is it confirm our capitan, puyol is available for 2nd leg?by the way,TS,update la game pg ni pukul brape..(put more pressure for our new TS.hahahaha)

VV maybe out, he injured, bad news, hope he recover ASAP

FCB - Ath. Bilbao
Half-time 1-0
Villa scored on 4th min.

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Added on February 21, 2011, 6:01 amFull-time result:
FCB - ATH (2-1)
Villa 4'
Iraola 50' (p)
Messi 78'

These two goals came from Xavi > Alves > Villa & Messi.
And unfortunately for Sergio, ATH managed to get penalty kick.

This post has been edited by Peculator: Feb 21 2011, 06:01 AM

really suspend.. after a draw it gijon, lose to arsenal, we really need this win to boost our moral.. we deserved this win.

now it seems more n more teams playing parking the bus against us.. really annoying..

I can't stand pressure bro. Don't pressure2 me

At this rate, if our team fail to beat teams that play like that, I don't really know whether to say our team was playing bad or not.

Like against Athletic, I think we played really well. It was just that the opponents are so negative, that it is very not football.

If we drew, you'll see the match poll in footytube showing more than half of voters would have voted rubbish/average for Barca, while Messi would have got hundreds of thumbdowns if his rating is more than 6.5. But I really believe we played well.

The same accusation were thrown to La Furia Roja being boring during WC. I think they played well, but each opponent they faced were very negative, either with bus-parking tactics or used some kungfu kicks. It is really annoying indeed.

perhaps its a 'new trend' for nowadays football when facing an attacking team style..if both side parking a bus,then who's going to play the game??

palau akupalau

you're out of luck.
last year there was a guy who uploads a lot of barca matches on youtube.
too bad he's been taken down.

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Added on February 21, 2011, 11:39 pmthat has been the case since the start of last season.
other teams noticed how we steam rolled past every team in 08/09 and took notice.
we are better in handling the bus this season i think.
more movements=more chances

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Added on February 21, 2011, 11:42 pm

On the last match.
How was that not a foul on Messi after slaloming past 6 players?
It was not jsut any tackle, it was a hard tackle.
High and dangerous.
If Messi went on and scored a goal, it will most probably be the contender for goal of the year.

Im still bummed that his goal against Zaragoza(away) wasn't voted by FIfa. Instead, the goal Valencia was voted. And they should have included the 4 goals against Arsenal as well as it was something special.


I really don't like the new rumors regarding Wilshere.
I dont know who started it but its going to give us a bad name once again in ENgland.
Im sure it was the press who kick started it.
Last summer, a lot of FAKE news and interviews came out from England.
We dont need anymore bad publicity.
I know that sometimes bad publicity is good but this is definitely not a good one.

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Added on February 21, 2011, 11:46 pmyou damn right you will have a lot of editing to do!
there was this period of time a few weeks back where in every match there was some kind of record to be broken.
crazy crazy.

why don't you put up some special stats after every match.
like against Bilbao(on Astro it said BiLbOA) Pinto had more passes than the entire Bilbao team except for 3 players.
How crazy is that? A GK?
And Xavi had more passes that the whole team combined if im not mistaken

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Added on February 22, 2011, 9:06 amArsenal are at it again.
Jon Miquel Toral will join Arsenal in the summer. Barcelona will receive a transfer fee of 350.000 euros. He is 16 years old.
Good thing is that there is actually a deal with the club.
And the better part is that a more promising youngster whom I've watched a few times on Barca TV already, Sergi Samper, rejected Arsenal.



This post has been edited by barca96: Feb 22 2011, 09:06 AM

The number of their supposedly quotes attributed to Barca players about Cesc make you wonder, how the hell those English press could gain such access to our players? The Sun, Daily Star, etc etc. Xavi in recent interview with Sid Lowe said that he had hardly said anything back then! Sure he said it once or twice, but not THAT frequently.

Just as I thought

And The Sun reported (exclusively of course ) that Rosell have confronted Arsenal chairmen during recent visit. Yeah, IIRC it was Rosell who Laporta entrusted to handle contract renewal in 2003, coincidentally at the same time when Cesc left. So maybe Rosell has already been hurt since then?

This time Arsenal had to pay us though. Because after Cesc left, we started practicing some kinda agreement with our youngster. I don't know what the agreement is all about, but that agreement forced Arsenal to pay us in millions for Merida case. So yeah I think we should have no problem with this deal.

The Sun is a shite publication, of course. I won't even wipe my arse with it.

http://www.101greatgoals.com/the-sun-get-t...-starlet/84717/

As for the Merida case, it wasn't Arsenal that was hit with the bill, but Merida. In moving, Merida was considered to be in breach of his personal agreement but not the buying club. The agreements some Barca players sign are effectively binding contracts without pay, so they're not professional yet but are tied down with obligations. This, in a sense, is a legal workaround from the professional contract minimum age which means that Barca can circumvent those restrictions.

http://younggunsblog.co.uk/2011/02/arsenal...rcelonas-toral/

There is a claim that the money for Toral Harper is training allowance, but if I'm honest, unless the clubs themselves put up an official press release, I won't want to speculate as to what the deal actually was and I doubt we will ever really know (unless he turns out to be a massive superstar as well, after which we'll get a torrent of speculation to sift through).

