This evening at 7 pm (bt), Barcelona starts the season with an away game against Numancia.
Numancia promoted back to the Liga after winning the Spanish second division last season. The last three gams Barcelona played at Numanicia's pitch ended with a draw.
Two Numancia players have a past at Barcelona: midfielder Juan Carlos Moreno (33) came through the youth ranks and played one year with the first team during the 1995-1996 season and midfielder Dimas (25) left Barcelona B this summer.
Two Numancia players have a past at Barcelona: midfielder Juan Carlos Moreno (33) came through the youth ranks and played one year with the first team during the 1995-1996 season and midfielder Dimas (25) left Barcelona B this summer.
Squad list:
Valdés, Pinto, Cáceres, Alves, Abidal, Puyol, Piqué, Márquez, Xavi, Gudjohnsen, Keita, Touré Yaya, Iniesta, Messi, Hleb, Henry, Eto'o and Bojan.
Milito and Jorquera are injured. Sylvinho, Pedro and Víctor Sánchez have been left out.
Before, during and after the match, you can comment on the game here.
Posts
66 comments:
I am from Macedonia and plz can someone tell me on which website I can watch Barca without downloading programs or similar... tnx
www.rojadirecta.com should do the trick
tnx m8!
bojan
I want this lineup
-------------Victor V.------------
---Alves----Puyol--Marquez--Abidal
--------------Yaya----------------
---------Xavi--------Iniesta------
---Messi---------------------Hleb
---------------Eto'o--------------
Numancia will probably play very defensive orientated which means we should not play Yaya and Keita at the same time. I would also rather have Caceres play left back because Abidal sux but I doubt Pep is gonna do that.
I'll take that lineup.
-------------Victor V.------------
---Alves----Puyol--Marquez--Abidal
--------------Yaya----------------
---------Xavi--------Iniesta------
---Messi---------------------Hleb
---------------Eto'o--------------
PERFECT !!!
The media think it willb eKeita in midfield instead of Touré and Henry at the left. We'll see...
Barsa need Hleb to start: he didn't against Boca and Wisla (away) and as a result there was no creativity.
He's perfect as a playmaker!
Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Márquez, Abidal, Touré, Iniesta, Xavi, Messi, Henry, Eto'o
guys I already got diarhea since this morning I dont know is it because of yesterday dinner or it is today match!!
May god help the players the pressure is huge
we saw what happened to milan today I hope we wont see the same thing happen with us..
oh man, he would never shot like this if valdes would stay in his fuc*ing goal
oh my god,
alves lost ball, counter attack, crossed,abidal was not there..
GOAL against us after only 12 min
I hope we score, or we will lose maybe 2 or 3-0 !!
we had just one goal scene within the first 30 min. that's nothing
everybody is sleeping and the passes are not good enough. 50% do not arrive to the destination
Henry out and Hleb in, please! Hope they still can buy a left winger tomorrow cause this is crazy!
Come on, Barça, change this araound!!!
The best effort from xavi , he driblled 3 defenders but shot wide
very bad first half. just 2 or 3 half chances. nothing special. numancia is playing with at least 8 defenders so barca must play faster. they pass tbe ball 20 times back and forth so that numancia is able to organize it's defence at any time. messi is sleeping. xavi and iniesta are playing lethargically. the team is not passing well. to less shots on goal. valdes is still one of the worse goalkeepers in soccer.
sorry my freinds they told us to be patient but I will say it..
Barca just dont have the the spirit.............
with this deffence no one dares to dream of the silverware
I'll tell you the deffence will get better but maybe after 10 to 15 games and then it will be too late
i dond blame anyone but it should take time and unfortunately the time is not in our side.. good luck barca but maybe next season
where are u watching the match
try these links
http://www.justin.tv/widgets/jtv_player.swf?channel=psn_2
http://www.justin.tv/psn_2
http://www.justin.tv/widgets/jtv_player.swf?channel=xsportsman
what the hell????
hleb in for tore
I dont get it, start Toure when his role isnt really used in a game such as this... then take him out for Hleb?.. Henry has been doing nothing all game, didnt even try and run for a few crosses that came his way...
replaces were good..
we want players work
Bojan in for Henry, Kudos..
