José Mourinho has trolled Catalonia and he likes it very much: La Primera División 10/11

the thread jermaine pennant would read, if only he could

barcelona won the super cup tonight, 5-3 on aggregate vs sevilla with a hat-trick from you know who, starts in earnest next weekend

someone just make an 'i love football' already

i was just thinking the same thing

nah

A+ thread title. I watched some of this before switching to Velez Sarsfield v Argentinos Juniors when I realised it wasn't a real contest (who wants me to start a Clausura thread?) - Barça looked better than ever tbh.

difficult to get the right attitude towards barcelona these days. they're clearly special but you don't want to be too impressed by them. elsewhere....

Jose Mourinho knows he must adapt his style

Mourinho favoured a 4-3-3 formation at Chelsea and enjoyed success with a similar system at Inter Milan, but believes local conditions will define the team's playing style in Madrid.

"The cultural aspect is very important," Mourinho said in an interview with El Pais.

"It's impossible for a coach to go to a country and say 'This is my system, my playing philosophy'.

"Will I be able to do at Madrid the same thing I did at Inter in terms of playing style? Impossible. The cultural aspect is very important.

"Chelsea are champions of England, but if they played in the Primera Division they wouldn't win. Just as Barca wouldn't win the Premier League.

"The construction of your team must be carried out in accordance with the culture (of that place). I will respect the cultural aspect at Madrid."

Heh, nice way of doffing the cap while making absolutely no commitment to do anything he wouldn't do anyway

typical mourinho, every concession grudging or obvious

the goals from the super cup are well worth seeing, i suppose they score goals like this often enough but a few months away and you notice quite how precise barcelona can be - xavi's pass and messi's timing for the second are just about perfect (the platonic ideal as they say hereabouts)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKh1jna5XzY&hd=1

ok that pass is just too damn good.

now they have stopped talking about cesc for a minute i may upgrade them to a "don't buy" or whatever the hell the arrested development scale is.

Supporting Sevilla I think btw.

I'll take Atletico and then Valencia

I'll have depo

I'll go Villarreal. But probably end up just going woah at Barcelona a lot.

Watching Xavi on the behind goal replay at 1:30 there he plays that pass then doesn't even think about running forward and joining play, he's like "there you go Lio fill yer boots, I'll wait here for Seville to kick off" :)

am usually pro-Barca, but need another team in Spain, I'm looking at you Athletic Bilbao. One of the best grounds I've ever been to.

and yes, I am finding things to look at that aren't the horror show at Eastlands.

Been a barca man for a few years because of henrik larsson 's stint with the club. Going to barcelona for the 5th time next month and again this won't coincide with a home game :(

Pep team v Mou madrid this season will be interesting unstoppable force meets immovable object type shit.

because of henrik larsson 's stint with the club

That way lies an affiliation with Manchester Utd o_O

Ever since I was a kid I've felt I should have an affinity with Man Utd because of Rod Stewart's "You're in my Heart". </biographical snippet of the day>

(never crossed my mind he might mean West Ham United or Newcastlol United or w/e)

aren't Celtic supposed to have some sort of affinity with Man Utd anyway? (as well as loads of other clubs, the tarts)

I've always thought so. Maybe depends where you come from though.

Man Utd *and* Liverpool, also Barcelona and St Pauli and every LoI team ever, for starters. And every team that everyone good who has ever left Celti has gone to. I don't have time (or inclination) for all of this (though I quite like the idea of St Pauli, tbh).

Borussia Dortmund!

Never heard of the Barcelona link - do Barcelona know about it?

I thought we were friendlier with Villareal, who formed a Celtic supporters club a few years back.

I'm sure there was a Barcelona thing when I was younger, but maybe it was't an actual *thing* thing.

Barca and celtic have a decent relationship. You'll never walk alone played at the camp nou when we played them in Europe iirc and heard various folk mention affinity and close relationship between the two (off the top of my head lawell, Oleguer, and some guy I talked to when I accidentally walked into a nationalist rally in Barcelona) but la liga team with closest ties to celtic is villareal.

English team with closest ties is liverpool as far as I can tell. Not a fan myself tho.

well then, zlatan to milan for 25m apparently. i would have preferred him at real though

Ray Hudson, "Benzema turned like sour milk."

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/Galeries/futbol/temporada10-11/08/revisio_mascherano/2010-08-30_REVISION_MEDICA_JAVIER_MASCHERANO_005.jpg

Sexy string vest.

He needs to grow the beard out again, and maybe get some nhs specs, but he's basically rocking everything this season.

OMG.

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/Galeries/futbol/temporada10-11/08/revisio_mascherano/2010-08-30_REVISION_MEDICA_JAVIER_MASCHERANO_002.jpg

no nsfw please

having tried to get your imagined Masch look for myself, Ismael, you'd be amazed how hard it is to get glasses that fit the general idea of 'NHS specs' for less than £100.

tho Javier can probably afford that, tbf.

There's one of them measuring his biceps. I shit you not.

Hercules really gave em a battering huh? Should have been four.

Pedro doesn't look comfortable going down the outside, his delivery all game wasn't reall troubling. No penetration from anywhere else though, so not hating on dude.

The pleasing thing, apart from the name of the conquerors, is that barca rested a few players but not that many, so Messi, Villa et al still took a spanking. One thing I hate is when a success gets all put down to one man, rarely the case imo.

:D @ this. And also Cesena in 'tother thread.

'adriano absolutely filling his diapers there'

'nelson valdez puts barcelona in a half-nelson.....this is his waterloo'

some good stuff from ray hudson, hércules were fantastic and barcelona looked very tired after the break

tomas ujfalusi is a fucking cunt

thankfully messi isn't badly injured tho

yes. trying to do his far leg was a nice fucking touch i thought

how the fuck was this just a 2 week injury? that is one gnarly fucking picture btw, don't click if you are squamish

also barca away kit is gross

Shinpad makes it look worse than it is - I'm assuming it's just a badly stretched ankle. Lucky boy to get away with that all the same.

I'm assuming it's just a badly stretched ankle.

think his foot is coming out of his boot which makes the angle of the joint look worse than it was

anyway we're pretty fortunate cuz half a season without messi these days would be a pretty significant loss to football

Also I think he's wearing gold boots, so that wouldn't be the sole.

that's the side of the boot pointing upwards, his foot is coming out of the boot, it's still a cunt's tackle

http://i.imgur.com/FzOHO.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/DJfJ1.jpg

i take it we've missed contact in teh first frame?

http://vigilantcitizen.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/stalin121.jpg

Piqué was misquoted. He was talking about where he'd like to go for dinner.

What is happening in Barcelona? Again, pressure and chances galore and the finishing lets them down. And at home no less!

real madrid starting to play like they're capable of

Barca seem to have actually become Spain at the world cup is my impression, with some added Arsenal

the mallorca game was incredible, they had 90% possession at one point in the first half, but once they conceded the equalizer the second half was incredibly predictable

villa and messi are their only players with a really direct threat, yet neither of them are true #9s and if one is injured (or gets retarded red cards) they have problems

they shd try and get torres in january

Valencia one-up at Camp Nou at the half now. I only switched on late, but I'd guess it's bound to have been good so far.(

(that was a typo, not an emoticon btw - I like Valencia and am finding Barca's woes intriguing)

It was an excellent goal. They actually should be 2-0 up. Barca looked a bit lethargic.

loving this valencia la liga winning side coming out of 'nowhere'.

Insane miss from Benzema just now. Özil walked through the defence and laid it back from the byline to Benzema on the edge of the six-yard box. He scuffed it so badly that Özil, still running in along the byline, was able to leave a trailing leg and trap the ball before it went out of play.

― Ismael Klata, Saturday, October 16, 2010 10:09 PM (0 seconds ago)

oving this valencia la liga winning side coming out of 'nowhere'.

― O holy ruler of ILF (a hoy hoy), Saturday, 16 October 2010 20:19 (2 days ago)

they're really very impressive

what about that second goal for gijon? intentional or not?

Diego Castro's?? Intentional and quite sublime. Also lolled at Novo's topless hug in for the third 'goal' before he and his hugging partner realized it had been disallowed.

