The Official Soccer/Futbol Thread

Wow, so many bitter Arsenal fans... you guys (at least the English people) should be hoping that the Champions League comes to England again! If it was Arsenal Barcelona, we'd be cheering for Arsenal.

It's going to be mental in Manchester tomorrow. I had to come back from uni (mid exams, smart girl...) to watch it back home. 100,000+ turned up last year, hopefully much more will this year!

COME ON YOU REEEEEDS!

 

Manchester United is too good this year, I see them demolishing Barcelona.

 

I think we deserve to, to be honest. Just judging by the semi-finals...Barca were crap, to put it bluntly. Obviously we don't know how either team will perform tomorrow but all these people I've been hearing cheering for Barcelona just seem to be pissed off Liverpool, Man City and Arsenal fans.

 

I really detest predicting Finals because they usually turn out to be quite the opposite of my picks, so i'll keep it simple. Barca has gaping holes at the back to say the least, so if they cover up that weakness with the remainder of their six players, they just might have a chance. Otherwise, United are favored to win. They know how to raise their game when it calls for it, they've got Cristiano Ronaldo of course, and they're at a nearly fully strengthened team.

Obviously, i detest Man U as an Arsenal fan and so I hope Barca put a smile on my face, but if somehow United become the first team to win the Champions League back to back, I cannot do anymore but congratulate them.

 

Co-sign, yes our Arsenal has a lot of work to do in the offseason to shore up our defense and gain some more scoring punch from the wings.

 

I don't understand why you have to detest United as an Arsenal fan, to be honest. We're nowhere near as hateful towards your team

For me, if it was any other British team in the final against Barcelona, I'd be cheering for them. The only teams I wouldn't wish well would be Liverpool and City but that's because we have a very intense and very old rivalry. We have respect for Arsenal, they play good football a lot of the time. If they had a better season than us and were now in the champions league final, I'd be all for them to win. I don't get why so many other football fans hate United just because we've been successful over the last few years.

 

Because everyone else is being bitter, it's up to me to wish United THE BEST OF LUCK FOR TOMORROW!!!!


Good luck, boys! We all believe in you, do Manchester proud and play a great game! Champions of England, lets become Champions of Europe!! artyman:

 

LOL, alright I will give the Devils their due, good luck Man U!:smt023

 

Hooray, I got some good luck from at least one of you Arsenal fans Thanks Loki!
I'm SO nervous right now. I couldn't sleep yesterday and have dreamt about the game for the past three nights, haha.

 

Oh, its just a little footie rivalry. Although Utd and their fans are very arrogant which is very annoying. Obviously i give them their due when they do good things, but Im not going to bend over backwards for Man U lol.

i'll tell you what, i dislike chelsea even more simply because they try to buy their way into everything.

 

Sorry FromRussiaWithLove, Barca were crap against Chelsea, but they just proved that Football isn't mathematics as it was superior against Manchester United.

Barca has a superior possession style of football that makes them very difficult to beat. How can you beat a team that keeps the ball as much as 80% of the time?

I didn't see the game because I was at work, but I am reading

http://www.lequipe.fr/Football/breves2009/20090527_224945_barcelone-cree-un-empire.html et they're saying that Vidic, Ferdinand and Carrick were some of the weakest links.

No team has won the Champions Cup/Champions League back to back since my team Ac Milan did it in 1989 and 1990

 

I don't think we're arrogant. I think Liverpool fans/Chelsea fans are way more arrogant. We're confident, but that's because we're successful.
But whatever, ya'll can have a field day and gloat tonight lol. United played CRAP and didn't deserve to win and I'm not as petty as a Liverpool fan or a City fan and won't make excuses for my team. United fell apart as soon as they conceded a goal and Barcelona deserved to win.
So congratulations to Barcelona.

 

...I'm sorry, but that was NOT superior.
Barcelona did not play brilliant football. United were just shit. I'm not saying that United deserved to win, not at all, as soon as we conceded a goal, we fell apart and Barca deserved the victory but that was NOT good football from Barcelona.
Posessions means fuck all, lets be honest. When Arsenal played Liverpool in the league, they had almost 50% posession and were disgraceful. I'd never seen such a terrible performance from a 'top flight' team. But that's another matter.

Like I said, congratulations to Barca. United didn't have enough enthusiasm or enough heart to win it today and although Barcelona's performance was just avarage, it was still better than ours. I'd have been embarassed if United won having played like that. They're too cocky and need to be brought down to earth.

 

Tough loss, keep your head up kiddo, Man. U is still having a very good year, the best in the BPL. Things could be worse, just think of us poor Arsenal fans!:grin:

 

The problem was Uniteds big players just didn't perform anywhere near their potential. Because if they did they might have actually won; Barcelona were not outstanding.Also I have to say I was shocked at how little United tested Barcelona's patchy defence. Due to their injury list Barcelona played a central midfield player at centre Back(Yaya Toure).He did alright, but could have been tested more. Really imo, the game was won in midfield. Barcelona's best players were their midfielders, especially Iniesta. And United's worst were their midfielders, especially Carrick. Thought he was pretty poor. Rio Ferdinand and Vidic will be having nightmares over Messi's goal though. How can a 5'7 player head a goal when surrounded by two world class 6 footers.

 

FromRussia,

It never occured to you that Barca could have had something to do with Man U playing so poorly?

I am watching the game now on DVR, so I will tell you what I think. But so far, all the articles I've read online are praising Barca's ball posession and control of the game, while they said United relied on the long balls too much...a sign of desperation and that they were being outplayed. I heard Iniesta was fantastic

Like all team sports, it's all about match-ups. Henry, Eto'o and Messi give all defenders nighmares. And name me right now in the world, a better midfield pair than Xavi and Inieasta. Look at what they did last year in the Euro 08.

