The Stars and Stripes vs the Albicelestes. Messi~!! Euler and SoMa4 are also in attendance
Yet Another International LiveBlog
157 Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Tw Thiago: “Don’t let this stop, don’t let this stop! A new victory of the team. 2-0 against Alcorcon!”
Seriously… this is inacceptable. If Argentina ever had a truly great coach such as Guus Hiddink they would have won a major trophy in the last years. But there’s always a fight between Maradona, Grondona, the coaches, the executives of the AFA or whatever – it’s disgusting!
As long as the whole AFA doesn’t change, Argentina will rob itself of all opportunities to win a major trohpy :/
At the beginngin I set quite a lot of hope into Bolatti, but now I’ve lost all my belief in him. He did not even substitute Pastore in this friendly, not to speak about the absolut stupid non-call-up of Carlitos Tevez!!! It’s already written in the stars, he’s just another coach that betrays Argentina of a title by pure stupidity. It doesn’t even make sense to cheer for Argentina anymore, they are screwed!!!
Why, oh why Messi, didn’t you choose to play for Spain, you would already be recognized as the world’s best player right now… And Spain would win 2 consecutive World Cups and European Cusps, of that I’m sure!
Um. You mean Batista?
Yes, I meant Batista.
It was late yesterday and I was a little bit drunk…
Ahhh, Helge. You’re such an emotional person 😀
I think Pastore will play the Costa Rica friendly from the start; that’s probably why he didn’t play. As for Tevez, he apparently threw a next level tantrum because he didn’t start against Brazil or something like that. So he was dropped.
Batista’s doing wonders for Argentina, and if Di Maria wasn’t so useless and they finished their chances, it’d have been over at HT. The point is that they play good football—it’s based on us, so it has to be good 😉 — and I think Argentina gave a very good account for themselves.
Their defense needs work, but what else is new? I like the direction they’re going right now. Baby steps and all that. (Although with the Copa America at home in the summer…Well, let’s hope their defense improves a bunch).
On a different note, what a game, eh? Fans definitely got their money’s worth!
Maybe I was too emotional yesterday night 🙂
Their passing was lovely today. I only saw the second half. Their defense is atrocious though. Tissue-paper defense. They have some good young centre-backs though don’t they? Mussachio in Villareal, Garay from Madrid, Otamendi from Porto?
Di Maria was very good for Argentina in the Olympics and the few qualifying matches I did see, him and Messi ran the show. But the World Cup on he hasn’t been that impressive for me.
If they’re gonna imitate our system they need a DM, a passer, and a floating AM. They have Mascherano, Banega and Pastore, all of whom are still young enough to be at their peaks or near so at 2014. Then three up front with Messi as a false 9. They have Aguero, Higuain, Lavezzi, Tevez, Di Maria, and many other fantastic forwards.
I’m pretty sure Batista is going to play that Mascherano, Pastore and Banega as his main midfield, actually. Within a year or two’s time, at least.
I hear rumors that the upcoming Argentina friendly will feature mostly an entirely different 11, so maybe that’s why we didn’t see much of a lineup change.
I wouldn’t write off Batista just yet: he’s got the right idea with building a team around Messi and emulating Barcelona’s playing style. Not to mention, the US beat Spain in the Confederations Cup, and look what happened after that for Spain? 🙂 Coaches learn more from losses/draws than wins, so hopefully he works on defending set pieces and better finishing (hmmm, this sounds awfully similar to another team…)
Just find out Eduardo Alvarez on Soccernet is a socio of Madrid (where have I been?). Boooooo.
Phil Ball is one as well, even though he supports Sociedad.
He denies being one, though. I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, though I’ll always remain suspicious.
barcastuff swears La Liga Loca and Sid Lowe are Madridistas too. There are times when I think that as well, especially since they are on that Real Madrid wrap up show, Extra Time, every week, but I’m sure people think they are cules at times too.
I should say Tim Stannard instead of La Liga Loca.
Pfft. How could anyone think Tim Stannard supports Madrid? He is awfully hard on them.
Believe it or not, there is a huge number of Madradistas, including myself, that have opposed the direction that the team is going. Why is that?
Well, because unlike common belief, this is not the way the club has been running all its life. Presidents like Calderon, despite their utter mismanagement, tried to get the real Madrid ideology back. Lets not forget, Capello was fired because he couldn’t provide the good direct football the fans wanted.
