El Clasico Monday 29th 8pm.

PHB

Just watched the highlights. Great performance by Barca, outstanding really. Mourinho still has lots of work to do.

When Ronaldo pushed Pep because he threw the ball away I remembered exactly why I love Ronaldo. ****ing great stuff.

Mr Alan

You love him cause he's a prick? Strange.

PHB

Mr Alan wrote: »

You love him cause he's a prick? Strange.

No, I love him because if it was against a player, nobody would bat an eyelid at Ronaldo pushing him because he threw the ball away.

But because everyone thinks a manager should be different, and because it's Ronaldo, he's a prick.

But he, like me, couldn't give a ****. Person had the ball, threw it away, deserves a little push. Couldn't give a **** if its a manager. Love it.

liamygunner29

All I know is if I was Ramos I would have "the fear"

flahavaj

Mr Alan wrote: »

You love him cause he's a prick? Strange.

Part of me loves him just for how much he irks the hatorz tbh.

dfx-

SlickRic wrote: »

i don't say this lightly; i've watched a lot of football in my time. i've seen the Barcelona Dream Team. i've seen Arsenal's Invincibles. i've seen Milan's early 90s juggernaut. i've seen United's Treble winners. i've seen Madrid's Galacticos. i've seen France 98-2000. i've seen Mourinho's Chelsea battering ram, and i've seen Ronaldinho's Barca.

but last night was quite possibly the greatest team performance i've ever witnessed. i certainly can't remember a better one off the top of my head.

I've two favourite periods of recent times at Barcelona and it takes a lot to overcome them.

1. 2003-2004 season with the rebirth from the years of De Boer, Cocu, Rivaldo, Kluivert and Overmars. Some of the football played in the second half of that season was magical.

I don't think this current side are anywhere near the Henry/Eto'o/Messi side of 08/09.

Mr Alan

If an opposition player was to shove Ferguson, you'd think that was great?
I suspect said player would be run out of the country with Utd fans baying for their blood.
Whos throw was it anyway?

#15

Mr Alan wrote: »

If an opposition player was to shove Ferguson, you'd think that was great?
I suspect said player would be run out of the country with Utd fans baying for their blood.
Whos throw was it anyway?

Fabregas threw a pizza at him didn't he? He hasn't been run anywhere.

CR 7

Mr Alan wrote: »

If an opposition player was to shove Ferguson, you'd think that was great?
I suspect said player would be run out of the country with Utd fans baying for their blood.
Whos throw was it anyway?

The difference is, Sir Alex has some dignity, he wouldn't pick the ball up and throw it away from a player when his team is winning 2-0.

flahavaj

Mr Alan wrote: »

If an opposition player was to shove Ferguson, you'd think that was great?
I suspect said player would be run out of the country with Utd fans baying for their blood.
Whos throw was it anyway?

You say it as if you expect me to be logical when it comes to the team I support.:pac:

What I do think is great is just how much he can still draw the ire of the died in the wool ABU's two years after he left, even when the team they support isn't even involved. Hero.

Dolph Starbeam

Park Ji Sung wrote: »

The difference is, Sir Alex has some dignity, he wouldn't pick the ball up and throw it away from a player when his team is winning 2-0.

He didn't exactly throw the ball away, just dropped it to give his team a few extra seconds and possibly to get one over on Ronaldo, i have a feeling if Mourinho did something like this people would only laugh it off. It was nothing and Ronaldo's push was nothing, end of imo.

#15

Mr Alan wrote: »

You love him cause he's a prick? Strange.

Give it a rest, lots of people in football are pricks and people still support them (e.g. you love a massive prick, Rafa).

I thought this thread was about El Clasico and not Liverpool fans trying to take potshots at Utd by slating a Real Madrid player.

Mr Alan

Park Ji Sung wrote: »

The difference is, Sir Alex has some dignity

Are we playing some sort of game where we say the most stupid untrue sentence we can think of?

Mr Alan

#15 wrote: »

Give it a rest, lots of people in football are pricks and people still support them (e.g. you love a massive prick, Rafa).

