i watched the man utd versus villarreal game last night, which they showed in england live on a national station. villarreal had five argentines starting the game even though riquelme was injured. the game finished 0-0. villarreal had no real offensive game, they were happy to come for the draw and they did this pretty comfortably. there were 2 big plus points... the goalkeeper. barbosa. i hadn't heard of him before. he made a great save from rooney in the first few minutes, other than that he only had 2 dangerous crosses to deal with. the first he did well, the second not so well but he got away with it. apparently he was second-choice for villarreal at the start of the season, then the first-choice got injured, barbosa came in (maybe 7 games ago) and since then villarreal haven't conceded a goal. maybe he is a solution to argentina's goalkeeping problem? gonzalo. i had never seen him play before, just like i have never seen milito play, and i was keeping a special eye out for him. he was easily the man of the match. towards the end of the game, the english commentators couldn't stop talking about him. they said that they had never seen ruud van nistelrooy kept so quiet. they also said that they expect one of europe's major clubs to buy him soon if he keeps playing so well. on that performance i would say that he has to travel to germany for the world cup. i would put him straight in the team, especially as the rest of the defence is getting older. it is great for him that he is playing champs league, as he is gaining valuable big-game experience, and putting himself against the top strikers. if i was ayala or samuel i would be worried. the other three players were sorin, arruabarrena and figueroa, none of whom really caught the eye.
Re: villarreal Yes, Gonzalo played a good match. I think he is a great defensive talent, a player with pace and strength, and I believe he should be not just in the WC list but a starter in central defense. Of course, Villareal is a different team when they have Riquelme.
Re: villarreal I only saw Barbosa play in games for Banfield and from what I saw I thought he was really good. Villarreal has two really good goalies
Re: villarreal i bet lucho is a nice guy and all, but I hope he doesn't make the world cup squad because i am not at all impressed with him
Re: villarreal Who said that? =\ He came out of Rosario Central (ARG) and then went to the Mexican soccer league. Plus, he did play for Argentina's National Team several times.
Re: villarreal I've been saying he's crap all along. He was a good player in Mexico, arguably better than good. In the EPL he was way outclassed and at Villareal he hasn't done a thing. I think as far as making the roster for WC06, I just don't know. Look at the guys we have infront of him and I'm just not sold that he has a shot at making the roster. Of course this is all IMHO.
Re: villarreal It wasn't just that he was good in Mexico. He was good in Rosario, and he did well at Copa America. He also had that one good match in Confederaciones. But his performance at Villarreal has to be dissapointing. If you're the centerforward, your team has Riquelme, and you cannot score, something is wrong.
Re: villarreal Figueroa's situation is a bit worrying. I've been watching some Villarreal games recently, and the guy had many chances he just couldn't capitalize on. Yet, we must not forget all of his great performances with the Argentine NT (2 goals against Uruguay during the WCQ, 3 goals against Australia, a great performance during Copa América, and I think he's the second goal scorer with Pekerman). He's just having a tough season now, just like Crespo was playing like crap at the beginning of the year.
Re: villarreal i got a feeling cambiasso is a big hit with the inter fans, and they see him play every week. although personally, for the little i've seen of him, i haven't been overly impressed.
Re: villarreal When Vollareal sold Reina to Liverpool, they bought Barbosa. He played the CL QR3 against Everton, Villareal won both games but Barbosa seemed nervous. Right after ... Pellegrini decided he needed another goalie ... and got Viera from Uruguay. Viera got injured a few weeks back and Barbosa was back in action for Vllareal, this time with solid performances. This past weekend thou, VIera was back on goal for Villareal. As to Gonzalo ... he has been a part of the latest Argentina NT. Both him and Milito I see as the future of the Argentinian defense. Hopefully he will keep up his good form and adding experience ... the final squad for the WC will be defined based on the level at which players arrive in April/May. .
[BigSoccer News] Franco se sumó a Villarreal 09:36 | Pasó la revisación médica y llega para reemplazar a Luciano Figueroa, transferido a River Link To Original Article
[BigSoccer News] Villareal se reencontró con la victoria 14:57 | Con dos goles de Riquelme -ambos de penal-, el Submarino Amarillo venció por 2-1 a Osasuna Link To Original Article
Re: Villarreal (r) Clear penalty to Villarreal not given as well, I'm afraid Jose Marie's well earned reputation for diving counted against him in that incident. To be honest I think Villarreal would be happy to take a 1-0 defeat, but a bit of Riquelme magic to get an equaliser would be handy.
Re: Villarreal (r) yeah but i heard that henry's offside wasnt so. if that's true then the penalty that wasnt called just makes us even,.
Re: Villarreal (r) There's a couple of off side decisions which have gone in favour of Villarreal so no complaints about the penalty.
Re: Villarreal (r) One goal down going home is not so bad. But if they'd scored at least one it would have been much better. Arsenal has a long shutout streak going on, they're going to be a tough team to beat.
Re: Villarreal (r) It is disrespectful to football to witness such lame refereeing in a CL semifinal game. The refereeing influenced in the highest degree the rythm of the game ... it was an EPL officiating. And Arsenal can feel at home and with the officiating that benefits them the most against a Spanish side ... non stop ball play. Did Arsenal deserve a more confortable win based on the way the game was officiated? Yes. Arsenal failed to take advantage and finish the job at home. But they should be grateful that they didn't concede a goal ... the foul on Jose Mari was a penalty in Madrid, Tokyo, Rio or Moscow ... but not in London. That was the crucial away goal for Villareal. No yellow on Gilberto ... a yellow on Roman. WTF. Gilberto had an inmense game thanx to the officiating, silencing Roman and forcing him to drop back. It was all due to the "let play" officiating. How many times can a player commit foul after foul and not get them called? or carded? I guess Sir Alex will realize that Roman has no fit in the EPL. Reality is the 1-0 is as tricky for Arsenal as for Villarreal. It leaves the tie open to the second game in six days. With a different ref, Villarreal have all their chances alive. Arsenal will need to figure out how to take advantage of Taccinardi missing the return leg. Villarreal will need to believe in their own chances and have faith that the next ref won't be as pathetic as today's. The trip to Paris is up for grabs. .
Re: Villarreal (r) it was not an entertaning game but villarreal played for result. Refree was terrible and i have watched better Villarreal than this but in away leg they play similar style as they did today. perhaps that away goal would have given Villarreal more chances because losing 2-1 is better than losing 1-0 and Arsenal should be thankful to the f***ing refree for this. anyway Villarreal and Riquelme play different football in el madrigal and they can score 2 goals but the question is can they stop Arsenal from scoring?
Re: Villarreal (r) I agree with your analysis that it was EPL-style officiating. You get fouled, you just get up and continue or else your team is one down. At the same time, some Villarreal players were really annoying in overacting. They should have known better and get up faster. I also think the match should have ended 2-1, with the disallowed penalty and the disallowed goal from Henry. Arsenal were quite clearly the better side imho. But what I found most scary is the way Riquelme was shut down. Not a very good omen for the WC, where he will meet some of the best defenders, including ... well... Toure and Eboue.