So fans like me and the above people start getting pissed with the direction the club has been taking. And you are hardest on those you love most. And i can’t believe anyone would not love Real Madrid…… yuppp, can’t think of anyone 😉
stannard lives in madrid. i remember somebody pressing him on the issue once and him admitting that he has a soft spot for getafe. i always had him as an atleti fan. he’s gotta bring back those maniche jokes.
great avatar, blitzen.
Hey Bassam, it is good to hear that so many madridistas are opposed to the way the club is being run for the last decade or so. Because, to be honest, when I started following futbol in the last ten years, I couldn’t see at the time how anyone would become a RM fan, with the way the club conducts itself. My first impression of that institution was akin to the NY Yankees, if you will bare the baseball analogy. People who had nothing to do with New York would become Yankees fans because they won… not only that, but they have an nigh insurmountable history of trophies, a fact that these fans like to fall back on despite them not being alive for most of them.
And yet nowadays they win not because they produce great players, but because they had the bank account to buy all the best players. That sort of victory has always felt empty to me.
Now there’s nothing wrong for liking a team because they win (after all, Barca has been fortunate to gain many fans the last two years because they have won so many trophies), but to me supporting a team should be more than that. Something about it needs to speak to you on a personal level, be it its locality, its institutional history, or what you feel they represent. And I’ve seen no good reason over the last ten years that someone would become a RM fan for anything but the fact that they win and that they’ve won a lot.
This is just my opinion of course, and I’d like to hear your take. Just know that I don’t mean this to be mean or anything, it’s just my take from even before I became a cule. Cheers 😛
Couldn’t agree more with you Jose. All that you describe made it impossible for me to feel anything but resent for r. madrid even though I didn’t support Barca at the time…
Not to mention referee decisions such as those below…all in important matches
Especially the the first one is a huge black spot on raul’s career
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ld-82xWh37I
http://www.goal4replay.net/VideoWatchF.asp?Ln=Gr&ID=2517
hi all! it’s been a long time. just read the bojan article and I think vicsoc is on point. I’ll add bojangles can’t get worse 🙂 he has to go up from now on!
EE I wanna talk EE 🙂
Bassam, I don’t see any change of direction in EE honestly. I’ll soften my speech since you’re such a cool vikingo. Do you mean only in the pitch ’cause he kicked capello out? Everyone wanted capello out IMO. Calderon was probably the worst president ever for EE. He signed mijatovic as sports manager, signed capello as a coach and many many players just for their big names like all madrid presis do. kaka robben gago metzelder pepe EMERSON DIARRA… he did sign marcelo and el pipita ok signings all right… foreign big names foreign big coach that means foreign style, always the same. Besides Calderon had that episode in which he hired ultras to ruin the democratric vote of the socio assembly. Can that even be called a president? Don’t know who is worse him or floren 😉 I don’t see any change of direction anywhere, they have always done the same buy well known players some weird coach and talk about the future or the history never the present time or their present game. But still if at any time we don’t stay as fit as we are now, they will win all ligas that’s how big they are, really really big. They’re always there, waiting for us to go down that is why they talk so much about the change of cycle, referees, calendar, dopping and all… they need for us to go down they will never ever reach our current-late level (cruiff rijkaard pep don’t care). Last two ligas they won was because we lowered our level (bad ronni and deco years, calderon-capello-schuster years). Next year EE they will have 5 or 6 top signings if they don’t win anything this year, and if they do, still 2 or 3 at least. It’s been some decades already since we have been playing the game like we love it and they like they own it. Call me crazy or fanatic I don’t care much.
I don’t see how anyone cannot dislike EE 🙂
UEFA.com piece on Thiago: http://bit.ly/hXFmT9
@outer:
Are you still in KL or did you went back to Maldives?
Did Thiago had a stunning match last night?
How about Messi?
Thiago and Messi were both excellent.
Unfortunately I could not hold out to watch the match (here it was after midnight), so could somebody could please provide a short sum up how our very own Pulga did play and lead the team?
Messi was the best player on the pitch by miles. Lots of one-twos, some great passing, great dribbling…. the usual. He played a big part in Cambiasso’s goal and probably would’ve scored one in the 2nd were it not for Tim Howard.