Wrongly disallowed too, I think.

Yeah I thought intentional myself, sky commentary team less than generous about it though.

soooo

barca vs zaragoza

pedro always with his hands up his long sleeves

just missed a good chance, still hasn't scored this season iirc

better lw than gareth bale tho

dunno rly, depends on the side & formation

pedro impressively ambidextrous, bale w/ one great foot

messi 0-1

souness sez will go down in history as better than maradona

early to say.

or did he mean messi?

villa looking better here, nice assist and a difficult chance which was well saved

messi 0-2

nice shot w/ very little backlift

Ronaldo just missed a glorious chance to get this fifth. Real have looked unstoppable today.

blimey. real look like a steam roller under jose.

lol copenhagen beat the offside trap but barca keeper whistles and the copenhagen player assumed he was offside and stopped. keeper has been charged by UEFA for deception.
http://www.elmundodeportivo.es/web/gen/20101015/54024275175.html?IDMC=54057072462

http://www.101greatgoals.com/salamanca-midfielder-miguel-garcia-has-cardiac-arrest-during-match-with-betis/70310/

:( bit fucked to keep the game going when players would have been so worried for their bro.

Sevilla vs Athletic tonight was a cracking game. Well I saw most of the second half. It was never in serious doubt while i was watching (sevilla were 2 up at half time) but entertaining, with some good goals. Ended 4-3 to Sevilla apparently. They had been 3-0 up at one point.

http://www.101greatgoals.com/videodisplay/sevilla-athletic-bilbao-7316189/

lovely little lob from Fabiano.

amongst all that.

Yeah, sorry, was going to pass comment on that article after posting it but got distracted. Playing on after a serious injury to a team-mate happens all the time, but when defibrillators are involved, I think there's maybe a level of discretion which should be used.

Duuuuuuuuuuuude. Hope he's ok.

...

Also makes me wonder about putting Tevez on next years deadlist...

wow this sevilla game

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/oct/25/villarreal-thrive-perfect-football-ecosystem

Barça just scored a ridic goal. Messi obv.

Yep. That was insanely good.

shit i've been watchin andy gray. very slack of me

Barca are taking the piss really, look like they can score on every attack. They've had two goals disallowed as well.

eidir gudjohnsen of the hives helpin out with the studio analysis

Strange to schedule Barcelona to play in Madrid on the same night as the Madrid derby

they have to meet to divvy up bae/modric/vdv/gallas imo

ffs

'he seemed to get the ball before the man'

that should be a red

another amazing barca goal

wait what? ref's just sent off pique and given a peno, not clear why

for a handball as he fell on it, looks very dubious tbh

Two nonsense cards.though would say the penalty was fair enough.

this game's crazy

don't have to be psychic to predict real to kill em here

ronaldo 1 goal away from 200 goals

Lol what are you doing there carvalho?

ah he's always carried on his run anytime he ever got it into midfield

playing on after a serious injury to a team-mate happens all the time, but when defibrillators are involved, I think there's maybe a level of discretion which should be used.

well, generally, you don't die of a broken leg.

otoh cycling tours never quit when a guy crashes to his dead. (but usually 80% of rider is unaware at that specific moment anyway..)

(and they have a protest day, the day after, after which all is back to normal)

ozil with some fantastic skills in this first half

real win this - which i'm fairly sure they will - i'll have won £100 today. I love gambling.

h8 gambling

but wp, anyway

a lot of big matches today but i'm kinda ~~~~ about football today

third getafe goal....codina and cata diaz, meshuggah

pipita just hit the post with a beautiful volley.

same as last post but with forlan.

what a pass there from marcelo

you guys are rubbish when it comes to indicating what scores are etc. btw.

79' real 2-0 atletico

what about the barca?

they won 3-1.

that was pretty cool by C-Ron

my bad sam, didnt know there was much interest beyond those watching tbh.

barca handed out a killing but didnt really put it to bed, had pique sent off harshly and were put under a bit of pressure before it ended 3-1. had two ruled out in first half.

real played rings around atletico without ever getting out of second gear. businesslike.

sam:

http://soccernet-assets.espn.go.com/scoreboard?league=esp.1&cc=5739

but at the same time atleti had plenty of chances. spell in the first half when they were 2-0 down when they had plenty of chances to get back into it. of course it's not like real didn't have loads of opportunities themselves.

ha yes xp - there was a reference to 'third Getafe goal' upthread which had me mighty confused 'til I looked it up on the bbc (who said it finished 0-0, obv)

ok so anyone want to have a go at explaining the benzema thing? why has he failed so spectacularly? also only just clicked that real only have two strikers (+ cr7), which seems bonkers.

utd only had cron7 and two rightbacks, and they lumped to the CL

they play 4-3-3 xp

cf: higuain, benzema, c ronaldo if necessary
l/rw: that lot & di maria, pedro leon, with ozil, marcelo, canales if necessary

however it's well known mourinho wanted a drogba type (ie him, with mario gomez and lukaku also considered) in the summer, but madrid wouldn't fund it

everything is so fucking stupid at madrid, higuain has been on a thin line since perez returned while benzema is indulged because he was bought by the current administration

dunno was that a red but there was some force in that coming together

i cant see the contact that deserves a red. imo caceres has maybe anticipated that, made a meal of it.

It didn't look like a red to me - was like a fifty-fifty more than anything. It's a pretty intense game.

I really dislike teams playing in white shirts, white shorts and coloured socks.

now, were i a ref, i'd just fuck that goalie off the field and beat him savagely. then give him a red.

Great game that was. There's an intensity about real top-level stuff that is very gripping. Wonder how much is down to crowd noise actually? A crap soundtrack can make decent games seem dull.

Also, 2-0 is perhaps my favourite scoreline, especially when the second comes late on.

i didn't really feel it tbh, an awful lot of pointless possession. that capel would just drive you soft.

everything is so fucking stupid at madrid, higuain has been on a thin line since perez returned while benzema is indulged because he was bought by the current administration

yeah this is so rong rong rong rong rong. but then benzema at lyon was looking like a new drogba- a fucking powerhouse with all the qualities of a great all rounder- i just don't really get how he turned into the spanish equiv. of forlan-at-utd (for the price of shev-at-chelsea)

benzema looked like the new... diego tristan maybe? just this hulk that wanted pointing at the goal, would batter down walls to get there.

would have him at spurs in an instant, even allowing for the couple of years in it. get vdv on the case imo.

You know who should be the most sort after striker in Europe right now and perfect for both Real and Spurs? HULK.

naaaah

^^

falcao has a great strike rate at porto, where will he end up?

there's this dude Humberto Suazo

The real answer is Andy Carroll btw

afellay to barca. just glad we didn't waste money on him; as psv's main creative threat he's made them... drop like a benitez team and he's like 15th choice for Holland. Poor mans Pienaar come transfer windows imo.

He's not gonna get much playing time is he? And what happened to Bojan?

bojan has suffered from messi-sized expectations. he's still a good forward, will most probably make it into the spain squad if torres or villa get crocked and he should stay at barca. may end up a terrific world class forward, he's certainly at the right place and around the right people for it to happen. think barca are shooting themselves in the foot for not treating his (and dos santos's?) career arc more like pedro's.*

*also has its downside though as assuilin preferred to become a free agent then wait.

if the €3m fee is correct they're not necessarily putting too much faith in him either

why would they have to? contract coming to an end in the summer - so similar to krancjar/what pienaar will go for. he's not ozil - this is how most deals for good/decent/promising players will be done from now on imo (not incl. real and city).

