Champions League Final

First of all, if the football we played in the Copa was some of the best football that the Arg NT has ever played, then quite frankly i must have been watching a different Copa! The best football that the Arg NT has ever played was at the WC2006. Everything was perfect until the substitutions in the quarterfinals lost us the game.
With regards to Arsenal, the reason that they haven’t done as well as they should has more to do with the fact that most of their players are young and still developing, not with the style of football that they play.
If, Brazil’s new style is so successful could you just explain to me how they manage to lose to France, Portugal etc…
The reasons we lose to Brazil have more to do with wrong players, wrong tactics and wrong formation.

And just to clarify, Essien is not a man marker had he been, Ronaldo would have done nothing, just like against Barca, where Zambrotta marked him out of the game.
Messi didn’t play in the Champions League final because he got injured in the semi, but up til the semi he was an integral part of the team, and to say that he was not part of the team that won the CL is complete and utter rubbish.

Yes, we have ” wrong players, wrong tactics and wrong formation”
and we are losers! When will we be winners?

Arsene Wenger could have bought some world class players!
He is such a loser (even with innovating football) that
even his own player is deserting him. Hleb is the latest example to defect!

The bottom line is you must WIN or else! there is no two ways
about it!

Cheers to you all.
KEN

Posted from  United States

There is a difference between getting injured and injury prone.
Unfortunately the latter applies more to Messi!
That has nothing to with his talent though. Everyone
knows he is truly gifted. Remember the his Maradona
style goal against Getafe. Unfortunatly, it is not
enough. You must succeed at championship local
level and CL level.

Posted from  United States

You need to have patience.

And he hasn’t?
He’s won the CL wth Barca and the Spanish League.

A little extra flame for the upcoming Boca - Fluminense storyline is that Riquelme was rumored to go to Fluminense at the end of last year. When he was asked about the possible move, he responded:
- Fluminense? Que Fluminense?

Haha. This quote left the “tricolores” pissed off. I expect Roman to get major heat from their fans in Rio.

Posted from  Belgium

I didn’t see the game on the schedule tomorrow on the tv. I have Fox Sports Espanol, Goltv, and TYC and none of them have it on their schedule. Anybody have any info? or will I just be catching this one online as well. Thanks!

Posted from  United States

Wow the starters for tomorrow’s game vs Catalunya are as follows:
Ustari; Zabaleta, Fazio, Insúa, Ansaldi; Gago, Banega; Messi, Higuain; Agüero y Lavezzi

Very offensive team

Posted from  United States

wow i really like the starting line up its quite offensive. but i don’t know what kind of formation these players will make. you got 4 forwards and 2 midfielders. maybe messi and lavezzi will drop to the midfield and take turns operating on each flank. should be fun to watch though.

Its going to be a 4-2-2-2 formation

Ustari
Zabaleta—Fazio—Insúa—Ansaldi
———-Gago—-Banega———–
–Messi——————-Higuain–
——–Agüero—-Lavezzi———–

Posted from  United States

On the above formation,
Nicolás Pareja (Anderlecht) might play for Insúa, and Insúa for Ansaldi.
4-2-4 (because Román is not with the team yet).
Messi, Higuaín, Lavezzi and Agüero might all rotate and exchange positions.

Posted from  United States

Only a few hours to go, the wait is killing me.

Christian, do you have to become a member to watch the match on the link you provided?

i saw the replay last night about the alleged spitting on tevez by terry. and i for one am not convinced at all. i saw terry put his shirt over his mouth twice then tevez felt the back of his neck with his hand. if terry did spit it had to be very minimal and very hard to see. as well this happened after the melee even started.

I’m not in the US, I’m in the UK.

Thanx.

for those not able to watch, we just put together a 30+ passing string before losing the ball out of bounds.. what a joy to watch us.. Messi playing more on the left today.

Catalonia just carved our D up on back to back attacks. should have scored on the first chance they had… Insua not playing well so far.

El Kun (whose captain today) missed a great chance inside the box after interplay between Zabaleta and Messi (now playin on the right) who set up El Kun for the strike which he roofed into the stands…

0-0 at the half.. Arg really turned on the screws in the last few minutes of the half with Lavezzi and Aguero having good chances and Messi being brilliantly saved by Valdes…

btw, been impressed with Zablaleta. he’s played well, not sure if he is the guy who will replace Zanetti, but he’s shown nice offensive flair while holding his own defensively. also, Banega and Gago have played well in front of the D.

and is it just me or does Ansaldi look exactly like Colocinni? man, both got the crazy side show Bob haircut going on…

1-0 for Arg.. what a strange game this.. Catalonia had about 4-5 chances to start the half and how did they not score, I dunno.. then we did what we do best. Just string pass after pass after pass, but sadly to no effect. It was a carbon copy of Man U - Barca contest. But then we started to produce some chances that we just couldn’t finish some of which Aguero had.

And it brings me to my point about el Kun. Admittedly, this is the first time I’ve seen him play all year (except for highlights) but I can’t understand how you all see him as our number 9. To me, he’s no different than Tevez, both are ‘in the hole’ strikers but El Kun does play much better alongside Messi than Tevez. To me, both are not number 9s. They aren’t lethal enough to finish their chances and aren’t genuine poachers in the class of Batistuta / Crespo. We need that target man upfront and play like Pekerman did with Crespo upfront and Saviola in the hole behind (which I think Aguero would do really well in).

The game changed when Di Maria came on for Higuain and provided us with width up front. Arg should have had a penalty awarded when Aguero was taken down in the box after a Man U like counter attack. We produced another swift counter attack with Aguero going wide into the box, squaring it for Bigglia who faked his shot and passed it back to Lavezzi in the middle to push into the wide open cage.

Said this before, but I really like Fazio. Tall and a lot of ball skills for a man of his height. We need to incorporate him more in set pieces but I really like this guy.