Keita in for Iniesta... im ???
good strikers for Barcelona.Need to have 25 chances to score a goal ?
Big names and good reputation but below average performance.Not able to score at a team which was playing in the second division last year !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This Barcelona team today was the same team we saw last year. Lazy. I'm very disappointed. That being said, it's not the season-ending disaster some people are making it out to be. Still, a performance like that was the absolute last thing I wanted to see on opening day.
What's this say about MLS. Preseason pushovers. Barcelona needs a big, post-up forward, because their style doesn't work when teams pack it in. The little guys are ineffective without a big guy to work off. They should have bucked up the bucks and paid for Ade or Berbatov. This loss stings. I'm sure they'll rebounds, but the rest of La Liga should be licking their chops and packing it in. Puyol is slow and Abidal is a liability. Alves? I thought he was the best in the world at his position. So far he looks average.
I cant believe
Just in a few days the Polish team and one of the worst teams in a La Liga this year have beaten us for the first time in a history....
Hell of a good start Guardiola and the fuckin board...
It amuses me to no extent to see how lowly teams like Wisla and now Numancia can beat a team like Barca. Guess spending all those euros didn't help after all. Real will probably win their match and will maintain a lead on us for the rest of the season. I don't know if that's bad luck or just bad play on our part.
Henry was beyond lazy today and its as if the rest of the team took a queue from him. I do for the most part blame Pep's tactics coming into this game.. Toure starting this game instead of Keita for example?
Please leave Henry on the bench next game.
This is terrible!!!damn it...
I don't even know who to blame.
personally;
Valdez 3
Abidal 5
Alvez 4
Marquez 6
Puyol 6
Xavi 4
Iniesta 3.5
Toure 3.5
Henry 4
Messi 4.5
Eto'o 5
Keita 5.5
we may need to start using Henry like Larson..he looked like he didnt even want to play.
What an absolute joke of a game....with all the chances we had to score the fact that we lost this game is beyond shocking! Numancia had one chance and scored. I dont know who is worse Valdes or Abidal, but they are both crap. I had a really good feeling about this season but now I just think its gonna be a repeat of last season. Every team will pack the box, we will try the SAME THING OVER AND OVER, get a bunch of half chances which we dont put away and we end up getting punished on the counter. I didnt see much of a plan B here so im not sure what Pep is thinking.
only alves was a good signing. the rest is just average. nearlich 90 mio. eur for nothing. we need world class player and not player like keita, hleb & co.
today every player was playing under his possibility. i'm very very disappointed of xavi, iniesta and most of all messi.
henry, eto'o are calculable. every defender knows what their next action will be. we need some fresh forward striker, something NEW!
today this team was not 1 percent better than last year. it's the same miserable shit!
I bet that valdes is the worst goalkeeper in La Liga.I think there are No hopes for winning La Liga this season because of poor strikers.Ok, u see Etoo or Henry scoring some times.But they need to lose 6 to 7 chances to score a goal.I can't believe creating such amount of chances and not scoring.world class strikers have a 30 to 50 % accuracy.
Look at Aguero,Van nisterlooy , Adebayor, Torres , Aguero, Drogba and many others.
I believe are not in the top 10 or 15 best strikers in the world.
Etoo is no more the Etoo we used to knew.
Henry started to fade during his last season in Arsenal.
I will be happy to hear ur comments.
Tragedy!!!
Fuck,fuck,fuck,fuck!!!!!!!!!
It is the same old shit every season...
We have high expectations and in the end we always lose...
We just attack,attack and attack and cant score a shit but you bet that other teams can...
This is becoming so boring to lose every time like this...
