This evening at 9 pm bt, Barcelona plays the third game of the season against Sporting Gijón.
Sporting Gijón, that promoted back to the primera División last season after finishing third in the second division, lost its first two games of the season.
Last weekend they lost against Sevilla with 4-3 (3-3 at half time), playing with Sanchez - Sastre, Colin, Jorge, Canella - Matabuena, Michel - Maldonado, Castro, Carmelo - Bilic. Bilic scored the three Sporting goals.
It is expected Sporting will play in a 4-3-3 system this evenign. As a player, Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola couldn't win once in Gijón.
Sporting squad list:
(no list has been announced, all players are selected)
Barcelona squad list:
Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Márquez, Piqué, Puyol, Cáceres, Abidal, Xavi, Touré, Keita, Iniesta, Gudjohnsen, Busquets, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Pedro
Before (what are your expectations, what should be the line-up,...), during and after the match, you can comment on the game here.
Posts
74 comments:
This game and Betis on Wednesday really should be two wins!
Let hope so...
Més que un club!!!!!
My line-up:
Victor
dani Gerrard Carles Eric
Yaya
Xavi Andres
Leo Thierry
Samu
Was'nt Henry sick? He was left out of the match-squad, was he not?
@Alex Thierry is'nt in the squad to face Sporting.
I don't think we can play a 3-4-3 today especially we're playing away and Sporting plays an attacking 4-3-3 formation.
My Line-up
Valdes
Alves--Puyol--Pique--Caceres--
----------Yaya Toure-----------
------Xavi--------Gudjhonsen---
Messi------Eto------Iniesta/Pedro
It's necessary that Yaya plays and not Keita, because Yaya is a more agressive defensive player who can easily win possession back while Keita always moves forward and forgets about his defensive role and that won't work in an away match.
Good luck guys !
Note that on this red-letter day, a poster here has suggested a starting XI that includes Gudjohnsen. Rock!
I'm predicting the same lineup for the Sporting match, but with Krkic instead of Henry. An early goal or two means that Yaya can then come in and with Keita, lock things down.
i personally think that one of the reasons why barca lacks the cutting edge is due to the fact that messi keeps the ball for too long,i believe if messi plays the ball through spaces for eto'o or Henry then i think barca will score more,believe me messi is an incredible player and needs to be a playmaker instead of being selfish on most occasions
I think Iniesta will replace Henry at left wing, Keita will take Iniesta's place and Touré will play DM.
At the back, I would say: Alves-Piqué-Puyol-Abidal.
But Guardiola has always a surprise, so let's see what he'll come up with this time...
4-3-3
Line-up
Valdes
Alves-Pique-Puyol-Caceres
Toure
Xavi
Iniesta
Messi - Eto'o - Bojan
I really hope that Bojan could get a starting berth, whenever there's an official lineup please post,, check the predicted line-up on yahoo sports: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/football/la-liga/2008-2009/sporting-barcelona-242064.html
------------Victor--------------
--Dani--Gerrard---Carles--Eric--
-------------Yaya---------------
--------Xavi---------Seydou-----
-----Leo-------------Andres-----
------------Samu----------------
official!!!!
valdez
alves marque puyol abidal
xavi busquets keita
messi eto iniesta
Update: RC Santander 0-2 Real Madrid CF!!
We need to grab a win tonight to stay within touching distance with the capital dwarfs.
Guardiola can talk a lot about rotations but apparently some players don't enter his rotation system...
Hope it works out fine. Come on, Barça!!
where can i watch the match on the net
Bye, bye Yaya. He never gets any playtime. Im feeling sorry for him.
anyone with a stream so i can watch the match? plzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
http://www.yaser.net/tv/news.php?action=view&id=76
http://viafoot.we.bs/index.html
Or
http://alkoora.we.bs/index.html
I am starting to hate to read or hear to commentators calling our attack line "misfiring" it suxxxxxx!!