What happened to assuilin?

yeah you might be right, though i probably wouldn't include barca either.

after all this is the club that paid €25m for a decent promising ukrainian cb little more than a year ago

Dude was like 40% of why Shakthar won the UEFA Cup but whatever. One day he'll move back into western Europe and be a legend, promise ya.

is there a decent pub in east/north london sure to show el clasico on monday/has anyone illegally streamed football on an ipodtouch before - how is it and how?

some background about the weird scheduling

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/writers/sid_lowe/11/15/clasico.monday/index.html

The style of that thing - it's like some weird mix of euro-english and Hemingway.

sid lowe?

i dunno

compare this sentence

Before the decision was made, Real Madrid's director general Jorge Valdano pointedly described the possibility of the game being held on a Monday as "the best way to help football lose its prestige" and now that those fears have been confirmed Madrid's sporting Director Miguel Pardeza complained: "Monday is the day that no one wanted. There were problems [with playing at the weekend] but other solutions should have been sought."

with these

Guts, too. And those are things the LFP simply does not have.

euro-english!

is that even an identifiable thing

in the sense of the EC Journals' mode of prose, rather than Steve McClaren's

IJSDIR is a peer-reviewed journal published exclusively on line by the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission.

The aim of the Journal is to further the scientific endeavor underpinning the development, implementation and use of Spatial Data Infrastructures (SDIs). These are defined as frameworks of technologies, data, policies, institutional arrangements, and people aimed at increasing the availability, understanding, and use of spatial data and services to support policy, business, research, and society at large.

"I sort of knew when I came here and Champions League, er, Liverpool and Arsenal, I thought maybe one of them we would draw and it is Arsenal. Of course it is a bigger interest now for English football, England manager abroad take his team to Arsenal. Big games, Champions League, Arsenal at home, the Emirates, will be fantastic for the players. I say, erm, I think we are not just, what you call, underdogs, we are massive underdogs."

no-one answered my question ;_;

soz....notice it's monday week tho...

oh, i thought it was this coming monday.

was preparing for best week of football w/ nl derby

^^^lol you said it

lol was an excellent game?

it has been a great day's football no doubt

5-0 at 36 minutes? I had turned it off but I might enjoy a good Saturday afternoon drubbing.

7-0 now. Messi hat-trick.

8-0. Bojan.

101 goals for Messi in La Liga. I expect a video comp.

best league in the world

i should maybe have given the x factor a miss. don't wanna start watching now though, it'll just seem like i'm jumping on the bandwagon.

um, also because it's done.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9nWAz99wgY

you gotta see the offside trap for the last goal

not to harp on a theme, but that's pretty conclusive in its damnation of a primera liga team

♫ harp on,
harp harp harp,
harp on ♫

that video was tailor-made for me btw ty

alice coltrane up in this bitch

only know the sunn o))) tribute :(

btw yr 800% sunnslow contains the devil

that's evil yeah

the 'death trip' slow edit is just horrific, use that as an alarm and you'll never oversleep again

this is the first season in about a half-decade of la liga watching where i've started to doubt the integrity of most of the games

there was of course the herculés victory in the camp nou, but you feel they've just bet their future on expensive contracts for trézeguet, drenthe et al....the rest of the league show the ill effects of individual tv rights and mismanagement (doesn't help that property spivs were a major source of finance)

of course it's not an either/or....messi and barca are stupendously great at the same time as the rest of the league is full of dreck, but the jokes about the SPL seem all too real, the classicos as title deciders even in november

Villareal are leading 2-0 against Zaragoza and both goals have been pretty nice. First one is a big strike from outside the box, second one def looks like Cazorla was going for a cross, missed it but scored a great goal.

http://www.totalbarca.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/e__archivo_graphic_10_1_2_20101128_YKAP28.eps_.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/GZcUB.jpg

serious bros

check the nick of bojan there.

looks like a kid lost in a supermarket. plus he's got a bit of a devilock going on.

nobody fucks w/ jav masch tho

Madrid coach stoned on hotel arrival

^ disappointing headline imo

ha, yeah, thought very same thing.

Masch is so hot.

ha, yeah, thought very same thing.

― ailsa, Monday, 29 November 2010 18:32 (27 minutes ago)

thirded!

The Real Madrid manager, José Mourinho, is unhappy with the choice of referee for the match against Barcelona tomorrow. Eduardo Iturralde González has refereed two games between the teams, with Barcelona winning both times, in 1999 and 2005.

"The statistics are there – Barcelona is happy with Iturralde González and Real Madrid is less happy," Mourinho said on the eve of El Clásico.

Mourinho can count on the return of the striker Gonzalo Higuaín, the midfielder Sami Khedira and the defender Ricardo Carvalho for the La Liga game at Camp Nou after they missed Tuesday's 4-0 win over Ajax due to injury.

The Portuguese coach said the 90,000-plus fans expected at the match and millions of worldwide viewers could expect a world-class game if all the players did their job.

Valdes- Alves- Puyol- Pique- Abidal- Xavi- Busquets- Iniesta- Pedro- Messi- Villa

Casillas- Sergio Ramos- Marcelo- Carvalho- Pepe- Khedira- Xabi Alonso- Ozil- Di Maria- Ronaldo- Benzema.

have barely watched any la liga at all this season tbh but still pretty psyched for this...

higuain supposedly ready to start also?

xp maybe not then

looking at those lineups, wd back madrid

'Gonzalo Higuain has not recovered from injury in time to play at the Camp Nou, so Karim Benzema starts up front'

surprisingly attacking lineup from madrid

nice to see bbc livebloggahs on dis ting

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/9239226.stm

Such a shame I am again relying on BBC updates but I'm stoked. Seen hardly any la liga this season but I don't care. Come on Real! Actually, come on a 4-4 draw but still...

i am stoked, i thought i had an hour to get ready but this shit's on in like 5 minutes huh

35

WHEW

madrid 2-1

www.veetle.com/index.php/channel/view#4cf13ee22f227

hm do I install veetle player on my work comp y/n

Glad I checked this thread, I had it in my head it was 9pm. This is probably because my dad told me it was on at 9pm, but I realise this is because he was in Spain when he told me and was talking local time.

wait is this on espn3?

no way are real winning. 2-1 barca.

early goal by ronaldo, real park the bus, and maybe a late equaliser by iniesta.

YES ESPN 3

BITCHIN

!!!!!!

That's an amazing finish, to adjust that quickly

replay reveals goal to be lucky and involve xavi's arse

h8rs gonn h8

ignore me

real surprisingly shit today

v weak from rmad tho

XD

jose is a cuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunt

sad to see casillas aka the only likeable madrid player setting up pedro

casillas could have done better but I suspect most keepers wouldn't even have gotten a touch there

ozil is somewhat likable imo but yeah xp

disastrous defending so far tho, altho barca are playing alluringly

liked alonso until last week

khedira seems alright maybe

i was actually thinking it was strange how many likeable dudes were in this real team: Khedira, Alonso, Ozil all ok by me.
xxp

man this is one-sided

di maria is likeable for his rabona finish last season

god damn it something load why dontcha. although seeing this share space with droylsden v leyton orient on the bbc liveupdate is pleasing.

cr7 went there

dunno how i forgot what a little bitch he is

^^^^^^^^^^^^ x100

ama-rilla para villa

:D

some great corners been taken in this game

it's not just about finding the first man, it's about finding him feet-high

messi you creep!

Quite Tasty

only been watching 10 minutes tbh but jose needs to get a diarra on (for benzo maybe, marty feldman can be the apex instead) and push him and khedira up to get ahold of the fucking pelota cos theyve no platform for anything here

signed, a tactical oaf

marty feldman, that's it

fuck a epl this is 4real

(the rest of the league pays for it tho obv)

this is the ghastly cadre of capitalism as kicked around a field by the forces of evil and midly dislikeable

lolj

like city vs utd or milan vs inter is any better

no wait I meant cadaver, kill me

still very much alive iirc

well, I started off meaning cadre because lol they've hoarded worldsbest but ended up being cadaver mid-sentence

lj fuck off and watch leicester vs notts forest for some real authentic football vibes, ya dobber.

wait no fuck i DID mean 'cadre' but meant it as 'nucleus' then got confused when i looked it up so assumed i must have meant 'cadaver' but of course capitalism is as you say extant in excelsis

hahaha jim i am enjoying this tho

lol jim

heh, just joking.

david villa giving inzaghi a run for his money as king of being offside.

good honest nutritious real british no nonsense honest britbloke footie

vs swarthy degenerate fannydangle

david villa giving inzaghi a run for his money as king of being offside.

It's a tribute to a fallen comrade.

mourinho out

classic inzaghi.

