Barça – Bayern Match Comments Thread
By: Isaiah | April 8th, 2009Post your match comments all up in these here comments parts.
Lineups:
Barça: Valdés, Alves, Piqué, Márquez, Puyol, Xavi, The Yaya, Iniesta, Messi, Eto’o, Henry
Bayern: Butt, Lell, Demichelis, Breno, Oddo, Schweinsteiger, Van Bommel, Ze Roberto, Altintop, Ribéry y Luca Toni.
I got the lineup right (hard to do…) so hopefully now I’ll get the score right. I’m so nervous holy crap. I will disappear at the opening whistle and will be online yelling something around 9:30pm when i get home from the bar.
Visca el Barça!
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Comments
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I agree with you Hector with the last two paragraph.
Posted from
United States
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Speechless.
Posted from
United States -
Chelsea – liverpool game was a match full of missed chances. Droghba missed twice one-on-one, the third time it was going in but Carragher saved it just on the line.Liverpool also missed some easy ones. Chelsea and ManU are the most dangerous in air. It’s impossible to stop them, just look at the guy Ivanovich or whatever he scored two freaking goals and look how he ran before jumping and heading. Thats gonna be tough for us.
I wouldn’t eliminate Liverpool yet, they’re capable of moving mountains!And John Terry is suspended for the 2nd leg.
Posted from
Switzerland -
About the yellow card for Messi and a possible suspension:
I know that 3 yellows equal a one-match-suspension but I think that some years ago UEFA changed the rule: Now the yellow cards are being removed after the quarterfinal so that noone can miss a possible final due to 3 yellow cards. In former times the yellow cards were removed after the groupstage.
So, if I am right Messi doesn’t have to fear any suspension.Posted from
Germany -
Oh if that’s the case then there’s nothing to fear.Quiet a sensible rule for once
Posted from
Switzerland -
it was nice to see the crowd make a lot of noise throughout the game, most of the time they just whistle at the opposing team or give a round of applause for a good move…
all the injured players shud be back for Bayern for the 2nd leg, I hope our players don’t get over-confident..Posted from
United Arab Emirates -
How much more till Abidal is back?
Posted from
Switzerland -
On soccernet.com there is an article about Messi’s yellow card and Guardiola’s reaction to it. It also says that Barca wants to appeal the card because Messi is now just one booking away from a suspension.
So maybe I mixed up the UCL rules with Euro2008 rules. I think Platini wanted to change the rule so that nobody can be banned for a final due to yellow cards.
Posted from
Germany -
Who said anything bad about Henry???? I cannot believe that. Henry was pure class. He was doing everything; defending, attacking, creating space for others, making magnificent runs. Give him a 10 Kxevin, he earned it in my book. I am sooo happy we kept him. I always knew his class would shine through eventually and i was saying all of last season that he deserves one more year to prove himself. I would be happy for him to finish off his career at Barca.
The front 3 are really starting to understand each other now, it must be frightening for other teams. There was not much that Bayern could do. We quite simply ripped them to shreds. It could and should have been more, but it was a perfect result for us in the end so i cannot complain. Next weeks leg is now just a formality. Nobody should think for even a second that we might get knocked out by Bayern, it just wont happen. Maybe if they had managed an away goal you could argue that they MIGHT have a chance but with no away goal they r done and dusted! They would have to score 5 goals without conceding in order to beat us…..not a chance. We could lose 3-0 and still go through.
Chelsea worry me a little, but only because of their aerial threat. Then again Bayern were also supposed to be an aerial threat. The thing is, when we are on, when we play like we did yesterday, there is very little the oposition can do. In order to be an aerial threat you have to have the ball, you have to create set piece and corner chances. When we play like we did yesterday, when we have so much possession and more importantly when we fight so hard to win possession back, there is just nothing the opposition can do. It is the perfect balance of skill, pace, passing, aggression and off the ball movement. It is a glory to behold and never have i felt so lucky to be a Barcelona fan. I can see the envy in the eyes of all my friends who spent the last two years giving me shit.
Ribery looked so frustrated the whole night, he couldnt do anything…..bet he is gonna try his best to get his ass to Barca next year.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Hilal, Chelsea only worry me because they have Hiddink. I am following this guy since ever and he is unbelievable! Yesterday he introduced himself for those who dont know him.
