Barcelona Vs Manchester United - Pre-season friendly

Anyone notice Barca's passing went to pot after Iniesta came off?
 
Real Madrid or Barcelona will win World Football Challenge 2011...

We've just lost by one goal with Madrid.

Sack Fergie, sell Obertan.
 
I'm really happy for Cleverly.

He should he has the quality to be in the squad. I expect to see quite a bit of him this season.

Wellbeck will play a lot of matches too.

Yep the youngsters have given us and i expect SAF some food for thought after those performances, yes it was only a friendly but we played Barca perfectly first half.

Fantastic energy and desire and played with real confidence at a high tempo. Welbeck in particular is becoming a real handful. He has a real determination to make an impact and works his bollocks off for the team.

Cleverley too could be a real plus for us this season. I personally would have liked to see TC last season in place of Gibson. TC's extra energy and mobility would have given us much more dynamism in midfield than Gibson offered.

Let's hope he and Welbeck get a decent run this season.
 
Why have Real Madrid beaten us?

I don`t get this challenge

I honestly didn't know it existed until a commentator brought it up during our second game in it. I went to the Wikipedia page, and was like "...the feck is this?"

It's the most mentally laid out competition I've ever seen, and I've seen the Belgian league.
 
Why have Real Madrid beaten us?

I don`t get this challenge
Three points for a regulation victory
Two points for a penalty shootout victory
One point for a penalty shootout loss
No points for a regulation loss
One point for each goal scored (up to three per match)

Sporting CP, playing only one game, will not accrue points, but their opponent, Juventus, will be able to in their matchup. The five Major League Soccer teams will be split up into two different "clubs" for the purposes of the table, the MLS Eastern Conference (containing the Chicago Fire, New England Revolution, and Philadelphia Union), and the MLS Western Conference (containing the Los Angeles Galaxy, who will play two games, and the Vancouver Whitecaps). Each of the other seven clubs will play three games and accrue points as normal.

2011 World Football Challenge - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
Owen's also a brutal finisher. He doesn't show mercy. Always proving why he's still got a contract. Seen nothing but hard work, professionalism and overall good play from him since he's joined. Benitez was mad not to offer him a contract.

True! Owen will be forever grateful for Sir Alex having saved his career. We can't begin to imagine he would get the chance to play the like of Barca again, without having joined us. He must be living his dreams whilst playing for us, whether on the bench or on the pitch.
 
True! Owen will be forever grateful for Sir Alex having saved his career. We can't begin to imagine he would get the chance to play the like of Barca again, without having joined us. He must be living his dreams whilst playing for us, whether on the bench or on the pitch.

I disagree. I wouldn't say his career was "saved" at all. He went from starting most matches at Newcastle to getting, if he's lucky, about 5 starts and a handful of appearances late on. Just because he's on our squad, doesn't mean he was saved.

Living his dream I'm sure was starting for Liverpool or England, or even Real. Playing for an arch nemesis wouldn't be high on there. However, he sees the virtue of playing for us and respects the club on a professional level.

If you're attributing his "living the dream" as winning the PL, I'm sure that moment has been a dream, he just thought he'd make a larger impact in accomplishing it. And playing against Barca - I think he would make it on any of the top 4 teams outside of Chelsea and City - Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal could all use him, as we have found uses too. Plus he played against them in a friendly, he didn't make the field during the important game. Playing against them in a friendly is something even the likes of MLS teams get a chance to do.

He's one of the classiest professionals in the game. I just don't get all this "living the dream" nonsense tossed around like he doesn't deserve to be on the team and it's a real treat or that this wasn't something on his to do list. He's happy playing for the best team in the world and he's acting a professional, otherwise, I don't imagine he's too chaft.
 
What was up with Rooney today?
watching the game now. just saw this
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I disagree. I wouldn't say his career was "saved" at all. He went from starting most matches at Newcastle to getting, if he's lucky, about 5 starts and a handful of appearances late on. Just because he's on our squad, doesn't mean he was saved.

Living his dream I'm sure was starting for Liverpool or England, or even Real. Playing for an arch nemesis wouldn't be high on there. However, he sees the virtue of playing for us and respects the club on a professional level.

