A tale of cigarettes, grappa, time travel and hopefully goals

Season 10 – 2006/07

Season 10, Bisonte’s fourth at the Nou Camp begins the same way as the previous three, a two legged Super Copa Espanola match.  Hubs is into the last year of his contract and has decided to that he will not be signing a new deal. Barcelona don’t mind, they have over £100 million in the bank and Dazza has become a legend of the club, he can do what he likes.

Dario has set himself a couple of targets for his final season. Score 50+ goals and therefore 200+ for Barcelona. Win another treble, like the one achieved in his first season at the club.

It all begins well, he is two for two before the season proper begins, adding another trophy to the ever-expanding collection.

It’s a local derby for the first game of the season, Espanyol making the short trip across town.  Barcelona have hit the ground running and only a late goal from Espanyol’s David Kaiku makes their performance look respectable.

After conceding two against Espanyol, Barca keep a couple of clean sheets and Dazza keeps on scoring.

For the first time in a while Barcelona find themselves in a relatively easy Champions League group. IFK Gothenburg, Steaua and FC Kobenhavn are their opponents.  First up is Gothenburg, they set up in the ultra defensive formation hoping to pull the old Champ Man.  Captain Domi has other ideas, scoring the only goal in a 1-0 win.

Hubs is back on the score sheet at the weekend as Celta suffer a 2-0 defeat.

A week later Tatanka is at it again, scoring a hat-trick against Sevilla.

Two games, two hat-ricks, six goals, the Bisonte is on a mission.  Steaua didn’t stand a chance.

It’s just the one goal this time as newly found rivals Real Sociedad are brushed aside.

Barca’s first dropped points come at the end of October.  Traditional rivals Real Madrid doing what Real Sociedad failed to do, still a 1-1 draw at the Bernabeu isn’t the worst result.

The midweek match sees Kobenhavn arrive at the Nou Camp.  After failing to score against Madrid Dario makes it two Champions League hat-tricks in a row and three hat-tricks in the last five games.  He left it late though, scoring the third in the 91^st minute.

Dazza scores four more in the next two matches but it should have been five.  He misses from the spot for the first time this season, hopefully this is a one off, his penalty taking was erratic to say the least last season.  The game against Valladolid is in the Copa del Rey, putting Barca in a strong position to make the quarter finals.

Barca’s first loss in all competitions comes in the league, against Valencia at the Nuevo Mestalla.  They couldn’t make all their shots and possession count, losing 1-2.

It’s back to winning ways three days later.  Gothenburg tried to play a more attacking style this time round, instead their fans were treated to Barca masterclass.

There is no goal for Dario in the 2-1 win over Recreativo, but he does score in the 2-3 loss to Valladolid in the 2^nd leg of the Copa del Rey, it’s too little too late for the visitor though, Barca going through 6-4 on aggregate.

The home game against Merida is a dull affaire. JG Coly grabs a 90^th minute winner to send the fans home happy-ish.  Those who come back on Wednesday for the Champions League match are rewarded with a fine 5-2 victory.

The following two league games see two more hat-tricks, neither though, scored by Dazza.  First De La Pena and then Muisi Barnes, Dazza only scores one of the nine goals.

Kobenhavn make a real go of it in the final Champions League group game, it’s a great game for the neutral.

As Barca head toward Christmas and the New Year, Dario goes three for three in the league, helping add another nine points to this season’s total.

The first game back after New Year is Copa del Rey quarter final time, Jaen are not up to the task, even though they have Uncle Festus Agu in the team.

Oviedo visit the Camp Nou and get sent packing, Kaiku, De La Pena and Dani with the goals. Dario has been a bit quite since the beginning of the New Year, his famous “Grappa Grab New Years Eve Parties” are notorious and he’s is still working off the hangover.  He has finally recovered by mid-January and makes up for lost time against Levante.

Jean make a good go of the 2^nd leg, but a 3-0 deficit is too much to overcome.  Nice to see Uncle Festus on the scoresheet though.