Come on lads!! Prove em wrong
iniesta to xavi and
goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal
Iniesta!!!MY MAN ON THE LEFT!!!DAMN I'm good!
Hats down to Ramzi :D
Good Catalan goal, keep it up
samu goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal
corner kick
gooooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaallllll
Dani Alves had a really bad first half, never seen him being so useless. For the first time you can see that Busquets is a youngster, he had a pretty lousy first half too. Rest of the team are okay with Iniesta being the best.
Too bad for all the Abidal haters out there but he had a good first half.
great 1st half
iniesta missed an easy goal but still he is the king of the first half
abidal did great no one can complain,
eto had the best 45 min in the season.he played on the right wing, left wing and ofcourse as CF.
and above all the was the grat fighting spirit.
see u later.
kieta played more forward
http://fr.justin.tv/radiomix2
and here is the 2nd goal:
http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=2308465
1st goal:
http://www.d1g.com/video/show/?id=2308428
I love the way iniesta does his twists on the left, it's really affective. And i think Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta and Puyol played quite good. Especially Iniesta, outstanding. Also, I would really love to see Toure come on... he did not play for quite a long time now.
oh please, abidal gave away the ball about three times but he's had an average performance so far. dont get cocky because he's putttng in an ok performance SO FAR. Plus we know alves needs to work on his defense, but he's putting in an ok performance so far as well.
goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal
kietaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
goal sporting
as usual 1st ball 1st goal
Our defense needs some serious disciplineeeeeeeeeeeeeee
DAMMIT WHY IS OUR DEFENCE SO LEAKY?!!!! why cant we keep a clean sheet., whose fault was it?
P.S. I'm not blaming abidal or valdes but the stream froze when the goal scored.
goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal
iniesta
This doesnt really have anything to do with that last goal, but why do ppl say iniesta and xavi cant work 2gether? it's been beautiful so far.
finally
messi goaaaaaaaal
Nice volley Messi!
5-1
the boss score
messi
goaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaal
Excellent teamwork on 5th goal. Anyway, Messi looks kind of funny in that central role.
lovely work bojan, though i really wanted you to score a goal in this match.
euuuhhhh 1-6 another stunner by THE BEAST!!!
Great win for confidence nothin more still the team has to prove it self.
whew thank God. an impressive display, we are now finishing the chances instead of just creating them. Just need to work on defense.
amazing display from barca...the only problem in dis match was the goal we were scored on but other than that, it was one of the best games in a while for barca...
who do u guys think deserves player of the match,Messi,Iniesta, or Xavi?...i think they all played very well...
Waleed please paste the links for the goals anytime you have em
Thanks in advance mate
Greaaat match...Best Players: Iniesta, Messi, Xavi, Busquets. I hope they continue like this...Guardiola better put Piqué in for Marquez, i think hes better. Bojan had a good game too, but he still needs to play more...
great game,barca should always play this good,its not only the goals but the chances that we created,
last goal was amazing,bojan sure showed some skill,i think the lad deserves more time on the field,
anyway great game 3 points ,thats all that matters,forget the win and go for the next match
All 3 probably deserve it. But I'm going to say Xavi is my choice.
He set the mark with the first goal. Great work by Iniesta there and a good finish by Xavi. That really put away the pressure to crack the goal.
The third goal was a great corner and Xavi probably should have gotten credit for it. And the last goal Xavi could have gone for goal but set it up for Messi to claim his second. Excellent work by Bojan there too.
Iniesta really made a huge difference on the left, we are so much better when we attack from both sides and not become predictable and just rely on the right wing.
Messi of course had 2 goals and a great assist to Iniesta.
true A9 but i would say iniesta. His passing in the final third was simply superb. He solved the problem we were having in the last couple of matches. we were getting the chances but the final killer pass always eluded us. His display today in the final 3rd of the pitch ensured we got that killer pass, the rest was simply firing the ball in the back of the net.
