Barcelona

As a symbol of Catalonian pride — and for many, Catalonian nationalism — FC Barcelona has a storied yet complicated history with the Copa del Rey, the Spanish equivalent of England’s FA Cup.

Neymar has been making all sorts of headlines recently, which in and of itself is not unusual. He's one of the most famous soccer players in the world. It would be weird if Neymar wasn't making headlines.

The headlines that Neymar is generating at this particular moment, though, are quite interesting, as it seems half of them are reporting that he had talks with Real Madrid regarding a possible move. The other half are, obviously, reporting that hell will freeze over before the young Brazilian engages in such talks with Los Blancos.

Sometimes we forget how truly global soccer's reach is, how extremely footballing superstars have burrowed into the global consciousness. Then we see a picture of a toddler (here we are just guessing) Messi fan wearing a plastic bag painted to look like a Lionel Messi Argentina jersey. 

A kid in Iraq .. pic.twitter.com/ZfOEpUCNvw

— Leo Messi (@messi10stats) January 16, 2016

Gerard Pique is from Barcelona, so he knows full well the political and social divides that define the rivalry between the city’s two local clubs: FC Barcelona and Espanyol.

Everyone knows the names of the greats who have taken the field for FC Barcelona over the years, from Messi to Cruyff, from Ronaldo to Iniesta, from Luis Suarez (both of them!) to Neymar, just to name a few. But all too few know the name of the man to whom these legends and all fans of Barcelona owe a huge debt of gratitude: Patrick O’Connell.

If you played sports while growing up, there is a good chance that you had that one friend (hopefully that was you), who was miles ahead of the other kids in terms of skill.

That kid who would nutmeg everybody while playing around with the soccer ball, cross people over and leave them on the floor on the basketball court, or even juke you out of your shoes in a pickup football game. We all went through something like that at some point of our sporting careers.

You know you are a good team when your opponents have to resort to stomping on your best player and saying horrifically offensive things to you. Luckily for world-beating Barcelona, its opponent in this case received two red cards for its actions, although you could argue it should have been more. 

S*** really hit the fan during Barcelona and Espanyol’s Copa del Rey match, and Luis Suarez talking trash played no small part.

It has been roughly 24 hours since the final whistle blew and ever news outlet with at least a passing focus on football is printing various quotes from the post-game interviews, dissecting the official match report, and lip reading what the stars said during the match.

Social media is filled with salty Barcelona fans, gloating Barcelona fans, and people dissing Espanyol (sorry Espanyol, but your fan base is simply dwarfed by Barcelona’s).

Lionel Messi apparently gets under his rivals' skin. I suppose being ridiculously good will do that. 

Yesterday in the Copa del Rey against Espanyol, Messi scored an absolutely absurd free kick. Espanyol keeper Pau Lopez set up his wall perfectly, positioned himself perfectly, and reacted to it perfectly, but was still left grasping for air as the kick sailed through the air, off the crossbar, and down in the the goal.