Futebol dos Gringos: Football unrelated to NT and Brasileirão [R]

For celito

http://bit.ly/YaWvn6

 

Real Madrid as just dozing off, but nice fight by Gala.

I'm a bit shocked about the Malaga result.

 

Wow.....

And then people complain about South American officiating....

 

Dortmund scored 2 last minutes goals to advance. Their third goal was a mile offsides (and so was Malaga's 2nd goal).

 

Ibrahimovic

 

In all honesty, he did have a good game, but just didn't score.

celito Lucas Gomes - Alves at fault on PSG's goal. Pastore blew by him. Looked like his Brazil NT form tonight.

 

Pastore even slowed down as he entered the area and Alves could block the shot.

Yeah, it certainly is taxing, but Alves used to be able to do it for Barca. The last year or so he hasn't been effective on either end and he has been caught up field on many occasions.

And yes, I know you aren't a fan of his, but you still defended him He was mediocre for the Seleção in when he was in his prime for Barca and flat out horrible since his decline at Barca. Out of his 62 caps for Brazil, he must have played 90% of those games poorly. Last time I remembered him doing anything well was at the Confeds Cup in 09. Such a shame that Maicon declined as well...

 

And is that one of your reasons why Barca's defense has been poor this year?

 

Yes. I won't delve into too much detail, as it has been discussed at length in various threads on the forum.

I only saw the highlights of the first leg, so I can not comment. In the second leg, howver, he was one of the worst players on the pitch. PSG was creating most of their dangerous play on the right side of Barca's defense. Their goal resulted on the right side and dangerous plays like Ibra's cross for Lucas' header was on the right. Alves was either beaten or no where to be found. In attack, he received several balls WIDE OPEN on the right and he either lost the ball attempting a dribble or carelessly gave the ball away with a horrible pass.

For more Alves discussion: https://www.bigsoccer.com/community/threads/seleção-2013-general-discussion-r.1980922/page-37#post-27306490

 

So you think he has been better than Busquets and Alba this season?

 

He's not performing at the level in which he once did. That's the point. By definition, that's declining. Or do you think he's playing as well as he ever did at Barca? If so, I disagree.
Also, I'd take Lahm and Piszczek over Alves.

You are right, he isn't the reason why we are playing poorly. But he has consistently played poorly for the NT over 3 years. Even in the Dunga era, he wasn't deployed as a RB. He replaced Elano as a right midfielder. There are other RBs that have proven they deserve to be tested more and have been exceptional for their clubs. One could make the argument that Rafael has been better this season for Man Utd than Alves has been for Barca.

 

I can say he has been poor in the biggest games thus far in 2013. He was poor last night, poor in both legs of the Milan games and poor in the last game vs Real Madrid. Sounds to me his "good" performances came against weaker sides for the most part.

Also, I'm seeing a lot of excuses for his inconsistencies when Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets and Alba weren't skipping a beat.

Maicon was better than Alves 2010 and prior. I disagree that Rafael has not been better than Alves. You can ask anyone that has followed the EPL this season. He has been one of the top players in the league.

Yes, the NT hasn't played well in 3 years. But name me ONE game since 2010 where Alves played a good game. Just ONE. Neymar's had good games, Marcelo, Thiago Silva, Damiao, Fred, Hulk, Oscar, you can keep going down the list. Alves can't even put a good showing against weaker opponents.

Even when a player is under unfavorable conditions, you'd expect a World Class player to show some sort of flashes of brillance, a glimmer. You don't get that from Alves on the NT. It's very rare to even see it.