P.S. ramzi, looks like your boy abidal gave a good account of himself today overall. Did you give him a pep talk? (pardon the pun)
Next match is already upcoming wednesday, we play against Betis....
Barca - Betis 4 - 0 (i hope)
Finally!!!
Guys I am so happy,this was such a good game,it reminded me what a team we are and I didnt felt like this for such a long time
Iniesta was perfect but I really mean perfect,the guy played geniusly
Abidal was Abidal that we wanted to see from Lyon,he saved our ass 2-3 times,he just needs to keep this form and I will have no complains
Busquets is a real deal just like I said,he is a rock in a midfield and it is almost impossible to take a ball from him
Xavi,Puyol and Eto were good as usually
Keita is improving
Messi showed why he is the best player on the world,he is just selfish sometimes,but I am sure Guardiola will work this out
I just wanted to see Toure playing a little but I am sure he will get his chance
The goal we conceded was just a deflected ball so no worries hear
So this is Barca that we all know and that we all love
Cheers guys!!!!
Més que un club!!!!!
1-0:
http://www.mediafire.com/?g2m0jgj2lz3
2-0:
http://www.mediafire.com/?wltjwt3ztmt
3-0:
http://www.mediafire.com/?nmxnmnwz1yj
3-1:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jzzriemyz4r
4-1:
http://www.mediafire.com/?owg40zenmyi
5-1:
http://www.mediafire.com/?dghmiym5mwi
6-1:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jyzqmm45g5g
my pleasure
overall... great match both mentally and physically.. except first 10 min of the 2nd half, there was a total collapse .
good work guys.
some negatives were
the back line still shaky and the right side was exposed most of the time.
the goal was caused by Marques, and Alves failed to cover the fault, sorry but again Valdes had nothing to do with it.
Messi, although scored twice, he is still keeping possession tooooo much dribling, dribling and more dribling till all the defence set back and he lose the ball,
he should show more profisoinalism.
Iniesta is the man of the match and Xavi is the man of all the matches!! hope they keep it going so.
Caceres made his debut at 80 min and played as central deffender and Marquez played as DM, there was no enough time to judge.
Basques, is a very promissinfg talent, very hard worker.
Kieta, well tops and flops all the match but acceptable effort altogrther.
Eto deffended much more than Alves " as he played the right wing" I'm loving this guy more and more.
Abidal did a nice job and saved a couple of attacks.
Barca was controlling the rythm of the match perfectly, and as usual total control of the midfield but this time it was posetive control.
Bojan played some minuites but he but it was too short for him to get into the atmosphere,
Gudy, as we know him calm , stable ,slow but confident he participated in the 5th goal.
thats all for now
congradulations and enjoy the first a way victory this season!!
Inista
Waleed, Thank you so much!
Didn't get a chance to watch todays match but very glad to be able to see the glorious results.
no problem jj it was a simple copy paste,
enjoy,
FINALLY!!!! How we needed a win like that and away as well. Sporting weren't great but we played very well, especially in the last 20 mins. Iniesta was simply incredible tonight, nobody could touch him. He was doing everything, tracking back, making runs, assists and a goal. Simply outstanding. Messi, Xavi, Keita, Eto'o, Alves, everyone was great tonight! Only Abidal looked iffy and while I think Busquets is a class player and is one for the future, why didnt Yaya play tonight? He didnt even come off the bench....was he injured or something?
I think Yaya wasnt injured
Instead Guardiola prefered Busquets
that was just what was needed. finally pep is getting the team to play how he wants them to. the defence improved or though was still pretty shaky, especially alves, he really needs to work on his defending.
this game will have done abidals confidence good. busquets looks to be one for the future all though he held the ball too long on occassions. etoo's work rate was first class, although i swear he nicked that goal from puyol!
iniesta was sublime, best performance i've seen from him.
really ENJOYED that match we i havent been able to say for um...about two years!
lets keep the momentum going against betis and get the confidence high, if we can do that then we have a team that can really challenge in all matches.