Barcastuff: Rosell (president): “It’s impossible we’d pay 50M for Cesc. Last year we offered 40M and every year that goes by, the price drops.” [sport]
Good to hear that, even if It’s the ever reliable Sport.
@jose,
at the start of the decade,madrid though erratic did produce some fabulous football.people at that time choose madrid cause of their stunning performance(though not week in,week out)and their galacticos.
Thanks hammer. I only saw the tail-end of the galacticos, not them at their apex, unfortunately.
To everyone not living in Central Europe:
Time changed today in Europe. It’s one hour ahead. Like instead of 12:00 it’s 13:00.
Cool. Why can’t the US and Europe agree on a single weekend to do this?
I almost did not make it to work today! woke up with no time and could take no shower lol … can’t wait to get home 🙁
Ozil and Khedira will not play the second game of Germany because Lowe (germany’s head coach) decided they should rest after the game with Kazakstan so they are returning to madrid!
Marcelo is not going to play with Brazil either cause he hurt his back in training although the brazil medics say he is O.K….
How many friends to these people have?!
Ade at the Spain World Cup Blog, said that there were rumours that Del Bosque wouldn’t play players from Barcelona, RM or Villareal for their away game to Lithuania.
I mean on one had that is actually impossible, because there are only eight players in the Spain squad not on those teams. But I would be very happy to see Villa, Iniesta and Pique rested. (Xavi can’t play against Villareal anyway).
Rosell (president): “Barça should also become a selling club. We can’t continue to loan out or let go players for free.” [sport]
I hope he means that players like Henry don’t go for free and not my deepest darkest fears..
via Pep @ barcastuff as always..
What fears are these, VJ ?
Probably a fear of Rosell selling some of our better/more promising players?
I’m not sure he deserves some of the ill feeling as regards transfers. He has said we won’t pay 50m for Cesc which was my biggest worry. Some of the promising youngsters are going to have to go. There is a blockage caused by having world class players in most positions. They can’t hang around our second team for ever.
Yeah, I just hope we include buy back clauses in some of our deals.
Just watching Brazil get a lesson in the art of hanging on for dear life from Scotland. You have to say Neymar looks good – in fact he has just scored. Mind you he’ll have to lose the hair if he’s coming to us. I’ve also been impressed by the number nine although i don’t know him. Big but quite skilful and fits into a quick passing game. Hmmm…..
Neymar has been pretty good so far. Nice goal too.
i came on here to get precisely this, a recap of the the game. thanks! i turned on the tv just as nilmar scored- it’s 6:45am here. what a great goal.
You watching a Villarreal match? 😛
Dani has made some nice passes too and definitely should have pulled the trigger after he was put through by Jadson.
LOL! I always get those two names mixed up too. 🙂
i just woke up. give me a break. 🙂 dani’s playing? i’m gonna go wash ma face. who’s this #9 debuting for brazil?
ATDHE had the time wrong, I missed the first half!
Is this a friendly or a qualifier?
Friendly.
The no.9 is Leandro Damiao. Anyone heard of him? Looks good to me.
Nope. He’s looked okay to me, besides the header, I haven’t really seen too much. Maybe I should pay more attention to his movement.
Just 21 and first full start? Plays in Brazil.
Why do players love to ruin celebrations? If the goalscorer wants to dance, let him dance. I hate that. The hug can wait a few seconds.
Yeah thats so annoying.
sometimes it’s really hard not to hug.
only if a partner does la cucaracha a la ronaldo (the real ronaldo) I’d lay down to his side and put my arms and legs up 🙂
I like this Scottish commentator. They should use him more often. We had him over here in Canada for the World Cup coverage.
At the moment everything is going through Neymar. I get the feeling that Damiao is the sort who finishes the loose ball sort of moves. Just watched a YouTube vid and he does have an eye for a goal. Wouldn’t be playing up front if they didn’t rate him. However, you’re right in that for us he’d have three or four players around him and that’s a different story. He’s certainly strong, pretty quick and Brazilian. What more does he need 🙂
How did they not score there???
On his day McGregor can be one of the top keepers in the world imo. He read that happening.
How well are Brazil pressing. We’ve taught the world a lesson I think.
barca’s definitely brought it back in style. pressing is the new black.
http://www.goal.com/en/match/58823/brazil-vs-scotland/lineup-stats
who’s jadson? how’s dani been doing?