Even though it's not the end of the world it's still an embarrassing loss for Barcelona who succumbed yet again to the same pitfalls that derailed their previous campaign - namely poor defensive clearances at the most critical times, shaky goalkeeping and too much stand-still horizontal passing that allows the opposition time to regroup defensively.
As fans we knew that once Numancia tallied they were basically going to "shut it down" and play with 9 men at the back. You would have imagined Pep and the players would have realized this as well!
Even though you hate to draw any conclusions from one match it's clearly evident that Henry at the left wing is not only affecting his play but it's hurting the team by not providing the necessary width at that position. I was waiting and waiting for Pep to sub Hleb for Henry at it never happened. Not that Hleb is a "natural" left winger either but he would have provided more depth and runs than Henry at the time.
And as one commentator has already astutely pointed out, Barcelona had 20+ "chances" to score and couldn't even find the back of the net! While all Numancia needed was one "opportunistic" chance to put the game away.
Again, it's only one match but the "blueprint" from the opposition remains the same. So it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Pep has to change something! Either the formation, the lineup or both!
I also think it's pretty evident that the lack of a "pure" left winger is hurting this team. Their is virtually no play-in from the left. Everything is either coming from the right or the middle. For all of you who thought Silva wouldn't add enough "quality" to the attack you may want to think again.
Sure, the result may be different next game, but the opponents tactical approach will remain virtually the same for the remainder of the season unless Pep has the creative mindset to change things around. Maybe it's time to scrap the 4-3-3 for now and go to a 4-4-2 because without a proven, competent left winger this 4-3-3 formation is sinking us like the Titanic!
I just hope one thing: that they now realize they should get a left winger for their 4-3-3 before this transfer window ends. Not a big fan of the boy but even Capel would do for me, really.
as has been said before that could have been an away game from last season. same predictability as last season no variation we really need another option this is just gonna be another disappointing season if it carries on this way.
we've got less than 24 hours to try and arrange some sort of plan b because every team is gonna play like this against us now. henry not on the left etoo too easily picked up and no width, alves goes too far forward to make up for messi going infield leaving masses of space which is used to exploit abidal, hes a good player but has no confidence. still have faith in pep but we need alternatives quickly.
Hope Barca will pick them self up and play better next match
Yeah, I reckon Barcelona are gonna get relegated...
There really are some complete idiots on here.
Abidal is a joke, is good in defence but in attack is terrible.
I'm not a proponent of impulse, knee-jerk signings but if I were Laporta I'd be on the phone with officials from Zenit right about now making one last gasp attempt for Arshavin. No, I wouldn't agree to a 30mil transfer, but if the lad can be had for roughly 20mil I'd pull the trigger.
I could care less right now if Arshavin is deemed starting material or not. The fact remains he can play the position better than Henry ever could! It's not a knock on Henry, who is simply miscast as a winger when in reality he's an out and out striker.
I also wouldn't be surprised to see Sylvinho starting in Abidal's place sooner than later. It's not all Abidal's fault either, but overall he has yet to capture the same form he had during his time at Lyon.
It also wouldn't hurt to invest in a left back either, perhaps as early as the January transfer window because Abidal is struggling mightily and Sylvinho's only going play one more season. Urby Emanuelson might fit the bill, but defense is not his strength. Rather he likes to attack from the back, which would provide Barcelona a dimension from the left they sorely lack right now. Although I don't know how eager Van Basten would be to part with him either.
And to the one of the comment above. No one's suggesting that Barcelona are going to get relegated. I know it's one game, but Barcelona are falling into the same trap that befell them last sesaon. It's waaaay to early to panic but it's never to early to think about a different tactical approach or lineup change. That's all I'm suggesting.
Its too early to stick a fork in this team.
But it was a quick reality check. I have said all off-season that you don't win anything without the magic and the new signings like Keita, Hleb and so are solid role players but have no magic whatsoever like Deco or Dinho (before he got fat and lazy)...
that was a terrible game and should lower the expectations a little bit. This team isn't good enaugh to win La Liga and if they do, its most likely because other teams aren't better at all either.