I thought this thread was about El Clasico and not Liverpool fans trying to take potshots at Utd by slating a Real Madrid player.

This thread is about El Classico, hence Ronaldo being a prick during last nights game being very relevant.

Handsome Bob

I wasn't really bothered about who was going to win this game until I read the musings of some dimwit from The Sunday Mirror. He spoke of Mourinho in glowing terms with his head up Jose's ass. All the while highlighting the fact that Mourinho has alienated himself in La Liga due to comments he has made so far this season (among them calling the Sporting Gijon manager a peasant, a bloke well liked in the game over there and who has recently lost his wife and son). But apparently Mourinho was a genius for making such comments according to this simpleton because he was apparently "taking the pressure off of his players by bringing the spotlight on him coming into the derby".

So, from then on I was hoping that Barca edged it. Needless to say I was both stupified and elated when I checked the final score. :pac:

#15

Mr Alan wrote: »

This thread is about El Classico, hence Ronaldo being a prick during last nights game being very relevant.

That would have more credibility if you were highlighting all of the prickish behaviour that went on last night. You know, Pep's time-wasting, all of the diving, surrounding the ref, Ramos and his outrageous tackle.

flahavaj

Mr Alan wrote: »

Are we playing some sort of game where we say the most stupid untrue sentence we can think of?

OK, my turn:

"Mr Alan is perfectly capable of talking about a football match without letting his robotic anti-United bias get in the way of rational thought, even when they're not playing."

Did I do it right?

Mr Alan

That's cause he's the biggest prick in world football.

Plus-can someone clarify that it was Reals throw?

CR 7

Mr Alan wrote: »

Are we playing some sort of game where we say the most stupid untrue sentence we can think of?

Yes, yes we are. And you've just lost.

Mr Alan

flahavaj wrote: »

OK, my turn:

"Mr Alan is perfectly capable of talking about a football match without letting his robotic anti-United bias get in the way of rational thought, even when they're not playing."

Did I do it right?

Not bad.

Fatal flaw however is that Utd weren't playing last night. And I quite like a fair few current and ex Utd players. On this very thread I've fawned over Pique for example. Plus I'm a fan of Tevez, Giggs, Solskjear, Vidic, Hernandez, Evans and Evra among others.

My feelings towards Ronaldo are based solely on him, not his ex clubs.

What stands out more here is some fans seem to take huge offence to people slating Ronaldo.

#15

Mr Alan wrote: »

he's the biggest prick in world football.

flahavaj

Mr Alan wrote: »

Not bad.

Fatal flaw however is that Utd weren't playing last night. And I quite like a fair few current and ex Utd players. On this very thread I've fawned over Pique for example. Plus I'm a fan of Tevez, Giggs, Solskjear, Vidic, Hernandez, Evans and Evra among others.

My feelings towards Ronaldo are based solely on him, not his ex clubs.

What stands out more here is some fans seem to take huge offence to people slating Ronaldo.

Some fans just find it funny. And the fact that United weren't playnig adds to it. Its like a bit of overtime for ye or something.;)

Mr Alan

#15 wrote: »

And I'm trying to de-rail this thread???

#15

Mr Alan wrote: »

What stands out more here is some fans seem to take huge offence to people slating Ronaldo.

Not a fan of him at all.

It's just easy to see when there are ABU feelings in play - and that's fine, but don't dress it up as something else.

Mr Alan

#15 wrote: »

Not a fan of him at all.

It's just easy to see when there are ABU feelings in play - and that's fine, but don't dress it up as something else.

So you can think he's a prick, but I can't?

Or you can say I'm posting with an alterior motive or am making it about Utd when I talk about Ronaldo in the El Classico thread, but then you can start slating the Inter Milan/ ex Liverpool manager and post pics of him in the thread?

Are you soft in the head?

dfx-

#15

Mr Alan wrote: »

And I'm trying to de-rail this thread???

Yes, you were at it earlier, remember?

Imo It's a combination of their old boy Ronaldo being at their biggest rivals and the fact that Utd like to think they are the top team in Europe, when in reality, they ain't fit to lace Barcas boots, and haven't been for quite some time.

