CHAPTER 333: Barcelona 3 - 0 Athletic Bilbao

Alternative Title: “¡CAMPEONES! – The First Trophy”

Positives

• Barcelona wins the Liga SuperCopa.

• A great win by Barcelona.

• 3 goals scored, none conceded.

• 2 goals by Messi, 1 from Bojan. Great representation of the youth system.

• It’s a great way to get the new season on track. The first trophy’s in the bag.

Negatives

• The yellow cards to Puyol, Toure and Xavi.

CHAPTER 332: Reviewing Strikeforce CaranoVsCyborg

“Only in MMA, can you have your wife on top of you as a champ.”

Fabricio Werdum vs. Mike Kyle

Werdum’s submission adds to the fight rating.

My Fight Rating: 3 stars out of 5


Gilbert Melendez vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida

Overall, a domination from Gilbert Melendez.
He dished out the punishment, won the striking exchanges, sprawled against Ishida’s takedown attempts, used knees especially in clinch and when Ishida was pinned against the cage. Throughout the fight, Melendez was the one always pressuring Ishida (where the Japanese was usually pressed against the cage). A very strong showing from Gilbert Melendez.

My Fight Rating: 3 ½ stars out of 5


Renato Sobral vs. Gegard Mousasi

What a victory by Mousasi!
And it’s a big, big win for Mousasi considering he’s now the champ.

I don’t think many expect the fight to end in the way it did.

Mousasi brought down Babalu quickly to the ground when they were in the clinch, then Mousasi immediately got into side control. When Babalu tried to escape, Mousasi just pinned Babalu towards the cage and just GNP’ed the Brazilian.
All within the first round, and it was a superb showing from Gegard Mousasi.
Mousasi’s dominant display adds to the fight rating, and I believe that now the Anderson Silva vs. Gegard Mousasi debate is going to be heated up even more.

My Fight Rating: 4 stars out of 5


Gina Carano vs. Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos

I thought this was a great fight, very nervy and edgy, on your seat sort of stuff.
Sure, they both (looked like) they were gassed halfway through until the end but still that was quite a packed 1st round battle, with Cyborg dishing majority of the punishment.
Cyborg winning (almost) right at the death of the first round added to the excitement rating.

The question that arises is why did Carano like twice gave up full mount advantage?
Apart from that she was surviving from Cyborg’s constant pounding but towards the end she seemed like she couldn’t fight back anymore.
I suppose one note to point about Cyborg was that the times she tried to take down Carano the American ended up in an advantageous mount position.
Another question to raise form this fight is that what could have happened had the fight gone into the second round? Maybe Carano was losing the fight in the first round but had the fight gone into the second I’m not even sure if Cyborg would even have plenty of gas left in the tank to go on, as stated earlier both looked gassed out halfway through the fight.

But, that’s how the fight went, and I’m giving it a rating of 4 stars out of five.

My Fight Rating: 4 stars out of 5

CHAPTER 331: Athletic Bilbao 1 - 2 Barcelona

Alternative title: “Advantage Barcelona”


Positives

• Barça won in the first leg.

• The goals obtained gives Barça advantage in terms of the away goals. This sets up a good position for Barcelona to capitalize on in the second leg.

• Winning in San Mames.

• And it’s a comeback victory, after Bilbao scored in what was perhaps an unfortunate moment just before the end of the first half of the game.

• Goals scored by La Masia developed players (that’s always a plus for Barça).

• Xavi scored the first and the equalizer.

• Good work by Pedro in laying out the pass to Xavi to score.

• The equalizing goal came at a good moment, early on in the second half. That I believe helped brought composure and calm to the team when playing against the opposition and thus began to dominate the game and control the outcome of the match.

• What a great goal by Pedro!

• And in reverse of the first goal Xavi made the assist for Pedro’s goal.

Negatives

• The team conceding the first goal, and at such time.