Barca need 1 point to insure passage into the next round. Most Notable Injuries: LE21, Puyol I really hope they notch this one away and grab all 3 points so that they can coast i nthe last game against Newcastle, save some players legs for the final games in La Liga and for the push for the CL crown. Did anybody else notice that if you join gent Del barca, you can watch the goals now on the site? www.fcbarcelona.com Wonder when they will get live audio, and/or match tracker running on their site..get with the times boys...this is the 21st century. My prediction: Barca 3 - 1 Leverkusen Bonano tries to boot the ball out of the box, but slips hitting it off the back of FdB's head, back into Boanano's arms who then loses control and it falls into his goal. FCB scorers: Saviola Kluivert Xavi
this should be a pretty easy win since Bayer has pretty much given up and focused on the Bundesliga. imo barça could definitely score more than 3 but won't. i expect early subs from them. btw i like your prediction for the 1 goal for bayer.
Line-ups posted on uefa.com looks like this --------------------Bonano --- Reiz ---- FDB --- Anderson ----- Gabri -Overmars -----Riquelme --- Xavi ----- Mendietta ----- Saviola ------ Kluivert Bayer is sitting so many of their starters, I do not recognize most of the names. Butt 1 Cris 7 Šimák 8 Yildiray Bastürk 10 França 11 Berbatov 12 Balitsch 14 Ojigwe 17 Babic 19 Kaluzny 21 Kleine 47 bench: Starke 31 Zivkovic 6 Bierofka 13 Brdaric 23 Schneider 25 Dogan 34 Placente 35
oh yeah...we won 2-0 Saviola and a deflection off of a FdB header yey through to the next round as group A winner
What's nice about this match was that even with a lot of injuries, Barca still got the win and Antic can focus on getting back on track in La Liga this week and next week, knowing they will win their CL group. Good to see the shutout also. Tony
With the elections on sunday I went to do the paperwork to get my document and vote, I just watched the first half and Riquelme reads pretty well the game, he plays between the lines and set up Kluivert and Saviola, I didnt see FDB's goal though, definately three games in a row as starter are paying!!!
So, since we've already had a meeting between Jay's teams (Barca/Inter), I wonder if we will end up with a clash of Mario's teams (Barca/Juve). I don't think we'll see a Barca/Cardiff match any time soon. Tony
In fact, Mario, Romy hit a cracker of a shot that set up the corner for Frank's goal: http://www.uefa.com/multimedia/type=Video/index,page=2.htmx The Overmars cross to set up Javi was superb as well. Nice play by the lads! Some of you may wonder where I disappeared to for the last couple weeks...well, my wife gave birth to our first baby (a boy) late last Sunday. My world has been turned upside down! I was thinking of buying him a Gent Del Barça memberships..he would be the youngest card-carrying cule' in the US. ha ha. Anyway, good to be back. I haven't had time to pay much attention to the way the quarterfinals are shaping up...does anyone have a guess as to who FCB will be playing? Anyway, good to be back.
Congrats Jay!!!! I have an advantage of two sons! I have 3!!! Barça would face one of the second places, that means no Milan, no Manchester but probably Juventus, Valencia/Arsenal/Ajax, Real/Dortmund!!! BTW thx for the clip!
Congrats on the addition to the family!! Get him playing and hopefully by the tiem he is 14 he will be picked up by Barca's youth development Wel lwe know we cna rule out AC Milan and Man U. Ajax's group is totally up in the air. Valencia has to win to move on, there are so many permutations in that group I will not try. Real's group is up in the air, they have to go to Moscow and win, and htey are in, if they tie, and Borussia win against Milan, Dortmund goes through..although I expect Madrid to take 2nd in that group. Possible opponents: Madrid/Boruusia Aresenal/Ajax/Valencia/Roma Juve and we cannot play Inter or Newcastle right? From that group give me a match against Madrid!!! after that Ajax would be my preference http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/news/Kind=1/newsId=58872.html
Jay, congrats! as the father of a four year old son and child #2 on the way, I can tell you, you won't sleep for a while. But its great, fatherhood brings out stuff in you you never knew was there! I'm sure Jay has his son lined up for Chicago Fire Reserves squad in the PDL already. Yes, my son does have a Donovan shirt! I don't want to see Barca play Real in the Quarterfinals. I still think Real are the favorites and I'd rather see Barca avoid them as long as possible. Here in the US, I see ESPN is showing ManU-Deportivo next Tuesday. Thats not a bad match to show, if Ferguson doesn't run out the entire reserve squad again. Its kinda hard to blame him tho, I don't want to see Antic playing Saviola next week. Tony
Uh that will be the worst game. Neither team has anything to play for. Depor is not going to take a chance with their players and neither will Man Utd.
Agree would rather see a game that means something..hopefully they will switch to another... Dortmund Milan would be my choice as for avoiding Madrid, the way I see it is, our Liga season is over, we are not going to win the league, a CL spot is tough, and we are really only playing for Uefa berth or to wn the CL. We have to beat the best to win the CL, if we lose the CL, it would be nice to say, well, at least we knocked Madrid out..if they knock us out..no biggie, they should, they have the "better" team this year. Although avoiding them may insure easier passage.
Valencia and Barca play on Wednwesday... of all the tuesday games, only the madrid and Borussia games have any meaning. We have not been gettng Wednesday games here Our coverage sucks..I am very envious of those with thwe ESPN International package
Well, I guess if Tony and I are ever in Central America with 'the family' we can hook up with Mario and have a nice game of five-a-side! I'm not sure how I feel about a match with Real...the pain from last year still lingers, but it would be nice to take a swing at them too. I think I'd like to see a tilt with Arsenal...good midfield play, lots of attacking stuff. That would be fun.
Kobranzilla: We have to beat the best to win the CL I was talking to Juanele and I said if we dont win the UCL beating Real we face the risk to win a trophy considered a 'minor' win since we didnt beat the 'best' team (at least on paper), of course that doesnt legitimate our possible championship! now if ManU or Arsenal take care of them it would be great!!! Jay Clark: Well, I guess if Tony and I are ever in Central America with 'the family' we can hook up with Mario and have a nice game of five-a-side! Anytime! my baby Sebastian will turn 2 in 10 days saturday (march 22th) my primogenitus is 6 on april and my baby girl turned 4 on october!!! Jay Clark: I'm not sure how I feel about a match with Real...the pain from last year still lingers, but it would be nice to take a swing at them too I'm not an ungrateful guy but last year Rivaldo's primadonna attitudes left the team without a leader, this year JRR should step in and show us why he's wearing the number10 on his back!!! payback time!!!
I don't buy the "lesser title" argument. Barca is going to have to beat an awfully good team whoever they play. At this point, JRR hasn't been with Barca long enough, or played enough, to be considered a leader. With Puyol, LE, etc out to injury, its going to have to be a vet who steps up (Kluivert, Andersson, Overmars, deBoer) so that Saviola and JRR can do their thing. That five aside match sounds pretty good to me, but if we are all wearing Barca colors, how do we tell the teams apart? Tony