I'd also imagine the sight of Pique in the centre of their defence must drive them mad, such a good player-gonna be the centre half of his generation imo, keeping Evans over him was sheer lunacy.

Basically I think it's jealousy.

Or was taking a pot-shot at Utd fans on-topic?

#15

Mr Alan wrote: »

So you can think he's a prick, but I can't?

I don't think he's a prick. I don't even think Rafa is a prick. I don't know them.

Or you can say I'm posting with an alterior motive or am making it about Utd

Yeah, because you have form in that regard. See your earlier post as an example.

Are you soft in the head?

Personal attacks unnecessary tbf

Mr Alan

#15 wrote: »

Yes, you were at it earlier, remember?



Or was taking a pot-shot at Utd fans on-topic?

I was just responding to people who were baffled by all the negativity that was being directed at Barca from Utd fans about last nights game (topic of this thread)

Warper

Park Ji Sung wrote: »

The difference is, Sir Alex has some dignity, he wouldn't pick the ball up and throw it away from a player when his team is winning 2-0.

Sir Alex has some dignity? Lol, give me a break. Is this the same hungry money-grabbing racist i am thinking of? For the record Ronaldo is a tosser and isnt fit to lace Messi's boots. Barca are the best and Messi is the best, get over it Utd. fans.

Mr Alan

Word of advice #15, if you don't actually think something, please dont say it simply to get a reaction.

Good lad.

#15

Mr Alan wrote: »

Word of advice #15, if you don't actually think something, please dont say it simply to get a reaction.

Good lad.

It was to illustrate a point that has gone over your head.

Good lad, lol.

oconnon9

Warper wrote: »

Sir Alex has some dignity? Lol, give me a break. Is this the same hungry money-grabbing racist i am thinking of? For the record Ronaldo is a tosser and isnt fit to lace Messi's boots. Barca are the best and Messi is the best, get over it Utd. fans.

you don't half come across as an idiot

Le King

Some Liverpool fans really have a huge obsession with Manchester United. It's quite sad. Good performance yet there is Liverpool lads making United references left, right and centre. Pathetic.

eZe^

Lads, shut the f*ck up with the off topic bickering, it's getting really really tiring, next person to mention anything unrelated to Barca or Real is getting a straight red. You have been warned.


Also, LOL at anyone who suggests anything other than Pep Guardiola being the model pro. Talk about Alves or Busquets acting the maggot, or Iniesta going down easy, or Puyol being too mouthy, but to suggest Guardiola is a bad guy is absolutely ridiculous. I know I'm biased, but he is probably the classiest and most dignified manager in world football at the moment, you only have to watch some of his interviews to see this. Absolute top class man.

JPA

So this thread got ridiculous.

Have an article.

Barcelona, the 'Orgasm Team', win another epoch-defining clásico

It was not that they thrashed Madrid 5-0, defeated Mourinho and his unbeaten €292m team. It was that they did it their way