Hey, on some other subject i got my comment removed when i said that this team is shaky.
It's not the end and as mentioned previously it's an excellent reality check!!
Let's sum up the lessons:
1- Never play Henry At left wing. I suggest using Pedro or Bojan.
2- Abidal is too slow! About time to start experimenting other options namely CACERES.
3- Formation needs to be changed, and not to 4-4-2 but rather to 4-2-3-1 with Alves, Caceres, Puyol, Marques as DFs. Keita & Yaya as CDMs and a 5 man forward line of Xavi, Iniesta, Bojan (left side being supported by Iniesta), Eto'o & Messi.
Still BARCA FOR LIFE
I totally agree with you alex.crd Romania
i can`t beleive people likeyou call their self fans..when barca was playing very well at the pre-s thesame idiots like u where the one that was loving them..now that they ain´t playing well u are hating them..shame on u!!! and please for the sake of FC BARCELONA stop calling yourself a barca fan!!
i cant tell u how upset i am about this....sure its not the end but this is just not exceptable.i guess we had a couple of chances, both hit the bar...but i dont think thats good enough.i also didnt think valdez was bad...u cant really say the goal was his fault,and other than that he wasnt really tested so i wouldnt say he was bad.the goal was abidals fault.sure madrid also lost,but its not about madrid,its about barcelona.i rather both of them win than both lose.they should really do better than that.i remember 25 goals in 5 games,and now here we are in the first match day of la liga sitting in 15th place...
To wanted47:
You dont have a right to call anyone idiot because everyone have a freedom to say his opinion
And we are still Barca fans no matter what and we all say that things for the good of the club because something definetly needs to be changed in our formation...
Més que un club
Good substitutions but too late, Hleb, Keita and Bojan should start instead of Yaya and Henry. Again mistake from Valdes. I think almost 80% pf our passes are not complete.
Pep, please do something. Don't start with Yaya, Henry and Abidal in the next game against Racing Santander. We gotta win. Thank God Real Madrid lost to Deportivo. Messi, this year is yours, please prove it to the world. Don't let me think you can't play without Ronaldinho. Go BARCA!!
As dissapointed as i was with Valdes.. where the fuck was Abidal? Ive been saying this for months but now everyone is starting to notice for themselves.
Valdes 5
Alves 5
Marquez 6
Puyol 6
Abidal 3
Xavi 6
Iniesta 6
Toure 5
Henry 5
Messi 6
Eto'o 7
Hleb 5
Bojan 6
Keita 5
@k-1
u r right anybody can say whatever they want sry for calling them idiots...but still the most sad thing is not that barca loose tonight, it is the way the "fans" behaivs
Real Madrid just lost, somehow I don't feel so bad now. Still sucks to lose but at least we'll have company at the bottom of the table.
To 'wanted47', "true" Barcelona fans/supporters will stick with the club through thick and thin, in good times and in bad.
But from the majority of replies I've read so far I wouldn't say that people are "hating" on Barcelona, rather they are showing a bit of concern because it seems the "symptoms" that plagued this team last season still linger. And if you care about your club you have a right to be a little concerned even if it's only the first match of the season.
I also think it's safe to say that the players themselves didn't perform at their best today, and for that yes, they do deserve some of the criticism, as well as Pep for not making proper tactical changes at the half (besides subbing in some new players) but essentially keeping the same formation in place.
