Wednesday 13 May 2009

Match discussion: Athletic (cup final)

This evening at 10:00 pm bt,
Barcelona plays the cup final against Athletic.





Athletic squad list:
no list announced


Barcelona squad list:
Valdés, Pinto, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Cáceres, Sylvinho, Xavi, Víctor Sánchez, Touré, Busquets, Keita, Gudjohsen, Messi, Eto'o, Bojan, Hleb, Pedro



Read a match preview here



!!! LIVE MATCH CHAT !!!

From two hours before until two hours after the game you can join a match chat (read more here)



Before (what are your expectations, what's your prediction, what should be the line-up,...), during and after the match, you can also comment on the game here.

33 comments:

HouseMD said...

Pinto; Alves, Piqué, Touré, Puyol; Busquets, Keita, Xavi; Messi, Bojan y Eto'o.

Starting line-up. Just found it at Mundo Deportivo.
Yaya central defender again, Pinto GK and Bojan forward.

HouseMD said...

Probably, it will be 4-3-1-2

-----------Pinto---------
Alves--Pique--Toure--Puyol
---Busquets-Keita-Xavi---
----------Messi----------
------Bojan---Eto'o------

mofof said...

What did I tell you... Caceres won't play this season. Guardiola just hates the guy.

NouBarca said...

Guardiola is still learning. I hope he does so fast.
+ Can u beleive bloody SKYSPORTS-Uk would not show the game, cos MANC are playing Wigan.. am sad.. I hate web streams...

HouseMD said...

I think Guardiola doesn't hate any of his players. But Caceres deserved more playing minutes, definitely. I don't regard Pique much better than him. Caceres played well last season at Villarreal while Pique was playing for Man Utd B team. It is clear now that Guardiola made mistake not to play Caceres and Hleb much. Anyway, Hleb was bad buy from the start. He was never play in the system 4-3-3.
And what we have now? With all those defenders Yaya has to play defender.
One thing bothers me. What will happen if some of defenders suffer a major injury? Who will play?
It is question mark above Marquez's head. Maybe he won't be the same one, just like Milito.
One more thing, that's age. Puyol-31, Marquez-30, Milito-29. Who will replace them?
For now, Barca have 2+1(Henrique) young guns in defense. So please Guardiola, let them play.

P.S. Zapata and Filipe (both from Udinese) are great defenders. RM already have eyes set on Zapata. Let's snap him before they do.

ponnyKID said...

thats not official... on the line up the line ups r always release 30 45 before the game...

Rory said...

if toure plays at CB, i could understand it as a prep for the man u final...atletico's got decent size and strength and this could be as good a chance as any to give toure more time to get comfortable @ CB. the same, tho, could be said about caceres deserving the time to get more comfortable @ cb.

anyway, this ain't official, but i could understand why pep would put together this lineup.

jahjah2001 said...

Can't believe Sky not showing to final! Bastards!

ponnyKID said...

im pissed 2 goltv is showing the italycup instead of the sapnish cup.... wakkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk! im have to watch it online streammssss! here i come!!!

Anonymous said...

HouseMD: We wont snap anybody. Milito for 20m euros, Caceres for 16,5m euros, who are responsible for this nonsense? Where is the logic in this? We can thank God that we have La Masia, that's the reason we are so good, if we didnt produce so many class players ourselves, we wouldnt even have qualified for the CL, our behavior in the transfer market really sucks.

SimonP said...

Anon:

Alves, Marquez, Touré, Deco, Ronaldinho, Eto'o are just some of many good buys in recent years. Sometimes a new player is good and sometiems he's bad. Everyone was ripping on Henry last season and wanted to sell him and now he's in excellent form.

A couple of months ago everyone was ripping on Valdes and now he's getting praise from almost everyone.

Hleb, Caceres and Milito have the qualities to play in Barca, the only question is when they'll get the chance.

semko said...

I think pep is trying that for CL final.. toure will be in defence.. and busquets will play in the midfield;)

Anonymous said...

You didn't hear this from, but live streams for barca games are posted on justin tv... Google justin tv and click on sports and you will find most barca games on live stream...enjoy

blaugrana_uk said...

the best bet is www.myp2p.eu click the sports tab then click the football icon then scroll for the game should be there, remember the site is in european time so it wil start 09.00 here UK an 10.00 CET, i prefer to download tvu player an watch it through GOL TV which is in english!!!

Zeli said...

+1

blaugrana_uk, you've advanced me)..So, I'd like to recomend also this site. direct link - http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=38371&part=sports

blaugrana_uk said...

here is a new link great speed an picture commentary is in spanish:
http://www.justin.tv/mahavirajina/popout

LeónDragón said...

...etoo...what the ...

LeónDragón said...

...f***...

SimonP said...

Eto'o is very, very out of form. He couldn't score if it were open goal.

Now when it's 4-1 take of Puyol, Xavi and Messi. And in with Caceres/Sylvinho, Gudjohnsen and Hleb.

Louis said...

CAMPEONES, CAMPEONES, OLE OLE OLE!

Ramzi said...

Thats the first. Keep on counting!

SimonP said...

Gr8. The first of three titles, next season we can go for six. BUT!

Why are Guardiola so afraid of making substitutions? We need to rest our starplayers and when we have a 4-1 lead he should have given some playtime to our squadplayers.

suryansh said...

Only the Cl left. Fell bad for hleb he was sulking when he was put on... he really dint get a chance at barca which sucks cause hes a good player.

