Fútbolita

Welcome to Futbolita’s “La Liga Lunes!” (say it with a merry little voice). It’s one of our fresh new features for the new season, which means ya’ll better stop the hair waxing or whateverchu been doin’ and get back to the Spanish futbol business. So let’s ring the bell and dance to the new season!

DE TODOS MODOS, Matchday 1 consisted of a lot of mid-air fistpumps (David Maravilla style), Greaseano whining and sheer disappointment on MouMou’s face. Obviously, Barca weren’t feeling the pain of losing Ibracadabra to their friends in Italy and handed Racing a nice 3-0 gift courtesy of Maravilla, Iniesta and the Messiah. Sergio Canales cried all the way from his Madrid apartment, but after leaving Racing for better shores, that was inevitable!

As for Mourinho…. acorda, tio! You can do better than that goaless draw against Mallorca! Where was the mascot (Juande Ramos) when you needed him?

Said MouMou : “I’m disappointed that with the number of chances we created we didn’t score. When you aren’t at your best you have to do two things, defend so your opponents don’t score, and take your chances. We deserved to win.”

All photos via AP & Reuters

Did God set up this friendly between Spain and Mexico with the Niñas in mind or what? OK, maybe it didn’t really need divine intervention but it was a brilliant man’s idea to field these Futbolito Guapos for the world to enjoy yesterday!

As expected, the Azteca stadium went completely berserk when Chicharito scored for Los Tri, who looked like they had victory on their side. But of course, World Champions can’t afford to disappoint and David Silva eventually netted that crucial equaliser in stoppage time for the Spaniards. Oh, you know he was the man to do it… with all that new Man City confidence!

In the meantime, you’ll be seeing more of Chicharito here, so ready or not (for the candid photo above), más le vale estar preparado!

via Reuters, Gettyimages

What’s this, isn’t the World Cup already over?! It appears not… porque seven of Barca’s men have arrived to play a friendly against Mexico on Wednesday. Before flying off, the boys put up at Hotel Meliá Baraja near the airport. And to all our Mexican chicas (yes, we know there’s many of you, jeje), you have everybody’s blessing to go ahead and Navastate their training ground with your eyes. Puyolita, on the other hand, can only offer a solitary wave in return…

“The fact we have won the World Cup does not mean that we no longer have goals and objectives to achieve,” declared Fernando Llorente. “We have to carry on as we have been doing with a view to winning as much as possible.”

via Marca

Madridistas all over the world are devastated that Raul The Great One announced his decision to leave the club yesterday. Yes, it’s the end of an era…! you cry. But don’t forget that also takes great bravery to step aside when you know your time is up, and for that, Raul certainly needs to be applauded! There are many critics who often accuse Real Madrid fans of being “plastic, commercialized and/or mostly glory hunters,” but for a moment, let’s forget about the post-Beckhamadrid fans. The ones who’re certain to feel the pinch are the ones who’ve been following Raul’s career ever since he stepped foot against Atletico in 1994.

Perez loved him, so did King Juan Carlos, his wife, associates and the waitresses of Madrid. And looking back, Raul was also the first European player we personally met five years ago. A lot has changed since then… but we will always remember The Nose and his affectionate friendship with Morientes.

Speaking of which… look! We found the ancient photo from that July afternoon of 2005.

Ooh la la, Bobojan is giving you the eye in this picture. Quick everyone, do something! Tipo was said to be dating Sara Carbonero’s sister, Cristina, but he has denied this claim and is still with Blanca, his current namorada.

Anyway, many of you may be wondering how Bojan feels about his best friend, Pedrito and his World Cup win. After all, they both had equal chances to make the final squad… until Del Bosque maxed out his number of attackers for the final list and you know you can’t have everything. Well, he’s not bitter but admitted that he felt “healthily envious” when La Furia won.

“I am as delighted as all the players (as) we would have liked to be there. My goal is to return to the selection. I’ll work for it.”

