For Love of Money
By: Isaiah | November 24th, 2008This from Sport’s Futbolitis:
LEFT: “This is what Calderon uses to motivate his players…”
RIGHT: “and this is what Pep uses…”
Damn straight. If you haven’t read it, don’t miss Kevin’s review of the Getafe match.
Category: Barcelona
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Phil Ball made a good point on Soccernet today that Calderon has put his players in a really bad position. If they win, people will say they’re out for the money, if they lose, people will say not only are they losers, they’re losers who hate free money.
Podolski wants out at Bayern. He might work for Barca long term; he can play either the left wing of central striker. He moved around during Euro 2008 and was effective wherever he was placed, ideal for Barca’s system. He could firm up two positions where the club is uncertain about its long term plans.
Posted from
United States
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he IS good at the left wing, see his performance at the euro…and yeah he wants to get out of bayern
Posted from
Switzerland -
Phil Ball is smarter than I am. He put it much better. Again.
Posted from
United States -
Poyol and Tore’ are out of Sporting list, are we going to see Sylvinho on the LB once again? or Caceres is going to have his shot on that spot?? anyhow it’s going to be a tough game on our defence. Sporting wants to win as much as we do
Posted from
United States -
I just read the Phil Ball article. Good stuff, I always enjoy his writing.
Posted from
Canada -
The full squad list for Wednesday: Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Sylvinho, Cáceres, Márquez, Piqué, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Sergio Busquets, Víctor Sánchez, Keita, Hleb, Pedro, Messi, Henry, Bojan, Eto’o.
Posted from
United States -
No puyol or yaya….wow.
Posted from
United States -
there were reports that iniesta was ahead of schedule…well it could be a bunch of smoke and mirrors but the truth is, it appears he is right on schedule. not ahead of it. he began running today, 20 days after his injury, just as scheduled. he will work by himself for 15-20 days and then slowly work his way back into the group. so earliest he would be with group is december 9, i just dont see him being back for madrid…villareal at the earliest but then there is a 2-week break until the next match so why not rest him for villareal as well to be safe, unless villareal turns out to be a very important match, points-wise. who knows we could be 10 points clear of villareal by then,,,
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United States -
i thibnk we might even see messi start on the bench against sporting. perhaps pep will let pedro start on the right, and hopefully we will see caceres because like someone said the other day, there is no way that caceres could play worse than sylvinho.
i thnk (read: hope) that we will see a line up something like this:
—-valdes—–
alves–pique-marquez-caceres
—–busquets—–
—xavi—–keita—
pedro—eto’o—henrythen bring messi on if he is needed, if not, let him rest up. also if we are winning pretty well, then pull eto’o and even xavi.
perhaps start messi, put the boot in and then pull him at half time.
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United States -
I woke up to terrific news today,
http://www.goal.com/en/news/1706/barcelona/2008/11/24/980294/iniesta-back-training-for-barcelonaHopefully, he will be back for the classico.
Visca El Barca!!
Posted from
Kuwait -
The perennial question: does it matter if we qualify first or second in the CL? For pride, sure, but in terms of who we’ll face in the next round? The top 2 of each group are generally f-ing good teams, so it doesn’t much matter who you face at that point, I wouldn’t think.
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United States -
isaiah, what you said got me thinking and i did a little research just to see the possibilities of who we might face in the next round of the champions league.
obviously, there are a number of group that could still swing either way, and not being a psychic, i will work with the current standings as if they were final.
remember: we cant play any one from the same country until the quarter finals, and we also cant play anyone from our original group.
if we finish first in our group we could face:
-roma
-porto
-anorthis
-liverpool
-bayern munichif we finish second in our group we could face:
-chelsea
-man utd
-arsenal
-inter
-lyon
-juventusnow, these standings could change drastically in the next few weeks. for example:
group a:
roma could easily be displaced by bordeaux or cluj.
groub b:
second place is a tight race between anorthis and panathinaikos.
group g:
second spot is being contested by porto and dynamo kiev.
i think the first place positions are likely to stay that way though, although the EE and juventus positions may switch.
in reality i would much rather finish first and face those second spot finishers because as mouth watering as it is to watch barca vs manyoo/arsenal/chelsea/inter etc, i would rather wait until the nex round when some of them have been knocked out.
maybe it is not brave of me to want to get a weaker opponent, but i think it would make it more likely that we will progress to the next round (not, of course, to insinuate that we wouldnt make it through otherwise.)
thats my 2c
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United States -
i dont want iniesta to play in december. and this is comming from prob. iniesta’s biggest fan. frankly i’d rather have iniesta for the the long haul then risk him for any of these next matches. Iniesta is a workhorse. his game is about consistancy not flashiness (not completely). not to say he isnt a game changer, but his style is great play 90 minutes at a time (a la xavi, toure), not 5 second bursts of miraculous play ( a la messi, ronaldinho)
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United States -
just want to clarify for Barca4Life….that goal.com article about iniesta is misleading. he is actually right on schedule, which means he probably wont play against madrid, since he will join the group for practice — at the earliest — five days before el clasico. and practicing with the group does not mean you have the green light to play competitively. far from it. it is gradual reintroduction to competition. i agree with jason, put iniesta in a glass case so he is fit and ready for el tramo final….
this also assumes that our favorite club isnt playing mind games with the rest of the soccer world regarding SPF45’s true condition.
Posted from
United States -
The easier path is always to win the group. So let’s get busy.
Posted from
United States -
Good breakdown, Andrew. Looks like this year finishing first is the way to go. Guns drawn for tomorrow’s match, then, eh?
I need to get cracking on the preview, actually…
Posted from
United States
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