Eric Abidal raised his hand. Gerard Piqué raised his. And then the crowd that engulfed Jeffrén Suárez raised theirs. Víctor Valdés raised his, latex glistening in the light and soon the rest of Camp Nou joined in. So did the fans who gathered down the Ramblas – palms open, fingers outstretched. Not far away, a hand was being raised on the front cover of Sport. On the back, its cartoonist was taking the easy way out. "Today, instead of drawing," he wrote, "I have decided to scan my hand." So he did.
Meanwhile, right about the time Andrés Iniesta was posting pictures in his pants, in a warehouse somewhere they were already rushing off a batch of T-shirts to go with the Barça tupperware, Barça knives and Barça tool set. Blue and yellow and yours for just €9.95. On the back it reads: "great theatre". On the front it does not read anything much. Just the dateline and the score from last night's clásico between Barcelona and Real Madrid: Camp Nou, 29/11/2010. 5-0. And, above that, a giant yellow hand.
Jeffrén's late goal made little difference, but it made all the difference. Madrid were already being humiliated. José Mourinho, already suffering his worst ever defeat as a coach, felt "impotent", barely moving as fans chanted for him to "come out the dugout! José, come out the dugout!" It was already 4-0 and into added time and Almería's Henok Goitom, thrashed 8-0 by Barcelona last weekend, had long-since noted: "I know how you feel: you just want the game to finish." But the game had not finished, not yet. The fifth goal had to arrive and when it did, it mattered. It turned a baño – a bath, a drubbing – into a manita, a little hand. A goal for every finger. The most perfect of beatings.
Especially for Barcelona. Because if manitas are symbolic in Spain – and even fans of Racing Santander have their T-shirt – in Barcelona there is something even more emblematic about them. If Abidal did not know exactly what the gesture meant, Piqué, son of a Barça director and a soci from birth, certainly does. Last week, after that win in Almería, Cristiano Ronaldo had shrugged: "I'd like to see them get eight on Monday." They could have done and eight would have been great, but somehow five, while fewer, feels more fitting.
When El Mundo Deportivo called it a Super Manita, everyone in Catalunya knew what they were measuring it against. This was the fifth time Barcelona had defeated Real Madrid 5-0. Beyond 1934-35 and 1944-45, two linger in the memory: the 1973 team led by Johan Cruyff the player and the 1994-95 Dream Team led by Cruyff the coach. No one could watch last night and not recall Cruyff. Or Romário. Just in case, television programmes drew on the archive. Last night two epoch-defining victories became three.
Under Pep Guardiola, Barcelona had already beaten Madrid 6-2 at the Bernabéu and this result may ultimately change little. This was a single match and Barcelona's lead is just two points with 25 games left. Lessons will have been learnt. Madrid had, Mourinho insisted, "been to blame" too. And as he pointed out: "Last season I lost here with Inter before returning for the semi-final. We were the ones who reached the final – they watched it on television." And yet last night felt symbolic; another exhibit to present to the jury in the case of Barça v All The Others.
It is as if there is a checklist of things this Barcelona side have to do to emulate their predecessors, to prove their worth. And beating Madrid 5-0 is one of them. The parallel was not lost on anyone. Guardiola dedicated the win to Carles Rexach and Johan Cruyff, "the men who started us like this; laying down the approach we consider non-negotiable". Xavi talked about this Barcelona team as being "sons of the system" – in Sergio Busquet's case, literally.
It was not just that Barcelona beat Madrid, or even that they hammered them. It was not just that they defeated Mourinho – although they loved that – and a starting XI that cost €292m. Not that they defeated a team that had been unbeaten. It was not even that Guardiola completed a manita of his own – he has now won all five clásicos as coach, with a barely plausible aggregate score of 17-2. It was that they did it their way.
A way that would be risky for any other team. Busquets produced a drag back despite being under pressure and the last man. If hearts were in mouths, his was not one of them. If Xavi turned into trouble, he invariably turned out of it again. Even Valdés, true to Cruyff's great obsession, was playing the ball out short. The second goal came after more than 20 passes and a minute of uninterrupted possession to a soundtrack of olés. If Barcelona scored from their first four shots on target – Messi's fantastic chip against a post counts as off target – it is because they did not shoot until putting the ball into the net with just another pass.
Barcelona battered Madrid. Not some team of donkeys: Madrid. Only battered is not really the word. Barcelona killed them softly, with precision not power. As Ramón Besa wrote in El País: "Goals fall at Camp Nou like autumn leaves: naturally, beautifully and serenely." It was the control that was stunning, the bewilderment felt by Madrid. "The worst thing isn't losing, the worst thing is not having a clue what's going on," sobbed AS's mad Madridista Tomás Roncero.
Barcelona completed 636 passes, Madrid 279. "They could have played with two balls," wrote Roberto Palomar, "and Barcelona would have controlled both." Xavi, the best central midfielder in Spanish history and the man who ran last year's clásico, completed 114 of 117 passes. It was the sixth time he has gone over 100. Busquets and Iniesta moved the ball with a pace and precision, usually with a single touch. And then there was Messi. He did not score for the first time in 10 games. Or do one of those runs. But he gave two perfect assists and laid bare the fallacy that Ronaldo is a more "complete" player, by doing the thing often missed amid the goals and the dribbles: controlling the game. Again.
Even the clinically obsessed Marca, while whining a bit about the referee, admitted that Barcelona had been "too MOUch for Madrid." But it was not just about Madrid; it was about Barcelona producing what Santi Segurola described as "a symphony" – one of the most extraordinary displays anyone could remember as AS declared Barcelona "still miles ahead of Madrid".
There is a question that keeps getting asked: which Barcelona team is the best in the club's history? Last night, the current side raised their hand.
Talking points