Offside like, but who cares?

Super Villa!

this fuckin game

What a fucking pass

Super Fuckin' Villa!

dunno if that was rly offside, was super close

not sure whether it's more fun if it is actually offside

fuckers getting raked.

(1st 1) xp

ray hudson just said re messi: it's like playing poker with a witch - you're gonna lose.

this is so fucking great

this is the kind of game hudson lives for

Fantastic fourth

very enjoyable first hour

need five or more for a proper raking imo

josé doing damage limitation subs within the hour = awes

h2h goal difference will be first determinant should they finish level

Blimey

i've finally come across an english-commentary stream that works for me, except they're barely audible over the crowd noise. it's kinda cool.

except that it broke the instant i posted that.

Jose has been cunted.

time to aim for 9.

i guess jose can sneakily sign inter's back four + cambiasso in that brief january period when they won't have a manager.

Starting to get a little humiliating now

srsly, double backheels

Toying with them. Love it!

Would be cruel to send him off for that

OptaJose Opta Sports
by OptaJoe
4 - Barcelona are the first side ever to score more than three goals against a side managed by José Mourinho in any competition. Special
3 minutes ago

lol cheerio Carvalho, surely?

Why are the commentators playing this "let's all feel sorry for the opposition and not send someone off even when they should be sent off?" pish?

jose should quit before they end his home record too.

all this game is lacking now is a ronaldo red card

What does big Sam have to say about this?

Jose looking glum - air of a man who knows trolling is beyond him here

what a pass! ok barcelona are quite good

this is pretty mad. the best i've seen them, i think.

barca's work in the tackle has been excellent tbh

main thing to take from this game

LIQUID FOOTBALL

Barca will take the win but what they really wanted was fronthanded praise from Jagger

quite good, but definitely in need of a talentless journeyman to cunt in a 40-yard volley every now and then.

only then will they be great.

still time for mascherano to come on iirc

Why are the commentators playing this "let's all feel sorry for the opposition and not send someone off even when they should be sent off?" pish?

― ailsa, Monday, 29 November 2010 21:31 (13 minutes ago)

^^^^^^^ x 100

h8 it when referees show sympathy

at least a couple franco cunts should have been sent off

60-80m were just awesome, minutes of continuous possession, total control

Was gonna say a 4-0 up there with the 94 European Cup final but Jeffren has ruined that now

at least a couple franco cunts should have been sent off

fully agreed btw - rmad need all the misfortune they can get

nice stuff from barca again

yr right abt the minutes of controlled possession but by then all life had gone out of the franco blancos

What's crazy is that scoreline doesn't properly illustrate the utter, crushing dominance.

Here' your red card

oh haha, byebye

RAMMY. who's off? and why?

Ramos, for any number of things in a three-second orgy of violence

that first-time chipped dink over the pressing man that started the move for that 5th wz some shit

if i was barca sub goalie i wd haymaker ramos as he came off w/o compunction

Huh never knew adriano left sevilla to sit on the bench

lol. i'm impressed by his strength, throwing a big lump like puyol to the ground so easily.

god ramos is a fuckwad

The only annoying thing about this result is that Eamon Dunphy predicted it would happen on RTE last week.

no love lost in spain's all-conquering defence!

Amazing match.

if i was barca sub goalie i wd haymaker ramos as he came off w/o compunction

― underrated aeroflot disasters i have wikisearched (acoleuthic), Monday,if i was barca sub goalie i wd haymaker ramos as he came off w/o compunction

yr cornrows are all wrong son

madrid cabron saluda el campeon tbf

great game huh? ramos is all time worst, always has been always will.

that was easily the best league game i've seen

6-2 in the bernabeu was great but the (even more) complete raking & presence of mourinho, ronaldo and perez piltdown made this so much more fun

really intrigued where mourinho will go from here

usually when he loses it's either bitter trolling about marginal decisions or 'small team taught us lessons about commitment'

getting sonned by arch enemy is new ground tho

best games i've seen all tend to be two-sided affairs tbh, sure barca put on a show and rmad got just desserts but there was no tension or narrative other than 'how much further can the knife be pushed'

Take it to the challops thread, dude.

yeah but this was madrid, not just a run of the mill raking

it ~ought~ to have been a two sided affair, i mean madrid are still probably 2nd/3rd best side in the world....

Feel so sorry for Xabi stuck aboard the Mourinho prison ship :/

there was an abundance of metanarrative

i'm all for dialectics & tension, but watching the cunts get kicked into a well-deserved coma in such spectacular fashion is just.....better

agree it was a good book w some quality belletristics

not the best league match however

there must be some staggering stats re passes completed, possession, shots etc.

best games i've seen all tend to be two-sided affairs tbh, sure barca put on a show and rmad got just desserts but there was no tension or narrative other than 'how much further can the knife be pushed'

theoretically I know how one could see it that way but sometimes you just gotta enjoy things man

So glad I watched I'm A Celebrity instead of this.

possession was supposedly 67/33 but that doesn't seem right

dudes! i very much enjoyed this & it was a fantastic spectacle, but inna 'lol wut wd happen if audley fought manny' way - big ugly bastards got multi-sonned by arabic word-webs

and yeah rmad could have offered more but it became rapidly apparent they were not prepared sufficiently and the rmader of the game was a carnaval of a thousand cuts

watching pacquiao beat up audley harrison would be the best boxing match ever, who are you kidding

(sadly not gonna happen, a weight class too far for pacman maybe)

Jose Mourinho: "One team played very good, one team very bad. Deserved win, deserved loss. Humiliated? No. It's easy to deal with this loss, we just weren't good enough."

it was man utd/blackburn in frilly knickers basically

the most intriguing subplot went from 'balance of power' to 'extent of damage' too quickly for the most august of repasts, just sayin'

the whole 'when/who red card' issue gripped me, truly

manny vs audley would be awesome yes but awesome like this match, not awesome as a boxing contest - awesome as a boxing ritual slaughter

manny v jagger is the fight I'd pay to see right now

haye vs harrison

for this game to have been classic to the max, wd have req'd rmad to play spellbinding defensive vortex until ingenuity in 73rd minute broke deadlock, then rmad wdve had to offer something going forward but get caught on the counter in 82nd for 2-0 but then somehow contrive a goal in the closing 5 minutes before barcelona eventually see the game out w/ air of imperturbability

barcelona eventually see the game out w/ air of imperturbability

they did this from the 1st goal

:D

that was the best barcelona performance i've seen, so probably the best of anyone (france in euro 2000 w/ zidane in full flow would have an argument)

i don't think it's feasible that anyone was going to make a close contest of it.....so u might as well have the most deserved victims on the other end

manny v audley isn't accurate though, is it? part of what made it exciting was that it should've been a close-run thing between two top and fairly equal competitors, except instead it was the most brutal and relentless of cuntings.

if audley was allowed to fight in manny's weight division, as is analogically the case financially w/ rmad and the spanish league, he'd do ok

Audley's "don't throw a punch until they're knackered in the 12th" style wd get him just as beat up in whatever division he plied his "trade".

manny v audley isn't accurate though, is it? part of what made it exciting was that it should've been a close-run thing between two top and fairly equal competitors, except instead it was the most brutal and relentless of cuntings.

― Antoine Bugleboy (Merdeyeux), Monday, 29 November 2010 22:22 (2 minutes ago)

yeah exac

i've def seen better games but only in cl/ec/world cup etc

league games will seldom have the same tension cuz it's 'just 3 points'

i'd guess a late season title decider between two challenging teams like liverpool/arsenal back in the day might have it, but i've never seen one of those

Madrid needs to find a manager who can put fire in the team's belly.

http://img600.imageshack.us/img600/6673/sdfscf.jpg

nakhchivan's last point is otm although I do think the whiteshirts were badly prepared and unusually dim - moreover barca were playing up to the occasion as is their wont - rmad are a big part of the reason why they played like that I think

relegation deciders make for the best league games ime

Last year's Liverpool-Arsenal was probably the most entertaining club game I've ever watched, but there was a lot of us in the pub so *Arsh shrug*?