As a fan I take the loss hard. That's a far cry from giving up on my team. But if I didn't feel passionate about the loss then I wouldn't be much of a fan would I? I'm not overeacting to the loss, but as we all know in football as in life if you don't make changes you are bound to get the same results time and time again.
wanted 47 i'm not hating on the team. i'm just being selfish i suppose as i want quality performances every week, and that selfishness comes from the fact that i know we can produce that, but games like this just make it seem as if the players are not trying, whether thats true is still to be seen but things need to be less predictable, i dont really like henry out on the left, or messi roaming. if they played hleb instead of henry then messi could roam as we would have width, but i still dont like seeing messi get the ball 40 yards from goal.
barca are lacking flair, we wont be able to get it now but we need something, although i'm not that keen on him it may well be worth just paying capel's buyout cause for a quick deal, just to offer some variation, and look for a big tall striker for january.
vzI think Messi was the best player on the pitch today and hey everyone don't forget that we still got the best player in the world on our side(Messi) so as long as we convince in our next game at home i think we have a gr8 chance of silverware plus we had a lot of chances in the second half but we were unlucky as usual
More disturbing was the similarity to last season.
The goal was the fault of uncertain marshalling of the back line. If you watch, Marquez, Puyol and Abidal all moved to deal with the cross. Only one was needed. It wasn't that dangerous a ball. It only became dangerous when it deflected out to the unmarked attacker.
Note that Pique's height makes that cross just a throw-in for Numancia, or a simple header back to Valdes.
The bigger difficulty is the continued belief that we can pass the ball into the net. Don't know if anyone watched the Arsenal/Newcastle match, but that's how you attack a team trying to defend in depth: quick movement, movement without the ball and one-touch passing.
Those craving that big striker can drool over what Gilardino did to defeat Juventus' catenaccio late in the Juve/Fiorentina match. He took a long pass and, with the defender on his back, held him off a drilled a low shot past Buffon. That's what that classic "9" does for you.
But to single out any one player in this loss is unfair. They all sucked except for Valdes, who really didn't have to do anything except pull the ball out of the back of his net.
Henry was lethargic, as was Xavi and Iniesta. Messi was making those silly runs at a wall of defenders, Eto'o was losing track of the ball at his feet. Alves was spraying balls all over the place. Everybody just stank. It happens.
The real question is what does Guardiola do next? My guess is that you won't see the same starting XI next match. Hleb did well when he came in, so did Keita.
Most importantly, we need movement. Everyone was standing around, waiting for the ball to come to them, rather than moving to create space. As you force defenders to move, holes open up in any defense. That didn't happen today.
Also, full credit to Numancia, who played their hearts out. They had a plan and they stuck to it. They were playing for a draw from the opening kickoff. The goal was a lovely go-with.
gchcyou know what..Pep should let away his pride and try to be strong enough to put Henry on the bench for a while, the guy looked handicapped, with all the misery of the world showing on his face and this was true as soon as he arrived to Barca, so let him relax on the bench.
and in order not let him feel bored on the bench let Abidal join him for sometime, I know that Sylvinho is not the best left back in the world but believe me anyone will do better than Abidal zero on deffence zero on attack. Trying Caseres there is also worh it.
try to let Hleb in from the beggining, he made alot of differnce.
Alves should never try to play the corner kicks, at least for now Xavi could do the job.
I felt today as if the whole squad looked tiny both in their bodies and minds. esp. Iniesta.
and by the way the Barca right side will be a highway unless something is done to cover Alves by some one other than Poyol or marquez because the deffence collapses through this gap and create another gap on the left side.
everyone should try to be patient I know but dont tell me this is only the first match.. it is the first match after two horroble seasons,so remember that!
good luck on the next round
I love you Barca'
I've been saying this over and over again: the root of the problem lies with the coach selection.
What Barca need is a master tactician like Capello or Mourinho, and what did they get? This is not Getafe; Barca is a an elite team and experimenting with an unexperienced coach should not happen here!