If you're attributing his "living the dream" as winning the PL, I'm sure that moment has been a dream, he just thought he'd make a larger impact in accomplishing it. And playing against Barca - I think he would make it on any of the top 4 teams outside of Chelsea and City - Liverpool, Spurs, Arsenal could all use him, as we have found uses too. Plus he played against them in a friendly, he didn't make the field during the important game. Playing against them in a friendly is something even the likes of MLS teams get a chance to do.

He's one of the classiest professionals in the game. I just don't get all this "living the dream" nonsense tossed around like he doesn't deserve to be on the team and it's a real treat or that this wasn't something on his to do list. He's happy playing for the best team in the world and he's acting a professional, otherwise, I don't imagine he's too chaft.

chaft:confused:
 
Yep the youngsters have given us and i expect SAF some food for thought after those performances, yes it was only a friendly but we played Barca perfectly first half.

Fantastic energy and desire and played with real confidence at a high tempo. Welbeck in particular is becoming a real handful. He has a real determination to make an impact and works his bollocks off for the team.

Cleverley too could be a real plus for us this season. I personally would have liked to see TC last season in place of Gibson. TC's extra energy and mobility would have given us much more dynamism in midfield than Gibson offered.

Let's hope he and Welbeck get a decent run this season.

That was not Barcelona. There was no Messi, Xavi, Sanchez, Pique, Puyol, Alves and Santos played as full back. In the second half Villa and Abidal left the first team too. I am actually dissapointed that we have played Barcelona B and we weren't able to win with a bigger margin.
 
You fail to recognise our team wasn't exactly first choice either...

I'd say it's encouraging regardless of the players Barca missed.
 
When I went to the Real Madrid vs Union game some Mexicans tried to get in with vuvuzelas to be stopped at the gate.

Must avoid racial/height-requirement-related joke.

Yeah, I think they've been unofficially banned from all pro-sport leagues in the US - vuvzelas, that is, not Mexicans. AKA it's up to each baseball/basketball/NFL, etc. club, but a vast majority of teams has issued the ban. Memory's a bit hazy regarding the article. I think they were citing it as a safety issue regarding emergency announcements.

Anyhow it really was the shortest vu ever - made you think a crowd of people just tackled him on the spot.

I see Mandy's set the make up gun to Dickensian whore.

Made me laugh.
 
You fail to recognise our team wasn't exactly first choice either...

I'd say it's encouraging regardless of the players Barca missed.

We started with 7 first teamers (De Gea, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Nani, Anderson (he must be considered as first teamer now) and Rooney) and Young on the flank. Giggs came in during the second half. That was quite a strong team.

Maybe I overrate our team but I don't need a friendly to believe that we can beat Barcelona without Messi, Xavi, Pique, Puyol, Alves and Sanchez. FFS when we got the winner they had a 16 yr old playing on the pitch. To say the truth I expected us to win against that with a much bigger margin.
 
We started with 7 first teamers (De Gea, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Nani, Anderson (he must be considered as first teamer now) and Rooney) and Young on the flank. Giggs came in during the second half. That was quite a strong team.

Maybe I overrate our team but I don't need a friendly to believe that we can beat Barcelona without Messi, Xavi, Pique, Puyol, Alves and Sanchez. To say the truth I expected us to win against that with a much bigger margin.

I was at the match, and just to let you know, Barcelona had 6 players from the final line up (Pedro, Iniesta, Valdes, Villa, Biscuits and Abidal, plus Keita who's hardly a slouch). It wasn't an easy team to face and they played at full pelt. We were missing Rio, Valencia, Berbatov et al, with Tom Cleverley who's as young as Thiago Alcantara running the midfield.

This win doesn't mean a lot, but surely where credit is due?
 
I was at the match, and just to let you know, Barcelona had 6 players from the final line up (Pedro, Iniesta, Valdes, Villa, Biscuits and Abidal, plus Keita who's hardly a slouch). It wasn't an easy team to face and they played at full pelt. We were missing Rio, Valencia, Berbatov et al, with Tom Cleverley who's as young as Thiago Alcantara running the midfield.

This win doesn't mean a lot, but surely where credit is due?

Their best players (bar Iniesta) were out of the team while ours were on the pitch. Rio would have added quality in the team while Berba/Chicarito are better options then Welbeck/Owen. I am not quite certain about Valencia. He's a good player but he's around Young level in my opinion. However I doubt that these players are as important for us as Xavi/Pique/Puyol/Messi/Alves/Sanchez are/will be to Barca.

