PBP: The US Tour + Gamper Trophy - 2024-25

Do people actually have fun watching these preseason friendlies? Spend 2-3 hours getting to New Jersy, sit in 90-degree heat with 90% humidity while watching a glorified training session of "B" team players and paying $20 per drink to try to cool off, spend 3-4 hours getting out of New Jersey. Zero atmosphere in the stadium too.

Doesn't seem any easier or cheaper than simply going to Spain where you could watch 2-3 matches that matter in a 8-day trip.

 

Just a heads up that Barca B play Man City tonight. We are missing about a dozen players, about half of whom probably belong in our best XI. Five due to injury, 3 due to the Olympics and few more still on holiday since they played in the Euros.

 

Probably also pretty far from full. No Rodri, Walker, KdB, Berardo or Doku at least. But Haaland + Grealish + Bobb attack against our "B" team could still be rough. Not sure who pays $300+ a ticket for this stuff.

 

Confirmed XI: Iñaki Peña, Fort, Sergi Domínguez, Lenglet, Gerard Martín, Bernal, Casadó, Pablo Torre, Julián Araujo, Pau Víctor y Vitor Roque.

That's exactly 0 first team players and almost no bench players either, that's a team full of 'canteranos'/academy players. This could be ugly indeed with Haaland and Grealish starting for City.

Seems the game will start in 25 minutes.

 

Still more entertaining than almost every Copa America match.

 

I think he tried to pass. Smh

Then he had another chance to win it. Just had to pass to the wide open player cutting in on the left, but of course he shot instead. Lewa was probably the worst player on the pitch.

Oh well. 2-2.

 

Meh, both RBs failed to recognize that Grealish cuts inside with his stronger right foot, like 90% of the time. Both Valle and Fort had terrible positioning, which made Grealish look like an actual player. Lots of ball-watching by pretty much every defender.

Martin as a LB was beaten like a rented mule; between he and Roque, Citeh had plenty of joy on that side.

Bernal fell asleep on Citeh's 1st goal; he looks like he;s further away from being ready to be a #6 in La Liga than one might hope. But, he's only 17, so he's got time.

Julian Araujo was inexplicably played as a RW; it went about as well as expected.


Pretty much only Casado, Torre, and Pau Victor were the only players that showed promise today, IMO. But, the truly important thing is that no serious injuries, amirite?

 

Right. But Grealish scored by taking the outside route.

No injuries that I could see. Gotta be tough on Flick trying to install a different playing style with less than half the real squad to work with. Other top teams have a similar problem, but just tougher when the manager is new. Beginning of the season could see a lot of dropped points.

La Liga season begins too early/intensely IMO with 4 matchdays before the end of August. That's maybe fine in odd-numbered years, but too soon in WC/Euro summers.

 

...off a counter, which again suggests that neither Bernal, nor Valle have the tactical nor positional awareness to have stopped it.

That said, pretty much everyone in the stadium, and everyone watching on TV knows that Grealish prefers to cut inside. Even if Fort/Valle did NOT know that before the match, after 2 or 3 times on the ball, they SHOULD HAVE recognized his tendencies. Alas, Grealish got more joy on that side than he should.

I'm more concerned about what stoopid things they'll do in the transfer market.

I think that if the roster stays relatively healthy, that the team will eventually gel. And if Nico won't come, then the purchases they DON'T make will be better than the panic buys they DO make this window.

 

Lewy better wake the hell up. He was talking about being more motivated as a striker now that Mbappe has signed for Madrid. If the above posts are to be believed, he was the worst player on the pitch and could have won us the game on more than one occasion. Not a good look.

Lewy, or the striker position rather, is one of my main concerns going into this season. The over-reliance on Lewy as our main - and only true - striker is very concerning.

I realize this was only one pre-season game and you can’t draw any conclusions, but the above-mentioned fact and the begging question remain. Will his age catch up with him this season? I think it already has in many ways. Prime Lewy is long gone. We need prime Lewy IMO.

 

Yeah, fully agree. Unlike some others here, I'm not so stressed about LW. I think we will manage okay with Gavi and Raphinha, who will both look better with a healthy Balde supporting them with his runs. But who are they going to pass to? We don't have near enough goals in our best XI. If we go behind 1-0 early in the first half, it already will be difficult to see how we get 3 points.

 

Man, if there's one thing I hope this season it's to have the old Balde back, the one who everyone was talking about becoming the next best LB. I miss that Balde. If he's back in that same form for this season than I'm inclined to agree with you on managing with Raph and Gav even if I don't really rate the former in general and the latter in that LW position. As long as we focus on getting a proper striker this season to help carry the goal-scoring load and slowly taking the mantle over form Lewy.

With the above being said though, we haven't shown interest in any striker that I'm aware of. Nico has gotten our full attention and now it seems to be falling through. Smh.

 

El Clasico at 7 PM ET USA

🇺🇸 BARÇA XI 🇺🇸#ElClásico pic.twitter.com/CGw4BJrC8x

— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) August 3, 2024

 

Lightning delay. Game paused at 13'. 0-0

 

This match needs a wonderstrike by Torre, so this pursuit of Olmo can die in a fire. Or Victor.