Exactly. Nobody expected full strength sides for either team but that's taking the piss.

so how many friendlies are there supposed to be and where are they playing?

I think the deal is for 4 of them, so I suppose there'll be two in Munich and two in Barcelona. It was funny listening to the Sky commentators trying to justify it all mid-game as some kind of 'glimpse into the future' of Barcelona. I understand that pre-season friendlies are always effectively a training exercise but this was obviously set up and sold as being something a bit more than that. All proceeds apparently went to charity, though, but that in itself makes the team selection seem even more disrespectful in a way. I suppose they at least got to see 45 minutes of Messi, which was 45 more than they saw at the CL final.

ha ha ha.

maybe bayern should reciprocate by sending the youth team to barcelona.

anyway did you see any pep-schemes?

Not really. It definitely wasn't tiki taka though. If there was a plan it seemed to be to give the ball to Ribery as much as possible. For all the silliness with the team selections, I have to say he was excellent.

he's always excellent but his role was sort of secondary with heynckes. meaning he was always a threat but not the main attacker-- he played a little back and helped defend.

oh mang im curious.

i'll look online for the lineups.

ps- happy to see barca's ridiculous sunny d away uniform is gone! that shit was THE WORST.

Haha yeah. The kit today was quite nice. It's supposed to be a one off, the colours apparently representing Catalonia.

i can't find the fucking clear lineups, what's going on...

this page sez:

Bayern XI to face Barcelona: Neuer - Rafinha, Dante, Boateng, Lahm - Thiago, Ribery, Robben, Alaba, Kroos - Müller

????

Bayern Munich: Neuer (Starke 46), Rafinha (Emre Can 73), Dante (Van Buyten 59), Boateng (Kirchhoff 68), Alaba, Thiago (Pizarro 73), Lahm (Gustavo 59), Kroos (Schweinsteiger 68), Ribery (Contento 68), Robben (Shaqiri 46), Muller (Mandzukic 46).
Goals: Lahm 14, Mandzukic 87.

Barcelona: Pinto (Oier 46), Montoya (Kiko 46), Bartra (Gomez 46), Mascherano (Planas 46), Adriano (Patric 46), Song (Espinosa 46), Sergi Roberto (Ilie 46), Dos Santos (Quintilla 46), Tello (Joan Roman 46), Messi (Dongou 46), Alexis (Dani Nieto 46).

In terms of formation, you can only really base it on the first half, before all the subs came on for both teams.

Anyway, for what it's worth, it seems like Pep was playing a 4-3-3, with Thiago at the centre of midfield, and Lahm and Kroos either side of him (I think). But too many key players missing to really draw any conclusions.

lahm as a midfielder, or am i dreaming?

Yep. And if anything it was Kroos playing the more defensive midfield role. But again, there were far too many key players who weren't there to be able to draw any real conclusions.

kroos has played as defensive midfielder before. the push up was a more recent development.

lahm as midfielder! i read he scored and didn't know what to do and stuck his tongue out.

i am intrigued by this shit.

I really wouldn't read anything into it. If Pep plans such a dramatic switch in position for one of his most key players, I doubt he'd announce it to his rivals pre-season. Why give them a 2 week head start in trying to overcome whatever system he has planned? I'm sure he just asked Lahm to play there because he trusted that he was capable of it while resting those he needed to and to frustrate any coaches sitting in front of the telly with their notepads out, hoping to get some early pointers.

Also heard that Barca's reason for fielding such a weakened team (relative to Bayern's) was the amount of their players who'd just been through the entire Confederations Cup: that the likes of Pique, Xavi, Busquets, Alba and Iniesta have been playing pretty much non stop for almost an entire year now, and they're frankly knackered. It may just be an excuse but it does seem reasonable. Xavi at least is probably moving around Barcelona in a mobility scooter right now.

EDIT: Should also say that although Lahm looked to be playing in midfield to me you should probably see for yourself cos I'm not that good with formations. At least since the world moved on from 4-4-2.

USA gets the job done, 3-1. Yeah, Kramer in the dojo, but those kids used to beat us up, so we're happy to be returning the favor. This upcoming WC is our chance to climb the ladder a bit. Will Mexico beat Panama to make it interesting on Sunday?

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1...rial&hpt=hp_c4

Ronaldo kick breaks boys wrist. boy stays to watch match then has surgery to repair wrist.

awesome kid, but fuck, he probably needs better nutrition.

used to be mexico was kramer beating everyone else. here's hoping for a usa-mexico final.

I thought the final had already been decided, isn't it between USA and Panama?

no idea, haven't been watching (lol)

if that's the case, oh mang.

WTF is wrong with mexico. i suspect there will be lynchings.

if i were mexican, i'd be calling for de la torre's head. first the confederations cup and now this. i'm guessing he's getting fired.

Told y'all, though you got to be careful calling for heads, after Brazil folks take that shit too seriously ;)




Of course, this dude from ESPN seems a bit over-eager to declare Mexico truly down for the count. I think they'll still probably even qualify for the WC, its just very very clear by looking at their play over the past 6-8 months that its not just a fluke, this team is seriously declining. Is it a precipitous fall? Maybe not yet. However, Panama has very clearly exhibited the kink in El Tri's armor. Most folks though after 2011 that Mexico would be the darling to rise from CONCACAF towards proven international success, especially after the Olympic Gold, shit, even I thought that. Then they seemed to peak, and you could see subtle signs of decline, even in wins. They essentially have lost their defense, they still manage to get a lot of strikes and on-goal kicks but they just can't stop other teams from scoring when it counts. The US finally abandoning the stylistic bad habits from CONCACAF is paying dividends which should frighten teams like Mexico, because if US can keep playing like this, its them and not Mexico that may start looming bigger on the international scene. NO Americas team is playing with that kind of precision, ball-movement, and aggressive offense WHILE maintaining the same rigid defense. CONCACAF teams are largely defensive oriented teams, US has always been able to stay in games on their defense, now they have some added offensive prowess..