after the team were beaten at Mallorca last weekend to leave them with only three points from their opening four league outings.
Captain Raul Tamudo stated that the squad recognised that there is a problem with the performances, but that no solution had yet been found. They do say that the first step towards recovery is to admit that something is wrong, so los periquitos are indeed on the right path and if the season is to be kick-started, again, then there would be no better time than the visit of Osasuna this weekend.
By the time this edition of Sports Matter is with you Espanyol will have
played the second leg of their UEFACiip first round tie with Artmedia and may have chalked up a resounding victory. Whatever the outcome was, however, Ernesto Valverde’s team need to win their second consecutive hom game in the league. A fortnight ago, Goals from Moi’ses Hurtado and Jonatas earned them a morale-boosting victory over a Celta team that finished in the top six last term. The bad news came seven days later when a 1-0 defeat at Mallorca put Espanyol almost back to square one. Another stren test awaits here as Osasuna have bounced back from losing their first two league games, and being eliminated from the Champions League in the qualifiers by Hamburg, to record two successive victories.
A home win against Nastic was followed up last Sunday with a 2-0 victory at, of all places, Celta Vigo.
Cuco Ziganda’s outfit are strong, but can be caught on the break and that is where Espanyol will have to focus. Three points are badly needed.
Who are CA Osasuna?
The Pamplona-based club’s rise in recent years can be put down to just one man, Javier Aguirre.
After taking his native Mexico to the World Cup Finals in 2002, Aguirre took the reins at El Sadar, now re-named El Reyno de Navarra, and begun to build a solid squad that became renowned for their battling spirit and impressive home form.
At the end of his fourth season in charge, the team qualified for the Champions League qualifiers having finished fourth on the final day, but instead of staying put to enjoy one season in Europe, Aguirre accepted an offer to take over the poisoned chalice of Atletico Madrid coach.
Cuco Ziganda was promoted from within and he has made some shrwd signings and vowed not to change much from the Aguirre-era.
Unfortunately, the club failed to make it the group stages of the Champions League after losing on away goals against Hamburg .
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