Great match. Iniesta is man of the match by light years. Abidal was our best defender. Busquets is a revelation. How did we get so deep at DM suddenly?
Don't worry, Yaya will get plenty of time and action this season. As we read from his comments about not playing, he's patient and understands that team glory is paramount.
But we sure could have used him a few times, when Puyol and Marquez were dithering about with the ball. There is nobody on the side better at starting the attack from the back than Yaya.
I think we looked great... against Sporting Gijon... whether or not the same performance would work against a real team is questionable... I am still concerned about our defence. Why is Toure Yaya not playing over Busquets? It makes me think that something has happened that we don't know about...
abidal is the MAN!
keep going abi.
Abidal still seems really shaky to me. He had a decent game. But he never looks comfortable going forward, looking to dump off the ball as quickly as he can.
On defense he always looks so lax, maybe that's just his style. On one hand you can say he's pretty composed and calm no matter what the situation. But certain situations require a little more decisiveness and caution. He always defends the same way regardless of the attacker's positions. I hold my breath every time an attack comes his way. I'm still hopeful that he'll get better. I mean a couple of years ago many people rated him one of the top left backs in the world, they must've of seen something!
yeah!!! FORZA barza!!!!! iniesta xavi and messi best highlights of these game abidal was GOOOD finally ..hah every thing would have been perfect if madrid wud of lost..
Sorry for not responding for those who mentioned me before, i wasn't near my pc.
For those who read my comments from time to time since 6 months up till now, i guess you know that may be i am the happiest and most satisfied today! Finally My belief that there is NO LEFT WING we can get can perform better than iniesta proved its worth - in two consecutive games btw- and finally Abidal proved that my support for him wasn't ignorance - will those who insist he wasn't convincing will be convinced by time, no problem with that.
Some negatives in the game were obvious, but I am not in the mood to talk about, not for now, the mentality was perfect, they kept fighting till the last moment -even though I thought it would have been better to save some energy- but I NO DOUBT prefer this explosive Barcelona over that careless one we knew before.
still more to come, but...I will watch the game again now (yea i record the games lol) then I will be back!
superb display. barca will be at full throttle very very soon.=> however poor positioning from valdes though. he needs to improve that area.
but then again its a new team in many areas. BRAVO!
Hell YEAH!!! FORZA BARCA!!!
Didnt mind staying up til 5AM to finish the match since im in asia but was worth it! Xavi and Iniesta sure looks like a deadly combination!
Cheers Pep for this great blog and congrats to everyone!
Barca forever!
Once again no yaya, no problem. And once again Iniesta and Xavi were brilliant! Lets keep this up.
Guardiola rating: 12!
- For that 3-1-3-3 offense set up he applied, giving every player the chance to have the role that he do best.
- For spending almost the whole game up on his feet leading the troops regardless of the result , pst: may be some people forget about doubting his winning mentality, we know this pepe since he was a player, full of passions to the game.
- For pulling messi to play as a striker opening the right path for Alves and making sure eto don't get isolated as a sole striker any more.
- For using iniesta as a wing, where he didn't only opened the game and created balance with the right wing, but even made the left side of the Barcelona take all the flashes from the right (may be for the first time since...).
- For leading Xavi to discover the missing piece in his unique talent! yea man you can be a killer scoring goals, not only a maestro dictating the tempo and orchestrating the game.
What was bad about the game is that it was only 90 minutes, I was hoping the referee add 2 hours injury time. that carnival was too satisfying to end, but too short to satisfy passionate footballers.
Flash comments about players:
- Valdes, for the first time as I remember he player the libero Role he has to play as a goalkeeper for a team that apply a high pressure defense, remember that ball and that tackle? well thats one of the attributes of class keepers only, he may not be one yet, but I will take that as a good sign!
