Haih, so true. I can live with one Spanish refereeing style, that they tend to blow whistle for every slight contact. But this crap decisions is too much. We can see this throughout the league this season however. Poor poor standard of refereeing is officiating a top league

And for Messi, he is singlehandedly dragging us through this campaign. SINGLEHANDEDLY. We should be grateful we have him

Well, Pep's tactics should have influenced his performance, but I think Pep himself may think that if not for Messi's ridiculously awesome form, the team may be in crisis by now, seeing how the team has been riddled by injuries to most of our players. From players as important as Puyol and Iniesta, to ordinary squad members like Afellay and Adriano, all have suffered injuries this season. Even our new signings, Cesc and Alexis.

Except our Leo of course. As well as he is technically, he is also a physical monster for his size. Again, we should be glad we have Messi.

So too those Messi's lobs. Do you think its easy to do it?

If you follow Barca this season, you can see that this is arguably the most disjointed team compared to previous seasons, heavily disrupted by injuries. And yet Messi is on course to score 60/70 goals this season alone.

If Messi goes to RM/Man Utd/AC Milan or any other team that can provide him the right platform, I won't say they will go all the way easily. But they will automatically become the number 1 favorite for UCL, like us today. For a team like Basel? Well, probably not winning it, but their quality will increase significantly. Besides, Basel midfield line up is not too shabby either.

Naah that's got to be a cigarette. He is a badass mofo showing off to the world how he can turn the world upside down with both his skill and swag.

Oh, and we had a drunken Messi too, remember?



He is such a badass mofo.


Messi! Messi! Messi!

But Pep still managed to keep his cool

Job well done guys, albeit slower in tempo. Even though we were down to 10, we were still in complete control.

So whoever is in need of a rest can now scream 'sonofab****' at referee's face for Thiago's red card, as the punishment is only 2 match ban, like what Pepe received

I don't know how madridistas can back him up, as he has obviously acted like a clown in Spain. And right now, he seems lost in his own media/PR/wind-up game and campaigns to pressure referees in Spain. Just look how mental he was against Villareal. Went absolutely apeshit on the field, and snubbed post (Villarreal) and pre match (Sociedad) media conference.

The funny thing is, Madrid was so lucky to win at Betis, and during post match, he actually praised him, and said nice thing about Betis, saying how nice Betis' football was. And not only during Betis game, RM was lucky to win in numerous other occasions this season. I'm not saying that there was conspiracy among Spain referee committee, but it really shows how mental this guy is, and how delibrate his campaign is

Compare that to our coach. Among the thing he said during post match yesterday:



I don't know what Mou tried to say that Pep has some similar personality with him. I just can see they are total opposite of each other.

I'm so glad Laporta promoted Pep 4 years ago, instead of hiring this clown. Remember how we were heavily linked with him back then? LOL at us to even considered him

AvB attended Barca B vs Alcoyano game last night. He is taking over for Barca B



B team won the game 2-1. Goals form Rodri and 16y.o Dongou.

What a boring game! Had I known the pitch is like that, I would have decided to check livescore tomorrow morning, instead of sacrificing my sleep time watching it. Players were slipping non stop out there, the movement of the ball was so slow, that it didn't only affect our game, it even made their attack awful Hopefully the tie will be a classic one, the way it should be, at Camp Nou.

If I'm a student I wouldn't have said that. However since I have got to be at the office before 8.30 to have my card punched, I think I'm right to expect good football display from a supposedly high standard UCL match.

Naah I believe they also intentionally made the pitch like that against Arsenal. But I didn't mind watching that game because it only restricted Arsenal from playing well. Milan's attacking on the other hand was so good as a result. The pitch let Milan played to their own strength. So it has its own moments of brilliance, and it is still a spectacle, eventhough it wasn't pretty for Arsenal fans

But against us, they spoilt their pitch, and not only it affected us, it also affected them. That's what I'm so upset about. Alegri said in prematch interview they wanted to attack us, but how could their players attack our goal on such a pitch? It was like they were playing on a big sponge. Ibra and Robinho were absolutely non existence, except for 2 or 3 occasions.

Another thing that I'm frustrated the most is how the performance of our defense is not getting the praise they deserve these days. Individually Puyol, Pique and Masch are recognized, but as a team, many pundits say that our weakest point is the back line. As for last night, Milan defense is heralded as having the better night, while the fact is we found our way through their back line in numerous occasions. Milan also can consider themselves lucky for not conceding a PK.

Our backline just let Robinho's chance slip through them. Other than that, our defense hold firm throughout. We were better at holding our offside trap. We were better at dealing with high balls to Ibra. We were better at tackling. We were better at covering spaces preventing one on one with VV. Heck, we didn't even concede a single corner.

For me the MOTM for last night was Pique. He was our wall, both on the ground or in the air.

Barça present complaint about condition of Giuseppe Meazza pitch

FC Barcelona has presented an official complaint to UEFA about the condition of the pitch at the Giuseppe Meazza for the Champions League match against AC Milan. They passed the matter over to UEFA delegate Mikalai Varabyov (Bulgaria) at the post-match meeting. Varabyov has included the complaint in his report and UEFA will demand an explanation from the Italian club.

In his press conference after the game, which ended 0-0, Pep Guardiola also spoke about the playing surface. He said that “in the end we adapt to everything, we come and we play, but it’s clear that this was a problem for the spectacle”.

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/football/first-...pe-meazza-pitch

Pep's post match interview



Valdes' and Messi's interviews

The fact is nobody deny that they played on the same pitch, and as I said earlier, they too found it hard not te get slipped on that surface. Question is, why did they let their pitch in such condition, if it may effect their gameplay too? You get my point?

