Sunday Soccer Bloggin'

Got to watch two entire games and bits of two others this weekend. If that sounds like a lot, it's really only about five hours worth or less than two complete football games. By my count, last week's Iowa-Syracuse game came in at just under four and-a-half hours. Granted there were two overtimes, but those play pretty fast what with no game clock, only a play clock.

Anyway, all is right in my soccer world. The Fire beat league leading D.C. United 1-0 in a downpour in Chicago last night, clinching their own post-season berth and denying D.C. home field advantage, at least for the moment. The Fire are the only conference team to beat United this year and have done so in two straight games, whacking them 3-0 and knocking them out of the U.S. Open Cup semi-finals. After knocking DC out of the playoffs last year with a 4-0 shellacking in D.C. the rivalry has become somewhat personal. There were seven yellow cards and two red cards yesterday.

Finally, there is this little tidbit from Barcelona. Long the team for the discerning new soccer fan to follow, Barcelona has set a new standard for quality of play and social relevancy of the fan-owned club. They just signed their first-ever shirt sponsorhsip deal... with UNICEF.

“If you look at our history, this is a club that has always represented the values of citizenship, sport and democracy in the Catalan capital,” [Club President, Joan] Laporta said in an interview Friday before returning to Spain. “We are a club that appreciates talent and tolerance. Through 107 years we have represented those values, and in that time our shirt has never been sold.”

Barcelona was alone among the top clubs in the world in spurning lucrative offers to sell advertising space on its jersey. Laporta said the club had repeatedly declined offers, including one that would have paid it $22 million a year and another from the Beijing Olympic organizing committee. By comparison, Chelsea of England began a five-year sponsorship deal with Samsung Electronics in 2005 that pays it $18.7 million a season.

Instead, it is Barcelona that will pay Unicef, the United Nations Children’s Fund, nearly $2 million a year for the next five years for the right to use the Unicef logo in all competitions, Laporta said. The first program to benefit will focus on AIDS education for children in Swaziland.

“Our message is that Barcelona is more than a club, and a new global hope for vulnerable children,” he said. “It is a humanitarian message. It represents the identify of our club that we see as a defender of freedom and democratic rights and facing up to others in a time of governments without tolerance.”

Laporta declined to say whether he was drawing a comparison between his club and its main rival, Real Madrid. Barcelona and Catalonia, an autonomous region of Spain, have long had a contentious relationship with the central government. That was especially true in the days of the dictator Francisco Franco, an unabashed Real supporter.

In yesterday’s game, five different players scored as Barcelona defeated Levski Sofia, 5-0. Barcelona is trying to become the first team to win back-to-back European club championships since A.C. Milan in 1989 and 1990. Those Milan teams included Barcelona’s current coach, Frank Rijkaard.

“It is important that we try to present an image of sport in the world that changes the idea that football is only about money, but that it has a heart and a soul,” Laporta said.