- Alves: he was ok (but for his standards, he was a shadow) if he play on his level on right while having iniesta shinning on the left...I will start to petty those we play against. he need to remember that even though on set offense he turn to play a winger role but he is a right backward at the end and has to do his defensive role seriously! offensively he has no reason not to succeed everything is set for him to shine, messi evacuated the right path so he fly freely there, and Abidal is acting like a 3rd center back to insure depth in defense when alves fly on the right, right?
- Marquez need to concentrate, he play greatly all the game but he has "those moments" like that penalty the referee didn't whistle for sporting, he only needed to guard the ball closing the angle, not tackling the guy!and of course the goal...bad positioning.
- Payol is very dedicated and passionate for the barca colors, but thats not enough, His situation is critical for himself and for the team, how will he take the fact of not being the corner stone of defense anymore? will he accept a secondary role? his reaction to that will play a big part in deciding the dressing room environment during the season. but hey...will pepe be strong enough to do that? time will tell!
- Abidal...he is not my son, and he pay me no salary, I just defended him before because that was the fair thing, now after this display he is in a safe situation and no one will draw a knife and run for his throat, and if anyone did, I know there are more people to defend him now so...he need me no more.
Busquets: Demanding performance, I don't know when was it the last time Barcelona youth ranks offered that kind of DM, since it is one of two positions youth academy don't offer (beside big strikers), he may not be as flashy as bojan but playing in a position where its even harder to find the right player for, he is certainly the future of Barcelona as well.
- Keita simply filled the missed part in barcelona midfield since many seasons, balancing strength with techniques, possession with direct style, and offensive power with defensive stability.
- Xavi the Barcelona jewel, what will I tell about u?! The maestro! and lately a mean one, scoring all these goals, FOR YOU, perfection is just a beginning...
- Messi, a threat that shake any defense and open spaces for the whole team, with time he will get better no doubt, he is playing a new role for Barcelona this season and he will find his way, expect him to score more now as he switch positions with eto more often as a pure striker.
- Eto: I like his approach to the game and his mental set up, may be he is not the scorer recently but his move - specially now having messi as a striking partner will prove its worth for the team. he got pregnant after the goal and lets hope he deliver another little eto for the future of barcelona, but perhaps little bit taller?
Iniesta: MY BOY!! as I mentioned so often you are the most complete young talent in Barcelona (yes definitely the most complete and who will compete with whats unique!) Defensively : strong -accurate tackler, good positioning and closing up any spaces, in midfield tireless pressing abilities, great control on the ball perfect passing, and read the game like an Einstein! offensively open the game to the flank, great targeted crosses and assists, cutting inside dribbling and causing terror and hey! scoring! thats what I never thought u will do boy! so obviously getting better and better!
It was a game against a weak team but it showed what the team is capable to do.
Well deserved victory. We played well. This is the BARCA, we all want, no matter who plays, we all want a sucessive and convincing BARCA. We are not about who plays, we are a united team!!
Abidal proved me wirght. good display.
But now, its "no YAYA no problem"..
hmmm, few days ago it was "pepe is the man of the match for not including ABIDAL"
The next match maybe if YAYA plays and we win 6-0, it would be "No Henry no problem" @ least lets gve honour to whom its due.
Maybe if yaya plays we win 6-2 cuz his size doesnt do anything for set pieces (Libson goal). Yes jackass like i said no yaya no problem! Abidals performance was ok at best. No need for a parade in his honor just yet. The offense was brilliant even if it was a weak opponent, now lets see what Abidal does when he actually has to play some deffense. Who knows when that day will come seeing as how we dominate possesion every game.
Why call someone a name? Why can't we all get along here, and be comfortable with disagreeing on some points?
Yaya has fans, and he doesn't. Abidal had fans, and he doesn't. The same is true for every player on the side.
But it's important that we stay chilled here, and get along. I'm sure Pep will say the same thing.
Thanks Kxevin. I have learnt to ignore such posts. Like i said in one of my previous posts, I am matured enough to have a healthy arguement/constructive critisism. But thanks again for trying to educate folks on here.
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