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?

It's a similar effect to an impeccably-delivered joke, I've even laughed out loud at having my expectations confounded by these guys.

bummer of an article by sid lowe about forlan's fall from grace at atletico http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/sid_lowe/05/11/diego.forlan/index.html

xp yes, cron's amazingly competent, messi's a wizard

I don't think Messi does the unexpected in the same way Ronaldinho did. He kinda has a few signature moves, it's just that they're unstoppable when he gets them right.

think we had it out on the dedicated messi thread, but the difference is that cron uses his height, strength, etc perfectly, and allies it with technical skill that few players outside of a tottenham midfield can rival

but messi's all technique. cron's first touch doesn't even compare. there's something a lot purer evident when watching messi play, though it may not be streets ahead in terms of effectiveness between the two.

― socks & pwns may break my bwns (darraghmac), Wednesday, 11 May 2011 17:31 (55 minutes ago)

this may be the most otm thing you've ever said darragh.

Nah not even close #braggin

http://img694.imageshack.us/img694/4049/levanten.jpg

I guess it's a title decider, but to think I thought minute-by-minuting the Milan derby earlier in the season was a thing

This is boring as fuck.

caicedo has scored a lot of goals this season and is only 22, wonder if he'll ever play for City again.

have we discussed the multi-faceted horrendousness of next year's Barcelona shirt anywhere? Because,

http://cdn3.iofferphoto.com/img/item/202/926/268/2011-2012-barcelona-jersey-soccer-messi-shirt-pant-set-6d2c2.JPG

ew.

no no no

looks a little better with blue shorts?

http://www.footballshirtculture.com/images/barcelona-nike-11-12-home-football-shirt-a.jpg

Not nice. And where's Unicef got to?

i'm guessing Qatar offered more money

xxposts agreed that in terms of magic/unexpected/fun, I can't think of anyone better than ronaldinho at his best. but between cr and messi, I find cr much more fun to watch (both for the football part and the personality part, which most people hate him for !).

loooooooooooooooooooool that is uggo.

unicef have been relegated to the back

http://www.beautifulgear.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Nike_Barcelona_Home_Shirts1-760x1024.jpg

so barca has gone from the last big club without a sponsor to the biggest club with multiple sponsors

Their new away is decent enough, all-black. The Qatar font is awful, though.

Maybe we should have a thread for next season's kits. I quite like Dortmund's home, while Marseille's away "features a kind of graffiti design incorportating different aspects of club culture" and besides that nonsense is the wrong shade of blue.

qatar logo takes it to another level but all new nike kits looking awful it seems

the french ones are lovely

you're right. was thinking of this monster but then i noticed the url so maybe i spoke to soon

good idea for a new kits thread (which could be a poll once we have them all !)

Back on topic:

Sorry, back on topic: Ivan de la Pena retires.

I really liked this piece on him from last month: http://leftbackinthechangingroom.blogspot.com/2011/04/from-cabbage-to-parakeet.html.

bloody hell he was still playing in 2011?

other than the sponser, i like the juve kit.

Hardly since 08/09, but he made five sub appearances the past two seasons so I guess he's been trying to hang on. He looks distraught in the press conference photos, it's sad.

Hamit Altintop has gone to Real, the world goes, "meh."

BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Pix/pictures/2008/06/01/CristianoRonaldo1.jpg

Ah, I think he's earned this one. Didn't even need the dodgy goal in the end.

Joselu's goal was apparently his first touch as a Madrid senior player.

Depor are 1-0 down to Valencia, thus in the drop zone, and look like they might actually try to score a goal. I have some lingering respect for their early-'00s success, otherwise I would be happy to see them go. What a dull side.

Fuck a Ronaldo tbh, I feel for Depor going down. Man, remember them taking the title and being a serious CL side in the beginning of the '00s. Mauro Silva, Fran, Roy Makaay; those were the days. Great jersey too.

Pour one out etc

They were within a whisker of winning the whole thing in 2004. I'd forgotten about coming back from 4-1 down against Milan too til I looked that up just now.

Ex-Spurs keeper César Sánchez is having a monster game for Valencia. He's not 40 for a few more months, Levy should bring him back.

OMG Ismael, thanks for that blast from the past!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO5sRAplrkc

It's Luque scoring too! Totally forgot about his heroic years there, before he withered away at Newcastle and did a Bogarde at Ajax after that.

Depor have had about six great chances between the 85th and 95th minutes. Last-chance corner coming up ...

... and it's cleared away, Soldado makes it 2-0 to Valencia on the game's last possession. RIP Turcos.

RIP

http://www.deportivo-la-coruna.com/pics/regular/Makaay_109.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bertez/387081233/sizes/z/

Biggest surprises other than the usual this season: Bilbao finishing 6th (Europe League), and Mallorca finishing 8th. I've got a weak spot for Mallorca, and somehow it seemed this season they could really go top-flight. Still, 8th is very decent.

Most disappointing team would have to be Getafe: what a downfall.

Oh, and plus that for yet another year Atletico, with all their class players, again aren't finishing third

Those Dubai investors must be delighted.

Mallorca are 17th, not 8th? They only barely missed going down.

Atléti have been awful.

Argh I meant Espanyol, apologies, been staring at the table and must've mixed things up

Özil's pass for Adebayor's first goal is assist-of-the-season material.

Gabi's free-kick was so good. lols at the player who ended up in the back of the net in the celebrations!

http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/3277/la-liga/2011/05/25/2503522/general-manager-jorge-valdano-parts-company-with-real-madrid

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-u-zvysjCA9s/TXDqTf0BmBI/AAAAAAAAAV8/osFBjrZKvrQ/s1600/dog%2Bpoo%2Bon%2Ba%2Bcocktail%2Bstick%2B-%2Bblog.jpg

I don't pretend to understand backroom politics, but this is a significant victory for JM, right?

The narrative of this season could be written very differently after the fact if Barca lose on Sat. and RM really start to gel next season. Copa del Rey final would I suppose be described as a huge turning-point rather than a consolation prize between league and CL losses.

not just a victory but a fairly significant commitment towards mourinho's way of doing things after the scumminess of the barcelona ties

the result of the cl final won't change things greatly, if barcelona lose to a relatively inexpensive and lumpen y'nahtid side then mourinho's tactical expertise is tarnished...

http://a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/252772_165567523505695_136199099775871_403687_2880655_n.jpg

Damn good ranking for ten men teams!