I found the story about Rosell confronting Arsenal people in The Sun website. When I looked at Toral's pics, I was like.....Isn't that SERGI SAMPER!! Really failed journalism



Thanks for sharing. Yes in a way this is the measure to protect our interest. Too bad we didn't do it with Cesc and Pique.

Hmm, how the hell did Arsenal scouts miss out on Messi?

To be honest, I haven't heard much of this Toral kid too. In Cadete A team (Toral's batch) the most outstanding names are Pol Ballesté and Sergi Samper. So if one day Toral becomes world class, and Barca fans create noises like what we are doing now, you can accuse us for not seeing his potential earlier. Moreover if Arsenal really pay 350K Euros.

But no, Toral's story is not the same like Cesc case. Not at all.

I just found a Arsenal blog which covered the Cesc situation back in 2003. It didn't provide full story, but at least it provided quotes from El Pais and one of Cesc' national youth coach and some of Barca's efforts to stop Arsenal. I'll compile it later

http://www.punchng.com/Articl.aspx?thearti...201102148425574

There's a retrospective story for everything



Very out of the blue. The other names you've mentioned I've heard of before but not Toral.

Will be looking forward to as well, but I will still maintain that whatever they did was not enough

Check out my first link above as well, with quotes from Carles Rexach who talked about the brick wall blocking junior players that Cesc would've seen at the time. When Arsenal was promising a lot of first team appearances, it's hard to compete. I doubt Cesc would have had played nearly as many games as he did in Arsenal when he was 18.

was going to say that in the arsenal thread but by just saying that arsenal signed another youngster from us they already were pmsing,
let them be. they will never think straight and talk like an adult. not just here.
other online fans as well. they are so sensitive.

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Added on February 22, 2011, 10:59 pmArsenal will pay Barcelona Cadete A player Toral a salary that is 35 times more than what Barcelona offered.
Hahha. For sure the Arsenal fans will find a way to make it look good for them.

This post has been edited by barca96: Feb 22 2011, 10:59 PM

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/...n-toral?cc=4716

Its official..
Btw who is this toral?

I found a rotting Arsenal-related blog called Arseweb. Apparently the last update was in the middle of 2007. So this is my collection:



So what can we conclude from this set of articles. I'll make mine, based on my interpretation (remember these texts were dated back in 2003).

1) Barca did value Cesc. It was just that at the age of 16 all Barca could offer was sweet talks. Nothing more. He was too young to be thrown into Lion's den (Camp Nou). But Barca did try to find loopholes that favours them to halt the transfer. We had intended to keep him.

2) Did Cesc make his name in Arsenal? As a world class footballer, yes. But as a hugely potential kid? No, it was with Barca. Did Arsenal really made him a playmeker like bro Nos pointed out? No, he has already been seen as another Guardiola-esque player even while training with Barca. And as Melendez pointed out, he had this maturity that belied his age. Was that Arsenal's, or Barca's work?

3) This Barca DNA thingy has started waaay before Laporta's endless rants. Again, these texts are in 2003

What these articles can't proof:

1) There's no guarantee that Barca could groom him into world class player...

but...

there's no way to indicate Barca couldn't make Cesc a great player either. Sure with Arsenal Cesc at 18 he has got many games under his belt. But is that the only way to make a youngster better? Xavi played regularly when Guardiola was hit by injury nightmare. He was 19. Iniesta played integral part in the first team when he turned 20. Pedro and Busquets rose to fame when they're past 20. Cesc could become great player by following similar path too.

-------------------------------------------------

Charly Rexach only pointed out fears of our youngsters, but not our commitment to groom them. AFAIR, we promoted youngsters nearly every single season. These Dutch people he was talking about, Rijkaard promoted Messi, Oleguer and Thiago Motta, Van Gaal promoted Gabri Garcia, Xavi, and Puyol. Another foreigner, Radomir Antic, promoted Oscar Lopez and Valdes, the latter was given plenty of chance, although he was very wobbly and nervous. So actually where was this brick wall exactly?

So it makes you wonder, did The Mail fabricated the interview too? OK, maybe I'm not playing fair here

Great work Mat.
You should post those excerpts on the Arsenal thread.haha

I read another piece last year where there was a story how Cesc, Pique and Messi crushed every opponent at their youth leagues, how close they were etc.
Unfortunately, that piece is saved in my Australian house.sigh

Oh thx. Nah I'd just keep this in here. I don't want to be accused of trolling. Its a sin here in the internet.

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Added on February 23, 2011, 12:07 pmOh and to minority, I would like to add. If you're going to stand by your argument that Barca didn't do enough, just by judging the final outcome, you have to know that you are oversimplifying the situation. You just take the easiest route for your case, but in actuality you couldn't even give any evidence showing 'Barca didn't do enough'.

This post has been edited by matyrze: Feb 23 2011, 12:07 PM

Nah I was just kidding about the posting in Arsenal thread.
the other I posted a news, adn they went mad already.
i dont really go into other team's threads and im not so old in lowyat so i didnt know there was such a great E-rivalry here. lol

Xavi's down and out.

I hope our starting midfield would be
Iniesta-Keita-Busi
when we need to be conservative 50/50

Iniesta-Busi-Masch when we need to be defensive

Iniesta-Affelay-Busi when attack minded