Barcelona

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. 

Lionel Messi made his 500th appearance for FC Barcelona on Wednesday and, naturally, was on the scoresheet. Messi was named in the starting XI, as well as captain for the night, despite having just passed a kidney stone and traveling between Japan, Argentina, Dubai and Barcelona over the past 10 days. 

No matter. Messi put in another Man of the Match performance during Barca's 4-0 La Liga victory over Real Betis.

Neymar got a new haircut. This in and of itself is not super noteworthy. Neymar gets new haircuts all the time.

What is noteworthy is how Neymar's partners on the Barcelona forward line, Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi, reacted to Neymar's new look, which looks kid of like a starter version of an '80s rocker mullet, with the sides shaved and the top and back slightly grown out.

Ronaldinho wore the number 10 shirt at Barcelona. When Ronaldinho Left Barcelona, Messi began wearing the number 10 shirt, a shirt he still wears today.

It may be just a jersey number, but the story behind how Messi ended up with the Barcelona number 10 jersey after Ronaldinho left is actually pretty interesting.

Sergi Guardiola is 24 years old, which is certainly old enough to know that nowadays potential employers always check out your social media accounts for bad stuff.

This is why every college and career counselor ever tells you to make sure your social media accounts are either squeaky clean or uber-private before you apply for jobs, to make sure your reputation isn't damaged in the eyes of potential employers.

Guardiola, it appears, has never talked to a career counselor (we don't even know if European footballers have that sort of thing), because he went from this:

Luis Enrique stands on the touchline and watches FC Barcelona’s tremendous troika of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar (MSN) nearly every day in matches and in training.

And yet, the Blaugrana boss remains amazed at what the trio can accomplish when they are at their best. 

“They are the best in the world,” Enrique told the press recently. “They have a great understanding and when they don’t all score [in a match] they’re not happy.”

Barcelona star midfielder Ivan Rakitic was a big hit at the Club World Cup in Japan this month, but not for the reason you might think. Sure, he played well and Barcelona tournament, but the reason fans flocked to Rakitic is because he looks like Goku, the protagonist in the popular anime show "Dragon Ball Z."

Goku is beloved in Japan, and, because of that, now Rakitic is beloved in Japan.