Jadson is the midfielder on Shaktar.
Dani’s been pretty good.
nice pass, dani! renovado, ya renovado.
Jim, aren’t you Scottish? You must’ve thought about going to the game, no?
Which reminds me. Why is the English NT now wearing the Scottish colours?
Thought about it but couldn’t find any cheap accommodation in London. Game’s being played there not in Scotland.
Oh, I thought you lived in London.
?
?
Sorry, Blitzen. didn’t understand your comment.
The new England kits are blue & white. Surely they should be red & white? or red, white, and blue?
I didn’t notice that. Couldn’t watch it as Wales were so poor.
Yeah, I only watched the first half. Wales were terrible.
Our second corner. They’ve had it now . . .
how did that become a good idea, neymar’s hair? a permed mohawk?
jadson off for lucas! i wish i had gotten to see more of the dude from shakhtar, though.
He looks like he has a squirrel strapped to his head. Beautiful boy, though.
I haven’t actually been that impressed by Brazil’s midfield, Miguel. Mind you second half Scotland have tried harder to close them down more quickly.
i’ve liked what i’ve seen from ramires. neymar really sold that challenge. it was a good call, though.
Cue the Neymar to Barça rumors again in Sport and MD.
Cue also the Britpress whining about the penalty call and “Howard Webb is the worst ref EVAH!”.
How bad is his attitude, Jnice?
didn’t he throw a temper tantrum after not getting to kick a penalty? didn’t he get his manager fired over it?
He did, yes. He tearfully apologized in the press, but the Brazil NT coach refused to call him up for their next game to teach him a lesson. Maybe it worked, dunno.
His attitude can be pretty poor at times. He dives a lot, and when he doesn’t get the calls, he tends to lash out and risk getting sent off. Tim Vickery talks about this all the time.
Also, like Miguel said, he basically got his manager fired after the penalty incident.
You can see it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BxDV5LWLgUQ
Yeah, if you think Dani Alves is a diver, he has nothing on this kid!
i blame neymar’s bad attitude on robinho & their time together at santos. & i blame robinho’s bad attitude on ronaldo & their time at real madrid. 🙂
i could see mourinho picking up neymar.
Not sure if Madrid would want to pick up Neymar after the whole Robinho experiment ended badly. They don’t really have space for him either, I don’t think. But who knows?
Neymar stops to wet down his ‘hawk. LOL.
US v. Messi, aka Escape from East Rutherford, NJ
Here’s my post-game take on the friendly.
1. Messi is made of awesome. Lots of awesome!
2. US can be dangerous on set pieces and counters.
3. Batista seriously ticked me off by not using more subs, namely Pastore! Bradley ticked me off by not using more subs. It’s a friendly, dudes!
4. The mostest awesomest player in the whole world is Messi.
5. Argentinian fans KNOW how to tailgate!
6. Without Tim Howard the score would have been worse for the US.
7. Something was wrong with the pitch. The ball didn’t move well.
8. US needs to beef up their defense. In a serious way!
9. If Messi had more weapons at his disposal (Teves, El Kun, or the injured Higuain and Milto) the score would have been scary. DiMaria disapointed me but then again I’m pretty biased about him.
10. Milito didn’t look too bad. sMasche was good but seemed to go down to easily (hafta watch the replays)?
11. Do we really appreciate how lucky we are to be able to watch Messi and his awesomeness every week?
12. The 1-1 score should have satisfied me as a US fan. I’m surprised that I have this emotional need for Messi to win. What’s up with that?
13. US fans sang our anthem louder than the Argentine fans!
14. The awesomeness of Messi cannot be overstated!
15. There are more pleasant things in life than the egress from the Meadowlands. Among these are things like sitting for standardized tests and having a root canal.
16. Messi shaved, thank goodness!
17. Oh, and that short kid named Leo isn’t half bad.
😀
So this Messi guy is pretty good, then?
He aint no Bojan, but he’ll do.
Oh, and I almost died when Messi went down after the head thing.
yay! glad you had fun. i saw you in the stands, soma4. 🙂
you get an appreciation for all the stuff messi does without the ball when you see him live. it’s just insane.
Oh, you saw the tall,thin, stunningly gorgeous blonde in the club seats.
of course! 🙂 cute top.
