Interesting that you'd use video evidence of a Spanish player supposedly diving to illustrate your point.
It's immaterial anyway as there really is no comparison. The level of gamesmanship/cheating/diving/feinging injury in that Barca v Real match was as bad as I've seen in recent years.
That is should happen in the semi-final of the biggest club competition in the world is a black eye for football in general and a particularly bad advert for the game in Spain. Little wonder that Ballague has gone on the defensive.
Interesting that you'd use video evidence of a Spanish player supposedly diving to illustrate your point.
It's immaterial anyway as there really is no comparison. The level of gamesmanship/cheating/diving/feinging injury in that Barca v Real match was as bad as I've seen in recent years.
That is should happen in the semi-final of the biggest club competition in the world is a black eye for football in general and a particularly bad advert for the game in Spain. Little wonder that Ballague has gone on the defensive.
The level of gamesmanship/cheating/diving/feinging injury in that Barca v Real match was as bad as I've seen in recent years.
It was the worst I've seen since Celtic played Porto in the UEFA Cup Final in 2003.
The worst I've evr seen was Barca vs Chelsea 2006/07 at the Camp Nou.
and there was Nani asking for a Chelsea player to be booked, and of course his reaction to Ramires tackle, I agree it compares about 0.1% to the Barca/Real match but to spout the heroic bollocks Amol does it double standards.
Interesting that you'd use video evidence of a Spanish player supposedly diving to illustrate your point.
It's immaterial anyway as there really is no comparison. The level of gamesmanship/cheating/diving/feinging injury in that Barca v Real match was as bad as I've seen in recent years.
That is should happen in the semi-final of the biggest club competition in the world is a black eye for football in general and a particularly bad advert for the game in Spain. Little wonder that Ballague has gone on the defensive.
Anyone see a theme developing here?![]()
Anyone see a theme developing here?![]()
I dislike the play acting and referee intimidation but it's not enough to significantly detract from my general admiration of Barcelona. They bring their own players through and they play wonderful football. I've always considered Barca and Utd to be similar clubs. Let's be frank, we have players who dive and players who argue with referees so lets take that into consideration.
Anyone see a theme developing here?![]()
Mourinho has been the victim of Barca diving for years?
I dislike the play acting and referee intimidation but it's not enough to significantly detract from my general admiration of Barcelona. They bring their own players through and they play wonderful football. I've always considered Barca and Utd to be similar clubs. Let's be frank, we have players who dive and players who argue with referees so lets take that into consideration.
Barca have a huge catchment area to recruit the best youngsters & develop them, also as far as i know - there are no restrictions like we have in English football regarding the recruiting of players who dont live within a certain small radius of the club. Real & Barca can/have snap/snapped up all the best young players from around Spain & South America also. We've been gettin stuck into the South America factor pretty well these past 4-5 years & it'll only get better!
Nowhere near to the same extent.
Barcelona aren't any dirtier than the average team, this was a grudge match that brought out the worst in both teams. I agree that Utd are usually amongst the most sportsmanlike teams but we have had our lapses.
Any side that can count Sergio Busquests amongst their number is inherently dirtier than the average team.
Yeah don't get me wrong, I'm not saying it doesn't happen over here but to see it completely over shadow the game itself was something else.
I was wondering whether the referee would speak to both teams at half time and tell them to cut it out but if he did it evidently fell on deaf ears.
That's how I imagine someone like Pierluigi Collina would've dealt with it. I miss that baldie.
Barcelona aren't any dirtier than the average team, this was a grudge match that brought out the worst in both teams. I agree that Utd are usually amongst the most sportsmanlike teams but we have had our lapses.
Any side that can count Sergio Busquests amongst their number is inherently dirtier than the average team.
Arsenal fans would say the same about Darren Fletcher or "Cheateritto".
Barcelona aren't any dirtier than the average team, this was a grudge match that brought out the worst in both teams. I agree that Utd are usually amongst the most sportsmanlike teams but we have had our lapses.
Never say that to Everton fans Cass - they'd go through you for a short-cut man
The reason why, is when they were goin through the Champions League qualifiers in 2005, they played Villarreal & after a 2-1 defeat at Goodison, Everton scored a late headed goal from Big Dunc in the away-leg to make it 2-1 to Everton, but Collina disallowed it - incorrectly also. That would have meant extra-time to be played, but Everton went out & missed their big chance for all their efforts the season before finishing 4th!
Collina retired straight after that game, its said that he felt shit after watching the replays & should have allowed the goal. He was planning to retire at the end of the season anyway, but he subsequently said thats that.
Everton fans dispise him, because to them - they live with regret that things may have been so different for them now had they progressed to the Champions League group stages!
TBH i am kinda glad RM & Barc game has come under such scutiny because if we progress to final, ref will have to seriously consider Barca play acting before awarding anything and this can only help us.
Even if all that is true, how come Madrid's team isn't full of academy players? Barca deserve a lot of credit for how they run their academy.