My comments may be stupid..but it's also stupid not to notice that in the other 2 seasons(2009/2010&2011/2012) Barca had more games because of the supercups and the CWC and in the 2009 summer Spain had the Confederation Cup also. Puyol has problems with his knees and Xavi with his soleous muscle(in the last 2 years, not only now) and it became so bad that since December that I don't think he finished more then 2 games..but yes we should be happy because after the EC, Spain is going again in countries like Costa Rica or God knows where else only for the money-because for trying new players it's definitely not(remember what happend to Pique twice this season after he went with Spain? or to Xavi before the Spanish Supercup?). If Messi has lost a lot of weight after 2 games for the WC qualification, imagine what all this travelling is doing to Xavi and Puyol, who, by the way are not getting younger.
I would also like to remember you that since the EC 2008, Xavi is the european player with most games/year(66). But we're the ones overestimating the effect of tiredness and Xavi's physical problems, it seems.
I posted this in Xavi's thread some time ago, but I don't think that anybody read it(it's an interesting article about Spain&Barca, the link between the 2 and how this link has affected our players - for good or bad):
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/featur...-spanish-stars-at-risk-of-burning-out?cc=5739
