FCBARCELONA.CAT

02.08.2009 19:51

Home grown goals

David Saura (enviat especial) / Jordi Clos

Barca have chalked up seven pre-season goals so far and all of them have one thing in common – they’ve all been scored by home grown players, Bojan, Pedro, Rueda and Jeffren.

The win against the Los Angeles Galaxy saw Pedro and Jeffren get their second goals of the pre-season, adding to their strikes against Al Ahly at Wembley. Bojan scored the first goal of the campaign against Tottenham and was again on target against the Egyptian champions, where Rueda also opened his account in the 1-4 win.

Praise all round

Following the Rose Bowl game, Pedro reflected on his great start to the pre-season: “I feel more or less the same as I did last season, the difference is that I’ve got the goals”. As to the rest of the youngsters who have impressed so far, Dani Alves explained: “they have a lot of quality and every year there are always youngsters coming through to the first team”. Xavi agreed, adding: “the home grown players have shown that when they are given the opportunity, they can take it”.

Naturally enough, Pep Guardiola is also well pleased with the youngsters and takes every chance to praise them. After the LA game he was particularly happy with Bojan, declaring: “he does some great diagonal runs and if the ball comes to him in the box it’s half a goal”.