Bobojan still has Euro 2012 to work towards, and we’re sure that he’ll be called to the squad then! In the meantime, here’s a bonus of Spain’s new favourite lovebirds, IkerBonero (move aside, Raul and Mamen!)

Photos via Gettyimages/Bellazon

This time last year, we asked Nando about his daughter, Nora and he couldn’t stop beaming like a proud papa! Now, on top of becoming a World Champion, one can only imagine his happiness about becoming a father for the second time. Yes, it’s official… Parabens, tipo!

According to the Spanish tabloids, Nando’s wife Olalla was seen visibly pregnant on the streets of La Coruña hours hours after embarking on the couple’s vacations. Of course, the sex of the baby is yet to be known! Could it be a hermano for Nora? Who knows?

Anyway, the trio (now, it’s four of them) flew by ‘private jet’ to an undisclosed location, where they will spend the rest of the holidays basking in the sun. Now it’s time for some meringue cake!

via AFP, HOLA

BEM-VINDO to the Friday CQC Club! In this episode, our favourite Brazilian reporter Felipe Andreoli approaches Franz Beckenbauer like they’ve been hanging out for the last century or so and hunts down all the Brazilian ministers and former players, including Bebeto and Cafu in South Africa!

Watch out for the part when Andreoli tells Beckenbauer : “You know President Lula? He’s also known as President Calamari!” (which is true – Lula translates to ‘squid’ in Portuguese!)

In this other video, Kaka tries his best to stay patient and strike impossible poses – featuring a globe – for a magazine cover. Seriously, all the guy wants to do is to sleep in with Baby Luca! We’ve also discovered a fair amount of Kaka haters this month, so as usual, they can just proceed to the LEFT.

So The Messiah is incredibly exhausted.. but he still has six months to go until they crown the new FIFA World Player of the Year, so tipo has to WORK IT! It must be incredibly tiring to go back to playing football right after the World Cup, so he was nice enough to pick all the players whose teams went out early in the tournament. Obviously, folks like Materazzi had ample time to go for a spa, enjoy a manicure AND get inked at the same time while Lucio, as ya’ll know, has been hitting the bitch with Juan!

Edgar Davids and Kevin Urandi also didn’t have anything to say to Marco and Lucio, so they decided to have their own conversations (as seen below) instead. Seriously, what could Edgar and Lucio have spoken about? Felipe Melo?

It’s that time of the year again… the “Gêmeo Season!” The question is, can you tell the Da Silva brothers apart below? Meu Deus, someone needs to give them a hairdryer, the Perpetual Greaseano look is not working!!

Anyway, caras are now in the USA with the rest of the United gang as part of their pre-season tour. They’d better bring their Futbolita tees along for the ride. Hmmm, Fabio (left) is trying to recall where na terra he put it!

Last, and certainly not least, es hora de Ikerbonero! They’re now officially Pap material, which means you’ll probably be seeing them every morning at the breakfast table as you sip tea next to Arsene Wenger.

Anyway, here they are after enjoying a nice little dinner and getting into Wedgiellas’ car. OK, we don’t really care where they’re heading to or if he decides to get a new haircut, but he’d better keep Sara because she’s one of the few girls he has dated with actual brains!

via Gettyimages, Hola and AFP

First and foremost, we would like to apologize for the 3,342,121,322 million female hearts that are about to be broken (and the eye-rolling from the futbolitos), especially that of our amiga mayor who is in love with Barca’s Pedrito. Come on… as they say in Brazil, “they may be married, but they’re not dead!”

In this case, we’re not talking about marriage. Here we have Jesus Navastating and Pedrito with their girlfriends leaving the hotel following their delirious night of celebrations in Madrid. They’re both heading back to their hometowns and both chicas looked annoyed as hale, especially Alejandra (Navas’s namorada) who had to pull his luggage. Babe, don’t sulk – do it for the eyes!  ¡Dios mío, yo haría cualquier cosa por los ojos!

via Europa Press & Gettyimages

Felicitaciones to Espana’s Christina Santos who won the battle of the Fervent Futbolitas! Ella es oficialmente la Futbolita del Copa de Mundo and oh boy, did she go all out to party with the rest of her Madrilenos following Spain’s historic World Cup victory yesterday!