He is exactly the opposite of what Klinsman showed yesterday, how naive.Posted from
Germany -
I don’t know if it was also shown on ESPN Deportes or any other channel, but German channel Premiere showed a scene of Henry consoling Ribéry after the match (on the pitch) and you could see Ribéry crying, he was utterly disappointed and shocked.
And in that situation I really felt with him although he plays for Bayern. When Klinsmann had to give a ~10min interview I also felt sorry for him because the reporter did not stop questioning his future, his ability to coach the team, his stand in the club etc. Damn, it was already hard enough for him to see his own team getting ripped apart! But these reporters are absolutely cruel and show no compassion at all.Posted from
Germany -
As for pep reaction during the game, it was wrong.
Helge, reporters are Vampires, thats the least you can expect from them. But if this game is the sample to judge Klinsmann qualities as a coach, I cant see him staying for long. Specially in Germany where tactical intelligence is all what the teams can count on to progress.Posted from
Germany -
I hate to say it, but yesterday’s win doesn’t really teach us anything. It was a beautiful win against a typically tough opponent, but that opponent was playing a back line that was nowhere near full strength. If you’re telling me that we’d put up a strong fight against a nearly full-strength ManU (say, without Evra, but with everyone else at 100%) when we were missing 3 of our starting defenders, then you’re crazy. It’s not that Bayern was tactically stupid, it’s that they didn’t have the players or the team chemistry necessary to beat a team like Barça at Barça’s home.
Klinsmann looked lost, but what would you have done differently? Do you put on Podolski from the beginning and just go for it? Cause you know that Xavi will collect the ball at the halfway line at some point, turn, and fire of a pass that starts a move that ends in the back of your net. And that, without an extra defensive midfielder, will happen just as often with Podolski as it did without him. But without him you have a shot at stopping some of the moves because you have an extra defender.
Sure, Barça took its foot off the gas, which isn’t so great, but we still almost bagged another couple of goals once Iniesta got a hold of that left side. How genius is that guy? And how intense is the forcefield surrounding the goal when he shoots?
Henry was brilliant, but I thought Iniesta was more incisive. Yes, that was probably as incisive as it was because Oddo was worn down to nubs by Henry’s constant attacking and movement during the first first hour, but still, dude’s got skillz. Henry doesn’t have the close control that Iniesta has, but he does have the size that Iniesta doesn’t and he knows how to use it fairly effectively. There were several times that he was obviously too slow for the move he was trying to make, but he often made up for it with wily moves to get the defender to foul him. So no 10 for him from me, just a 9. A lowly, lowly 9. How despicable.
I watched the Setanta coverage and whoever those commentators are, they’re boring, but at least somewhat insightful at times. The color commentator would end up talking to himself for about 10 minutes before the other guy would chime in with how piss poor Bayern were, but never once was it mentioned that they were missing so many starting defenders that any other team would also get clobbered by Barça. The ManU-Villa game would have been 4-0 Barça if it had been ManU-Barça simply because Jonny Evans isn’t a world-class defender (as shown in the Villa game). Neither is Breno nor is Lell. But they did okay for having never played that lineup before ever.
Marquez is suspended for the next game — smart move to get the time wasting card, actually, no risk of a red — the ref obviously didn’t want to give it to him, but Marquez made him do it. I wondered what cheeky way he would get one without risking a red. I thought it would be a cheap jersey tug at some point way out of position, but the time wasting card was pretty brilliant. It also means we’ll see Sylvinho against Bayern (why rush Abidal back if it’s not necessary? At 4-0, let him get his legs under him and his strength and match fitness back in La Liga games, 20 minutes at a time).
Ribery was awesome. He was electrifying, brilliant, a real bright spot for Bayern. I was very impressed. His finishing was obviously horrendous, but he really only had one chance. You can’t blame him for that any more than you can blame Butt for allowing 4 goals. It was the defense and the center mids that are to blame for this loss. Toni had nothing to do except wander offside constantly (which is stupid) and Ribery had no service. He created his own chances a few times with brilliant runs down the wing, but seriously, what was he supposed to do? If Messi had a great game (everyone says he did), why didn’t Ribery have a brilliant game, too? They did the same thing, it’s just that one player got the ball delivered to him and the other one had to track back 60 yards for it and then make full-field runs with it instead of starting 30 yards out and having movement in front of him. Bayern just looked sorry last night, but it’s hard to blame them. They’re out of the CL and it’s their fault, but if it had happened to us, we’d be making excuses about not having a full strength defense, about how Alves (Lahm) had been injured and we didn’t get to field who we wanted to and blah blah.