The final two games of January see Hubs score a couple more goals.  Local rivals Espanyol and Castellon conceding three goal apiece.

A quick check of the stats in early February shows that Dazza is nine goals away from the magic number of 45, which would net him 200 goals for Barcelona in four seasons.  With renewed focus he begins chipping, curling and thronker-ing his way towards the 45 mark.

8

6

4

3

2.

In the space of a month, or five games, Tatanka has gone on a wonderful run, his progress is only halted when old rivals Real Madrid visit the Camp Nou, with neither side being able to score.

The following week though nothing can stop the Bisonte from bursting through the 200 mark.

Only three more need to hit the half century for a third time in four years.

The Barca boys are brought back down to Earth by Monaco in the second leg of the Champions League quarter final.  It’s a nervous 35 minutes at the end of the match despite dominating the game, throwing away a two goal lead from the first leg would have been criminal.

Normality returns against Valencia, and Dazza moves to 48 goals for the season.

It’s another 2-1 home win four days later, this time in the Champions League, the away goal and red card could prove costly.  Bobbie Scoria will be suspended for the second leg and Chelsea will have an away goal to work with.

Two days later and another semi final, this time it is the Copa del Rey (I can feel my inner Klopp raging about the scheduling).  Real Madrid take full advantage of Barca’s tired legs.  Barca and Dazza have a mountain to climb to win the treble now.

After a well-deserved week off Dario scores goal 49 of the season, despite Bengt Andersson’s best efforts.  Fortunately the injury is only for a couple of weeks.

In Hubs absence, Brazilian Pedro Vagner gets the nod, Vagner’s got a bit of the Edmundos about him, he’s good but f-ing crazy.  He scores two as Barca beat Albacete 3-0.

It’s not looking good for the Champions League second leg against Chelsea. Captain Domi is injured, as are De la Pena, Dani and Dario.  JG Coly and Bobbie Scoria are suspended.  It’s a make shift 11 to say the least, young with a lot of potential, but maybe this is too much too soon.  Hubs promises everyone an evening in the smoking den if they get through, and it works.  Muisi Barnes is a top boy.

Unfortunately, the feat cannot be repeat two days later, two days!! WTF.  Muisi tries his best and for 16 minutes it looked possible.  Never mind, no treble, but the double is still on.

Dario’s 50^th has been a long time coming, but even an inspired Toni Prats can’t stop the Bison from hitting the half century again, it’s taken him 47 games this time around.

Having won 29 of the 32 league games played Barca are 21 points clear with six games left, so thanks to maths, the title is theirs once again.  Just the Champions League Final to concentrate on now.

With the pressure lifted Dazza gives up scoring for a bit.  Barca lose 1-2 to Bilbao and then beat Las Palmas, 2-0, Atletico 1-0 and Recreative 4-1.  Two weeks after winning the league and hitting the 50 mark, Hubs finally scores two against Oviedo, both goals coming in the same minute.

The final league match is at home to Levante, Barca finish the league campaign off in style.  I forgot a final league table shot, however the stats would read, Played 38, Won 34, Drawn 2, Lost 2, For 96, Against 18, Points 104.

So, what of the Champions League Final, Barca face Juventus, who knocked them out in the semi finals last season.  It’s a back and forth, ding dong of a match, 30 shots on goal in total, Juve 13 and Barca 17. 51:49 possession.  In the end though …

I remembered to get the team stats this year.  Joaquin Kaiku was immense, as were the usual suspects.

With Dario running out his contract, he is attracting interest in England and Italy, he calls Poppa Bison to talk it through, he knows what he wants to do.

As he leaves the Camp Nou for the last time as a Barca player, De La Pena throws him a paper, he is once again Spanish Football writers’ footballer of the year, still not sure what you need to do to be European Footballer of the Year.

Finally, the Excel spread sheet.

Where now for Dario?