Argentine NT: News, Stats & Players 2011-2013 (Part II) [R]

Though I don't understand any word in spanish, I'm impressed! would be nice to see this video in english...

 

0-1st minute: He starts by placing the first letter of the Barca player's names in their position. It's a 4-4-3 looking down.

Then he says that he's playing with a 5-3-2. He places circles over both the wide forward Barca players saying the Estudiantes fullbacks will play above them while 3 CB's will stay back and cover the middle.

Veron and the other midfielders are placed covering Barca's middle 3.

Then he puts a B next to Pique and makes a rectangle saying that's where Boselli will be mostly playing and that he's going after Pique.

The other circle is where Enzo, who's more withdrawn, will play and would either go right and attack Abidal or push further forward and attack Puyol.

I'll explain the rest later. Maybe someone else can do 1st-2nd minute and we'll do it minute by minute.

 

Never mind all this fancy, la-di-da, talk about tactics and formations, this is how you give a team talk:

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YE5mEDcjM6s"]Mad Soccer Manager (John Sitton) - YouTube[/ame]

 

Alright I'll continue:

1st-2nd minute of the video:

Sabella says: "Thats how in the first 20 minutes we had a few chances, then it got complicated. We got a chance were Veron gave it to Enzo and Boselli was free, Veron ran up the left side and tried to give it to Enzo but Puyol put his body in the way".

"The main problem was the Barca trio in the middle and a lot of teams try to play Barca with a 4-4-2. The problem with that is that is the midfield closes down and maintains possession. To fix that it means one of the wider fullbacks has to leave his spot and go to the middle to compensate. The problem is is that player covering Messi goes to compensate Messi will penetrate the line of 4. He can go by one and then when the second defender tries to close him down it leaves space for the CF to go one on one with the last defender."

Someone better rep me for this. Jaja I'll do the rest later. ASF help me, do the 2nd-3rd minutes of the video .

 

2nd-3rd miute:

"Aside from Messi penetrating and leaving the #9 one on one with the defender you also have Davi Alves running wide which is another one of their key players.

A large amount of players in the middle, plus Messi, plus Dani Alves making the run on the flank that's exposed.

We wanted to mark Pique more with Boselli because Pique has more technical ability to enter the midfield and then give them more numerical superiority in there.

Pique made a great run through the midfield that had to be stopped by the RB. We needed to let Puyol come out, regroup 5 at the back but also containing the middle 3 midfield of Barca.

Then we needed the LB to run forward and attack, one CB pushed over to cover Messi but we still had a numerical advantage with 2 CB's facing the #9."

Done. Later I'll do the rest.

 

I thought the title of the article at canchallena was a bit over the top so I adjusted it a little:

Anotá Mou: así se pierde también con el Barcelona.

 

Dude translate the 3rd-4th minute of the Sabella video to help out our friend here who don't understand Spanish.

 

Hmm I don't have a lot of time right now, so excuse me for being brief. The most important thing he talks about is how he thougth that his players had an amazing game. In the end they were exhausted because they were playing against an extraordinary team.

Also he talks about how his team had to have an enormous amount of physical and tactical discipline and the utmost concentration to recuperate the ball.

Sabella's a smart guy. He's just not my cup of tea when it comes to football.

 

Anybody else think that Messi missing a game because of too many yellow cards was exactly what he needed? His first real rest in ages and the scores 3 for Argentina and then 5 for Barcelona, wow.

 

There are no words left to describe Lionel Messi.

 

What did you say? I'll have to see this one for myself.

 

Bueno ...

"La Pulga" es actualmente "El Fenomeno."

He's gotten so clinical at finishing in amazing style that these goals seem routine for him.

Thank God Newell's sold him for the equivelant a sack of alfajores ...

 

I am going to wait for Pele to come out and say, "he never scored 1,200 goals like me" . "About 800 of them came from me scoring in my backyard of my house. I was filming myself, I have the evidence"..

Diego will come out and say " Pelé perdió la virginidad con un hombre"

Check and mate to Diego and to Lio.

 

It wouldn't be so bad if Messi looked halfway motivated and engaged while he's doing this. I've never seen a player looking so bored while scoring 5 goals. Heck, when was the last time I saw someone score 5? Makes the difficult look so terrifyingly simple.

 

That's the thing about Messi's brilliance/genius, he makes it look so easy. You're watching it and you think, "yeah, ok, you've run 40 yards and causally chipped the goalie, no big deal" or, "you're on your weaker right foot, bit of a tight angle, oh you've chipped the goalie again, yawn", it's easy to overlook just what you are watching.

As someone put it on the Guardian, we should all cherish every game this Barca team play and every game that Messi plays in, in deacdes to come he will be talked about in the same way that Di Stefano, Puskas, Pele, Cruyff and Maradona are talked about now.

Although the only person on the planet who probably hates watching Messi play must be that senile old man Pele.

 

I think his best performances at club level was against Zaragoza a couple seasons back. He was untouchable at that game.

If you go to the 8:10 mark, that would of been a unreal goal. He was pulled down in the box. Had a hat-trick, could of gone for a 4th, but gave the PK to Ibra who was in a goal scoring drought.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fLoCPYlxdc"]Messi vs Zaragoza 21.03.2010 - YouTube[/ame]

Of course Arsenal comes in mind as well.

Just to add, I think Messi's confidence is sky high right now. He is coming along at the NT level(where a lot of us have wanted him to be for some time now), that hat-trick meant a lot to him vs the Swiss.

If he had a bad game vs the Swiss then came and scored 5 today, then I would of been mad. But again, I don't think he hits for 5 today without scoring 3 for the selección.

The kid has been collecting a lot of match balls lately. Took the one vs Valencia, the Swiss and now Leverkusen.

 

Athletic Bilbao's Bielsa – obsessive and dangerous for United's chances


http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/mar/07/marcelo-bielsa-athletic-bilbao-manchester-united

 

thanks a lot Dr. Know!

 

The real start of the 58 and 62 world cups for Brazil was Garrincha, not Pele. I recall reading something by Tim Vickery (I think) in which he stated that the 2nd best individual performance in world cup history (I'll let you work out the greatest) was Garrincha in 1962. Pele is just good at marketing himself and of course he's FIFA and Blatter's tame poodle who they wheel out every now and again for a photo opportunity.