Football (Soccer)

[sinbad]

Giggs has not played well in this match. He is rarely involved in the game.
Perhaps because of his personal problems before the final day to affect his form.

[lowrey]

/\ That's great. One thing I did LOVE about the game though was a United player putting his foot through the ball and it hitting Busquets square in the face about five yards away

haha, we had 8-9 guys yelling BOOOOOM HEADSHOT at that point

[Faust]

Giggs has not played well in this match. He is rarely involved in the game.
Perhaps because of his personal problems before the final day to affect his form.

What problems? I haven't followed soccer closely lately, but Giggs was always one of my favorite players. I thought the guy was evergreen, but he was absolutely uninvolved in that game. I felt a bit sad.

[Mikevigar]

haha, we had 8-9 guys yelling BOOOOOM HEADSHOT at that point

Someone tech-friendly needs to get the clip of it for this thread, as someone has done a couple of pages back with his injury peek-a-boo. I would watch it everyday!!!!

[Mikevigar]

What problems? I haven't followed soccer closely lately, but Giggs was always one of my favorite players. I thought the guy was evergreen, but he was absolutely uninvolved in that game. I felt a bit sad.

He's been caught up in this twitter injunction furore. Basically he shagged this Welsh girl who was in Big Brother and got a twitter injunction to stop himself being named, but it leaked out pretty quickly and then some wannabe famous backbench MP named him in parliament so it's all been kicking off in the last week or two. Shame for such a blemish to get such publicity towards the end of a truly remarkable career, you'd be hard pushed to find a more successful, loyal and consistently excellent player.

And Faust, regarding your comments about appreciating the athletic prowess of these guys, Giggs running the midfield at his age is truly remarkable!

[shah]

^ loyal to club, not wife

Giggs has not played well in this match. He is rarely involved in the game.
Perhaps because of his personal problems before the final day to affect his form.

Normally I wouldn't disagree that off-field problems are messing with a player but this is Giggs who is rarely phased and very focused during games. However in 2009 he also pulled a disappearing act against Barcelona which leads me to believe that it wasn't due to his moral compass being whack but the fact that he can't play against the Catalans. He's not used to chasing shadows especially not at the age of 74.

[Classique]

"Artistic form, correctly understood, does not shape already prepared and found content, but rather permits content to be found and seen for the first time." - Bakhtin

Aesthetically | Artistically: Barcelona has a beautiful system. Contrary to antagonisms; This team achieved within mortal capability, football perfection.

No contemporary team may hope to compete against Barcelona; Like, Mourinho, you may only hope to contain them with 'anti-football.'

We should just set apart our 'colors,' and enjoy the best team of all time. Which is not an individual sentiment - Respectable critics have similar praise.

If only for a fleeting moment...

Xavi is 31 and the heart | brain, of the team. Maybe, he has two years of his best form.

When the game is deadlocked; "Messi is a player in another level within a team that is in another level."

So, in fair play, since he was not the designated captain...

"Eric Abidal faced death, and raised the cup of life."

The poetic image, leaves me breathless in gratitude; Barcelona, my respect.

[lowrey]

Xavi had 136 passes in the final with a 91% accuracy. in the previous game against madrid I recall he had close to the same amount of passes as the entire opponent team.

of course, there is more to the game than midfield passing as has been mentioned, but still, his co-ordination is just incredible.

[Faust]

Bakhtin in a thread about soccer - best of SZ?

[marco-von]

^^

Today Paul Scholes retired....one of the best to play the game and one of the last of the old guard. Xavi has even admitted to being in awe of the man.

[shah]

Another take on the CL victory

The image of Wayne Rooney crying at the end of Saturday’s Champions League final is one that I will remember forever. But it won’t be for the tears. I will remember, and always respect, Rooney for the gesture that accompanied his tears: he was applauding.

Rooney’s gesture typified the United response to the match all around the world, and at all levels of discussion. United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, never one to bite his tongue for the cameras, praised the Barcelona performance and vowed to do better next season. “They’re the best in Europe, no question about that. In my time as a manager, I would say they’re the best team we’ve faced. Everyone acknowledges that and I accept that. It’s not easy when you’ve been well beaten like that to think another way. No one has given us a hiding like that. It’s a great moment for them. They deserve it because they play the right way and enjoy their football.”


United players were equally magnanimous in defeat, acknowledging that the better team on the night had won the contest. The English press, in near unanimity, hailed this Barcelona squad, with Paul Hayward in particular comparing their performance to the best historical displays in Europe. Hayward concludes: “there is a not a club side anywhere on the globe who could have coped with the Catalán compound of zealous defending, relentless ball circulation and flourishes of individual brilliance.”



Even at the level of the individual message boards that I frequent, I was impressed by the post-match goodwill of the United supporters, and the generally civil dialogue that had preceded it. I think I speak for all Barcelona fans in myself applauding the example set here by the United manager, players and supporters; I feel a new-found sense of respect for a club that I had never particularly enjoyed in the past.

But there’s more to this story than a simple group hug. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, but it’s a point that demands to be made. The class and dignity of Alex Ferguson in defeat lies in amazingly stark contrast to the reactions of another manager who was recently put to the sword by this Barcelona squad.

After suffering a grim 0-2 home defeat at the hands of the Catalans, despite his team’s premeditated thuggery on the pitch, Jose Mourinho’s sheer vitriol and megalomania reached an apex in his post-match press conference: “[Guardiola] has won one Champions League and that is one that would embarrass me. I would be ashamed to have won it with the scandal of Stamford Bridge and if he wins it this year it will be with the scandal of the Bernabéu. One day I would like to see Josep Guardiola win this championship properly.”

Mourinho’s personal condemnation of Guardiola was merely the nadir of a season-long effort to unsettle the Barcelona squad that was preceded by allegations of conspiracy and favoritism, and followed by even uglier claims of cheating and racism. These claims, in the wake of Guardiola’s shining victory on Saturday, must come into even sharper focus for tarnishing the image of his club and the sport it represents.

It is an open secret that Mourinho aspires one day to manage Manchester United. If recent events are any indication, the man still has a a lot to learn before he will even begin to match the humility and class of the club’s current manager.



Read more: http://www.totalbarca.com/2011/opini...#ixzz1NxDh0klR

http://www.totalbarca.com/2011/opinion-pieces/grace-in-defeat-of-knights-and-knaves/

[Mikevigar]

^^

Today Paul Scholes retired....one of the best to play the game and one of the last of the old guard. Xavi has even admitted to being in awe of the man.

Its a shame he didn't go out with a bang, specifically a Scholesy classic crunching tackle on Busquets, make the guy roll around for good reason

[shah]

pretty nice look at some of the ways in which barca dominated

[sinbad]

Glad to see Swansea have promoted to the Premier league.

Next year would see Cardiff as one of the wales team to play in the EPL.

[Classique]

Originally, an observation of Dostoevsky's poetics; That Bakhtin quote is versatile :)

- Definition of art
- Plagiarism
- Etc...

Any way, the FIFA scandal is a hypocritical labyrinth; The FIFA entity will investigate the corrupt FIFA entity? Haha... WTF?

Will Qatar host the World Cup? If FIFA had ANY dignity, and the organization does not, the 2022 nation should be re-elected, no!?