OptaJose brings the stats:

OptaJose Opta Sports
by OptaJoe
Barça-Real FT stats – Shots 15-5, on target 6-2, Passes 684-331, Pass completion 89%-74%, Possession 67%-33%, Fouls 12-16

wigan/sheff utd in 2006/7 was pretty great, awesomely gritty and inept, phil jewell's phyz a contortion of anguished lard, an obese 35yr old david unsworth with the winning penalty

I say this with a full understanding of the irony but I'm with lj; absolute dominance isn't neccessary in great viewing. Or maybe I'm still butthurt they couldn't fit zlatan in.

When they sell alves and put in jeffren, then all they need is a Spanish abidal replacement to become the greatest homegrown team in history, yes? Or is messi the cheat that stops them overtaking in tf Ajax?

considering all those hormone shots and whatever else they pumped young messi with i'd almost consider him homegrown

yr still holding a candle for yr chinless balkan chum imo [xp]

villa >>>>> zlatan

zlatan>>>>messi

unsworth>>>>>>>benzema

Villa may be better I just think that Zlatan would ultimately be better suited if they fucking played him the way Milan currently are. Shows that Pep doesn't understand tactics, he just understands how Cryuff taught him to coach, if that makes sense.

Only being annoying contrarian (who has just said this could be best hg team ever) because I haven't watched it yet. Will download the whole match when I have the opportunity.

srsly watch the match and tell us zlatan could have done better than villa today

I don't make a habit of visiting jere, but that was the best league game I've seen since Liverpool beat forest 5-0 in .... 87?

I never said that though.

he's not quick enough or adapted to the sort of lightning interchanges barcelona trade in

however, i don't think villa would be as good playing cf in milan's current team

'pep doesn't understand tactics' is challops, he's said he'd like to coach in england and i imagine he'll show his qualities with a different type of team

88 not 87

matador won that one.

rly want to excelsior the run of posts intra unsworth mentions inclusive but have 2 few sbs in reserve to see off corresponding american wrath

tikileaks

needs 1x football-specific excelsior thread.

but we should put it on ile

just cos fuckit

I agree, I will lend my Americanness in support.

always remember the "special relationship"

^ yank egging the brits into an unnecessary global clusterfuck. should end well.

I'd post it myself if I knew what lj was talking about.

Neither of these teams would be able to live with the guts, effort and heart of a pure Premier League side. They may inadvertently win the game by scoring more goals through playing much better football, but their heads would be bowed in shame come the end as they will not have matched the honest toiling of players running around really quickly without the ball.

lol from guardian e-mailer

honest troilling

messi is so good i want to cry with joy watching these highlights

so many moments of unlikely competence, from so many barca players. Every touch was so perfect, so effortless. Great viewing, fuck a 'contest'.

Sure sure but I can't remember the time I watched an el clasico and Real didn't suck. Barca must fucking love playing them (like any team they get in the CL 2nd round lols). Just want to watch actual Ronaldo and actual Higu and actual Pepe v. Barca, not these choke artists. If that happens it will be the game of the century, even if it was a 0-0

pepe was p good last night imo

OptaJose 110 - Xavi completed 110 passes tonight, a LigaBBVA record for a match this season, despite being subbed off. Golden.

They were good passes too, ball to exactly the right place gives a team twice as much time/means they can operate in half the space cos then they don't need another touch to bring it under control.

Nov 22 2010

SNEERING Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo last night lit the fuse for El Clasico by dismissing Barcelona's 8-0 mauling of Almeria.

...........

And Ronaldo then sniped: "The win at Almeria doesn't tell me anything.

"Let's see if Barca score eight goals against us on Monday!"

ronaldo...otm?

would be interested to know how many passes Xavi misplaced. I'd guess 0 +/- 0.

think I saw Iniesta misplace one, bucket o shite.

Barcelona completed 636 passes, Madrid 279. "They could have played with two balls," wrote Roberto Palomar, "and Barcelona would have controlled both." Xavi, the best central midfielder in Spanish history and the man who ran last year's clásico, completed 114 of 117 passes.

Sure sure but I can't remember the time I watched an el clasico and Real didn't suck

rm 4-1 in 2008 iirc

anytime guti runs a game doesn't count iirc

That was probably the greatest performance I've ever seen. Flawless.

Barca stand alone in world football right now, but it does make me wonder how strong the Spanish league is below Barca. I read over the weekend that Ricky Carvalho had been outstanding for Madrid so far and given that he hasn't played well for about three years, it did make me question how good the opposition he is facing is.

Neither of these teams would be able to live with the guts, effort and heart of a pure Premier League side. They may inadvertently win the game by scoring more goals through playing much better football, but their heads would be bowed in shame come the end as they will not have matched the honest toiling of players running around really quickly without the ball.

Did this really make you lol? I see it as tiresomely predictable from a bunch of snarky twats. I seem to spend my life constantly disappointed that people actually enjoy the Guardian/Fiver brand of content-free snideness.

would barca beat utd atm?

Nobody can beat utd. they are zombies.

I think so, esp when you look at the teams who have scored against Utd so far this season. Great unbeaten record but they've lost a lot of goals to significantly worse teams than Barca.
xp

Fulham 2, Everton 3, Liverpool 2, Bolton 2, West Brom 2, Stoke 1, Wolves 2 & 1, Villa 2, Blackburn 2

^ most of those are struggling teams in the bottom half of the table.

Blackburn 1, sorry

yeah but this utd smother football. They bother me.

I don't think they have the midfield to smother Barca.

Barca would win 24-1 at home, 7-0 away.

Though any 3 out of Rooney, Nani, Berb, PeeWee all on top of their games would give Barca a lot more to think about than most of what they face every week in Spain.

think barca might give qpr a game. we'd scrape it though.

ummm, ronaldo on an off day >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>Berb, Rooney, Nani, PeeWee on top of their games.

Thing is that for all the carping about how rubbish real were, I honestly don't think I can tell whether they played badly or not. They just didn't get a kick, the dominance was so next-level that it was more like eras clashing, Hungary 1953 style, where level of performance is basically irrelevant.

As Ramón Besa wrote in El País: "Goals fall at Camp Nou like autumn leaves: naturally, beautifully and serenely."

feel wretched at admiring this line tbh.

ummm, ronaldo on an off day >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
>>Berb, Rooney, Nani, PeeWee on top of their games.

― wheezy f baby (a hoy hoy), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 13:53 (2 minutes ago)

retract this now

hungary still conceded 3

y lj?

might take out like 3 >s, or 4 if i'm being super nice.

coz those are all qual players and it follows that ronaldo on an off day is going to be kinda shit, those on an on day will be very effective, yr logic makes no sense

barca just played themselves last night, to see if they could just do 90 mins of as-good-as-it-gets. Real were a byline. Agree with ismael, it's hard to come to any conclusion of mourinho's madrid based on that.

Barcelona would destroy United, 2-2. Utd are crap but unbeaten and I am starting to believe they are voodoo football.

Would United beat Real? Probably. Not sure Chelsea or Arsenal have the discipline to though.

pete you r going 2 look q silly when utd lose to stoke

ronaldo on an off day better than any of those guys in form, even berbatov.

I can take the hit to my pride.

ummm, ronaldo on an off day>>>>>>>>>>>

Ronaldo generally >>> all of those, agreed - but on a off day he's a fucking useless moaning diving petulant unproductive fuck - though those off days are way less frequent than they used to be. Those 4 United players I mentioned hooking it up as a unit should create chances against anyone.

Should Utd and Barca meet in the knockouts, on current form I'd say 2-2 or 2-1 at Old Trafford and 3-1 or 4-1 at Camp Nou.

Utd vs Real Madrid would be closer - last night's unclassico performance aside I still think they have enough to put United out.

Basically can't see Utd winning the CL and I think their position in the league is a reflection of how few "big" teams they've played (beat Spurs & Liverpool at home, bore draw with City away - no-one else really).

Barcelona would destroy United, 2-2. Utd are crap but unbeaten and I am starting to believe they are voodoo football.