Anyways, the superior thing is just matter of opinions, but most football journalists say Barca was the superior team in almost every aspects, except that United had more shots on goal.

 

The only two United players that did anything tonight were Ronaldo and Van Der Sar. I was honestly shocked by our players. Players who are usually chasing and winning the ball, like Tevez and Rooney and Vidic, were so quiet. Barcelona weren't great. In my opinion, they weren't even good... United were just much worse.
Carrick was SHOCKING. My opinion on this shouldn't count because I've never, EVER liked Carrick and tonight just gave me a million plus reasons to hate him. Vidic and Rio looked like they were playing together for the first time, it was embarassing.

United owe all of us fans a bloody apology, haha.

 

No.
United started the game brilliantly. Every time Barca got a touch on the ball, United won it back. Unfortunately for us, one simple mistake lead to a lucky goal and that was when United fell apart.
You can't honestly say that Barcelona played well today. They didn't. Their defense was crap, even their attacking force was poor, it just happened to be better than ours. Messi (the best player in the world, in my opinion) underperformed today yet he still managed to score because our defense was in pieces.

People can say whatever they want in blogs. My mates that are Arsenal fans and City fans are going on like Barca are the dogs bollocks but they just weren't, it's as simple as that. Like I said, I'm NOT saying United deserved to win, not at all, but you can't say that Barcelona were superior. They were alright, at best. Lucky that United played so badly.
We would have done better if we put out the kids because at least they would have shown some enthusiasm for the game.

If you want to name names, Ronaldo and Rooney and Tevez and Berbatov give defenders nightmares too, more so than Henry and Eto'o and Iniesta. They were just poor tonight, just like most of the Barcelona players.

 

Well, I watched the game, and what you're describing lasted just 9 minutes untill Barca scored. If a team dominates for less than 10 minutes and then can't manage to be a threat for the remaining 81 minutes, it just proves how much of a fluke those 9 minutes were. In the end, unless they go to penalty kicks, the superior team always win and today it was clearly Barca.

It was Barca's tactic that surprised the Man U players. Messi usually plays on the right, Eto'o at the center and Henry to the left. But today, Messi played in more central position and in midflied right in front of Iniesta and Xavi. The ESPN commentators said it was done to have Messi attack the much slower Vidic and it worked because VIdic look lost and terribly slow. And Ferdinand needs some vacation

It wasn't a mistake, it was an excellent run from Iniesta who found Eto'o and the latter simply made Vidic look silly. As long as I've been watching the Champions Cup/CHampions League, I don't remember a defender---especially considered to be the best in the world at the moment---look so ridiculous in a play that leads to a goal. So it was not a lucky goal, it was brilliant midfield play from Iniesta and deadly finishing from Eto'o as usual. He did the same 3 years ago in the finals to tie the game against Arsenal, remember? There's no such thing as luck in football, team and players make they own luck.

Well, okay, maybe I can't say it, but Sir Alex Ferguson said Barca was the better team.

http://goal.com/en-us/news/174/uefa-champions-league/2009/05/27/1290024/sir-alex-barcelona-were-the-better-team

Sir Alex: Barcelona Were The Better Team

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson admitted his side had been beaten by a better team after watching his side lose 2-0 to Barcelona in the Champions League final.

Okay. I watched the game, and Manchester United started very well, but as soon as Barca scored, they fell apart and it was obvious that they were scared. Scared of what? Of the Barca machine because every team in the world is. Remember Anderson missing the easy ball in midfield and looking silly? What about the poor pass back to the goalkeeper than lead to a corner? All these are examples that the players of Man U were scared and that's why they played so poorly.

Think about it, they just played the finals last year and won, so why were these acting like nervous wrecks if they have the experience? Again, the answer is because they had a Barca team that embarrassed just about every other great team expect Chelsea. Real Madrid gained 49 points out 51 points possible and was playing excellent soccer untill they met Barca at home and they got slaughtered 2-6.

I totally agree with you. I think that experience is completely overated. A Nani would have had a better impact than Giggs and Berbatov or Tevez should have started, not Park. I think that Ferguson was also scared and he chose a very conservative line up. Why did he put Park and leave Tevez or Berbatov on the bench? Why do you think he chose a 4-5-1 formation instead of going with two pure strikers or even a 4-3-3? He was scared of being outclassed by the best midfield in the world right now. He tried to pack the midflied but it didn't work.

Spending close to 30 million pounds on Berbatov just to have him on the bench is proof that he was being to cautions.

I used to like Man U back when Beckham used to play there. It was when they had arguably the most balanced team in the world. Now you have to admit that Man U is sort of a one man team and they only go as far as Ronaldo can take them. Where were Giggs, Rooney, Carrick, Vidic, Ferdinand today? They were ghosts.

And by the way, it's not fans in blogs that are saying that Barca was superior, it's football analysts from the famous L'equipe, from ESPN and other former football players.

 

Ahahaha United lost!!!! I'm so happy, its unbelievable. I watched the game from beginning to end, and Man Utd got pwn3d. Barca's midfield totally raped United and it was clear that they were in for a challenge by the time Eto'o scored in the 10th minute. Ronaldo started off really well but faded off after a while. Rooney didn't play well from the wing and Anderson was soo awful he got taken off at half time. United deserved to lose, and I'm not saying this as an Arsenal fan. I admitted that Arsenal did deserve to lose against Man U in the semi-finals, so there is no bias here.

The better team won, and thumbs up to Barcelona.