2011 CWC: Al Sadd - FC Barcelona (SF #2) [R]

Re: 2011 CWC: Semifinal #2

Wow Al Sadd vs. Barcelona - amazing!



Wish this was in Abu Dhabi again, or even better... Qatar.

Re: 2011 CWC: Semifinal #2

yeah but let's remember who Barca's sponsors are!

Re: 2011 CWC: Semifinal #2

And let's not forget that Josep Guardiola used to live in Qatar.

Thank God the Asian Champs are the last Asian team standing. It'd be a shame if Kashiwa, who don't deserve to be here, had outlasted Al-Sadd, who won the Champions League that Kashiwa didn't even qualify for.

2 hours to kickoff. let's go!!!!

well it's not debatable that they won it, how they won it on the other hand..... well anyhoo they've got this far so kudos to them I guess. Will be interesting but I think it could also be a boring game. Barca will probably go a couple of goals up early and sit back for the rest of it to be ready for the final. Not really expecting them to run up the score or anything. I'm expecting 3-0 Barca.

lol funny goal

al sadd looks like an amateur team

They don't celebrate Christmas in Qatar but you might find that surprising given the fact that they've practically given Barca their two goals. Horrible, horrible defending and goalkeeping. You simply cannot do that at this level.

Very spineless first half by Al Sadd.

Al Sadd 0-4 Barcelona was the final score.

http://www.fifa.com/clubworldcup/ma...0180906/index.html?intcmp=livecoverage_box_en

Yeah, but rarely to this extent. This was the weakest team Barca played against all season IMO.

And yet some teams lost to them 7:0 or more...

Al Sadd was defensively poor and offered nothing up front, but Barcelona meet those kinds of teams regularly in the La Liga. As far as I'm concerned they were nothing out of the ordinary for typical Barca opposition.

That said GKs in Spain are nowhere as bad as this guy was!

I think Barcelona would have rather lost this game than have lost Villa.

Away from the Nou Camp? I don't think so.

Al-Sadd were way more defensive than La Liga teams that play Barca. Being that negative can usually prevent a 7-nil blowout but you give yourself no chance to even get a draw never mind a win.

Any La Liga team can hold Barca to a couple of goals if all they wanted was a 2-nil loss. But they play more positive in the hopes that they get a point or 3. Sometimes it works, but when it doesn't it could lead to a major blowout even if you happen to be a more talented team than Al-Sadd.

I disagree. Villa is a bench player for Barca now that Cesc and Alexis seem settled at the club. They probably won't miss a beat without him. It will only hurt them if they get another injury to one of their goal scorers.

This^

El Sid agrees, incidentally:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2011/dec/15/david-villa-injury-spain-barcelona

oh well I called that one... I don't really think u can compare Al Sadd with la liga games because Barca never really broke out of sweat. In Spain, they have Real Madrid breathing down their necks constantly so there's a reason to runup the score.Here it was basically score a couple and then don't get injured after last weeks el classico and the long flight from spain sandwiched between a final with Santos. Al Sadd never had the quality to take advantage or do anything but keep the score down. anyhoo... should be an interesting final...

As I said, spineless. It looked as if the Al Sadd players were more interested in asking for autographs once the game was over.

Everybody knows there was some controversy about them winning the AFC title, after all they did lose the match-up with Sepahan. But Saqr was their best asset in the Asian campaign. I have no idea what happened to him today. He was worse than useless.

It would have been pretty sweet if Messi gets that chilena in.

But yeah, that Sadd defense and GK are suspect. Aren't these teams supposed to be the best of all confederations?

No, they're just the winners of the most recent Champions League. Inter Milan weren't the best team in Europe a year ago, nor is Santos the best in South America now.