― isn't house rubbish and Pete W mental (Pete W), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 13:59 (5 minutes ago)

this is pretty funny though I gotta say

real have one awful game without their best striker, stop being best team in the world or even good enough to beat united

Thing is that for all the carping about how rubbish real were, I honestly don't think I can tell whether they played badly or not. They just didn't get a kick, the dominance was so next-level that it was more like eras clashing, Hungary 1953 style, where level of performance is basically irrelevant.

I've been trying intermittently to think of a way of saying this since last night. An evenly-matched game wouldn't have been as OMG WOWZERS since that wouldn't have involved Barcelona being so ruthlessly amazingly dominant. If Real were intercepting Xavi's passes all the time, then where's the OMG BRILLIANCE in that? It's not like they weren't trying, they just couldn't do anything about it.

they could have defended their 18-yard box like tigers

point taken though; once they were behind there was no way back

Jose's got some work to do if he wants to get his home record through another season.

Did this really make you lol? I see it as tiresomely predictable from a bunch of snarky twats. I seem to spend my life constantly disappointed that people actually enjoy the Guardian/Fiver brand of content-free snideness.

― isn't house rubbish and Pete W mental (Pete W), Tuesday, 30 November 2010 13:37 (47 minutes ago)

no not really, but it's pretty neat

it wasn't written by yr 'bunch of snarky twats', it was an email from a reader on their minute-by-minute

yr being totes humourless, also 'carvalho not played well for years' is crap, i seldom watch chelsea but i've seen him bail out terry a few times even in the last couple of years

could do with him now eh?

Carvalho was third/fourth choice last season and had a very average season, and he barely played for two years before that. He sometimes bailed terry out and sometimes terry bailed him out, that's what centre back partnerships do.

A great player in his day, but that was a while ago. Not missed, but probably should have been replaced.

i don't think he's any worse than terry/alex even now, but now he's lost his recovery pace those two are probably better suited to england

not sure if madrid can get anyone better than him unless they want to spend stupid money on thiago silva / chiellini / vidic

Basically can't see Utd winning the CL and I think their position in the league is a reflection of how few "big" teams they've played (beat Spurs & Liverpool at home, bore draw with City away - no-one else really).

Who else is there? They'd beat Chelsea comfortably at the moment and Arsenal could go either way.

that's ridiculously short-termist

i'm sure they'd get over the post wilkins bluestomorrow if they had to play a proper team

Who else is there? They'd beat Chelsea comfortably at the moment and Arsenal could go either way.

Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal away

Chelsea, Arsenal, City home

^all potential dropped points imo for a team that drew with Everton, Villa, Fulham, Bolton, Sunderland and West Brom (not to mention Rangers).

theres no easy dropped potential points in this league richard

Everyone on here is raving about Barcelona, and how they are easily the best side in the world. But Barcelona don't have the ingredients to be a successful side which is agreed on by all pundits and the majority of fans.

Barcelona don't have any physical players. Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Villa, Pedro - all pretty to watch, but they lack the physicality needed to grind out results.

No English centre halves. The Barcelona defenders have grown a bad habit of playing out of defence rather than hoofing it, this shows a real lack of mental strength.

Barcelona play pretty football, and score lots and lots of goals, but this is irrelevant because it is a well known fact that pretty football doesn't win you trophies.

Obviously an extremely sarcastic article. But it annoys me that English fans and media use these cliches which are proved wrong by Barcelona. We must come out of the dark ages and aspire to this level. We praise hard-men who hoof balls out of defense all day long. But the real men are those who not only fight, but show the courage and bravery to show their ability and play with style, instead of playing within themselves.

Our attitude needs to change, because tonight Barcelona have made a mockery of our media and a lot of our fans.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A77700486

by deluded_geordie (U14578885)

^cunning diversionary username from Wenger there

eh barca are the exception to the rule, not the rule itself.

When I first read it I thought it was by LJ until it said he was being sarcastic.

http://www.contra.gr/images/xl/abidal_ronaldo_301110_xl.jpg

bam. the white shoes look a bit chavvy with the barca kit though, needs a fashion rethink.

nice photo

when busquets looks at you like that, you know yr a cunt

or ought to

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/dec/01/scorefests-great-matches-manchester-united-barcelona/print

miserable shit imo

Dude should get invited to the challops thread.

I don't wish to start an argument here.

http://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/images/smilies/rolleyes.gif

Meh. Nice to see lou1s has got a proper gig for himself though.

I'm going to show my ignorance here, but when did Barca start playing like this on a regular basis?

that was a particularly good performance but really, since 2008 when guardiola took over

this season with villa they have gone for all out tiki-taka, 80% possession football rather than concessions to a more direct game like henry/ibrahimovic

but they're never cautious and with forwards like that, always a threat....offside trap is suicidal

Well it depends. Cryuff and co played a magnificent version of total football when he arrived in what 73 or 74 and had the ear of coaches and the president, maintaining that their tactics were always "attractive" football until he took over as coach. Even before he became coach he was supposedly behind La Masia, the youth set up that has given them most of the 90s dream team and the current players such as Pique, Xavi, Iniesta and Pedro. Pep himself was a La Masia graduate and played as an important part of the modified total football Dream Team in the 90s under Cryuff. The importance of how to play beautiful, breath taking football has been there since that grumpy Dutch fella basically. However, as nakh says, under Pep the tiki-taka has gone into overdrive.

As much as I fucking hate Barca, you can't help but be kicked in the face by how beautiful their game is. Of course we should saviour it right now as Xavi has hit 30 and as he has already won everything humanly possible, may not stay in the game much longer. Cesc as replacement will change their game only a little, but that is still a dramatic step considering what Xavi does.

same barcelona lineup from tuesday just kicking off in osasuna (planes fucked etc)

pedro 1-0

http://www.cbq.com.qa/admin/images/qatar_foundation2_donation05.jpg

more than a club

*smug grin*

Denn alles Fleisch, es ist wie Gras

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

England striker Jay Bothroyd will snub the chance of a big-money move to Italy to try to help fire Cardiff into the Premier League. The 28-year-old has attracted interest from AC Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus and as he is a free agent at the end of the season, he can sign a pre-contract in January.
Full story: Daily Mirror

gaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah, wrong thread

lol yeah my bad

u know bothroyd played for perugia

dude I know hannah ljungberg nearly lined up next to gadaffi jr in attack for perugia

there's yer real dream team god team

bothroyd was chased outta town in an anti english pogrom in 1856

only now are political conditions apt for his return

btw if I post hannah ljungberg to WS '10 will there be outcry n.b. I've forgotten what she looks like except 'brunette'

http://www.fansoccer.de/wm2007/vorberichte/schweden/ahHannaLjungberg2007_kl.jpg

a: probably coz yr all fascists on that thread

srsly tho she is quite cute

pretty sure fascists will enjoy a viking with tits

haaaa

Barcelona get sponsored by a non profit organisation and that invalidates its history as a bastion of catalan identity how?

People in the emirates stadium shouldn't throw stones.

never said we were "more than a club"

cr7 just scored a decent wee free kick. madrid up 2-0 against bottom place zaragoza, who, to be fair to them, came out quite well, just outclassed. ozil got the first one - neat, slotted, caño(yes i'm a wanker) finish.

not that long since zaragoza had both militos, piqué, oliveira, aimar, d'alessandro, zapater, julio césar

gone to shit

damn. and humberto suazo don't forget!

never forget

cron7 fk was a bit of a topspin cunt, why dont more players practice that loose knee-swing?

apparently his daft stance he does before free-kicks is based on rugby players. he's a technician.

he centres on the ball as opposed to approaching it from the opposite side to his good foot- topspin, i tell ya

barcelona just scored such a typical barcelona goal.

xavi to messi, messi through ball down the wing to pedro, cut across for villa to put it into the roof of the net from inside the 6yd box.