We would like to take the opportunity to thank all of you who have closely followed the Futbolita World Cup and to our enthusiastic and fantastic futbolitas for a job well done! Let’s give a huge round of applause to the awesome Hanneke, Julia, Raio, Temryss, N’Bellia, Nabilah, Claire, Lucas, Lola, Monica and Verdy!

Here are photos of Cristina at the victory parade with fellow Spaniards as they drown themselves in a sea of yellow and red!

Also, a special mention also goes out to the lovely Larissa (below) for her fantastic photo and message to us (muchas gracias tia) direct from South Africa!

All photos © Christina Santos and Larissa da Villa

Apparently, a fraction of uptight Arsenal fans are furious at the fact that Pepe “Party” Reina and Pique the Pout slipped on a Barca jersey on Cesc last night. Ahora… que es una broma! There’s no need to get all offended, especially since he owes a lot to Barcelona for making him the player he is today. What’s wrong with a little joke? They just won the World Cup, so that’s a license in itself to have a little banter!

Anyway, since we’ve got a lot of futbolitas in the house who’re simply in love with La Furia Roja, here’s a bonus video of the FIESTA!

PARABENS to Spain (that means, the whole of Catalonia, Madrid, the Basque Country, etc)…as they are the new World Cup winners! As usual, Pepe Reina was drunk off his face in the plane ride home despite not playing a single minute of the tournament. Can’t blame him though – he’s the resident La Furia Party King (seriously) and one of the friendliest dudes around (right Liverpool fans?!) so yeah, you’d want to take him to Jersey Shore next time… no te olvides de la cerveza! Folks like Mr. Carbonero (Iker) waited nearly eight years to win this which explains the tears and emotions. Haters can hate, but this is football and you win some and lose some.

Let’s admit it, after all their chances and total domination of the game last night, Spain were deserving winners. And as for The Netherlands, they should have come prepared to play football instead of kung-fu. Iniesta singlehandedly outclassed them yesterday – not just with his winning goal – but with his fantastic reading of the game. And you can kick, trip, shove all you want - but at the end of the day, these don’t win you matches at all. Their outright intimidation may have worked against Brasil but it surely didn’t against the Spaniards!

Photos via AP, AFP, Pablo Garcia

Hard to say this about Puyolita, but we told you so! Amid all the talk about Pulpa Paul and his potential as a matchmaker, a brand new hero has emerged from the land of Catalonia! Finally, Puyol’s day is here and for all his hard work, the whole of Spain is declaring today “el dia de Puyi”, and rightly so because they’ve made history and are in the World Cup finals for the first time ever. Hey, es un logro. Así que si le molestan, siéntate!

“The truth is that victory cost us a lot because Germany were very good defensively, but we have persevered and finally (received) our award,” said Xavi Downey Junior, who is beginning to look a lot like Señor Iron Man.

We were surprised that Germany didn’t look as sharp as they have in recent games, and their midfield was practically non-existent. Seriously, where was Ozil? And did Klose even look like he was on the verge of equalizing Ronaldo O Fenomeno’s record? That’s right – it wasn’t going to happen.

Photos via AP, Gettyimages

“Football is a simple game; 22 men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win” – Sorry Gary Lineker, not this time around!

We’ve already beaten Germany once when it counted, we can do it again. Obviously this is not the same team that faced Germany in Vienna in 2008. As I’ve said before,  we will miss the mastery of Marcos Senna—he is the only member of the starting XI from the Euro 2008 final against Germany that didn’t come to South Africa. With Torres failing to make much of an impact this World Cup, we can forget about El Niño Torres scoring the lone winning goal against the Germans, and instead look to David Villa—who now has 5 goals in as many games—and his omnipresent ability to score when we need it. The question remains, should Torres still be a starter? ¡Tengo ganas de empezar Cesc Fabregas, ya! (I want to see Cesc Fabregas  just start already!)