Haha nice take from the match.
Did you go with the whole family? Husband and kids?
Or was it a girls night out?
Date night w. hubby! Everything was wonderful except for getting out of the parking lot.
Oh was that why you said Argentines like to tail gate? Haha.
I thought tail gating was only when you’re on the speedway. Not in the parking lot.
Tailgaiting is partying in the parking lot before the game. It involves serious grilling (BBQing), libations, impromptu footy(or tossing a “real” 😉 American football around) inbetween the cars, etc… I had packed a nice little picnic but the stuff the people wearing the albiceleste were grilling smelled great! I don’t know if tailgaiting in this form is purely an American thing or not.
As for the libations/drinking and grilling the US fans did it well too but the Arg. fans’ food smelled Sooooo good! I’ve never seen so many beer bottles strewn around the ground after the game though, a bit depressing. It was like walking through a mini mine field a trash to get to your car.
Argentinians luvvvvv their BBQ’d meat.
Yup. Cross an Argentinian with a Southern American and you have the perfect meatstorm.
correction for my typical epic spelling fail- it’s tailgating
Thats it SoMo? I was expecting 5 pages.
Expectations lead to disappointment 🙂
And NOW that I’ve had my fun— I hate international breaks…get our guys back safe and healthy (did anyone see how beat up 3M got vs. Hungary?)
Yep, he was getting destroyed. Glad van Marwijk subbed him out early.
Carlo Ancelotti and Roberto Mancini were at Emirates Stadium on Sunday to watch Brazil starlet Neymar in action against Scotland. http://es.pn/hr4IC7
Hehe, can’t wait for the mega bids in the summer. If he has any sense, he won’t give that dire City side the time of day.
so SoMo4,
this messi guy is quite messy for other teams,right?
hey guys:D
Is it just me or did Argentina look ALOT like barca in the first half???
Messi was brutally good in the first half, and his crazy run in the second was a joy to behold…
And SoMo4…I’m really jealous, you have no idea, living in Canada, you can’t really appreciate this live game thingy…
and on a side note: Anyone watching the cricket world cup?
Here is the Messi run:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u88frAoqqDg&feature=youtu.be
At the end he is like “What? Why did you make me stop? I could have scored!”
Even the most ardent US fans behind me were like, “why did you stop play, he had advantage?” These US fan were like in total jaw drop awe mode every time he touched the ball in a oh no, why did you let HIM get the ball, anyone but him, oh goody we might see something special can’t believe I just said that sort of way!
Re: Cricket World cup
I was watching until we got dumped out by New Zealand so i’m still trying to nurse my broken heart. Definately going to watch Pak-Ind though should be a cracker.
Oh and SoMo4 I’m sooo jelous you have no idea. Glad you had a great time.
You guys (South Africa) are like the Spain of football (pre-WC10 ;)). Every god damned year my teams are NZ and South Africa and you guys choke 😛 At least this time it happened against us so I can’t complain as much.
Oh tell me about it. Don’t even know how to feel anymore. Atleast Eng losing made me a lil happy. Hope you guys win it, was very happy when Oz lost and hopefully India is next to fall.
Atleast with Barca I don’t have to worry much about choking(hopefully) and gifting the league to you know who.
HAHA,It’s so true, South Africa are a huge “choker” team. they start off so well but then just lose the plot…
I’m a Sri lanka fan and hopefully they can get to the final’s, but i’m not counting out NZ. They’re really good…
and on the ind-pak game, I wish india wins, I don’t like Afridi at all:S
Thanks! Seeing soccer at this level in the states was a rare treat. US v. Spain in June, but too far away to drive in one day so it’s not gonna happen for me 🙁
I know how you feel. We are a football mad country but we not that good so we don’t get to see a lot of super teams playing friendlies here. We had the US come here recently and even they didn’t bring their stars. That’s why i’m always gonna cherish the time i had during the world cup, it was one of the greatest moments of my football life.
you guys have a big-butt country. I remeber looking at your maps and driving thinking the scale was the same as the ones in spain, one can’t help it. oh god… 2 days from state to state and they shared borders!!!
LOL… I don’t even know most of the places here. Been here before? Which places did you visit?
Was is just me or did the Americans seem to get extremely aggressive once Messi got the ball.
