The Rich Get Richer. Or, Learning from Past Mistakes.

Barcelona has signed David Villa from Valencia, which they should have done last year when they opted instead for Zlatan Ibrahimovich. Assuming the former lives up to expectations, a front line of Pedro, Messi, and Villa should be enough to compete with Real even if Messi somehow doesn't repeat his superhuman effort of this season.

Also, this writeup of Lio Messi on espn.com's cross-sport power rankings was an amusing reminder of just how unimportant soccer is to the American consciousness:

If you don't know his name, start getting to know it. Barcelona's brightest soccer star scored two goals in the Spanish league title game, giving him a total of 34 goals in La Liga and 47 in all competitions.

Elsewhere, he's been world-famous since 2006, and is probably the most celebrated athlete on the globe right about now. In the US: just try to learn his name.