[demonrail666]

PSG are easily the better side so far. Barca have plenty of possession but aren't doing anything with it. They're lucky it's still 0-0.

[h8kurdt]

MOTHERFUCKER! Let's hope they can keep that lead.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

 

 

I know you like Bayern but seriously, you're watching the wrong game.

[h8kurdt]

Fuck. My sphincter is about this-> . big.

[h8kurdt]

Fuck's sake. Meh well.

[TheMadcapLaughs]

psg learned that things can get a little messi in barcelona (sorry i couldn't resist)

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by TheMadcapLaughs

psg learned that things can get a little messi in barcelona (sorry i couldn't resist)

Messi or not, it still looked like the best team lost tonight.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

PSG are easily the better side so far. Barca have plenty of possession but aren't doing anything with it. They're lucky it's still 0-0.

i saw this at halftime. rewatching, i sort of agree that barca wasn't doing anything ith possession but i didn't find psg "better" until the 2nd half, not just because the goal but because their attacked more and better.

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I know you like Bayern but seriously, you're watching the wrong game.

i just finished watching and it was okay, but i don't think it was extraordinary or anything. i feel sorry for barca having to rely on messi so much. i hope he hasn't worsened his injury. i thought barca would be able to pull a spain and win with fabregas, but looks like it's messi or nothing for them. that's never a good thing.

btw, i think beckham's yellow card was for saying to the ref "do you know who i am? do you know who i am? i'm david beckham! i'm married to posh spice! you might have seen me in such shows as 'bend it like beckham' and 'kitchen nightmares...'" or some such douchery...

anyway, i was definitely glad to catch the bayern game... it was fun until the last minute. i could see them feeling kroos's absence on the attack this time around (his good passing was missed), but they adapted. this was a different match than last week's-- mandzukic didn't chase down the juve defenders like a hound and pirlo was allowed a bit more space i thought. the star for me this week was javi martinez, he really played great and did all kinds of good everywhere.

btw, mandzukic might have been cooled by the vile and unfair yellow card he received early on, completely unjustified, and now he won't be playing the next match. worst of all is it apparently can't be appealed. pure bullshit!

match of the week for me definitely remains the dortmund-malaga one. it was a tremendous ending. the zonal marking commentary on that has been up since earlier, but it seems to me it's a bit obvious this time around, it's not like he has a deep analysis to open the magic kingdom of secret understanding or something-- he usually does but not today. well maybe not for me this time around. anyway, still better than newspaper commentary, check it out & let me know.

[TheMadcapLaughs]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Messi or not, it still looked like the best team lost tonight.

its that old adage, good teams know how to win even when they play badly. man u are experts in this regard.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

Messi or not, it still looked like the best team lost tonight.

in my eyes, psg were only better from the beginning of the 2nd half until when messi came in.

[Пятхъдесят Шест]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I still support the idea of goal line technology but only to confirm whether the ball has crossed the line or not. Anything else, like some of the more supposedly clear cut refs 'mistakes' regarding things like fouls, hand balls and offside are more interpretive and many of them are still debated by experts who still can't come to a final right or wrong answer, even with the help of replays from every possible angle. Goalline technology would work because it's just a simple 'yes/no' decision, with no grey areas at all.

Yes, what you said.

Hola !@#$%!, que pasa?

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!

in my eyes, psg were only better from the beginning of the 2nd half until when messi came in.

They improved when Messi came on for sure but I honestly think PSG should've been home and dry after the first half. Xavi was pretty poor and Iniesta hasn't been in form for a while. They just didn't look like scoring, and PSG were making mincemeat of their defence. Valdez saved them big time tonight. On their day I still think they can beat anyone but I'm seeing more and more games like tonight's where they're looking seriously beatable. But, as Madcap says, they're still winning. Although unlike with Man U, who I always somehow expect to win, however badly they're playing, I just couldn't see Barca getting that equaliser tonight.