I think it’s one of those psychological things where we would think “oh so he’s the best? I bet I can take him down”.
The american fans sure did have alot of pride, they chanted almost the entire game.
Generally speaking, from were I sat (or rather stood (we stood up the WHOLE game)) there were good relations between the US and Arg. fans. I did see one spat across the stadium after the game but that was probably a function of the drinking that was going on. I was proud of the US fans. Usually people in the US are clueless about soccer. These were mostly knowledgeable and exited and even grudgingly appreciative of Messi (complained a lot about calls though). It’s good to see a little pride for a sport that is VERY unappreciated in the states. Aggressive, I dunno, kinda think it was more of a oh no, not him, he has the ball how can I stop him, what do I do now, think I’ll try this…sort of thing, maybe?
Stood up the whole game? What the hell? But where are the pictures and videos SoMoMo4?? 😀
I bet you didn’t get to see THIS, did you? 😉
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqIpXKYwSQA
(It’s filmed by me BTW…)
You don’t seem to be having a emotional meltdown (in a positive way) like me though. I guess I’m the only one who doesn’t have a control lol
When the people in front of you are standing, because the people in front of them are standing, because the people in front of them are standing…and when you actually want to see the game, and nobody gets it into their head to sit down, then you stand the whole time.
My pictures are awful and I don’t know how to download (upload?) them. Good thing I recorded the game from the TV!
It was so good to be with 78,000 other people who love what you love when most of the people you are normally around don’t “get” it. Lots of Barca gear around too, so lots of shared smiles.
78,000! Thats a big stadium. Ours was full at 30,000 lol
@gowtham,
eagerly waiting for the indo pak clash though i m from bangladesh.
@ahmad
welcome.messi is the best and everybody wants to see how good the best is.thats why they seemed so determined against messi.
@euler,u watched the game.how is your take on argentina and especially messi
@phephesa,
my condolences.u guys have such a great cricket team but why the hell they choked everytime.kindda like spain pre euro 08.
Regarding football,as far as i know SA People are mad for the best league in the world.so how do u become a cule?
knowing footy well? 🙂
Don’t even remind me. I spend most of the time trying to convince my younger brother that it doesn’t get any better than la liga but he just looks at me like i’m crazy. He does watch la liga though but only if EE are playing because he’s a Ronaldo fanboy cos he used to play for Man U.
Well I started loving Barca when I was about 16. My other brother told me about this amazing player Rivaldo from Brazil so i started watching him more but could only see them during champs league season. Luckily our satellite network realised that la liga is the shizniz and they now show all Barca, Madrid matches and most of the other league teams which is amazing. Over the years i grew as a supporter and now i’m just i love with the team.
Re: Cricket
Thanx for the condolences. Hopefully one day we’ll turn the corner like Spain did.
“Barça y Madrid ganarán las próximas 5 o 6 Ligas, eso suponiendo que el Madrid gane alguna…”
José María del Nido
“barça and EE will win the next 5 or 6 ligas, that is if EE wins any”
del niiiiido! e! del niiiiido! e! e! e!
le tournoi collectible coins:
PETROL GIANT Esso has seen a huge spike in sales with the launch of its Le Tournoi de France 14th anniversary coin collection, which commemorates English football’s greatest victory.
[…]
After just a week of the promotion Esso has already seen a 800% spike in petrol sales, the equivalent to one week’s output from a stable Arab state. Many are blaming the amount of petrol needed to collect one coin for the huge surge. Coins are exchanged for £60 of petrol, or 20 Tiger Tokens.
http://www.the-gaffer.com/news/coin-collection-mania-sweeps-nation-as-esso-unveil-commemorative-le-tournoi-currency.html
that tournament is probably best remembered for this roberto carlos freekick:
//http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGeMZ3t8jn4
Hey all, GolTV is showing the away Classico of last year right now if anyone’s interested. Puyol as right back! Alves played as a winger! Milito in the starting line up!
No GolTV 🙁
Bummer. And the Iker beard! Lol, he looks funny.
i’m watching it. that game was a mess. freaking awesome! it ended 2-0, right? i remember messi’s goal.
Yeah, if I remember right, Xavi lobs to Messi who cuts in while controlling the ball with his chest and shooting with his right. Then a P!! shot from a great pass from Xavi. Good times!
