National team, Champions league, friendlies, bring it on!

Christian — its not “English Football”. It’s 4 teams that happen to be in England because of TV revenue and Tax breaks. There were more Spaniards playing for Liverpool than playing for Real Madrid when Liverpool beat them so badly.

This England v Spain argument is bullshit. We know why these teams are so good. Chelsea is good because of their AFRICAN players, Liverpool are good because of their SPANISH players. Arsenal are good because of their FRENCH players. barca are good because of their SOUTH AMERICAN players.

4 teams in the prem are separate entities from their league. They do not represent the premier league. But the assfaces all over the net have been clowning around that barca would not make it past a premier league team, and now that they have, all they can do is bitch and moan about perceived injustices. They are wankers and twats, and they don’t even get that these teams that they are following have little to do with thier own counries.

You know what the prem would be without their foreigners? The Championship. You know what La Liga would be without their foreigners –their south americans? — the Segunda.

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I personally think they need to get better refereeing standards, do away with the away goals rule for the semi-finals at least, and fix the way cards affect suspensions. I think suspensions affect the games way too much, and accumulated yellows are often an unfair blow to a team witht he way refereeing goes. It’s one thing to suspend someone for a nasty foul or fight or whatever, it’s another to suspend them for getting 2 yellows in the span of 4 games.

I’ll make one comment and stop because the English hypocrisy gets my blood boiling. Stop criticizing Messi. He was man marked by 3 players at a time. Even his final pass to Iniesta was under pressure from 3 players. The stupid English press keeps comparing Ronaldo’s performance against Arsenal Vs Messi’s against Chelsea. Completely unrelated, and if people can’t understand the difference, this is a sport you shouldn’t be following.

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by the way — AlBO?

Lovely post.

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john — i’ve been trying to figure out for some time whether you are mental retarded or mentally disturbed. I’m going with disturbed.

I can’t back track. My team won.

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Alexa love that line – “You know what the prem would be without their foreigners? The Championship” But I’d have to disagree about analogy in regards to the La Liga. Its more a balance than anything else.

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aj– You’re probably right — but La Liga really does rely on tons of South Americans. That’s why i got hooked on La Liga, because of all the Arg and Brazilians that play there. But Spaniards are really great players.

And Barcelona have an amazing youth system.

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Ronaldo got a free kick that should have been blocked by a sleeping keeper and an easy goal worked by Park and Rooney. People who focus on scoresheets are retards.

The only time Ronaldo consistently (throughout a match) faces multiple defenders is when he plays for his NT – and we all see how well that is going.

Wow,

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When a good team are playing well they’re a pleasure to watch.
When a good team play poorly, they still get the w.
I learnt that by watching Boca for many years.

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What’s the “w”? No entiendo…

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the w letter means the win

LOL, at least here in California.

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Was that Wow to me?

Chritian:
I agree 100% with all you are saying, really. I just had to try to be a bit positive after a result finally went my way in a REALLY big game. I just let myself lose the common sense and speak with my heart for a while beacause it felt so good to get this result. That’s why I said “football won”….I know you are completely right in everything you say about Barca in the semi finals. But football is not all about staying sane, it is emotions and feelings aswell…that’s why I also can say:
Debasish: I also agree 100% with what you say in both point 1 and 2 of your post. This is how I have been feeling aswell…and I am so fuckin’ sick of it. It almost kills my passion for football, at least it almost kills my hope and my belief in positive attacking football ala Argentina, Spain and Barca. AMEN, brother!

Argentuban, nope, the “Wow” was for another post, that was so sickening, it only lasted a minute or two on the thread.
Thanks to Christian who keeps this place decent.

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Every time Dani Alves is to take a free kick these days, I have the feeling that he will miss and shoot over the bar….if he played against Argentina and were to take a free kick I would have the feeling that he would score, and he probably would. Seriously, his free kicks and crosses yesterday was just utter shit. Terrible. What has happened?

Alexa:
You are right when you say that it’s only the top 4 in EPL that are better than the top teams in the other legues. Apart from the top teams in all the best legues in Europe, the quality is very even I think. Both spanish, english and italian clubs failed in the UEFA cup this year. So I believe that, apart from the top clubs in the legues, the teams from La Liga, Premier Legue and Serie A are at the same level.

Dani Alves is like the Roberto Carlos of free kicks. Hit them as hard as possible and hope it somehow nestles in the back of the net. There’s no method.

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Talking about free kicks, from Clarín/Olé:

9.15 meters (10 yards). That’s what the rule says is the distance from the ball to the closest opponent during a free kick.
In Argentina (and many other places) the defenders don’t respect this distance and move up a step or two, sometimes even more.

