FC Barcelona's stars shine in International friendlies.


Ronaldinho deliverd an inpirational performance against Algeria to mark his return to the Brazilian national team after taking a break from the Copa America championship. The Barca dynamo scored one and set up another in the 2-0 victory over Algeria in Montpellier, France. Ronnie delivered a perfect corner that was headed in by full back, Maicon just after the hour mark, and the Brazilian rounded up a brilliant performance by slotting in an 81st minute goal from a narrow angle. Both Ronaldinho and AC Milan superstar, Kaka started the match on the bench as they were both told by coach Dunga they would have to win their places back after choosing to miss out of the Copa America due to fatigue.


French goal king, Thierry Henry shot France to victory with a lone strike against Slovakia. The FC Barcelona big summer signing did not let his fans down after his great goal underlined his full return to active soccer having been injured for a long time during his latter days at Arsenal FC. Thierry is expected to continue his scoring prowess against Racing Santander in Barcelona's La Liga opener on Sunday.


The Spanish national team also rose to a 3-2 win over hard-fighting Greece in Toumba stadium in Thessaloniki, Greece in a stadium notorious for its bad pitch. Spain had to come from behind twice through Carlos Marchena and David Silva, who struck twice to secure victory for Spain. In his post-match comments, Spains coach, Luis Aragones, said:

I have to credit my team for the extraordinary result on this pitch, particularly because Greece are a good team.The pitch was horrible. This was a pitch on which it was virtually impossible to play good football. Inspite of that all of us put great effort, and the attitude of the Spanish as well as the Greek players has been extraordinary. In addition, we were fortunate enough to not pick up any injuries. The goals we conceded were as a result of defensive errors. However, we picked ourselves up and responded well against a very difficult team.

Spain did not fall like two other European soccer giants, England and Italy, who fell against expectation. England were humbled 2-1 infront of their home fans in the 90,000 seater New Wembley stadium after having gone ahead through Frank Lampard. David Beckham failed to impress. World Champions Italy fell 3-1 to Hungary after also going ahead through Antonio Di Natalea. A third Euro giant, Holland, lost 2-1 against Switzerland, while Cameroon lost 2-0 to Japan in far away Asia, in a match FC Barcelona star striker Samuel Eto'o preferred to stay out of in order to focus on the La Liga opener against Santander. Argentina fell 2-1 in Oslo against Finland, with the two goals coming from tall Finland striker, John Carew. Argentina's consolatory goal through Maximiliano Rodriguez in the 84th minute.