For fans of La Furia Roja, this interview by Forza Futbol and Eduardo Alvarez is pretty good.
http://forzafutbol.podbean.com/2011/03/26/forza-futbol-137-eduardo-alvarez/
If the game against Villareal gets canceled, what will happen:
1. That canceled game will be played in June, while the rest of the schedule will remain the same.
2. The whole schedule will be moved forward, so we will play Villareal on April 10th.
?
From what I’ve read, I think it’s the latter…but I’ve not heard anything recently about whether the strike is actually going to happen or not.
I hope not.
If it’s the latter, I’m screwed. I already booked the flight and a hotel room to attend the Espanyol game, but if the schedule moves forward, they’ll be playing away while I’m in Barcelona.
Hi Whatever,
I’m in the same boat as you, bought tickets for Espanyol match. I emailed barcelonaturisme (Barcelona’s official tourism organization, through whom I purchased the match tickets, and they are officially listed on the club website as a ticket vendor) with the exact question you asked, and this was their response:
According to your email, we are pleased to inform you that the match FC Barcelona – RCD Espanyol will take place that weekend [May 7th/8th, I had explicitly stated the date in my question], so the strike will not affect that match. That match will not be rescheduled.
So hopefully they are in a position to know, as people traveling to Barcelona for FCB matches has to be a substantial chunk of activity for the city’s tourism organization. But I guess we’ll know in about a week, if the strike does actually happen, and a new schedule gets published…
That sounds good! Even if the strike does happen, I think it would be logical to reschedule the Villareal game to June, and leave the rest of the matches intact.
We’ll see.
Do you have an email where I can contact you? We should be in touch.
Might anyone happen to have a link to an HD video of the USA-Argentina match? My DVR recording isn’t very high-quality, so I only look like a tan blob in the stands.. 😀
Do you have a premium account to any file hosting sites? The file is 4.5 gb and if you don’t have a premium account, then you won’t be completing this download for awhile.
Assuming you have no premium, torrent is your best bet. Here’s a link:
http://www.multiupload.com/PX9BWJVNT3
Credit to SKpD at fbtz.com
You’re my hero. Many many thanks.
Wilshere: England win inspired by Barca: http://es.pn/ebYmii
We watched some videos of Barcelona and the way they pressed…
“We watched the videos a couple of days ago. We want to press like them. They are the best at it in the world and we have to learn from teams like that. At my age I am always learning and I can learn from players like that in their side.”
It’s actually pretty amazing how many teams are trying to copy the ‘Barca’ style press.
/laporta smirk.
Also, laporta smugness
Con la Roja has a lovely post covering the Spain/Czech Republic match, featuring shirtless!Villa:
http://conlaroja.wordpress.com/2011/03/27/in-case-you-missed-it-spain-vs-the-czech-republic/
Speaking of Spain, I hope Thiago gets the start tomorrow against Belarus. Considering he played for Barça B just yesterday, I doubt he will.
Has he even been called up for that?
blitzen, you were the one who commented on the Spain liveblog about Adidas jerseys having better fit, yes? I had to laugh when Messi came out last night, Argentina outfitted by Adidas notwithstanding, he was swimming in his kit. Why does he always wear his jerseys two sizes too big?
Though, if one likes jerseys to have a really nice fit (ahem), then Puma is very pleasing: http://www.daylife.com/photo/05FtbkF3e01bm?q=cani+villarreal
Oooh, very nice! 😉
Yeah, I’m a girl. I like my footy with a side of beefcake. So sue me. 😀
mmm, yes. Not that Cazorla and Rossi aren’t cute little bajitos in their nicely fitting Puma kit, but you’ll note my search terms were very specific… 😉
Conversation-appropriate icon, by the way.
And, um. If you are reading the liveblog you should comment. It’s not an exclusive club, you know. Newbies are welcome! (Just bring some beer 😉 )
Hee, will try. Typing and gesticulating wildy at the tv don’t always go together!
mmm, beer.
I’ve always loved the body hugging Kappa’s especially the ones Italy wore at Euro2000 in my back yard.
villa knew what he was doing. “oh, they’re gonna want to interview me after scoring two goals and breaking raúl’s record? no.”
sneaky sneaky.
Somebody mentioned in another blog that while sMasch & Milito were warming up together, Messi wsa with someone else.
Guess who??!!