• Yeah, right. Talking points? Aye, like anyone is talking about anything else. Oh, OK then, how about this one: there's a team in Barcelona that are in a Champions League place, enjoying their best season for years and have won every game at home. And, get this, it's not Barcelona. Not only did Espanyol win again this weekend, they did so away – for only the second time all season. Osvaldo battered in a brilliant volley to give them a 3-2 victory at the Calderón in a game that ended with Atlético Madrid coach Quique Sánchez Flores doing his best Scrappy Doo impression – "lemme at him, lemme at him, I'll pulverise him!" – while Espanyol keeper Carlos Kameni held him back. Quique was furious that in the dying minutes an injured Espanyol player who was off the pitch rolled back on to it to kill a few seconds. As it all kicked off, Sergio Agüero turned on the pantomime – by booting an opponent up the backside. "I don't like people coming to my house and laughing at me," Quique huffed.
• Míchel breathes again. The Getafe coach looked like he might be the latest in a flurry of coaches to get the sack – following Gay and Lillo – but his side somehow hit three past Sevilla at the Sánchez Pizjuán. The Manzano effect isn't working for Sevilla. They're losing touch with the Champions League places: Espanyol are five points clear of them while Valencia, Atlético and Mallorca – yes, Mallorca – are all ahead of them too.
• At the other end of the table, Sporting Gijón find themselves just two goals away from the relegation zone and coach Manolo Preciado found himself watching fans getting fidgety and walking out early after a match in which there were 56 – yes, fifty-six fouls but very little football. Mind you, Preciado would have been having a chuckle under that moustache last night: when he had the set-to with Mourinho's assistant Rui Faria after the Sporting-Real Madrid game, his parting shot was: "I hope Barcelona put five past you!" Rumours that he spent last night sending a fax to the league complaining that another team had just gone to the Camp Nou and thrown the match are unconfirmed.
• By the way, Ramos's red card makes him the most sent off player in Real Madrid's history, overtaking Fernando Hierro. Pretty good going for a player who's still only 24.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2010/nov/30/barcelona-win-epoch-defining-clasico

Le King

What has Dr. Sid had to say about the match?

PHB

eZe^ wrote: »

Also, LOL at anyone who suggests anything other than Pep Guardiola being the model pro. Talk about Alves or Busquets acting the maggot, or Iniesta going down easy, or Puyol being too mouthy, but to suggest Guardiola is a bad guy is absolutely ridiculous. I know I'm biased, but he is probably the classiest and most dignified manager in world football at the moment, you only have to watch some of his interviews to see this. Absolute top class man.

He is a model pro. However, in this case, he threw the ball away from an opposition player when he was trying to get it to get his team back into the game.

I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it, but you instantly you lose the automatic respect that you should get for being a manager because of it, and you just become part of the team. If a player had done that, nobody would have batted an eye lid. Hence why I didnt think it was a problem that Ronaldo did it. Indeed I loved him for, because most players don't have those sort of balls to treat people as they should be treated.

inmyday

After reading through this thread in the aftermath of the match, I came across alot of bull (the arguements etc). you can talk about messi, ronaldo, jose, pep.
But I realised one thing was lacking, only bout 3 posters mentioned it. What Ramos did on messi at the end of the match was pure scum, very cowardly. It proved he was the biggest loser that night. He went to injury messi, tackle from behind, while messi is running at full pace. The ref couldnt wait to get the red card out and up in the air quick enough. And I have to say, if I was puyol, I wouldnt have taken a dive when ramos pushed my face, I would have seeked revenge for my fallen team mate. Shame on ramos, he is a disgrace.