Semis against Chelsea, probably. Only gets tougher from here, eh? And who wanted Porto?
Posted from
United States -
About reporters: Kevin, what’s your take on the Vampire/Orc/Compassionless Ogre viewpoint? Is dim-witted crackwhore preferable? Ha. Journalism has lost its ethics in this world of instant entertainment, of 24-hour news cycles and a seemingly insatiable need for new information nownownowNOW.
And that’s coming from a blogger.
People overreact to losses, to not winning, to being kicked out of the toughest competition in club soccer (take that, Libertadores!). If you fired your coach in college basketball for not winning the NCAA tournament, who would ever be left coaching? Bayern will win championships again, perhaps will even win the Bundesliga this year, but until people stop demanding the heads of coaches for a single year’s “failure” (like finishing second in the league and losing in the semis of the Champions League — wait, who are we talking about here?), then we’ll have revolving doors and teams incapable of coming together chemistry-wise.
Alex Ferguson was given time and opportunity at ManU and look what he’s put together over the years. Imagine if he’d been fired for not winning a championship one year. Egads, we haven’t won the title in a whole 12 months lordy what are we going to do?
Posted from
United States -
Make no mistake, Guardiola will show people clips of that Getafe Copa leg from last season. Hell, most of them were there for that thrashing in the aftermath of an “insurmountable” lead.
But the real question is, can Bayern put 4 on us without us getting one? I don’t think so. I think that last night, we would have destroyed any side in the world. Isaiah mentioned Evra, but the way he punked out on that second Porto goal was shameful. If he actually runs and stops the ball, that goal doesn’t happen, and Man U is feeling a lot more comfortable heading to Portugal.
Buzz is that Abidal might be back for the second Bayern leg. How cool would THAT be? We’re going to need him against Chelsea, however, assuming we and they advance. But frankly, I just don’t see us losing at Bayern 5-0, or Liverpool pulling back the 3 away goals at the Bridge.
–As for journos, as I said, reporters are all over the place. Most do their jobs very well (Sid Lowe, Tim Stannard). Others are just bullies who use their forum to crush and cow, like the guy who thinks that shouting loudest during an argument will win.
As far as journalism losing its ethics, again I wouldn’t be so quick to damn the whole profession. Individual journalists have complexities, but as a whole, we’re actually often hamstrung by ethics.
–Now, back to footy. This is an excellent piece from the Guardian:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2009/apr/09/barcelona-champions-league-bayern-munich
I’m beginning to wonder this: People keep saying that we aren’t as good as people think we are, and x or y team will “show us.” Then x or y team comes, and we crush them. Yes, Bayern were weakened on defense. But they threw out a 5-man midfield trying to control us, and they couldn’t even with THAT battle. The game wasn’t really won or lost on the back line. It was lost in the midfield, with situations that allow Iniesta, Eto’o, Henry, Xavi, Alves and Messi to go running, full tilt boogie, at your defense. No defense is going to stop that attack for long, I don’t care who or what it is.
Posted from
United States -
Oh, and there was one time when Ribery was running off to the wing to do his thing, and Yaya seemed to say “Enough of this,” put on a burst of speed and just erected a wall in front of Ribery, who lost the ball, probably thinking “Mon dieu, I am too young to die!”
Remember that Henry came our way after we defeated Arsenal in the final. It’s pretty tough to watch us first hand and not want to join in.
Posted from
United States -
Isaiah I agree with you that this 4-0 says as much about the midfield’s dominance as the attack’s. The attack showed killer instinct in ripping up Bayern’s reserve defenders, but the midfield dominated Bayern’s starters, and provided killer ball after killer ball. I expect the same dominance against Chelsea.
Posted from
United States -
Klinsmann had injury crises, true. But that must not cover the fact that he failed to do his job with the resources available.
