Season starts off right with two supercups and an opening drubbing of Villarreal in liga. Cesc (moc3) is fitting right in and Sanchez scored in his liga debut as well. And yet we still wait for the Return of Pique (moc1) and Puyol (moc2). [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LCYlrfH_5o"]Mark Morrison Return of the Mack - YouTube[/ame]
I just saw that BATE Borisov plays in a stadium with a capacity of 5400. The Mini-Estadi is three times larger. If you ever wanted to see Barca play a meaningful match in a tiny venue, there's your chance.
BATE will host all their CL home ties in Dynamo Minsk's stadium (41,000+ capacity) just as they did in the 08/09 CL. http://www.uefa.com/uefachampionsleague/season=2012/matches/round=2000263/match=2007599/index.html
Just had a look at the UEFA regulations. For group stage through to the semifinals stadiums must be rated as "category 4", minimum capacity of 8,000. Ah, just 2600 short. However, this does bear the question of what is the smallest venue the first team (cracks included) has played in whether it's Liga, Copa or Champions. Monaco was what, 18,000? Osasuna in Pamplona is fairly small. Santander... Granada this season. Numancia a few years back. The Copa games against the lower division teams shouldn't really count since the international cracks rarely, if ever, play in the away legs.
Daaaaayum! If the thrashing of Villarreal was any indication, we'll be hotter than molten metal this year!!!
Not sure if it was mentioned that Victor Valdes equaled Zubizarreta as the FCB goalkeeper with the most appearances for the first team - 410. Awesome stuff! Also, I thought the post-match quote from Guardiola regarding Keita and Mascherano was great - "A Mascherano y a Keita no me los toquéis porque son mis niñitas, unas joyas," which I think translates to "Don't touch Mascherano and Keita because they are my little girls...jewels."
OK for some reason this reminds me of the Seinfeld episode when they try to see the movie, "Rochelle, Rochelle: A young girl's strange, erotic journey from Milan to Minsk" http://seinfeld.wikia.com/wiki/Rochelle,_Rochelle So I'm thinking "Barca, Barca: A veteran team's dominating CL road trips from Milan to Minsk" I know the tag line could be improved but at least Minsk gets the alliteration right with Milan.
I cannot seem to get the cartoon up here but the link is at the bottom: Cartoon of the Day: Sport Guardiola: “Mascherano and Keita are my ‘niñitas’ [precious little girls].” Keita: “From the moment the Mister said that phrase, I knew that sooner or later we’d end up in a cartoon like this.” Mascherano: “It’s because he made it so irresistible.” Read more: http://www.totalbarca.com/#ixzz1WdOmwa7p
This is fantastic. We could change the UCL draw thread title to this. I actually think that "Barca, Barca: A veteran team's strange, erotic journey from Milan to Minsk" would also work
Bringing this quote over from the Media thread. I remember that game well. Barca had lost the first leg at home 0-1 and a lot of us were surprised at the formation Rijkaard put out for that second leg. Jorquera Oleguer - Thuram - Puyol Marquéz Xavi - Deco - Iniesta Giuly - Ronaldinho - MessiXavi and Iniesta scored before halftime and we suddenly loved that formation. Zaragoza pulled one back through someone named Piqué but Barca advanced on away goals.. It worked so well that a week later Rijkaard tried it out again in the second leg against Liverpool at Anfield (Barca lost 1-2 at Camp Nou): Valdés Oleguer - Thuram - Puyol Marquéz Xavi - Deco - Iniesta Eto'o - Ronaldinho - MessiTruth be told, Liverpool took it to Barca in the first half and probably should've scored two or three. Barca played better in the second half and once Ronaldinho hit the post it almost seemed like a matter of time. With about 15 minutes left they finally scored through Gudjohnsen but couldn't manage a second and lost their defense of the CL on away goals. I recall Pep using the 3-4-3 quite a bit when he coached the 'B' team in 07/08. And away to LPB in 2010 I think he kind of employed a 3-4-3. Alves spent the first more as a midfielder running up that right side and rarely playing along the back line. And in the second half he had Alves stay back while Maxwell ran up the left side in a more offensive role. So it was as if they were playing with three defenders in the back the whole game. Ran out 2-0 winners, iirc.
Good memory of the Zaragoza and Liverpool games. Under Pep we have often been said to be playing a backline of 3 (long before the Villarreal game), in so far as either (1) both of our fullbacks are given license to charge forward and provide width (which also allows for the cutting in of the wing forwards) most usually seen when we play 2 of our 3 brazilian fullbacks and Abidal is either on the bench or playing CB. In that case Busquets deputizes as the third and usually most central CB. Or (2) only one fullback marauds forward at a time, usually Alves with Abidal staying back mostly but not always. However in all of these games prior games under Pep we still start 4 players who are at least pencilled in as defenders (even if they are DMs deputizing as CBs as Busquets and Masch and Toure have all done) which is where the Villarreal lineup was so radical. First, we had only 3 players playing the backline, and second, only 1 of them was a "true defender" - Abidal. Which contrasts with the 3 defender games you outlined against Zaragoza and Liverpool, where though we played a 3 player backline, we acutally had 4 "true defenders" on the field, in that Marquez was a CB deputized as a DM (this being the Edm-otta era of DMs, pre Toure and pre Busquets, that was a good thing). I think part of what drove Pep's lineup in the Villarreal game was the lack of availability of Alves (suspended) and Adriano, Pique, Puyol, and Maxwell. I suspect if Alves or Adriano was available one of them would have played and while they effectively would have played high up the right side of the pitch for most of the game, they still would've been deemed the 4th defender. And less would have been made of Pep's evolving lineup and tactics. We also would've seen Alexis and Pedro have more of a chance to cut in and shoot with more width coming from one or both fullbacks.
Pretty easy pop quiz, Pep spoke in his press conference of not promising to win any titles this year, just as he never promised to win 12 of the 15 titles he has played for thus far as coach. Question - which are the 3 that got away (title/trophy and season)?
Yup. Lost CL to Inter which still upsets me to this day because we played one bad game and it cost us. You could say the same about the 2009/10 Copa del Rey because I believe we lost the 1st leg too Having said that, 12 out of 15 is fantastic and Pep's right. We won't win everything all the time, but if we're playing well, we'll win a lot more than we'll lose
Yeah, that CdR loss to Sevilla was almost a premonition for the CL loss to Inter. Lost the first leg to Sevilla and went "kitchen sink" mode for the second leg and could only muster one goal.