Liga Liveblog: Zaragoza – Barça

Thank you to Ariston for volunteering to run the liveblog. Please be aware that it’s a new moderator, so be patient.

By Isaiah

Isaiah is a co-founder and lead writer for Barcelona Football Blog. He currently lives in the greater New York City area with his wife and daughter.

57 comments

  1. Visca ariston! I may or may not pop into the liveblog today.

    Official lineups from Roz via barcastuff:

    Valdes – Alves Pique Puyol Abidal – Iniesta Busquets Keita – Pedro Messi Villa

    3. Thanks. I’m gonna get one that is universal when I get to the States next year. Electronics are cheap over there.

  9. Thiago was a 7 today. Did nothing wrong. Created chances.
    Busi should’ve come off earlier for Smash. And Pep should’ve taken Alves out to protect him for Maxwell or Adriano. Thank God, Alves handled the pressure well.

  11. –On the plus side, we’ve got all of Villa’s former teams out of the way. I bet his next goal for us will be against EE–it just seems so fitting.

    –Messi: that’s why you’re my favourite player 😀

    –Messi-Thiago combo was nice to watch.

    –Dani; way to milk it. -.- Don’t like seeing that stuff–I had always disliked Dani when he played for Sevilla because of that stuff. We don’t need accumulation of bad karma

    That being said, it made the match easier and Ponzio was stupid for doing it–like Villa in Bilbao. At least we took advantage.

    –Copa match on Wednesday, Thiago’s first full game?

    1. Oh right..Copa time. Time for JDS, Thiago, Bojan, SMash, Adriano, Fontas..and the list goes on…

    2. He milked it, but that’s a red either way. Ponzio is an idiot for raising his hand to Dani’s head. I’m more mad at Dani for not passing to Bojan when he was W I D E open.

      Solid match from everyone, wish we scored a couple more, but 2 goals isn’t too bad.

      Interested to see our team for Wednesday. I’m certain Pinto, Thiago, Bojan, Adriano, and Jeffren will start, don’t know about the rest.

  12. Good game and new record (4 games, 4 gains) for away games. Villa, I mean how much bad luck can one person have? But phantastic work for Messis first goal. And my favourite Thiago was making good use of his first team minutes. All in all a game we had to win and did. Now hopefully some key players can be rested for the Copa match.

  13. If I look forward to the game against Sevilla next week I really ask myself how it can be possible that after it was clear that most of our players would have no / short pre season we have to play Atletico, Bilbao, Valencia and Sevilla in the first games and the EE only the weaker teams. I mean no conspiration or something like that but strange nevertheless.

  14. We are going to need to play that five in the back thing a ma jigger pep did last year against madrid, they have killer wings, 3-0 over racing in 25 min

  15. that.s why they spended 1billion in transfers and salaries.to win santander more easy!haha!

  16. Now that I watch a little more carefully, all they are is last years Inter, just poorer defensively and even more deadly on the counter. Their Defense plays really deep, we can own that shit.

    2. Can’t wait until his scoring dries up for a bit, and he goes back to getting pissy at teammates for scoring/not passing to him.

    3. the goals will come,the wins will come,the future is ours!visca barcaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa step by step we will reach the top another season!!

    4. But he has scored 3 penalties, in my personal goal scorer chart, I’ve always excluded penalties from the statistics.
      Anyway, better he scores 4 against Racing then in a CL knockout stage when the going might get tougher 😉

  19. Jesus. Some of the defending by Racing was just shambolic. Madrid played well, yes, and they are taking their chances a lot better than we are, but if teams defended like that against us we would get a hell of a lot more goals.

  20. Damn, I thought the game was tomorrow. I went to see the social network instead…nice movie!

  21. I wouldn’t take anything away from them. You don’t score a barrowload without playing well. They, at the moment, are looking dangerous. However, at its best our game beats their game so we need to concentrate on hitting our top form before the Clasico.

    At the moment we are a little away from it but there’s still time. For me, one of the plusses is a fit Iniesta. However, we need to be able to control the possession so come on, Pep, back to the midfield with him and get Xavi fit. After that it could well turn on whether Villa finds his scoring boots.

    2. Iniesta is not only fit, he is in incredible form! He just looks…confident in a way he hasn’t for the last year or so. Pep has already said he isn’t going to rest Iniesta unless he has to, because he is absolutely key right now. I think he is going to have a wonderful year.

  22. I think people forget that the likes of Marquez and Henry are big losses in terms of their experience. The leadership of the former I think is understated

  23. Imagine if we start a match with the following squad :

    Valdes
    Puyol-Pique-Milito-Abidal
    Busquet – sMasch
    Alves – Xavi – Keita
    Messi

    We can call them the ULTIMATE DESTROYERS !

    1. crikey…that would be a nightmare for anyone that attempted to be offensive but probably awful to watch, lol.

  24. You know what I loved most about the first goal? The fact that Messi and Villa hugged each other like long lost brothers (you’d be surprised how often that scenario is milked in movies here)..

    EE are scoring in bucket-loads, credit to them.. The ‘haven’t-met-a-decent-defense’ argument was applied to us a couple of seasons ago, and it doesn’t hold.. But hey, its too early in the season to start worrying.. In fact I won’t be worrying if we are firing on all cylinders till we meet them.. yeah, like Jim said..

  25. Mallorca just beat Valencia, in a very entertaining match that points out the quality differences. Like us, they had a tough Champions League match, and were feeling it. But we run out a desultory 2-0 win, while they absorb a 1-2 loss.

    De Guzman for Mallorca will NOT be in Mallorca colors next season. That dude is for real. I wouldn’t even think of it for us, because we’re stacked in midfield, but he’s got it all.

    1. He’s Canadian…born. But still!

      (I think he represents the Dutchies though. Don’t blame him in the least; go for gold, Johnny boy!)

  26. People need not worry. I watched the first 20 mins of the EE match. Racing was enjoying the possession and were playing very good. EE didn’t touch the ball that match. But in those 20 minutes, they beat the offside trap 3 times and scored 3 goals.

    1. The main thing I noticed about that match was the speed. EE were FAST. If we have possession that won’t be a problem, but our defense will have to be really on their toes because if we make a mistake and open up a space for them, they can outrun us. Puyol & Pique, anyway, maybe not Abidal.

    2. I think Pique should be OK. If I remember right, he was able to keep up with Ronaldo pretty well during last year’s clasico.

  27. Bartra, Fontas, Dos Santos, Thiago, and Nolito have been called up for the Copa game on Tuesday.

  28. Just ignore me, I’m trying to figure out formatting on an old post without bothering anyone.

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