6-0 prolly tonight

kinda what what it must be like for a team like rso going to camp nou these days

kinda wonder

(in the butt)

apt

itt: lj explains why pl knuckledraggers would at least keep it respectable at the camp nou, via bigness, muscular xtianity and never say die spirit

pl knuckledraggers? try championship knuckledraggers, you effete la liga watching heathen!

championship? none of those nonces wd last three seconds in the teeside district probationers league div III

dan shittu had his liver shived out and served for half time parmos when they played stockton over 40s gbh xi in a preseason friendly

am on the record as saying the championship is the most physical league in british football

kind of a hard judgement call to make unless you're regularly watching the highland league, Northern Premier League Premier Division, Irish league etc.

lovely goal there from don andrés.

he won't feel so sheepish when he gets the ballon d'or now

ok, well when one accepts that physicality is to a large extent tied in with fitness, and that generally the fitter players are, the better they play, then it follows that the most physical leagues are going to be found near the top of the footballing pyramids

and I'm gonna say that the English Championship is from what I've seen more physical than the SPL, the EPL or anything else you'd throw at me

Barcelona are beatable, but I'm beginning ot suspect only beatable either through the dark arts of absolute defensive rigour or playing them at their own game slightly better - would love to see either approach widely adopted and for football to schism into a glorious battle between the forces of light and dark

that's the sort of sporting narrative that gets an LJ tugging at the leash

afaik 'physicality' is to a large extent tied in with size and psychopathy

ji-sung park is has good fitness but put him up against 300lbs of recidivist weirdo and he won't come out too well

is

i was being quite pedantic there i suppose.

feeling bad cheering on barcelona's goals into the goal of my quasi-compatriot claudio bravo, who i rate and think will go on to bigger things than sociedad. He did make a high profile fuck-up in the WC against Spain which possibly might have set him back if anyone was watching him (was a total howler where he came out when he really shouldn't have, a la David James).

team i expected might be able to beat them would be madrid, playing counter-attack. that never happened but that's not to say on a different day it wouldn't.

suggest lj proposes a 3000 word piece to WSC in which he travels from thanet to thurso in search of the most violent team in the isles

ok, well when one accepts that physicality is to a large extent tied in with fitness

first hurdle

achill sheepshearers xi gotta be a tough lot rite?

maybe a team of croxteth scallies who got kicked out of everton's academy for being too violent

we go by the name st vincents iirc tbh

yeowza

team i expected might be able to beat them would be madrid, playing counter-attack. that never happened but that's not to say on a different day it wouldn't.

real madrid were disappointingly compromised between the need to defend and the need to entertain

they should have just locked it down and parked the bus, cr7 thru the middle as fulcrum of any forward surge and perennial out-ball

16th in the league, jesus fucking christ.

goal by messi.

goals by messi.

i am an effective communicator.

wau 3-0 messi

the boy's a bit good

looks alright there but would he fancy a wet wednesday evening at new love street?

why the fuck did they buy jav masch

I'd rather trawl through Britain looking for the team which adheres most purely and rigorously to the tenets of defensive preservation, exhibiting exemplary 5-2-2-1 catenaccio revivalism and the art of the niggly foul

in many ways I wish Rodgers' Swansea played more like this^^^

w/o going totes lj, this routinized dominance gets dull

he was the best player in his position in the world iirc xxp

routinised domination through technique and passing excellence is not a problem in any way

blue and white traffic cones inch their way towards the ball, which is already 10m away

not if it's against madrid xp

but this lot wanted to go home from before the first minute

this isn't great tbh, i don't mind domination per se but i think xavi is a bit quite here and there's not yet been one of those incredible long threaded balls yet to set up a goal. though that wee back heel there was tasty.

i like mascherano but guardiola clearly prefers busquets and the captain of argentina isn't going to tolerate being a substitute

so he's gonna ask for a transfer asap

wltk precisely how Hercules got 3 points off this lot - what gameplan did they use? and have Barcelona hit their stride sufficiently that such a result is now a fantasy, were they to be playing anyone else including a World XI of non-Barca players?

off with tevez to ???? inter ??? xp

hercules had noe pamarot tho

hercules- counter attack down flanks, mainly through that dutch left back that pwnd the under 20 wc a few years back that real didnt want

drenthe, right?

royston drenthe, faster than a speeding bullet, outside the pitch too, got done going through red lights at some crazy speed down downtown Alacant.

so yes, the answer is to be incredibly defensive but have 3 forward players who are g-d fast and have excellent touch and movement

be inter milan last year.

trezeguet isn't g-d fast

g-d french.

I'm saying to stop Barca in their current cogency

think villa is the key figure possibly. he combines really well, looks like he was formed in the farmhouse if you know what i mean.

basically u play 10-0-0 away, have lucio, cesar, samuel, maicon and cambiasso (ie arguably the best players in all defensive positions except for lb)

and u get lucky at home

yeah I mean the crucial thing is that Inter were v lucky, and Barca are now playing better than they did last season

but I am sad that Mourinho's defensive project has not persisted. dude could have brought back the glory days

catenaccio is not glory days. catenaccio is get beaten in the final of the european cup by people from lanarkshire and ayrshire.

but that's the glory days, right?

yr repping for catenaccio is tired contrarianism

not even a case of the devil having the best tunes, catenaccio is the work of dismal actuaries

mure then a fookin' cloob

^^^the dream, make it so

there are those great quotes by lil jimmy johnstone abt the humbled giants of inter at lisbon

jim'll fix it w/ a quick google i hope...

"There they were, Facchetti, Domenghini, Mazzola, Cappellini; all six-footers wi' Ambre Solaire suntans, Colgate smiles and sleek-backed hair. Each and every wan o' them looked like yon film star Cesar Romero. They even smelt beautiful. And there's us lot: midgets. Ah've got nae teeth, Bobby Lennox hasnae any, and old Ronnie Simpson's got the full monty, nae teeth top an' bottom. The Italians are staring doon at us an' we're grinnin' back up at 'em wi' our great gumsy grins. We must have looked like something out o' the circus."

^^^^^^

and yeah haha I am kinda riffing on the catenaccio point - although it'd be nice to see a top team employing a revised defensive tactic WITH the aforementioned spearhead - not catenaccio but something sleek, modern and nigh-on impermeable...hence, not something employed by cloggers and violent journeymen, but a fully coherent and assimilated system of covering and pressing

and even a total football ELEMENT - with a three-man spearhead, another player can always join in with attacks, even a full-back

a fully coherent and assimilated system of covering and pressing

― schlomo replay (acoleuthic), Sunday, 12 December 2010 21:34 (7 seconds ago) Bookmark

i'd guess if u assembled the top managers in europe, they'd probably rate barcelona as the best team in the world on that front

pressing ~isn't~ such a defensive strategy because if successful it means gaining possession high up the pitch......and in that situation u gotta be able to ~do something~ with it

work it back to yr goalkeeper and launch it iirc

Inter were fucking amazing last year and only slightly lucky to beat barca. There were precisely one Bojan miss between them and as Inter took their chances better they earned it.

xp Tevez and Masch to team up at the Hammers, four years on? And this time keep them up in even more dubious circumstances if possible

i had respect for inter because their defenders were also great technical players....lúcio, chivu, maicon

<3 teams that combine power and technique, which guardiola was trying to do with ibrahimovic, touré, piqué, henry, txigrinski, busquets, abidal.....but ultimately barca are better as a pure technical side

messi hit post from acute angle btw

basically my point here is that barcelona are better than anyone else in living memory and because there is little else to say about them, I stave off boredom by nonetheless forging ahead and saying it

technically adept defenders are necessary for an ultra-defensive system - the best way to defend is to keep the ball obv

doesn't that break down the offensive/defensive binary.....if u keep the ball, then yr liable to bring it far up the pitch....otherwise passing among yr back four is an accident waiting to happen

lol iniesta with the guardiola and catherine zeta jones posters <3

anouvver

when it's a back five w/ two defensive midfielders, the possibilities are manifold - retain 'rear midfield' possession, draw out opposition, spring balls thru for waiting trifecta of speedsters

ok, i'll admit this much- messi is p much like watching someone beat their 8 yr old cousin on PES, which can be boring sometimes, as long as you forget that he is playing against other top level professional footballers

never find messi boring when he's playing in pro evo cheat mode like that

five btw

damn, at the break they showed the bet in play being something like 12-2 for 5-0. thought about going for it :(

lol ok I watch for 30 seconds and there's a goal

they have 2 mins to fulfill my prediction of 6-0 or gtfo

ref didnae even play the full extra time

took pity on the euskadi nobodies

breaking news: ilx poster 'nakhchivan' made to look stupid

........