With this tactical structure he decided to use, Toni must not be selected. Yes, Podolski is better for this game if you want to play using one striker who will not be served. He is the big name? who care? Hiddink for instance left Anelka (one of the key performers of Chelsea this season) on the bench. He left Deco on the bench. He used Malouda. He benched Belletti and selected Ivanovic. I am not sure who started the “horses for courses” Quote on the blog. But it fits here perfectly. Toni is only active in the box. If you are not planning to approach the box that often then pick a player who can be active dropping deeper and getting involved in the passing game. If that guy would be Podolski, and if podolski shifted to the left to link with ribery on that flank, then Alves would not be able to dance in the Bayern area as he did.
You already have problems defending on the left, with podolski you were able to keep Alves little more busy there. With Toni – who has no impact threatening Alves flank. You invited alves to join the party upfront with no concerns.
Using Lell was not wrong. But the problem is that you cant ask him to mark Messi. Not even any pure fullback can do so, not even Lahm. So the problem here wasn’t lahm injury. He had Tim Borowski who is one of the most defensive minded players in midfield, he left him on the bench. One of the main reasons that helped porto to perform perfectly against Man Utd was that porto coach decided to play 9 out field players. The 10th was fernando who is there best defensive midfielder, and who was dedicated to man-mark tightly C.Ronaldo, cutting the most important link moving the ball from the midfield to the box. I don’t think Messi is less vital than Ronaldo, yet No one was marking Messi tightly, Zone marking? Are you kidding me? If Borowski played instead of unfit Altintop and man marked Messi (and even if he failed) then We cant say Klinsmen has anything else to do, it didn’t happen.
Hiddink killed Liverpool last night using the same method. Man marking Gerard tightly by dedicating a man for him (essien), and keeping in mind he must score at least once. But to put Lell on the right back, ask him to mark messi, is insane. Even if you ask ze Roberto to help, you are not keeping Alves dusy defensively, so it ended up 2 against 2? Then if ribery help deep, you have no more hope to score away from home. With Toni sleeping upfront. That makes no sense.
Schweinsteiger is one of the best Box-to-box players, he was used as a defensive midfielder. While Altintop who is a very Versatile player was selected even though he is barely fit after coming back from injury.
Put Borowski as a defensive midfielder with Van Bommel and Ze Roberto, Schweinsteiger as a box-to box midfielder linking with Ribery who play on the left (Barcelona right flank) and with Podolski linking with them as well. And you will make it more risky for Alves to move forward, little harder for Messi to penetrate, and will offer more resources and depth on both sides defensively.
It doesn’t mean Bayern would have won it this way. But they would have been able to produce more solid performance, and may be would hunt a goal though the combination of Ribery-Podolski- Schweinsteiger ending the match 3-1, and that will keep them in the competition to some extend.
Posted from
Germany -
The Hiddink – Guardiola match up is interesting. They have some history, with Hiddink briefly (and poorly) coaching EE during one of Guardiola’s last years in the blaugrana. Xavi and Iniesta will have notes from the Spain – Russia matchup also (and also a win for the good guys, pattern?).
Hiddink is a nice manager but I think calling him a genius is a bit over the top. He hasn’t had much sustained success anywhere ouside of the Netherlands. Putting Essien on the other team’s best midfielder isn’t exactly a new idea, either. He may have gotten the better of Benitez by clogging up the offensive bottle-neck Benitez likes (more Benayoun, please!), but Barca will have way more attacking options.
Posted from
United States -
Article 21
Yellow and red cards
21.01 As a rule, a player who is sent off the field of play is suspended for the next
match in a UEFA club competition. The Control and Disciplinary Body is
entitled to augment this punishment. For serious offences the punishment
can be extended to all UEFA competition categories.
21.02 In case of repeated cautions, a player is suspended for the next competition
match:
a) after two cautions in two different qualifying matches, as well as after the
fourth caution during the qualifying phase;
b) from the first match in the group stage, after THREE cautions in three
different matches, as well as following any subsequent ODD-numbered caution (fifth, seventh, ninth, etc.).Posted from
Singapore -
Seconded on the Getafe tape. That’s a valuable lesson right there. No lead is truly safe. The part that really impacted me was that Klinsmann, Beckenbauer, and their GM (Rumm..?), straight up said after the game that their CL hopes were busted and they should now just concentrate on the Bundesliga and getting back into the CL spots for next year. Either they are VERY good at getting other teams to put their guard down or they are genuinely going to field a B team for the return leg and focus on the Bundesliga. How can players not give up, when the coach and management staff already did? Which Bayern fan in their right mind would want to go to that game?
