^^Aren't they in a major economic crisis already?

AjanleKoko:

Are you happy?

For €12m, I won't complain although he's not the final solution for our leftback problem.

Alba is more or less a done deal. €12m is the rumoured fee.

This is terribly sad. He lived a life of grief and sorrow. Lost his wife to cancer. Lost his to a car crash. His father got run over by a car. Died of a heart attack aged 54.

RIP. Huge loss for football.

Spain vs France final. You heard it here first.

We've been drawn in group 1 alongside Spurs, Anderlecht and Wolfsburg for next season's NextGen series.

We were knocked out in the q/finals by runners up Ajax last season. Dongou finished as the tournament's joint highest goal scorer.

Barca B are beating Xerez 4-0. Deulofeu is in ultra-ghost mode. Two goals and the assist for JDS' goal.

Deulofeu is unbelievable. He has hit a phase in his development where he is getting better geometrically rather than linearlly.

EDIT: 6-0 in the end. Rafinha and Espinosa putting icing on the cake.

Spectacular performance from the boys. Utterly dominant performance, could've easily reached double figures Their best performance by far this season.

Deulofeu, JDS, Roberto were fantastic. Espinosa too. Wondering why Eusebio hasn't been playing him.

The Messi show vs Ecuador. A goal and an assist by Messi vs Ecuador.

His tally for this season: Barca + Argentina - goals: 73 + 6, assists: - 29 + 3.

But Beñat is class though. If we weren't so stacked on midfielders, I'm sure we would be tracking him. He would make a quality signing for us or any team that signs him. He reminds me a lot about Pirlo - amazing long passing plus he's an excellent freekick taker.


Meanwhile, Tito has ruled out signing any forward. With Villa and Afellay coming back, there really is no point. If Afellay can deliver for us like he's doing for his NT then he could be our summer signing. He would totally own that left flank that was a problem for us this past season and free Villa to play in the middle with Messi in a 3-3-1-3. He was MoM in Holland's last friendly and has scored twice vs Northern Ireland. His 2nd was a terrific strike. His skill set is so diverse.

Edit: Another MoM performance from Afellay. Two goals and an assist. Holland won 6-0 I hope we keep him.

I wouldn't pay too much attention to those stats. . . . Because we always dominate possession, teams often setup to hit us on the break. So most of the shots or goal attempts against us are often from counter attacks that leave opponents most times one on one against the keeper. I'm very sure a huge percentage of those 91 shots that Valdes faced are from one on ones and if you consider that, his save percentage of 66% is quite impressive.

I still wouldn't trade him for any keeper in the world. He's just the perfect keeper for our style of play.


In other news, Cuenca's out for 3-4 months.

AjanleKoko:
It's not an impressive forward lineup. Torres, Llorente, Negredo, and Pedro.
Pedro should see some good game time in this competition.

I think the attack is good enough. Llorente has been exceptional all season. Negredo has had a start, stop season. Injuries and all but he picked up form towards the latter part of the season. 11 goals in his last 14 games is very impressive.

Torres? Well, I don't think he has been as bad as often made out to be. I think he has done well and he deserves his place in the team.

As for Pedro. It was Pedro or Adrian and in the end he went for the person who could provide width - VdB has always stressed the importance of that - and at the same time be a goal threat.

AjanleKoko:

Hmm.
I think it should have been Soldado, Llorente, Torres, and any other striker that has shown good form.
Del Bosque seems to have picked Pedro based on his very recent form. He's been poor for most of the season. Or maybe they shoulda even dropped one of the army of midfielders.

Soldado finished the season in awful form - 4 goals in his last 24 games, whereas Negredo finished it white hot. 11 goals in his last 14 matches, and when Soldado is bad he's really bad. that makes perfect sense.

Torres over Adrian (or midfielders like Beñat or Isco?) less so but perhaps for continuity it's good.

Castilla beat Cadiz 5-1(8-1 on aggregate) and are now promoted to Segunda.

We're going to have a mini classico next season.

Spain NT's final Euro list:

Goal Keepers: Casillas (Real Madrid), Valdés (Barcelona), Reina (Liverpool).

Defense: Juanfran (Atlético), Arbeloa (Real Madrid), Piqué (Barcelona), Javi Martínez (Athletic), Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid), Jordi Alba (Valencia), Albiol (Real Madrid).

Midfield: Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Cesc (Barcelona), Sergio Busquets (Barcelona), Xavi (Barcelona), Iniesta (Barcelona), Cazorla (Villarreal).

Forwards: Pedro (Barcelona), Mata (Chelsea), Jesús Navas (Sevilla), Silva (Manchester City), Llorente (Athletic), Torres (Chelsea), Negredo (Sevilla).

So, Pedro makes Spain's squad for the Euros.

chic2pimp: Congrats Barca!!!....Well deserved Victory.

Funny how all the players that left Arsenal are winning titles left,right and centre whilst Arsenal's long suffering continues.

Anyways this match just proved me right in that Pedro MUST go to the Euros. A fit and on form Pedro is spain's best Right Winger bar none.

True. He's one the few that can genuinely provide width in that Spain team but he has had a horrible season. I don't see him making the team. VdB has even hinted at that.

Great performance tonight though.

14 out of a possible 19 trophies. Thanks Pep

easyz: That's not possible because most of games that has space for scoring goals have penalty kick. For example Basket ball, Hand ball, Rugby etc

The issue here is not penalty kick. It is penalty shoot-out.

I really don't get all these talk of anti-England, pro-Barca conspiracy.

This isn't the first time Blatter is suggesting this. He first talked about this after the 2010 world cup.

We have a cup to win tonight

I'm in total support. It's the only way to stop negative football. Many teams just park the bus for 120 minutes these days, wait for penalty shoot-outs and ride their luck.