And unlike fans in the internet who are accusing Barca of being classless, especially this clueless article, Milan's boss have responded positively on the issue:


This is class respond from a classy club. The fans (or haters) however, behave like fans, as usual. Always consider things on the surface.

Fixed

Oh, and thanks miccy for commenting in nicer way, if you know what I mean

This season's quality:

EUROPA LEAGUE >>>>> CHAMPIONS LEAGUE

Athletic

Schalke

Raul to had a good game. Pity Schalke lost this one. But Athletic were simply brilliant.

Yeah, I've read them. Inter also have released their opinion:

http://www.football-italia.net/17192/inter...d-san-siro-turf

The issue is actually exaggarated when media put up headlines like 'Barca players blame the pitch for the draw' etc etc. Media have completely missed the point. Barca during the game have tried to cope with the pitch condition, and I'd say they've done it pretty well. We had 15 or 17 shots on goal, with 5 on target, to show compared to Milan's 4 attempts. It was not Barca's masterpiece for sure, but that show how Barca managed to coped with it.

The main issue is, why Milan as the host provided a pitch that was arguably unplayable, even Milan players struggled to launch their own attacks. The pitch was detrimental to both teams. That is where the complaint came from. Pep and the players only talk about it during post match interviews, and didn't say a single thing the day after that. I'd say its media's fault for spreading this misinterpretaions, and as usual, the fans take the bait without thinking for themselves.

But responses from relevant parties, namely UEFA and AC Milan have released their statements, and everything is actually good.

---

Added on March 30, 2012, 5:44 pmEdit: And Sh!t.com is being sh!t again with 'AC Milan hit back at Barcelona over pitch complaint' headline, while the response hardly in arguing tone. What a classless website. It is completely banned under my list already.

This post has been edited by matyrze: Mar 30 2012, 05:44 PM

I'm not even sure why I decided to open that classeless sh!t of a website at the first place Maybe I just wanted to make sure whether they have reached my 'expectation' for them, and honestly, they never fail

Before the 2nd leg, we have Athletic this weekend. Oh boy they were absolutely tremendous last night. Glad that their form in Liga is not up to that standard, but since Llorente has returned to their line up, their form probably pick up starting this weekend!

On a much much more positive mood, I wanna pay my tribute to one of the footballers I grew up admiring. Well, of course there were Ronaldinho and Totti etc etc. But for this post I wanna reserve it for the one and only Clarence Seedorf.

I would compare him to Iniesta. Both are absolutely superb on the ball. While Iniesta have the consistency and workrate, Seedorf has tremendous physique. Very balance and strong. So, unlike Xavi in rather very rare occasions can be marked by heavy tackles and body checks, this guy is kinda immune to them. If you guys still remember the Milan team that destroyed Man Utd at San Siro, everybody thought Kaka was the star. but for me Seedorf was equally brilliant, if not better. Personally I would put him on par with Zidane.

I was very glad seeing Camp Nou crowd gave standing ovation to him. Seedorf deserved it IMHO A big loss to football once he hang his boot, seeing that what football have to offer nowadays are only such overpriced, overhyped but crap talents like....well, I shouldn't put names right? Nanti ada orang butthurt lagi But I'd say Hazard is one of the overhyped talents. Current talent pool has nothing to rival Seedorf's generation. Football today only have Messi, Iniesta and Xavi as true contenders.

No need to butthurt ok? I'm a Barca fan so of course I am biased towards our own Trinity. I believe it's not so far from the truth though

Other people may think I'm weird, but I found this piece of art pretty orgasmic

As Pep famously said to our players, the team who have most of the ball have more chance to win/score goals. So in order to play possessive football, a team must always have a player like Seedorf, to keep possession in midfield, especially when the midfield area is heavily closed down by opponents. Seedorf represents different role than Pirlo, to put it in Milan's perspective. Seedorf is not about distributing the ball around. Possession is the key. Shielding the ball under pressure by opponents and not get tackled in dangerous positions are his most important duty. And to do that he must be dependable, and he is always up to the job.

Seedorf, is a piece of art. His ball shielding style is a piece of art. I'm so glad that Barca today represent that exact style. And I dare say that Barca is the only one left. For me counterattacking and overcautious style employed by most big clubs today kills talents like this. No wonder the art is dying, which is not only sad, it is horribly frustrating.

Of course any player as intelligent as Seedorf can play in any kind of team. Even for the counterattacking ones. But do these teams need players like him? Not necessarily imho. Counterattacking is not so much about passes, it's about how you throw bodies upfront at speed. Thus players with very good stamina and pace, or physical monsters we may call em, are required to execute it.

What I want to say is, it is the style of football now that kills this breed. Football no longer have patience for this kinda players to work with the ball. Football now demands the ball to be sent forward at once, and goals to be scored as soon as possible. The earlier the better. If the opponents have a magician, if it is hard to tackle the ball away from him, target the foot instead. Mark the magician out of the game, hack him away if possible, sometime with 4-5 players on top of him. Football today is not encouraging the emergence of a new Seedorf.

In the 90's and early 00's even defending was art back then. Serie A defenders were super awesome. Anyone remember Thuram? Another awesome player I grew up watching. La Liga had a lot of talented skilful Brazilians, But today everything have to be done at pace, physical game, with a lot of tactical fouling as one of the main tool of defending. Even the farking throw ins, with all those long throw sh!t straight into pen box. Although I'm a big football fan, I'm gotta admit the quality is worryingly deteriorating.