Whilst we’re missing the Senna, the Germans are mullered without Thomas Mueller—Germany’s suspended scoring superstar.

I’m not gonna lie—Spain’s history in the World Cup is dreadful. But seeing as how we have already beaten the Quarter-Final curse, who’s to say we can’t “Write the future” and win the World Cup?

With a dash of paprika, Pulpo Paul may have drowned the German schnitzel, but it doesn’t take an octopus to know that Spain will be victorious against Germany mañana. ¡A por ellos!

Signing off,

Your Spanish Futbolita

We know how many of you love to gloss over the gawjuz boys from La Seleccion but Puyolita is NO BUZZKILL. He is as important as Robert Downey Xavi and Mano Maravilla to Spain so ya’ll better appreciate him!

Anyway, the point of this is to inform you that the Spaniards aren’t distracted by Muller’s absence in tonight’s game. At least they know Ozil is the man they should be looking out for because he is just brilliant and should be playing for Brazil instead! So it’ll be a battle between Puyol and Ozil and probably Klose and Pique.

“We can be happy with the absence of Müller, as he is in great shape. Klose is a born goalscorer and he’s very fast. But the big surprise is Özil,” Xavi told German newspapers earlier this week.

GERMANY VS SPAIN

LOLA CALDERON (MEXICO): “Both teams have talented youth and veterans, but I believe this is Spain’s match to win. Senor Villa will be key in this win as will be the midfield control of the ball. Germany has much young talent but I think la Furia Roja will triumph because of their strong midfield, which includes the likes of Xavi, Iniesta and Xabi. If Torres can come back on form, that will be great too!”

NABILAH BHAM (SOUTH AFRICA): “I see the Spanish going to the finals. Call me crazy considering the way the Germans are playing, but I just truly hope and want the two greatest underdogs teams in football history to finally make a final of a World Cup and for one of them to win it. And where better for this to happen than in Africa!

MONICA KNOESEN (Portugal): “I hope Spain will win this one 2-1, although they haven’t played to their full potential, and Germany have been better.”

N’BELLIA (FRANCE): “Well, it’s kind of tough because I am biased! I love both teams but I really want Spain to win the World Cup. It’s my favourite team after France, of course, and now I am definitely rooting for them! How can’t you be impressed by the team’s game and by David Maravilla? I think it’s going to be a very closed game, but Spain will score during the second half and win. I say 2-0 to Spain!”

HANNEKE HAMELINK (THE NETHERLANDS): “This match brings some internal struggle between my Futbolita heart and mind. The heart says; Please let it be Spain. This team is a true Futbolita’s dream, a bunch of good-looking guys playing attractive football. Just like Holland, they seem to struggle to find their normal style of beautiful football but as long as the results are good that is not to big a problem for me. Every time I watch a Spain match I hope the magic will show but let’s hope they saved the best for this semi final. But my mind says it will be Germany going through to the final. Unlike Holland, Brazil or Spain Germany seems to have find a way to play good and attractive football with flair.”

TEMRYSS LANE (USA): “Germany will win 3-2. They have proven to be one of the best teams in the tournament!”

CLAIRE ROURKE (ENGLAND): “I cannot wait for this one. Germany have been outstanding in this tournament and it pains me to say that! I watched in awe as they cruised passed Argentina but if anyone can match them in style and confidence then it’s Spain! David villa is on fire and although Fernando Torres hasn’t been firing on all cylinders, I bet there’s not a football fan out there who would bet against him to hit top form in these the most crucial of stages- you only have to think back to the final in euro 2008 to see what a difference El Nino can make! Personally, I’m rooting for Spain as it is my adoptive nation after all. I’m going for a 1-0 Spain win and a Spain- Holland final so I have got a good few of our Liverpool boys to cheer on!”