About two years ago an Argy guy invented a white spray for the referee to mark the 9.15 meters on the pitch. A white line that makes it easy, even when seen on TV, to show if any player is “stealing” a couple of feet of distance.
Of course it’s made of a non-toxic substance and it disappears in a couple of minutes or so.
The inventor, Pablo Silva, showed it to Grondona who happened to like the idea, so it went all the way up to FIFA.
They liked it too, and now it’s being tested in Argentina and Brazil.

It’s interesting to note that stats on free kicks in Argentina are changing dramatically this year.
There have been 19 goals from free kicks already, in 13 weeks of Clausura ‘09.
Before the spray, the last three years there was an average of 10 goals from free kicks in 19 weeks of football.
Amazing.
This makes a difference in favor of good short distance kickers, like Beckham, Pirlo, Riquelme etc. who can curl the ball around the wall.
It definitely made the difference last Sunday for Gallardo (River).

Racing Club’s great kicker Franco Sosa explains:
“It makes a big difference because, at the right distance, I can give the ball enough top-spin to elevate over the 3rd and 4th defender and then come down either towards the 1st or the 2nd post.”

The spin on these types of kick is actually diagonal and its angle varies depending on where is the kicker aiming.
Anyway, referees say that although it means carrying more paraphernalia on the pitch, it does help by making defenders keep their distance and as a consequence it seems to be helping talented kickers get rewarded for their ability.
It might soon become a part of football all around the world.
Saludos

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Hola everybody. I have been lurking for quite some time and have been reading what everyone is saying. No question this was an emotional game and the aftermath is even worse.

First let me say “Che, Drogba, anda cantarle a Gardel!”.

To me, this whole Barca v EPL thing is simply a matchup problem. In every sport, there are numerous examples of awesome teams being beaten in the playoffs by lesser teams because of the matchup problems, ie. they may do some thing better than other teams which are effective against the greater team. Same thing here. Just a matchup problem. But let there be no doubt who the best team is — Barca (por si no esta clarisimo).

I am really tired of the Messi/Ronaldo comparisons. Both wonderful players — and different. But I have seen Ronaldo’s goal vs. Arsenal compared to Messi’s goal vs. France. The only similarity is that both were on a counter attack. “What a great back heel and strike by Ronaldo”. NO DEFENDER WITHIN 10 feet of Him on the back heel and a desperate defender on the strike! Messi’s goal was between 3 defenders and the keeper. No comparison–Messi wins on that count.

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great posts, everyone.
every team needs a bit of luck and hopefully on the 27th May, Barca will have more luck.
the epl has 4 teams, every year u can predict who the top 4 will be
the same can’t be said of la liga. u can only predict that barca and real will be in the top 4 because they have the biggest squads and the most money. The other 2 could be any of a number of clubs.

Gabi — great post. Very well put.

I’ll try to be less belligerant, guys. I’ve been red hot for the past couple days with all this soccer controversy. You can take the girl out of south america, but you can’t take south america out of the girl

although i am not a barca fan mainly because i favor madrid. i realy hope the beat united this final. through out the years i have always respected man u, i dislike them but still respect them. they were a team about all out attack and a one or two goal lead was never safe against them. now for the past two years that has completely changed. now don’t get me wrong its i like great defence.imagine being a man u fan watching the second half of their game against porto. a team of this caliber which spends this amount of money should be able to produce a better attack than what i have seen. even there forwards are similar to defenders. just look at rooney you would have honestly think he is a # 5. if barca wins it would be not just a victory to barca but as well as spain and true attacking football.

Argentina coach Diego Maradona will not select Real Madrid’s Gonzalo Higuain for the next round of World Cup qualifiers.

Maradona told TyC Sports television that there might be a shock call-up in his next squad, but denied that striker Higuain will be it.

“There could be a surprise,” he said. “We are talking about a surprise from the midfield to the attack. However, it is not Higuain’s moment.

“I have Licha (Lisandro Lopez), (Diego) Milito, (Carlos) Tevez, (Lionel) Messi and (Sergio) Aguero. That is enough for me.”

The 1986 World Cup winner also expressed concern about Lazio goalkeeper Juan Pablo Carrizo’s inactivity.

“I am worried because Carrizo does not play. When he comes we will talk about it. A keeper who does not play for so long loses shape,” he said.

excellent.. How on current form does Higuain not rate higher than Tevez and El Kun, I don’t know. He really should get a look in… and that surprise he is referring to, watch it be Roman.

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I take Higuaiin over Lisandro any day? I do agree though that it is about time for Maradona to call up the same 18 to 22 players every time. World CUp is one year away.

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