Now they are in a difficult situation: by January they will be many points off the pace and Laporta and Guardiola will be sacked but there are no good coaches available on the market except for...Rijkaard!?
yea i agree. henry and abidal should bench. henry is arrogant. he thinks he is too good. maybe in arsenal he was. not here. i think he doesnt like playing second to eto. hurts his pride. he should become more humble maybe.
as for abidal...somebody should give him orders constently. he is always lost. he can neither defend nor attack. y do we use him then? becoz he plays for france? guardiola should become strict and make changes drastically. we should play sylvinho becoz he attacks better as abidal. or caceres becoz he defends better than abidal...well from wat ive seen anybody could replace abidal...
ive lost faith in puyol a bit. he is not the super defender he was once. he can make mistakes...
i guess in the camp nou nex week barca will perform better. maybe messi was not yet into the team consedering he was away at beiging.
as for the rest its the first official match for many of them. we can understand them except for abidal and valdes...!!!
well remember wen rijkaard took over. he had a catastrophic first half of the season. new coach, new players. its difficult. plus we do not have all areas covered.
i am axpecting a victory next week and i am confident. i was angry today but as a fan i am ready to forgive(except abidal and valdes)
i am convinced about future seasons when the squad gets stronger...but for this season...its 50-50... it could be a test season before barca fires on all cylinders again..
let us all forgive our team for this one match. madrid also lost and therefore it is not a poor start yet.
we can and we will do better..but surely..nex week somthing will change in the team.
FORZA BARCA!!
Why should we keep Henry? He was a star in EPL but not in La liga. He is not a good striker as well as left winger with poor first touch and concentration.
As a striker, he is far away from the Etoo's standard in every aspects: finishing, pace, first touch, concentration, heading, strength etc. On the left side, we really need a playmaker.
Sell Henry and buy at least a pure winger. On the left side, yes Bojan has the potential to be a star. However, it is not now, but after a few more seasons.
To cover up Etoo, we need a tall striker with excellent heading ability who is able to give different attributes to Barca. In matches where 9 opponent players packed in the penalty box, we need a header to net the ball. It is also quite pity for Barca to have excellent crossing from Alves without a good header in front of goal. A good header can contribute much more than now Henry does. One of the best footballer in the past?? So what...he is not even better than Larsson.
For the goal concealed in the match, Marquez should be blamed too. Where was he in the defence line? We do not need a center defender to go forward to attack. Besides, Marquez is famous of his poor concentration in the past. I think we should play Pique. Pique played quite consistently well in the preseason. He is also tall and dangerous in the air especially for attacking corners.
Try this formation:
-------------Victor V.------------
---Alves----Puyol--Pique--Caceres-
-------Yaya/Keita-----------------
-------------------Xavi/inesta----
---Hleb-------Messi---Henry/new AML
---------------Eto'o--------------
I choose Messi playing at the center as he is nowadays playing like a playmaker. He is the only one who will often try killer balls and vertical passing to the striker. With his pace and dribbling ability, he can run to the either sides opening it up. With opportunities, he can also go forward to score.
Nowadays, Messi likes to go to the center even we play him at the right side. He keeps stay at the center leaving a gap at the right side. The gap can be filled by playing Hleb on the right side, who can keep changing position with Messi and can be supported by Alves attacking forward.
With Alves attacking forward, Caceres can play as CB temporarily. Yaya/Keita can also support Alves from the back. If a counter attack is played by opponent on the Alves's side. Puyol can cover the gap left by Alves with Yaya/Keita and Pique covering up the gap left by Puyol at the center.
On the left side, Henry or, to be even better, a new winger can be supported by Xavi/Inesta with the occasional run by Messi.
I also agree with Josep that we have to buy a backup striker who is good in the air. This can break the wall of opponent defenders more easily when they pack inside.
Its alright guys...MADRID lost also so we have the next match to make sure we win...if real wins and barca loses the next one...damn! I would be seriously worried !!!
So Sad, we still can't win away from home. I certainly don't feel it is alright just because RM lost. Like I said we lack physical presence. We have become to easy to stop in attack. We need a LW real bad. Also need to get rid of Henry, who is bad for the team moral. Like I said previously need to get rid of Valdes, can't believe that ppl on this forum can still support him. Of all the top teams in Europe we have probably the most inferior GK.
FUCK Abidal, that guy can eat a shit, a big bag of shit!
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