The thing with Chelsea is that they have three of the best box to box midfielders in the world playing together: Essien (IMO THE best), Lampard, and Ballack. Those three guys, especially Essien and Ballack, are very good physical defenders who can break up a midfield, then they have pace down the wings. Kalou and Malouda are a hell of a far cry from the old Duff-Robben combo but they are fast, you can’t deny that. Now, they have the guy who still IMO is the best out and out lone striker in the world in Drogba who is scarily getting back his best form. Not to mention a true tactical genius in Hiddink.
Their achilles heel, IMO is their defense which is a far cry from their glory days. Terry is grossly overrated IMO albeit still a good player, Carvahlo (one of the dirtiest players I know) is still getting his form back and is getting over the hill, Alex is Alex, Ashley Cole is a shadow of his former self, and Boswinga is Dani Alves minus the being decent at defending part. However, now with the beast that is Essien covering their backsides once again, they have not been tested as often. The key to that game will be getting through Ballack and Essien (Lampard not so much, he’s a decent defender but would rather attack). Liverpool without Mascherano couldn’t overpower that physical midfield and paid dearly. Essien owned Gerrard stifling most of their creativity on the last third.
Our advantage over Liverpool is that we have multiple creative “cracks” who can change the game. With Liverpool, you take away Gerrard and they are reduced to hoping Torres pulls some magic out of his hat. With us, Essien can man mark Xavi and we’ll switch the 4 to Iniesta, They can put Ballack on Iniesta, that means Messi or Henry will be single teamed. We have too many creative players for it to be possible to man mark one single key influence out of the game. The Iniesta-Xavi combo will be vital in a series against Chelsea because you know Essien will man mark the hell out of Xavi, and if anybody can do a good job of that its that Ghanian nightmare.
Posted from
United States -
hahaha, Hector, I just put up a new post. Naturally you’d have to be the last one to post on this one. Oh man.
Posted from
United States -
Colin: Hiddink broke up with RM for non sport reasons after continuous conflicts with RM board regarding transfers and budget.
He won the Intercontinental Cup with RM, Lead South Korea to forth place in world cup (with some referee assistant), lead Australia to the second round in world cup 2006 (and that’s impressive for them), and recreated the glory of Russian national team after a long nap. And its unfair to judge him for failing against that great Spanish squad. Without taking Russia game against Neitherland in consideration.
That’s all outside Netherlands.Hiddink is a school in Tactics. He is one of the main Lecturers for the UEFA License for a reason. His problem is that he turns to become over dominate with time and thats why he had short life cycles with clubs. He likes to robotize his players with tactical instructions, and that’s why he succeeds more with low quality teams, where players are more welling to be over disciplined tactically. Superstars do not accept that. If he stayed in Chelsea, sooner or later you will see conflicts. But till now, he is their survivor, and the players still can’t complain, till the ship settle down.
Saying so, I by no mean underestimating Guardiola qualities. He may end up proving he is much better than Hiddink. But I am pointing on the fact that this coach –Hiddink- know how to prepare his team for a game. His basic methodology is based on two factors with this priority order:
- Screwing the opponent tactical system.
- Keeping in mind the need to create damage, not only through defending but also through focusing on one of the opponent weaknesses and try to get advantage of it.
Against Liverpool it was obvious, and against Netherlands in euro it was a lesson to learn.Lot of Analysts in UK are wondering today why no one thought of applying a tight marking strategy against Gerard before. So there is something new about what Hiddink did last night. Beside, it was widely expected that Mickel will be the one who mark gerrard, not essien. So asking Essien to mark Gerrard instead was one of the tactical surprises.
Posted from
Germany -
It’s unfair to criticize Bayern, I think they were sabotaged. Someone must have snuck in behind them and stuck a banana in their exhaust pipe, because that engine did not start. It sputtered and coughed and appeared to want to start, but then….nothing. Later, just a few cranks of the ignition to show that there was still an engine there…Reminded me of an old german car I used to have
Posted from
United States -
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http://www.fcbarcelonavids.comPosted from
Kuwait
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