Comments on: Barca v Espanyol, a.k.a. “Of course you know…this means war.” 3 p.m. (CT) Saturday, GolTV

By: Ramzi

Ramzi — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:41:02 +0000

GUARDIOLLA selection was good, the tactics were good, the substitutions, hm.. it worked again, and I know now I will not be a popular guy if I said the substitutions were not the best for me. He took the risk too early, getting out abidal less than ten minutes from the second half start, then playing with only two defenders for half an hour, after taking off even the Defensive midfielder, that was too risky, and against some other teams who have a “pacey” striker on the bench, the game could have ended differently.

Some people may argue that the team needed a win, and here exactly where I will be less popular the most, being more dangerous has nothing to do with the number of forwards you put in the box, what actually happened is that the excess of forwards in the box made lot of crowd that the players lost any space needed to create threat, and it became impossible to penetrate from outside the area to cause surprise inside, knowing that this is the way Barcelona are scoring most of their goals so far – penetrating from outside, The last goal tell the whole story! It was the only time when Barcelona players faced kamini one on one, and that was after espanyol went forward, lost the ball, and there were only messi and eto penetrating the box when the penalty was whistled, in brief, we need to differentiate between dominance and efficiency.

By: JC

JC — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 06:21:47 +0000

bloody hell!!!!! I watched the 1st half, and I kept the 2nd half for recording for 50 mins, i said to myself, max there will be 5 min of extra time!!! missed the best part of the game….

By: andrew

andrew — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:49:30 +0000

this article has a good picture:

http://www.sportinglife.com/football/overseas/spain/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=soccer/08/09/27/manual_221320.html

By: andrew

andrew — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 05:41:14 +0000

Kxevin, i have no idea how you can even begin to describe this match without just simply saying..”watch it!”

like someone said earlier, this game had everything from red cards, to breaks for crowd invading the pitch to penalties to extra time goals.

instant classic. one of the greatest matches i have watched. it brought back feelings of the champions league final in paris. that kind of nervousness.

so good luck in describing this match, i am excited to read the report and to see the player ratings.

i think we all witnessed something special today.

By: Kxevin

Kxevin — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 03:23:35 +0000

Um….I need some time to process this one. Good LORD! That might have been the craziest match of football I have ever seen.

By: Cojonudo

Cojonudo — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 01:30:43 +0000

As Ray Hudson once said, “I need an oxygen tent!”…and that’s after watching the match a SECOND time! Call it “luck” call it “destiny” but I hope the lads keep drinking Pep’s Kool Aid because it’s working!…to cap things off I got to call my relatives in L’Hospitalet and rub it in, which was, as MasterCard would say, “priceless”!

By: andrew

andrew — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:39:44 +0000

interestingly, we havent had a clean sheet since we played hibernian in pre-season and i seem to remember we had pinto in goal. i am all for trying him out against atletico this coming weekend… any one else?

By: Charlie

Charlie — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 23:25:54 +0000

Just finished watching the game: WOW.

I am seriously out of breath. From watching a game on TV.

Absolutely beautiful how that worked out. So proud right now.

By: Ramzi

Ramzi — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:57:27 +0000

About the penalty decision, the referee did something wrong anyway, If it wasn’t a penalty then he was wring to whistle, if it was a penalty then he had to show a red card, now of course no barcelona fan will be happy to suspend another espanyol player before their game against RM, but thats whats written in the books, as far as I know.
ok goodnight now, we will have another talk tomorrow;)

By: andrew

andrew — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 22:56:28 +0000

here is goal.com’s player ratings:

http://www.goal.com/en-US/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=885352