I didn't mean for it to sound like it was all ter Stegen's fault and having watched the game I recongnized Germany's poor performance was very much due to Portugal's overall superiority I just singled out ter Stegen since he's one of 'ours'. But yeah, I should have worded it better.
Messi with an early assist to Rojo for the early lead and a toe in the final; early still. This may get disabled but working now: Another Arg goal assisted by Messi who has assisted 5 of the last 9 Arg goals in Copa, this time for Pastore.
Wow, Paraguay with the start of another fightback from 2-0 down? Gets one back before halftime, Arg 2-Par 1.
Argentina with the kind of performance their talented squad were expected to produce in seven World Cup matches in Brazil and four Copa America games in Chile. Twelfth times a charm. So either Bravo or Messi/Mascherano will compliment their Barca treble with international success.
There was a story about how players who logged zero minutes in the CL were not recognized as CL winners, so that would rule out Bravo and Vermaelen and a couple others. But only in the minds of CL record keepers, they were still members of the treble winning club. In Bravo's case in a huge way (even if he played zero minutes in CL and CdR), in Verm's case not really at all due to injury. 9 minute all goal highlights in English with Roy Hudson commenting and Messi playing the chameleon eyes role, now with beat you off the dribble capabilities: http://www.totalsportek.com/highlights/argentina-vs-paraguay-2015-copa-america/
OK, in my humble opinion, it is time to post in here again as the international break is really heating up in terms of Euro 2016 qualification. In particular, Turkey and the Netherlands are in a dog fight just to make 3rd place so they can playoff head to head with another 3rd place team for the right to qualify. This after Iceland beat the Dutch in Holland and Turkey conceded an extra time equalizer. Turan had earlier set up the go ahead goal. So glad his coach is still giving him minutes while Del Bosque makes Vidal sit out due to nonplay. Here's a great cheat sheet to see where all the teams stand and which games remain: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Euro_2016_qualifying Verm's Belgium looks pretty good in 2nd place, Spain is also in 2nd but has Ukraine lurking behind, Rakitic's Croatia is tied for first with Italy but that's without taking into a point deducted for racist behavior which is under appeal (Halilovic not called up at present but has 7 caps), MAtS's Germany also in 2nd, and Mathieu's France qualify automatically as the hosts. So with all the 2nd place teams there could be some good matches to seal qualification but the Sept 6th match of Turkey v. Netherlands is the hugest one (involving a Barca player), if Turkey can get the win they could likely get 3rd place and at least a November playoff. All of which would be super valuable real game PT for Arda.
Well this thread gets no love but there are some great goals here and Munir scores the 1st and 4th for Spain but the 5th is lovely too. Spain U21 wins 2-5 in Georgia. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x38w8co I believe only Munir and Deulofeu were at this match, no D. Suarez, Samper, or Sandro.
according to that Sport article you posted earlier, D.Suarez is currently injured. it didn't say what kind of injury though.
Good point, I looked it up: Muskelfaserriss (torn muscle fibre) suffered Sept. 30th, expected to be out one month. Great to see Munir score, get up after that nasty crash into the post, score again with a great nutmeg. But sad to see so few Barca players in that team, as we often seem to have 4-6 youngsters in many of the Spanish youth sides. EDIT - 2013 Spain's team at the Championship included Bartra, Muniesa, Montoya, Tello, Thiago (2nd most of any club). Real had 4 (Nacho, Morata, Caravajal, and Cheryshev playing for Russia) but had already bought and given up on Canales too, and were about to buy Illaramendi whom they've already given up on. They have since bought and kept Isco so far and nearly bought De Gea. What a depressing exercise, we've lost all but Bartra who struggles for consistent PT with 4 veterans in front of him (though wish we still had Thiago) and they've lost all but Caravajal (whose replacement they signed) and Cheryshev (who gets no minutes) but added Isco (so they got 1 of 3 midfield buys right, but even Isco struggles for minutes with James and Modric and Kroos all in front of him). In 2011 Spain's team included 5 Barca players, again the 2nd most of any club (well 3rd since two clubs had 6): Bojan, Jeffren, Thiago, Montoya, Mino - none still with us.
I turned on the Ukraine-Spain game today and there was not a single Barcelona player in the starting lineup. I wonder when the last time that occurred. Spain had already qualified for the Euros and it was a "B" squad but still was a little strange. Cesc, Nolito and Thiago (Barça DNA) did start and Alba and Busquets came on as subs. Also, it was Cesc's 100th cap, which is incredible since he always has seemed like the heir apparent to Xavi and Iniesta whose time in the limelight really never came.
Yeah, I posted about that too, should've done so in this thread but it's so dead I think I used the season thread. I'm guessing that it's been over 10 years since 0 Barca players played in an official match, though Spain had #1 in group locked up so it was not terribly importants.
The Argentina vs Brasil was ok. Brasil got the tie but overall the game was meh. Argentina had many more clear chanves. Neymar seemed to be injured but he came up. Mascherno was great as the captain.
Mascherano looked more injured than Neymar. And now there are rumours that he will miss the match in Colombia. Which of course means he is a doubt for el clasico.
Nice, here are all 3 goals, plus the U21 Spanish goals from yesterday (3 of 5 by Deulofeu) Awesome, Busquets had to leave early from the friendly with England (as did ManU's Carrick fwiw, so much for friendlies...) Imagine putting out a team for the Clasico with no Messi, Rakitic, Busquets, Mascherano and Neymar? No it won't come to that but dang, holding my breath.
Dani Alves also got stomped on. His ankle bent 30 degrees in the wrong direction, but haven't heard about any injury rumours in relation to that incident.
Sport in downplayng FIFA virus risk so far: The first round of international fixtures involving Barcelona players is over and the FIFA Virus is yet to strike. They featured in five of the games, playing 86% of the possible minutes. Claudio Bravo, Gerard Pique, Jordi Alba, Neymar and Javier Mascherano each played the full 90. Meanwhile Andres Iniesta went off after 46 minutes and Sergio Busquets after 78, after feeling a problem with his hamstring - though it proved not to be serious. The Europeans were all in friendlies, while the South Americans were competing as part of their qualification campaign for World Cup 2018. Arda Turan also featured for Turkey in a friendly, scoring and setting the other up in a 2-1 win. http://www.sport-english.com/en/news/barca/fifa-virus-staved-off-for-now-neymar-and-feature-4673110