oh yeah - there was little in it. pepe's a lunk, he went down easy, and he had every chance to put his foot through the ball while doing so - but 90% of the time when a striker's gonna pull someone's shoulder from behind like that they'll get the decision against them. Torres hits the deck the minute he saw a hand coming, so it annoys me when he gets stuff like that his way.Would that be the vicious way he tapped his shoulder? That's what football needs - more free kicks for big men falling over under less contact you'd get in your average bus queue.
Roiling football blather
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IdleRich
IdleRich
Nothing wrong with the first goal, Pepe fell over and then Torres brushed past him as he was falling - the vehement protests were merely a desperate attempt to distract attention from the horrendous mess he made of a simple clearance.
He is definitely right up there with Ibrahimovic and Puyol. No surprise that two of the most overrated are Spanish defenders 'cause being in defence for Barce or Spain is easy ninety percent of the time, your team always has the ball. It's just on the rare occasions that Barca or Real come up against someone good enough to create a few attacks you can guarantee that Puyol/Ramos will give them at least one goal.
crackerjack
Well-known member
I rather like Puyol - every team should be obliged to play one big lunky centreback who can't run.
But Barca's defence is shocking. Even if the forward line returns to their pre-xmas form, the defence will almost certainly prevent them winning the CL.
crackerjack
Well-known member
good hair tho - you can't deny that
crackerjack
Well-known member
If you get a chance to see the Barca highlights, do so.
Messi is approaching Maradona levels of genius.
Messi is approaching Maradona levels of genius.
don_quixote
Trent End
john terry is the most overrated in the world
nonsense. he's a) not as rated as ferdinand, vidic, even carvalho these days.
and he's b) superb. total rock lately - if anything things have swung round and he's become underrated.
compare that to ramos, who can't defend yet people say is the best right back in the world, or zlatan, who can't score against big teams but people say is one of the best strikers in the world. what a stupid comment.
IdleRich
IdleRich
John Terry is a defender who makes it very difficult for the team playing against him to score, I think that's the basic fundamental thing that all defenders need to do. Building from the back, marauding down the wing, picking up goals from corners etc are all nice extras but defenders are in the team to prevent goals against them. Ramos may be more comfortable on the ball and more willing to get forward but as a striker you would always fancy your chances of getting past him when you've got the ball or getting ahead of him for the header and that's assuming that he isn't still hopelessly out of position from his last charge down the wing. Terry is a completely different class from Ramos as a defender and yet Ramos gets called the best in the world, it's pretty clear who is the most overrated out of those two.
Ibrahimovic is just plain shit yet (some) people think he's good so that also makes him overrated in my book.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
http://sportnews09.blogspot.com/
Let's hope for Barca- Man U in the final, and a different kind of game from last year, when Messi was the best player on the pitch by a distance. But as for Maradona - let's see Messi do the same in an average team, either club or national. Messi might be the best player in the world right now, but no-one has ever touched Maradona for carrying utterly mediocre teams on his shoulders.
I always liked Eto'o a lot, and his finish last night was class. As for the best goal of the week though, must be Juve's genius first goal vs Chelsea (which would officially be the best goal ever scored if Liverpool or Man U had done it).
Terry's a good/great player and everyone knows it.
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IdleRich
IdleRich
Messi is absolute class but it's weird to say that he was the best player against United last year when he was so completely contained, they didn't let him do anything in the areas of the pitch where he could hurt them. In fact they contained Barcelona in their entirety pretty easily, they didn't manage to create a single chance in the whole tie. their defence and they would have had plenty of reward.
crackerjack
Well-known member
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crackerjack
Well-known member
My memory of that tie is that Messi often skinned a United defender or two, but then ran out of room on the edge of the box. If Eto'O had been playing then like he is now - scoring, providing options - it would've been a different game.
baboon2004
Darned cockwombles.
yep, agreed - problem wasn't that Messi was contained, just that hwen he did create the chinks of light, no-one else was at that level of form to finish it off.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Finish what off? He never managed to play anyone in, there were literally no chances for Barcelona in 180 minutes of football. You're actually talking about meta-chances or something, if someone else had played as well as Messi and been able to link with him they may have been able to get to the stage of getting a shot off which might have gone in if they had been playing well. My take on it was that every time Messi got the ball he jinked and looked to go forward and often beat the first man somewhere just past the half way line but every time he tried to press forward into the last twenty or twenty-five yards the tackle arrived and snuffed him out. Could be quite different this time around if they meet again though, I kinda hope they do 'cause it should be an interesting tie.
crackerjack
Well-known member
No, we're talking about the kind of thing we saw last night, where Messi beats two players and plays a one-two with Eto'O before scoring. It's reasonable to expect top class strikers to respond to great runs by their team-mates by moving into space and creating options for them (something Utd are extremely good at). The fact Messi's colleagues let him down lst year isn't a reflection on his performance, but theirs.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Well, I accept that he was their best player on that night. Don't think that he was the best player on the pitch though - not by a long chalk.
What did you reckon to Inter last night then? Had a bit of a go but basically just aren't as good as United. It was like a veterans game with Giggs, Scholes, Figo, Vierra and Zanetti playing.
What did you reckon to Inter last night then? Had a bit of a go but basically just aren't as good as United. It was like a veterans game with Giggs, Scholes, Figo, Vierra and Zanetti playing.