Anyway by the time we scored the winner they were playing with a 16 yr old on the pitch. My point is that we should be careful not to give too much credit to this win. Its like winning United in the Carling cup. However one may speculate that we've got better strength in depth then them
 
I hope that you had a great time watching the game life. Lucky you.
 
As fishfingers15 points out, Barcelona had a fair few of their final players on the pitch, and so did we, however we did play our new goalkeeper, our 4th/5th choice centre back in Evans, an unproven central midfielder in Cleverley, Anderson who although now has to be considered first choice, probably wouldn't be ideally, and Welbeck who's another young player who's certainly nowhere near first choice. It's just because Barcelona rely so heavily on that core of players (Messi, Xavi, Iniesta) that when 2 of them aren't playing its such a huge loss, whilst we could leave out some of our best players such as Ferdinand, Valencia, Berbatov, Giggs and guys like Van Der Sar who have retired, but were extremely important players in the teams that have played Barcelona in the recent finals, and people would say we weren't as understrength as they were.

I'm not giving too much credit to the win, it means little as it's pre-season, but I think the mental effect it will have on the players will be important, it wouldn't of been good to lose again to Barca and have the players somewhat reminded that they are inferior to the best club in Europe. Now the lads can feel confident, and at least know we CAN beat Barcelona, even if it is in a friendly, and even if they are without some of their important players.
 
As fishfingers15 points out, Barcelona had a fair few of their final players on the pitch, and so did we, however we did play our new goalkeeper, our 4th/5th choice centre back in Evans, an unproven central midfielder in Cleverley, Anderson who although now has to be considered first choice, probably wouldn't be ideally, and Welbeck who's another young player who's certainly nowhere near first choice. It's just because Barcelona rely so heavily on that core of players (Messi, Xavi, Iniesta) that when 2 of them aren't playing its such a huge loss, whilst we could leave out some of our best players such as Ferdinand, Valencia, Berbatov, Giggs and guys like Van Der Sar who have retired, but were extremely important players in the teams that have played Barcelona in the recent finals, and people would say we weren't as understrength as they were.

I'm not giving too much credit to the win, it means little as it's pre-season, but I think the mental effect it will have on the players will be important, it wouldn't of been good to lose again to Barca and have the players somewhat reminded that they are inferior to the best club in Europe. Now the lads can feel confident, and at least know we CAN beat Barcelona, even if it is in a friendly, and even if they are without some of their important players.

I agree. Its a moral boost and its show our superior strength in depth. Period
 
But Barcelona are so far ahead of everybody else, that even when they are missing these players beating them 2-1 is still a respectable result. I certainly wouldn't expect anything greater.
 
But Barcelona are so far ahead of everybody else, that even when they are missing these players beating them 2-1 is still a respectable result. I certainly wouldn't expect anything greater.

That's BS. Add a quality creative CM to our side (and maybe a quality DM) and we'll be competitive against them even if they field all their highly talented midgets.
 
You do realise that the team Barcelona played was still very respectable, there is nothing at all wrong with beating them 2-1. I honestly can't see why its bullshit, I think we should be at least very content with this result.
 
It's hard to imagine what goes on inside devilish's brain.
 
You do realise that the team Barcelona played was still very respectable, there is nothing at all wrong with beating them 2-1. I honestly can't see why its bullshit, I think we should be at least very content with this result.

Its a decent side and Im happy with the result. On the other hand lets not get carried too much from this result. Barca is a much better side than what they shown yesterday.
 
it was a friendly we beat them move on

This. It was a friendly. The result has almost zero relevance, it's all about getting match fitness and sharpness.

Why do people have to overanalyse, to point of being disappointed that we didn't beat a team by a greater margin in a meaningless match?
 
We started with 7 first teamers (De Gea, Vidic, Rafael, Evra, Nani, Anderson (he must be considered as first teamer now) and Rooney) and Young on the flank. Giggs came in during the second half. That was quite a strong team.

Maybe I overrate our team but I don't need a friendly to believe that we can beat Barcelona without Messi, Xavi, Pique, Puyol, Alves and Sanchez. FFS when we got the winner they had a 16 yr old playing on the pitch. To say the truth I expected us to win against that with a much bigger margin.

Rooney missed a good chance and Owen a sitter...welbeck had a decent effort saved and nani couldn't tuck in the rebound. Barca's kids are taught how to pass, they're no mugs but we created the chances and could have won by a few more
 
Barca, better than us?

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Don't make me laugh bitterly