already happened on 'should there be an i love football' thread

yall can blow triggs' putrescent corpse

hahaaaa

also diduknow: my gf and I are going to learn Basque together, it will be my first proper foreign tongue except for my substandard French

so don't hate yknow

i heard she was learning galician with a polynesian roughneck

and catalan with an emigré vietnamese climatologist

even i wouldn't be daft enough to learn basque and my name is, while spanish, of basque derivation.

giving me some sort of vague connection to the ridiculous isolate.

cupla focal off a coupla fuckers

nakh her education comes first, it's all cool

jim the thing is, Basque is so different to Romance or Anglo-Saxon languages that I reckon thinking and speaking in it will provoke extremely novel insights and creative vectors

i know it's different, i've heard it once and read about it on wikipedia. you could learn a strange language whose speakers are not all bilingual?

i know an argentine of basque extraction who half intended to learn it before realizing it really wasn't worth the bother

but the idea of a totally isolated language in a sea of indo-european is kinda intriguing

i know about it because i read wikipedia, lol, i'm a dick.

how many basque words can i conjour up

osasuna = health.

askatasuna = liberty

ta = &

maite zaitut = i <3 you

batasuna = unity

conjure, jesus

osasuna = health

never knew this! awes

and would have seemed ironic to all the teams they kicked off the park during their mid 00s golden era

maite zaitut = i <3 you

totally springing this on up on gchat, ty

muxu bat = one kiss (muxu bi = two kisses)

agur = seeya

kaixo = hello

ouri = over there

lol @ osasuna irony

calimotxo = red wine and coca cola.

ooooooooooooooooooooooo
sasuna
where your winger's ankle shall be sprained

berri txarrak = bad news (the name of the region's #1 metal band)

red wine and coca cola.

ok what kind of savage am I dating

it's better than drinking crap red wine straight imo

but I thought the Spanish really got how to make even the cheap red wine nice :(

lol, no.

basque also uses the letter x as 'ch' not 'zh' which automatically makes it nakhchivan's favourite language, surely

(as a HARD 'ch' not as the hellenic soft 'ch' I mean)

naxcivan in azeri iirc

cedilla on c

well that's the cedilla'd c making the hard kraaaatxi 'ch'

the x makes more of a soft 'ch'/'k' sound

yeah i love these crazy ppl w/ their crazy talk

caucusus is full of isolates with uneasy latinization of their weird fricatives

basically anywhere full of mountains and angry ppl has weird isolated languages cuz nobody could be effed conquering them

craxi talk

tbf the spanish have done a good job conquering and subjugating the basque (ongoing) [/politics]

'tx' for 'ch' in basque - there was a 'txina' exhibition on at Bilbao Guggenheim when I was there, full of Ming vases and so forth

txina aguilera

You could rebrand as 'Luís Txagger' or somesuch, though you might want to euskadify your first name a bit

txtxtxtxtxanges

yeah it is 'tx' as 'ch' not just 'x' - the x in 'kaixo' is a 'sh' sound, would you believe, which is if anything even cooler

f'xo

xtfu

didn't see if this had been posted somewhere in the linguistics

http://www.101greatgoals.com/video-jose-mourinho-treated-for-smacking-his-head-on-bench-zaragoza-real-madrid/76362/

Nice reporting, Daily Star:

FC Barcelona's new sponsors have links to a radical Muslim cleric who believes Hitler was sent by God to punish the Jews.

Players will sport the Qatar Foundation's logo on the strip in a £140m deal.

The foundation awards student grants in the name of Yusuf al-Qaradawi, 84.

Fanatic Qaradawi says God sent Hitler to punish Jews, pregnant Israeli women should be killed and murder of any American is justified.

more than a club

yeah I'd say a mace is more appropriate amirite

still though, the daily star is a terrible man

the daily star is published by a man who thinks hitler was sent by the gods of comedy material to troll daily telegraph execs

fuck qatar tho

my friend while acknowledging that the bid was totally corrupt (and pointing out that the corruption has largely stemmed from an agreement that Blatter's main rival for the presidency, a Qatari, will not oppose him at the next election) has pointed out several positive aspects of a Qatari World Cup with regards promoting Middle-Eastern football - although the energy-drain and stadium transportation efficiency hasn't quite been figured out yet

also apparently 'everyone with a ticket will be treated with diplomatic immunity'

still, there's no footballing heritage there and basically it's cart before horse

Should have it in Iraq, the best Middle East footballing nation.

this same friend has pointed out to me that Qatar is top 10 in the world for renewable energy research expenditure. Saudi Arabia is #1. countries know they'll be *fucked* in 30 years amirite

also apparently 'everyone with a ticket will be treated with diplomatic immunity'

could be the best world cup ever, think of the fightin', the pissin' in the streets, the blasphemin'

sounds like a fine recipe for thousands of crazy americans picking off dirty arabs with their high-powered rifles until they're politely asked to stop.

this same friend has pointed out to me that Qatar is top 10 in the world for renewable energy research expenditure. Saudi Arabia is #1. countries know they'll be *fucked* in 30 years amirite

― schlomo replay (acoleuthic), Monday, 13 December 2010 19:12 (36 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

Helps that they have all the money to pump into the great industry of the next 500 years.

barca have scored 28 goals to 0 in reply.

barcelona are the best team I have ever seen

there that'll do I think

http://i.imgur.com/6Pq56.jpg

n e one for the barcelona derby

haven't seen espanyol this season iirc but they're sposed to be violent cloggers

busquets nearly scores an overhead kick

Aye.esp won every home game barça won every away.

veetle.com/index.php/channel/view#4b928a2896938

how long into it?

12m

worst messi miss ever

puyol is like some hilarious villian from some old melodrama

villain too. can't quite believe he's real

like, the way he'll fuck someone up no prob, but then given a chance roll around with absolutely no "hard man" misgivings, he's just 100% heel

some ppl just seem bred to pursue any advantage i guess

that were nice that were.

my visuals died as... pedro? i guess... scored. bet it were one of them fancy barca goals too.

very nice goal. good pass, good run, good first touch, good finish.

good

it was an unusually direct one - longish pass to pedro who tapped it back then went running to await the through ball - but pretty smooth and elegant nevertheless.

fucking long ball teams.

barcelona announced as superior to caesium in atomic clock stock-tock shocka

way 2 shawcross the shit out of that unchill bro, sergio.

imo that's fairly typical. there's the ten million passes team effort goal. there's the through ball goal. and there's the mccourt-esque messi runs rings round folk goal.

how is that not a red? f u ref with yr utd bias.

busquiets is a complete and utter tampon of a player, needs to get shawcrossed.

ha xpost.

busquets is an amazing player.

you need the water-carrier,i'm reminded of a dom passantino post about the little abbot and the something or other.

pretty sure espanyol's sole tactical play of vehemently complaining about everything barca do will serve them well.

do barca fans even get excited when they score anymore?

should we be more excited to be watching the greatest team in the history of the game? (well they are only 3 cl's away from cryuffs ajax team; but then that team never won the wc)

water carrier sure. type to go around committing man slaughter not so much. 'more than a club'

i watched them v. Real Sociedad and u couldn't help be excited tbh

that wasn't that bad a tackle ffs. possibly a red because of studs up, but didn't hurt him that badly.

espanya also having a laugh at mes que un club with a banner. doesn't change the fact that barcelona is mes que un club.

you forget that valdés is actually a decent keeper sometimes. well i do anyway.

think the greatness of busquets is best espied by comparing barca with masch in the team vis-a-vis with busqui. nothing wrong with masch but essentially just a busquets with shit distribution.

it was studs up about a foot over the ball. thats an easy red in english football, let alone spanish.

good game

it ain't nothing so gripping as the north american free trade agreement

nafturally

naftchivan

game was v. dull imo; a steam roller always beats the thing you put in front of it. moved to roma-milan which is already more exciting

btw royally fuck all the capitalist scum draining mexico dry

^^^there is my 8-page essay, enjoyyyy

lol, did i miss a memo, mexico?