They should find a fairer tie-breaker than penalty shoot-outs. It's just too cruel.

I wouldn't mind a point scoring system like in boxing.

chic2pimp:
I doubt that. Spain are a still a great team with or without Villa but I do see where u are coming from.
He brings something different that no other Spanish Striker brings to the table. He is complete. None of the others can say that(Bar Torres in the Pomp).
Having said that, Llorente would do a good job if given a nod to start. His Height most especially would be a massive plus.

I don't trust Llorente. He does not really fit Spain's style of play, albeit generally being a good striker. Villa's biggest asset for Spain was his flexibility. He could drift from central positions to the wings, drop deep, pass and participate in the build up play. Llorente is more of a target man who needs to get the ball delivered at his feet. Villa is creator-executor. Llorente is executor. Did you the first half of the friendly against Venezuela? With Llorente upfront the only plan was to feed him with long balls and hope for a header. That's okay as a plan B at some point but not as the plan A. It's similar to the Klose vs. Gomez situation. Klose still being prefered over Gomez, despite Gomez having the third highest goal ratio in Europe for 2 seasons now, after only Messi and Ronaldo. Klose is just the better overall player who links up better with his teammates. Gomez is a poacher who doesn't have more to his game.

Same goes for Soldado. He poached 3 goals from like 2 yards when Spain was basically passing it inside Venezuela's box most of the time. Won't happen against any half decent-team like Italy, Germany, Netherlands, France, Portugal etc. in the Euros.

David Villa ruled out. Big blow for Spain.

Kits for the coming season:







[img]https://p.twimg.com/AtfgG7mCMAA_-Mc.jpg:large[/img]

I love the home kits. Looks a little like PSG. The away is too bright. We struggled on the road last season so maybe the idea is to blind our opponents.

By making Tito our new head coach, the right decision was made and I appreciate it. Although, for Tito, the team and the club, it will be a mammoth task to keep being successful. I can see many problems on the horizon:

- Although Tito has a high reputation among the culés; at the beginning of the season, he'll be the coach no one wanted. Therefore, he'll need instant success. The first 4-6 weeks of the upcoming season, even the friendlies, will be absolutely crucial. One slip-up, one mistake, one defeat, and the media will have a field-day on us and put the management under constant pressure to sack him for the entire season, especially the Madrid media will take this opportunity gladly to start harassing fires. It's basically the same situation we had with Pep in 2008 - but Peps footsteps are much bigger than Rijkaards were; a fact Pep due to his humbleness probably never really realized. And while Rijkaards departure was well taken, with Peps departure every culé in the world struggles to hold back the tears.

- Everything Tito does and achieves will be measured by what Pep did and achieved. If he fails to win La Liga and at least reach the semis in Copa and CL, no matter the circumstances, a riot will probably kick off in the clubs circle. And while I'm sure that Tito is fully aware of this, it may put up mental barriers. It might keep him from experimentation and puttting his own ideas into the team, thereby keeping the team from evolving.

- He'll need time to fully express his idea of offensive football - which he might not get. I don't trust Rosell one bit and if the situation arises, he'll throw Tito out without much hesitation. I don't believe for one second that Rosell is satisfied with this solution. Tito shouldn't expect any support from that snake. But a good relation between Tito and Zubi might compensate this.


Now that Tito has taken that challenge, he needs to be hard as nails. I'd go so far to say that this is probably the worst situation you can start as a coach. But I have faith in him, and if it were up to me, he'd get all the time he needs.

To put it in a nutshell: Mammoth task is an understatement. Tito needs to pull off a Pep.

In Tito I trust !

We are sure gonna be having a mini classico in the Segunda next season.

Castilla won 3-0 away at Cadiz in Segunda B promotion playoffs and unless Cadiz produce some miracle in the return leg, Castilla will definitely be playing in the Segunda next season.

slimchimex: you are a capital big fool.wit all ur pretty football u went tropyless dis season,cant afford to b in a trophyless club like urs..

Of course, you are a glory-hunting, box-score fan, you drop dead dunce!

Your team played its trademark negative football and won. Just enjoy your win.

chic2pimp:

Dude I keep reiterating there is nothing like Anti Football.
There are two sides of football Namely Attack and Defence.
That's why we all love the Game. It's unpredictibility.
And we are sure to get more of them cum Euro 2012.
As Italian teams have shown time and again Defence wins you championship unless you are Barca or Spain ofcourse.
Greece,Porto,Inter Milan, the list goes on

Of course, there's anti - football.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-football

Ten bricklayers could have duplicated Chelsea's drudgery - no much football skills required.

You know there's that part of football that actually requires you to come out and attack. Do you think Bayern or Barca don't know how to park the bus too? Of course, they can pack their box with all their players, sit back and defend with two rows of 5. It doesn't require any skill.

eyoniggar: Can Drogba actually blend with the Barca style of play? I doubt it! And it seems any team that knocks Barca outta the Sem's automatically wins the CL.

Yeah. Since 08

nateevs:


Bluediva just enjoy the moment and do not overstate it.
We won on penalties and were worse than Stoke in the 120mins.

I'ld appreciate you saying we'll take the win as it's wrtten in history forever.
It was hardly a spectacle upon which the future can built.

Let's always maintain perspective when stating things.
When the euphoria of victory wears, we'll take stock and make sound decisions.

Great post. Hard to find fans that see beyond results these days.

diggz:
Medjai,U better shut Ur smelling mouth.

Abegi. Anyone who really loves football would be appalled by tonight's result. Only one side turned up to play. The other was content to play anti-football. Don't know how any fan would be proud of this.

Anyways, congrats. Enjoy your win.

Drogba's a fuckin boss. Damn!

Congrats Chelsea, most undeserved CL winners in history