Ba-Beka said...

Eto'o definitely should be resigned , he don't deserve to play for Barca, even Valdes if he played as Forward could have score 28 his goals in La Liga , he is overrated , Barca go after Ibra so u'll score more and more goals.

Congratulation to Barca for the first silverware this year , next La Liga and Champions League .

Bye

blaugrana_uk said...

gr8 win 4 the boys very proud of barca they never wavered even when they went down,they must switch on at set pieces against man u cos they have some very good aerial attackers, was worried when we were 4-1 cos bilbao started diving in an clattered messi a few times im surprised he didnt keep bojan on an take messi off???, he's still learning pep an experience makes u a better coach i guess, sell eto'o well the jurys out yes his form aint gr8 but sammy has a knack of coming good at the right time i guess it will all be decided in the summer cos if samu doesnt sign a new deal the club will try 2 cash in on him, yaya whom i rightfully criticised against villarreal put in a good performance his dribbling an long shots are good an he plays good at centre back not world class but good he musnt be isolated with rooney, ronaldo or tevez if he plays as they are all super quick, gr8 win really happy now for the league come sunday!!

VISCA BARCA I VISCA EL CATALUNYA!!!

kamikaze kontiki said...

WE WON !!! WE WON !!! WE WON !!!
El Rey de Copa

why is everyone so hard on Eto'o ?
Just about every team complains about their strikers not putting away easy chances.

Some of those chances were created by Eto'o turning his defender, i.e they were half-chances turned into goal-scoring opportunities by Eto'o himself. This guys has an incredible work-rate. If Messi or Xavi put in a bad performance everyone excuses them on the grounds of fatigue. Thats why I logged the stats of the games played in the preview. Eto'o has been as overworked in the last month and a half as Xavi (and more than Messi). But all that is immaterial, I thought he played well today. For me, if Eto'o is turning his man, he is having a good game. Yes he should finish off those chances but that looks more likely to happen than not.

Toure Yaya, I wish every match-day were his birthday !!!

The whole team put in a superlative performance in the 2nd half. It was brilliant, Bilbao hardly got a foot on the ball. We deserved the double and we wil deserve the treble too. Sergi Busquets performance today was the greatest positive to draw from the game, keeping in mind the games ahead and especially the CL final.

Aussie Barca Fan said...

VISCA EL BARCA

CHAMPIONS OF SPAIN

SOON TO BE CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE

WE ARE KINGS OF SPAIN!

WORLDWIDE CHAMPIONS!

Carrer de Corsega said...

I remember Edgar Davids saying ages ago that the reason he became a midfielder was "a GK or defender makes a mistake and everyone remembers...a striker misses one chance and everyone curses him. I chose midfield so I can cruise along and not be noticed!" Something along those lines. Eto'o played hard and opened up a lot of spaces for us, but he is criticized for missing easy chances. He just needs to gain his confidence back and be calm in front of the goal. He should be reminded that HE is the pichichi leader.

My worry about our formation today is the defensive midfield position. Busquets is a young and upcoming player that will train under one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. He will get better as time goes by, but for now, he is just not sure-footed enough to be the link between the back four and the midfield. We will miss the presence of Yaya in the middle.

I'm still puzzled by the decision to keep Messi on the field. He hasn't caught his breath since playing against Bolivia!

Nonetheless, it's a glorious day!
Visca El Barca

Iason said...

Great! I had to go to a soccer game myself after the FC Barcelona game and I went motivated and full of energy and I scored a hat trick.

Anonymous said...

it's funny to me that people are still questioning pep's substitution decisions when we are virtually one game away from winning a treble (which no other team from Spain has ever done...and only a handful outside of Spain). the thing is, everybody thinks they know best (like sitting behind a computer makes you an expert)...but the truth is you're hard pressed to find anyone that has done as well in their first top-flight coaching job, ever.

additionally, we have had very few injuries this season, especially compared to the last couple. only Iniesta and now Marquez have even been out for a sizeable amount of time. and maybe, just maybe, Messi likes playing soccer and would rather be out there. maybe he likes the feeling of playing his first final ever for the club. maybe he wanted to play the whole game...i know, it's crazy to think a soccer player might want to play through this whole game (also, how much has Messi been injured this year compared to last?).

NouBarca said...

the best thing was that when Barca was 1 goal down and ManU one goal down, I entered the betting shop next to my house and dropped a tenner that both teams would still come back to win. They both did,I am goin there today to collect my CA$H. It cant be less than £1000. Tnx Barca. Forza Barca.
And please who has pep.G' s number, I need to tell him Subs are a CORE part of the team. USE THEM

sashi said...

Tats no 1... 2 more to go... 1's already in our pocket... 28th May... can't wait for it...

kamikaze kontiki said...

Just watched a replay again and :

Bojan's goal. Pretty much telling Eto'o, NO WAY , MY GOAL !!!

The perfection of Xavi's freekick, inside of the post, impossible to save.

How motivated was Messi? Along with Dani Alves he was a threat throughout the game.

Some salient points

The Toure as CB helps Dani Alves play virtually as a winger, makes our formation an out and out 3-4-3.

Busquets played well but I am still unsure if he will be able to handle Man U.

Keita, quiet, unobserved, had a brilliant game.

I like some of these Bilbao players. What say Barça work on building a Basque contingent again. Gives us some more steel, fighting spirit and physical presence. I would buy Amorebieta and Llorente straight away, keep an eye on Susaieta for the future.

VISCA BARÇA !

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