Stealthy:

Good one man, good one!

We need to have a Barca Fan Club party

hannie:

Congrats to you all . . .

most especially to STEALTHY and AJANLECOCOA . .

It was a deserved win.

There is always a next time to beef y'all, enjoy being champions whilst it lasts.

mikuz:

Please anyone with the link to "lets live together as one" by "house of ginjah"? Please?

RuuDie:

So, i guess we can now safely say JM is in charge of the team on the pitch and is getting all the players he wants --- Sarhin, Althintorp, Callejon. . . . . . who's next!?

“I prefer team titles to individual awards, but I can’t hide the fact that being so close to getting the Pichichi, I would really have liked to win it. Congratulations to Cristiano though, who has scored a lot of goals in the last few games.”

"We should not forget that football is a team sport. If Ronaldo does even better next year, but Madrid again finish second, nobody will be happy.

"Lionel Messi on the other hand has also scored a lot, although he has not found the net as often as Ronaldo. He has made the final of all big competitions, though. He is already halfway winning the double of La Liga and the Champions League."

Barcelona set to sign Sporting Gijon's Jose Angel - report

Young defender Jose Angel appears to be on his way out of La Liga side Sporting Gijon as Champions League finalists Barcelona are keen to add the left-back to their squad this summer, Cadena Ser reports.

The Spanish champions are looking to bring some depth to their back-line and they allegedly see the 21-year-old as the perfect addition to their squad.

Angel is a product of the Sporting Gijon youth academy and has developed into an important first team member since his official debut in February 2009, as well as making appearances for the Spanish under-21 side.

Barca have been keeping tabs on the emerging stopper for some time, and now appear to be close to completing the signing. Gijon club president Manuel Vega-Arango is expected to travel to Catalunya on Monday to complete the deal.

The Camp Nou giants are willing to pay a fee in the region of €4 million for the player, who will sign a four-year contract upon completion of his medical.

Barça ended the campaign on 96 points and with a record 14 away wins, a record in La Liga.

Arsenal Set To Sign Velez Sarsfield's Ricky Alvarez - Report

Cristiano Ronaldo ‘goes asleep’ in big games, Lionel Messi stars in them - Gianluca Vialli

This argument is not here and there.

Barcelona's style of play is as simple as this:
Barcelona pass the ball around a lot. They are really good at that, and because they're not physically very strong, they don't like to run into walls of defence, or play long balls at a striker. They're also not great at long range shooting. So they just pass right, pass left, pass front, pass back, for 90 minutes, while waiting for an opportunity to pass into space and score a tip-tap goal.

End result - opposition can't get the ball. So opposition usually gets physical with Barca players to get the ball off them. Sometimes they do, and then they can play their way, which is BOOM!! up top to the 7 foot striker in the box. Sometimes this works, they score.

Usually it doesn't, cos Barca players can keep the ball very well. So the opposition gets frustrated and starts to get physical with Barca. End result? Fouls and more fouls. Barca players like fouls, it wins them the ball back. So they milk any foul opportunity, and fall like dead men at the slightest contact. The opposition guy would prolly have lunged in for the tackle anyway, or shown studs in a desperate attempt to get the ball.

The end result? Opposition keeps conceding free kicks and penalties, picking up cards in the process. If this continues, or increases in tempo, a red card might just show up at some point.

Ironically, even spectators, especially those that watch the EPL, would have been thoroughly fed up with proceedings. They usually expect end to end action, men running in all directions, almost like grid-iron American football. Which is what accounts for scores like 5-3, 7-4, in the EPL.

The truth is, only four kinds of results are possible when you play teams like Barca. Well, three if you look at Mou's approach.

1. You don't tackle them, and lose 4-0 or 5-0, cos they will pass the ball into the net, like you weren't even there.

2. You tackle them and likely lose a player and still lose the game, maybe not 5-0.

3. You tackle them and the ref doesn't care so he doesn't penalise you as much. The game prolly will end in some sort of stalemate. Though you might snatch a victory if they make some sort of defensive mistake, as they are wont to do. Barcelona are not known for great defending. But you won't beat them 4-0 or 5-0.

4. You tackle them physically and close them down very quickly before they can pass around you. Not too many teams can do that, for a simple reason: Because of Barca's style of play, their players don't tire as quickly as other teams in the course of the game. But there are always days when the passing is below par, or they are just not physically up to it. Like Hercules, and even Arsenal at the Emirates. RVP or not, Arsenal were riding their luck at the Camp Nou. At the time Van Persie was sent off, the game was tied at 1-1, both goals scored by Barcelona.

It's highly unlikely that a second goal would not have come, given Arsenal's record at defending leads. In fact, scenario 2 would have occured, if not a sending off, then a penalty, when you look at the waves after waves of Barca attacks in the first half. Arsenal would have been extremely lucky to win that tie.

Real Madrid had scenarios 3 and 4 in mind in all the games. After having experienced scenario 1 in November, they decided they would not dare try to attack Barca. So far, they achieved scenario 3 in last week's Cup game, and a minimized scenario 2 in the preceding game. Unfortunately, in yesterday's game, it was scenario 2 all the way.

By the way, Spain played exactly the same way in the World Cup. They lost their first game, scored very few goals, and frustrated everybody. But they still won using the same tactics as Barcelona use. Of course there are less games in the World Cup, so you don't easily notice these things. But that is the way it is, and that is why Spain is suddenly the dominant country in world football.