El Classico

Third match in but tonight is good and spicey.

 

 

 

Bit disappointing, game has slowed down to a kicking match. 76% possession for Barca with not much attacking going on.

German ref has lost it.

Messi.

referee

fcuk Barça and fcuk the ref

Mourihno's anti-football strategy lost.

He is a cock and always has been.

No offense Eddie, but I'm so fed up with people mentioning "anti-football".

 

Most of the people all of a sudden turned into barça fanboys and anti-mourinho/madrid. Both teams are great, barcelona showed some great soccer during the past year(s) but they aren't all that. I really hoped Real would win this game and finished off barcelona for once, I hope they will next game.

 

Mourinho may be a scumbug, but Guardiola showed his true colours as well. And Mourinho applies strategies which are allowed, like he did in the 2nd classico this year, which ended in a tied game.

 

I don't care if people hate him because he ruins/ruined the game, but I'm sure he's one of few coaches who actually looked at the rules and applies them in a way that makes sense to him.

I am still undecided if that was a strong yellow or a straight red.

 

Mourinho plays more attacking football than people think or at least give him credit, for example first thing he did when arrived in the premiership was whenever his side conceded a corner he kept two attackers up the other end. that way they got the ball and passed to the defenders for a ultra quick counter. The result was that the attacking big defenders did not come up for the corners and Chelsea did not concede from set pieces.

He knew Barca were good and the first half his plan came good, Barca hit the wall the defending hounding wall, it is safe defensive football but not anti football.

The game needed something and after the half time scuffle someone was going to go.

The first goal should not have happened, the defender slipped and the ball went across.

 

Second goal was just magical despite defenders backing off him. Real did look flaccid up front though and I think Ronaldo has lost a shit load of fitness since moving to la liga.

 

Mourinho does make me laugh though, I bet he is great when he has the right wine in him.

 

 

 

 

Barça rules, they play soccer that's enjoyable to watch, they make it look easy

 

 

Barça rules, they play soccer that's enjoyable to watch, they make it look easy

 

 

Real never stood a chance, they had some opportunities but didn't take advantadge of them. Barca had possesion of the ball almost the entire game, complete passes was almost 500-150.

Pepe deserved the red card, that situation was dangerous and he wasn't aiming for the ball.

You can make all the excuses you want on Barcas goals (the defender slipped, they didn't go all in against Messi, bla bla bla) but the fact stands, they scored two goles and Real didn't score any.

Animation from a previous Classico

 

 

Barca are reportedly investigating if they can sue Jose whilst I think Jose is going to be out of a job in the next 9 months.

Interesting piece

 

 

Do More People See Through Barca Now?

 

have written often, perhaps too often, about my dislike of Barcelona and especially all her slavering non-Catalan acolytes. I hope, after Wednesday night's semi-final more people can understand why.

 

I know many of you think this is a football blasphemy and just outright ignorance - you don't need tell me again, I know, I really do, but this alternative view of how great Barce are needs saying.

 

Quite simply, for most of any game they play where they are well-matched, they are boring to watch. It's true. Yes they can cream up a poor side and score loads of goals but there's no joy in that. Watching a vastly superior side killing a bad one is poor sport and does not prove greatness.

 

Were it not for the flashes of utter brilliance from Leo Messi too many of their games melt your eyes in tedium. Yes, they can play sublime football - but more usually they don't. More often they fanny around a lot and wait for Messi to do something. He is astonishing, of course, but for f*cks sake...sitting there watching them pass it five times to go sideways by 10 foot is tedium which has somehow become transformed into the virtue of patience.

 

This doesn't mean I want them to play like Wimbledon on 1988, though it would be more fun if they did, but for Christ's sake, this is nothing to worship so slavishly.

 

Do their non-Catalan-based admirers not realise that they are chock full of players who are high on the must-punch-in-the-throat league, primarily Dani Alves and Sergio Busquets who are unparalleled in their cheating, whining, diving and feigning.

 

What they have done so successfully is exploit the outlawing of physicality in football. Ten years ago or more, a defender would give Dani f*cking Alves et al something to hold his f*cking leg about and by God he'd have bloody well deserved it.

 

Well fair enough, you do what you've got to do to win, I understand it from their point of view, but let's get off our knees and pretend it is somehow a higher art form than the game played by the other mere mortals on planet football.

 

In tight games they rely on cheating to help them win. Their games are disrupted by endless disputes, fouls, outrageous play-acting and generally unmanly behaviour. To pretend otherwise is delusion. Is this why you love them?

 

But as annoying as it is, I don't really mind that, I just mind the fact that this is overlooked in all the spittle flecked ranting over their supposed brilliance. And I loath the way that this type of football has been elevated to the status of being the greatest we've ever seen. It simply isn't. It does not regularly entertain except in flashes of stunning brilliance, usually from Messi.

 

As a neutral who wants to enjoy a game of football, almost every other side in the latter stages of the Champions League has been more entertaining more often and compared to the truly fantastic teams of the past, who played incisive, high-art football, they don't come near enough to deserve the acclaim they regularly get.

 

The Ajax side of the early 70s, The Inter team of the late 80s, the Manchester United side of the late 90s all properly stirred the blood; all of them were a wonderful mixture of high skill, tactical flexibility and tremendous physicality distributed throughout the side. None of them quite consciously, as a deliberate and pre-planned tactic, cheated on a regular basis - especially in big games - in order to win. Barcelona do. This disqualifies them from any tag of greatness and I won't be told otherwise. No matter how brilliant any of them are individually.

 

If that's the football you like, fair enough. But I can do without it and, though this is rarely reflected in the media, keen to make them all out to be Superheroes, I'm not alone.

 

 

 

 

 

Capt - who do you think are the worse offenders of diving, Barca or Real?

Capt - who do you think are the worse offenders of diving, Barca or Real?

 

 

Both the same if you ask me, but that goes for most of the continental teams.

When more of the south americans came to play in Europe the trend of conning the ref increased in my opinion.

Some of the eastern europeans took to feigning and diving very well not long after.

 

Unfortunately it is part of the game now.

 

Greame Souness would have fcuking buried Alves back in his Liverpool days, he is a little fcuking runt that needs to be taken down a few pegs.

Sorry E7ite, I have just seen your question, eddiemc2 has summed it up. European clubs are shocking for diving because of the football they play. Watching Champions league it is not so bad, but the other Euro cup is shocking. The premier league is extremely physical and has a high tempo so when English teams play the majority of European teams they go down like they were shot by a sniper in row Z because they are not use to the power and they need a rest.

The only league in Europe that has an element of physicality is the Dutch league hence Dutch players tend to do well in England.

 

 

Aren't you forgetting about Italy, Italy is and can be pretty tough. Soccer wise it's absolutely boring when most of the games end in 0-0 or 1-0.

Aren't you forgetting about Italy, Italy is and can be pretty tough. Soccer wise it's absolutely boring when most of the games end in 0-0 or 1-0.

They are master of the dive and as soon as one team scores they park the bus in front of goal.