CL highlights…

October 24th, 2007 | By: Jan | 4 Comments »

Arsenal can do it without Robin van Persie too. 7-0 against Slavia Prague… Didn’t they beat Ajax? Cesc and Theo Wallcott scored twice…

Man United beat CSKA Moscow 2-4, with Edwin van der Sar in the goal.

Barcelona (with Rijkaard and Neeskens) dominated the match at Ibrox Park against the Rangers, but didn’t create a lot, 0-0. As I said earlier on this blog, they suffer the same problems as Oranje (funnily enough, Barca’s away-jersey is bright orange): slow build up from the back and once the artists up front have the ball, all the space is taken in by defenders. And still, the artists want to do their trickery… It’s time Frankie did something there. I love Barca to pieces, but they appear to be a one-trick-pony. If that trick works, it’s awesome to watch and lethal. If the “trick” doesn’t work, they can’t seem to switch to more opportunistic or direct football…

PSV Eindhoven needed a win against Fenerbace but the Zico managed Turkish side copped the pressure but never really got in trouble. Dirk Marcellis again had a starting role in Ronald Koeman’s team and again he didn’t do too shabby. It stayed 0-0 and now PSV feels it needs to win in Turkey in two weeks time… The witches-cauldron of Turkey, is the literal translation of the Dutch expression….

Tags: Edwin Van der Sar, Frank Rijkaard, Group C, Lionel Messi, The Netherlands, Zico

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Comments

By Lerkot | October 24th, 2007 at 2:27 am

No, Barcelonas build up from the back is okey. I think their main problem is that they dont have enough movement while in attack.

A draw in Turkey would be a good result since PSV will meet Inter at home in their last game, and that Inter might by then already be qualified to the next round.

By Peter v | October 24th, 2007 at 3:34 am

They’ve got Inter at the San Siro. They played Inter at Phillips Stadion last round.

Posted from Australia

By Jan | October 24th, 2007 at 4:01 am

Officially they play Inter at the Guiseppe Meazza stadium … San Siro is only San Siro when AC Milan plays there. When Inter play, the name of the stadium is Meazza, which I believe is the official name. Does anyone know if there’s another stadium in the world with two names, depending on who plays there?

@Lerkot: maybe Barca’s build up is good, but the “final” pass to the strikers should be given earlier because waiting too long means the opponent has clottered up all the space and there is not much room to move anymore. The endless passing and to-ing and fro-ing seems so unnecessary. I see it happening and think, wow…there’s probably some grand scheme behind all that, but there isn’t. It’s almost as if they allow the other guys to take position. And then, they seem to want to walk the ball in the goal.
Also, it seems that if one of the big guns makes a run (Henry, Messi, Ronaldinho) it is as if the midfielders are obliged to pass the ball to them, even if the run is going nowhere or even if another – lesser name – is in better position… Do you know what I mean?

They can play awesome football, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes they do make the wrong choices in their passing.

Posted from Australia

By dirk v.d berg | October 24th, 2007 at 4:06 pm

y did v. d. sar get subbed off in the 80th minute. The commentators said he wasn’t injured.

Posted from Canada