PHOTOS VIA : AP & Gettyimages

Tchau BRASIL! Looks like my previous friendly banter with The Dutch Futbolita may become reality…

Is it just me or has this World Cup been full of the most WTF moments in recent memory, or what?! Reigning champs Italia finishing last in their group, Germany losing to Serbia, USA classifying first… not to mention the most painful of all: Spain losing their first match…

But we’ve done it-we’ve finally made it to the quarterfinals. Things were looking scary (read: embarrassing!) with our loss to Switzerland, but menos mal, we’re in!

In Spain’s third edition of the Battle of the Hispanophones, we take on Paraguay in the Quarterfinals as we vie once step closer to the final match on July 11th.

Paraguay, or the Italia Sudamericana as the Spanish press is calling them, has shown to be very corrosive against teams they are not comfortable playing against. In their first match against the reigning champs, the Paraguayans were able to force a draw by matching Italy for possession of the ball.

If pressed, Paraguay will try to extend the field of play with long crosses and take advantage of free kicks to get past Casillas. Furthermore, Spain should watch for the Paraguayan counter-attack.  Roque Santa Cruz is without a doubt the best on the team, but for what it’s worth, I think Cardozo and Benitez are pretty good too. However given that Benitez plays for Pachuca, he lacks the experience of playing European style football-aprovéchalo España!

El Guaje has proven again and again that he is the star of the La Roja offensive this World Cup. He will no doubt continue to be, but his teammates will certainly add shine to his star power. Let’s not forget-praise Iker!-Spain has only conceded two goals so far this tournament. Let’s hope Casillas can continue to hold the hope of a nation in his capable hands. Torres also has to continue working to creating holes for Villa, as the Madrileño has the speed-on a good day mind you-to blow past defenders. You just know he is dying to get a goal of his own though this tournament. Like Samson, I blame his goalless streak on his new haircut. Note to El Niño: Sergio Ramos is having and will continue to have a great World Cup effort AND he still has all his luscious long locks, vale?

I still think using Fabregas to shake things up late in the match is working great, but El Gran Bigote del Bosque shouldn’t be wait to drop a Cesc-bomb until the 80th minute. Perhaps as soon as the 55th minute? Same goes for Silva and Llorente. Hell, why not really blow the Paraguayan defense away and put Torres in at the 70th minute?

IF we go to penalties (boring!), I think the kickers for Spain should be:

Villa (you shall be forgiven for your miss against Chile, te lo prometo)
Torres
Xavi
Xabi Alonso
Iniesta

Let’s hope it doesn’t come to this.

Following some crazy, crazy times at the Bernabeu (cops taking away my beer in Spain? RUDE!) and difficulty finding a bar with authentic ambiance, I really have no clue where I’ll be watching this match. In my porra with my friends, I had bet we’ll win 3:1… vamos a ver, ¡Vamos España!

Sure La Selección Española may have entered the World Cup as favorites, but after facing two formidable foes, Spain appears to be a half-drowned mongoose, desperate for a victory. Can the Rikki-Tikki-Tavi Tiki-Taka—Spain’s ball-handling style of quick, “touch-touch” passes—work against Chile?

Sid Lowe of the Guardian doesn’t seem to think so. Frankly, I’m torn. When Spain is ON, it is a beautiful sight to see. But even after a 2-0 victory against Honduras, we have yet to see Spain ON this World Cup. As Lowe says, “Spain have had more shots and corners than any other side, Alonso and Xavi have completed more passes, and Navas has delivered more crosses than anyone.” But what good does that all mean if you can’t finish?

Sure Spain is animated and well aware of the need to win, but will it be enough?
Theoretically, Chile is a team that allows play, but seeing what we have seen this World Cup and following their two wins—Chile will be no easy rival. Our defense will be working over-time to prevent the Chilean offense from scoring.

Tonight I’ll be braving lightening storms to watch the match outside the Bernabéu. Here’s hoping my frizzy hair won’t be for naught!

¡Vamos España!