Arse-Barcelona Game Thread

[Soberphobia]

Anyone watching this? It's a great game - the Arse by no means disgraced. Really should be 3 - 2 on the day right now.

[RaoulDuke]

Messi is God. Wow

[Soberphobia]

4 goals on the day - but remember he is surrounded by AWESOME talent, which allows him to get 1 on 1 a lot of the time, and from there, its good night nurse.

[RaoulDuke]

Originally Posted by Black Death

4 goals on the day - but remember he is surrounded by AWESOME talent, which allows him to get 1 on 1 a lot of the time, and from there, its good night nurse.

Atheist

[Soberphobia]

Originally Posted by RaoulDuke

Atheist

[Soberphobia]

To be honest - the game dropped a bit in the 2nd half - Wenger changed his tactics (obviously had to) and had the Arse defending much higher up the pitch. Actually when Yaya Toure came on he started to give the ball away quite a bit (someone's picked him up already in the draft, haven't they?) and Barca lost their flow. Bad performance by Barca in the 2nd half, all things considered, and the Arse played a lot better than the scoreline suggests.

[RaoulDuke]

Wow, the press worldwide is gushing over last night. Here he got 10/10 grade.

He's scored 41 goals this year...in 49 games (all competitions)

[The Turk]

The 4th he scored last night was Maradonaesque...


His 17 best goals by El Mundo Deportivo:

http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/messiteca/index.html

[Soberphobia]

3rd hatrick in something like 20 days. Can play.

[The Turk]

Johan Cruyff's article:

http://www.totalbarca.com/2010/news/...of-the-season/


The part abaout the first leg in the emirates is very interesting.

Ball Control
Let’s talk about the game in London. Was it the best first half under Guardiola? The best first half ever? Comparisons are free but are always hated. They don’t fix the problems that you might have. And this dynamic, fast, aggressive, united Barca closes a lot of doors but there is still one left: the one that denies the possibility of a rival surprising you when you’re ahead on the scoreboard. How? The ball should move forward as much as possible and only back when absolutely necessary. It’s what I call defending while going forward. What does that get you? The ball is only lost in the other half of the pitch. That way you have half the team behind the ball. A lot of players to help you and a long way to go for the other team. To err with a horizontal pass, prohibited. But because errors are always possible, it can be a fatal one if it happens on your side of the pitch.
Football is everything but mathematics. In the Emirates you played very well during the first half, but you didn’t score a single goal. Something went wrong. And that is also part of the sport. You can play an amazing game but not score and therefore not win. You can have the best footballer in the world but it’s still a team sport. This is the foundation of a team. Besides that, one player can always have a better day than another. And when it turns out that everyone is playing their best you have a game like in London. A great performance even though the result doesn’t show it. The proof, 2-2.
A good result to take to the return leg but nothing definitive. And careful with thinking that their injuries (Cesc, Arshavin, Gallas) will make them worse. That’ll only happen if you play your best. Whoever plays for Arsenal, this team has a philosophy that goes beyond just the players. A style similar to that of Barca, but with a big difference: the blaugrana can and do apply pressure when not in possession of the ball. The objective is to steal it and the closer to the goal the better. The English don’t [do this]. And if they try it’s because they are losing the game. They gamble with a new strategy because they have nothing to lose.