Yeah, Malaga Dortmund may be my fave of the tournament so far, although for sheer epicness, it's hard to beat Barca's comeback against AC Milan. I read the zonalmarking report. If anything I thought it was pretty generous with the amount of tactical coverage it gave. It wasn't a really interesting game on that level to begin with, just really exciting, which doesn't really translate in zonalmarking terms. Although I'm disappointed nobody was described as an intergalactic winger.

[_slavo_]

demonrail666 summed it up pretty well.

[!@#$%!]

i don't know, perhaps psg did better in the first half, but having no dog in that race i didn't feel anyone had overwhelming superiority and it was all about final scores. (e.g., were i a barca fan, i might have been disappointed & furious like i was with dortmund before they flipped the tortilla)

i did see barcelona suck, but not so much as to completely lose either control or hope to make it to the next round. yes, at the beginning psg attacked more, but by halftime i thought barca was being successfully at managing a 0-0 tie, which was risky, but favorable to them. because that's all that counted, yes?

the 2nd half however i thought they truly lost their shit until messi came in. why psg didn't score more i don't know, but you can't win matches on deserves.

after messi came in however and pedro scored barca was able to once again manage the tie. which, again, objectively, is all they needed to do.

anyway-- potato, potato, barca is going down against the germans

--

so, tomorrow's the new draw. who do you want to see?

it would be hilarious if we got barca-madrid and bayern-dortmund, though it wouldn't be so interesting cuz those happen all the time.

barca-bayern would be fun-- future and past guardiolas meet in the present.

and dortmund-real madrid could become the rivalry of the year after dortmund won the group stage. i see pros in seeing 2 more of these matches-- the teams know each other and could both prepare better.

oh man.... whatever happens, i'm really looking forward to tomorrow's draw.

[demonrail666]

Originally Posted by !@#$%!=

it would be hilarious if we got barca-madrid and bayern-dortmund, though it wouldn't be so interesting cuz those happen all the time.

I'd rather that than a Spain/Spain or Germany/Germany final (even though it could still happen anyway). Barca are inconsistent but I still think they're the most able to stop Bayern so that's the final I'm hoping for. I respect Bayern but I just can't bring myself to like them so I'll be backing whoever plays them if they make the final.

Anyway, zonalmarking analyses are up from both of last night's game.

[!@#$%!]

right-- a monocountry final would be somehow fundamentally wrong (or a slap in the face, depending).

so it's safer if that chance is cancelled out on semis, is what you're saying?

--

ps- why you not like bayern? not trying to sell you, just curious.

[demonrail666]

I wouldn't mind if a single country had the two best teams (as in the past with say Barca and Real) but while anything can happen I think Barca are still a better team than Dortmund just as Bayern are better than Real. So a real/Dortmund final would be even worse. In terms of the two best teams (statistically) meeting in the final, it has to be Barca and Bayern.

[!@#$%!]

Originally Posted by demonrail666

I wouldn't mind if a single country had the two best teams (as in the past with say Barca and Real) but while anything can happen I think Barca are still a better team than Dortmund just as Bayern are better than Real. So a real/Dortmund final would be even worse.

for variety though, you could get TWO barca/bayern matches in the semis instead of just the one final. i mean, i get the symbolism of the final but my greedy eye right now just wants moar bettarr matches. which is why i don't want two clasicos and two bayern-dortmund macthes-- we get to catch those year-round!

to mix it all up barca-dortmund and bayern-madrid would be cool in the semis... just stuff we don't see that often.

[demonrail666]

I can see that. I just like the idea of the two best teams fighting it out at the end and, as we know from last year, it's not always the best teams that make the final, or even win it. It'd just be nice, after Chelsea winning it last year, for us to reasonably be able to say that this year, the Champions of Europe really are the best team in Europe. And going purely on their overall records for the season, of the teams still in it, that's still Bayern and Barca. So for me it has to be those two, in a single game, at a neutral ground, in the final.

Edit: FIFA has just released it's new world rankings.

http://www.fifa.com/worldranking/ran...ble/index.html

The usual insanity.

[TheMadcapLaughs]

i'll take anything but another classico for the semi's. ive had enough of these two squaring off.