Although our beloved Barcelona is truly the Catalan national team I thought it would be a fun exercise to establish what a nats side would look like if Catalonia were a seperate country. Now I don't want to start a flame war with either side of the political argument. That can be taken to the politics forum. This is just to see how good the Catalan side might be. What I have is pretty scant so far but I will start with Valdes Oleguer Puyols Xavi Fabregas Tamudo Looking at that, it's not a bad start. The strike force would be the biggest worry but I am limited in knowledge of where many players are born. The info is out there but it took me a guess to figure out Cesc and browsing the Espanyol site only found me one player I could trust as Catalonian (and good but old). So we need better input from an idiot such as myself.
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) First off, check the line up from their game with Peru over the winter break and every winter break since Franco died. They play friendlies all the time just like EUSKADI, Asturias & Galician national teams. Although the line up could be potentially appealing there is a tendency (of each province) to use elder players from the past like Guardiola(catalan), Fran(Galicia), Luis Enrique (Asturias) type icons.
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) They play games every year. Luis Garcia, Sergio Ramos, De la pena, Xavi, Iniesta, Cesc, Navarro, Valdes, Puyol, Oleguer, etc etc. I lose track of the non-FCB ones.
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) Is sergio Ramos catolnien i thought he has from sevilla. Then why did he choose MAdrid? hes kind of weird but he rocks our MADRIDS Defence. Soon after raul he will become our captain.
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) Here's a list of players from last December's game against Paraguay: http://www.futcat.org/noticias/mostrar_noticia.php?seccion=noticias&idn=0000000229 ALBERT LOPO RCD ESPANYOL DANIEL JARQUE RCD ESPANYOL FERRAN COROMINAS RCD ESPANYOL DAVID GARCÍA RCD ESPANYOL JONATHAN SORIANO RCD ESPANYOL VICTOR VALDÉS FC BARCELONA OLEGUER PRESAS FC BARCELONA JOAN CAPDEVILA DEPORTIVO SERGIO GONZÁLEZ DEPORTIVO DAMIÀ ABELLA RACING ÓSCAR SERRANO RACING ALBERT CELADES ZARAGOZA SERGIO GARCÍA ZARAGOZA RAMON DE QUINTANA CF CÁDIZ FRANCESC ARNAU CD MALAGA JORDI LÓPEZ SEVILLA CURRO TORRES CF VALENCIA ROGER GARCÍA VILLARREAL BRUNO SALTOR UE LLEIDA ANTONIO PINILLA TARRAGONA MARC SELLARÉS CF VILANOVA PEP GUARDIOLA DORADOS DE CUALICÁN Sergio Ramos is from Andalucia.
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) MADRID (AFP) - The Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) on Monday vetoed a mooted friendly international between the eastern region of Catalonia and the United States, which had been slated for October 14. The Catalan regional federation (FCF) had reached agreement for the game with US counterparts but the RFEF board rejected the idea by 18 votes to three, FCF sources said. One of the reasons put forward was that Spain are themselves playing Denmark a day earlier in a Euro 2008 qualifier and then on the 17th a friendly against Finland. RFEF spokesman Jorge Carretero told the Europa Press news agency that the date was not opportune. Occasionally, such as during the Christmas and New Year break, regional sides have played in friendlies and last October Catalonia played a Basque regional select XI. http://sports.yahoo.com/sow/news?slu...=afp&type=lgns
*NFCBR* A full-strength Catalan national side? Let's just speculate for a minute: Who would you pick as a Starting XI if Catalonia could field its absolute best squad (this is including players like Puyol and Fabregas who regularly play for Spain)? I'm just curious as to how strong a side they would have. This is strictly hypothetical of course.
Re: *NFCBR* A full-strength Catalan national side? A further look down at other threads would reveal... https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=320555
Re: *NFCBR* A full-strength Catalan national side? Good to see thorough research being conducted on our board!
at San Mames, Bilbao Halftime Euskal Herria 0-1 Catalunya 0-1 : Bojan 29' Tuned in around the 35th minute. Watching on TVCi via TVants. Catalunya sporting their new all black kit. Just saw the goal on replay, a through ball to Bojan who calmly rounded the keeper to slot into an emtpy net. Oh, and Puyol has a full head of hair.
Re: Euskal Herria 0-1 Catalunya Bojan subbed off in the 60th minute for 36 year old Antonio Pinilla of Nastic. Commentators say Bojan has had a great game.
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) Fulltime Euskal Herria 1-1 Catalunya 0-1 : Bojan 29' 1-1 : Aduriz 70'
Euskal Herria - Catalunya ("Basque Country" - Catalonia) Match Highlights: Jorquera's injury looks very nasty! and a beautiful goal by Bojan... [youtube]mWg0WiMt7p0[/youtube] We need a goal keeper, urgently and Bojan needs to play more often... more often than Gio anyway... Good to see that Puyol's hair is as messy as usual... welcome back 'Caveman'
Re: Euskal Herria - Catalunya ("Basque Country" - Catalonia) Great goal by Bojan. He read the play well(very nice pass BTW) ran really fast, and very calmly put it in the back of the net. He should really get more playing time. I like games like this one, where they're not playing for anything other than fun and pride in their heritage/place of birth...and everyone goes home happy in the end.
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) You might want to add Gerard Piqué to the list of possible players for the Catalan national team. This could be a good line up. Valdés Oleguer --- Puyol --- Lopo ---- Capdevila Luis García --- Xavi --- Cesc --- Sergio? Tamudo --- Bojan Not sure about Luis Garcia (At. Madrid) and Sergio, but not a bad team...
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) they would have a shot qualifying for the WC...i'd like to know how deep they go...
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) slightly off-topic, i didn't want to start a new thread and get castigated. I've been searching for hours in this forum and on google, does anyone know where I can purchase a Catalan soccer jersey or if these are even available for purchase. The closest thing I found was the catalan rugby. Thanks and sorry if I've incensed anyone.
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) Subside Sports is a wonderful place. Edit: It looks like they only have smalls in right now. Ok, maybe they're not always so wonderful.
Re: Catalonian National Team (a what if) Try here: http://www.soccer-spain.com/ssshop/shopwindow.html http://www.futbolmanianet.com/codigo/espanol/TemplateProducte.asp?equipo=CATALUNYA (there's a link on the main page with a link to the English version but it didn't work when I tried) http://www.productesdelaterra.cat/p...87&osCsid=o27frnnti3k9aj2tcokr8rg5k3&rel=solu