CL: Inter – Barca and AZ – Olympiakos

Maarten Martens and Mounir El Hamdaoui really really sucked. Horrible. The rest was okey, Moisander and Moreno played well at the back and Schaars was involved in nearly every situation.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203917304574414961147869006.html
Interesting article in todays Wall Street Journal
regarding Real and Barcelona from a financial perspective.

I thought Drenthe played a very decent game. Even the commentators said he has matured a lot since last year.

Sneijder was OK. Not great not bad he needs to get used to the way Inter plays.

Out of topic
http://www.espnstar.com/football/primera-liga/news/detail/item324554/Argentina-gunning-for-Pep/

Posted from  India

@Lerkot; part of it was Koemans mistake; he put El Hamdaoui in the wrong position… Koeman made the mistake of adapting to Piraeus something vGaal would have never done

Posted from  Netherlands

Maicon is too selfish, I’ve noticed it now in 3 games by Inter, he wastes a lot of chances that way. My opinion of him as a worldclass defender has decreased considerably in the last 3 games. He’s still very good on the ball and defending, but he’s not functional (he should take a look at Kuyt, never looks very pretty, but it’s always functional).

Eto’o and Sneijder play pretty good together, Millito is still affected by the Argentinian bad mojo flu apparently, seeing the mistakes he made, his runs were good though. Sneijder can learn a thing or 2 from Millito about good runs, I see him forgetting to follow up on his passes by running forward and taking up a good position, sometimes he gives a pass and just stands there waiting to see what happens. Maybe he got some weird instructions from the coach cause that attitude was plaguing the whole midfield and defense of Inter. Sneijder’s passing looked a bit too hurried/inaccurate especially the first half, it’s nice he speeds up the game, but if almost all passes(/flicks) can’t find their target I don’t see the advantage of that extra half second of speed (in the pass). Sometimes that extra half second is vital to create an opening that normally wouldn’t be there if you had taken your time and concentrated on getting the pass exactly right, but that’s not ALWAYS the case. In the first half there were a couple of flicks (fast inaccurate passes) that were unnecessary and unproductive in that particular situation. I’d like to see him chose his moments more carefully (I did see that a lot more in the second half, where he alternated more between concentrated passing, dribbling and fast combo’s/flicking, but in the second half he got a lot less opportunities and the rest of Inter started to play worse and worse). Good shot with his left!

Barcelona was much more energetic and looked much more hungry for the ball, just look at how easy Alves kept on taking the ball from Muntari, like taking candy from a baby. Many times Inter defenders were just standing there waiting to have the ball plucked away because of their indecision. Luckily there was Henry too screw up most chances Barcelona got, or Zlatan showing why Sweden never accomplishes much and that he’s no where near the class of a Torres, Fabiano, Villa in terms of effectiveness. Sure, I guess sometimes his goals are as beautiful as those by vPersie for example, but if he misses 1 on 1’s like that?!

I’d be willing to put money on a 2-0 win for Barcelona if Eto’o had been the one at the end of those passes. But I do remember saying “thank you Henry” a lot more than “thank you Zlatan” (whenever either of them wasted a chance or a good attack, I was rooting for Inter).

Posted from  Netherlands

OK, AZ, I watched this one at the same time, but not as closely. I usually looked whenever I heard Schaars or da Silva and I can’t say I was impressed.

I think this game was just another reminder how bad the Dutch league is compared to other European leagues (and the Ajax successes I remember when I was still watching the Dutch league in the nineties).

Therefore we really should think twice about fielding players in our Oranje squad that have only proved themselves in Holland. I didn’t see anything in Schaars or da Silva that qualifies them for Oranje at this moment. Seedorf at AC Milan plays better than either of them.

I’d never thought I’d say this (and it’s probably premature), but can he play def.midfield? I still have my doubts about vBommel’s abilities against the really strong teams. De Jong is a certainty for me.

Posted from  Netherlands

Seedorf has played def. midfielder at Ajax, but now he won’t cut it anymore. He’s not good one to one, doesn’t have a sliding tackle and he is getting older (meaning he won’t be able to run, play pressure, etc).

I agree on Maicon and I also think Muntari played a horrible game. Stankovic is much more efficient.

I fear that Sneijder can’t adjust to Inter. They’ll have to adjust to him. He is the only one-touch player Inter has. The rest all loves running with the ball. They will win the scudetto again, I think.

Seedorf was once asked to play DM but he made a mess of it. The stories went around the Oranje Camp – Biggest Ball Loser – Clarence – Biggest Ball winner – Edgar. Am not a big fan and never have been of Clarence, but always loved Edgar – probably as persons/character it should be reversed but then neither of them have sms’d me for a cup of tea so I can’t judge.

Posted from  Singapore

Oh, another thing I noticed, not really something that is news, but Sneijder seriously lacks aerial strength. Normally he makes up for that with his other qualities but I noticed that in this game it mattered a lot. Lots of situations where Inter just couldn’t keep possession because the ball came near Sneijder in a high arc (often when they were trying to clear from defensive situations). I remember that mostly from the second half.

I don’t think Sneijder won even 1 air duel.

Posted from  Netherlands

In terms of the age argument…

van Bommel: 32
Seedorf: 33
vBronckh.: 34
Ooijer: 35

Posted from  Netherlands

@Sol most of ur analysis is excellent and very practical…i agree that these formentioned oldies will make us piss in upcoming worldcup.i dont have faith in our seniors,they will never achive gold with orange and they will not allow others to achive the same..i had faith in gio till 2004 may be till 2005 i had faih in him.After that he also became a looser.yopu all my love over kuyt so the equation goes like this.for me at present kuyt>Vanbommel>gio>Oiger>Zeadorf

Posted from  India

when the seniors enterd into the team..De haan got derailed from his path..look at the result in olympics…

Posted from  India

Another piece of interest against Schwables or dive or actors. In cricket there’s a n xray/heat seeker type film they use to see where the “hotspot” is and you can see whether the ball actually nicks the bat or the pad because the heat show up through friction. Surely this can also beused for all those penalty divers. I saw some amazing miss dives lately where penalties were given. UEFA can use this technology as well to punish divers.

Posted from  Singapore

Sol i have to agree with you about zlatan, once again another pathetic performance against “big” oppostion in the champs league. If like you say a dcent striker such as fabiano, huntelaar, grafite, van persie, rooney, higuain etc had one of his chance (or even half chances barca would have had the win they deserved).

Zlatan kept trying these fancy tricks and back heels! Soemtimes the most beautiful and effective football is simple football and he fails to understand that concept as a striker. Thats what made Alan Shearer so great, let the others do the fancy build up and i’ll just whack it and score meantallity.

Barca create a lot of chances but i feel if say (without meaning to be biast) thata huntelaar was at barca he would be the european golden boot winner at the end of the season. Zlatan will score goals, but he’s only interested in the “perfect” goal, whilst strikers like huntelaar and fabaino are more versatile and score all types of goals!

Posted from  United Kingdom

i’m not a zlaran fan at all,but he’s one of the best strikers of the world alongside with eto’o,fernando torres,david vila and drogba. far better than fabiano,grafite or huntelaar. unfortunately,we simply overestimate huntelaar.

I don’t think huntaar is overestimated and i think that if he gets the right opportunities with Holland (i.e. stop starting Kuyt ahead of him) he will break patrick kluivert’s record of 79 games 40 goals.

Posted from  United Kingdom

Zlatan fails too much when the pressure is on (big game). That disqualifies him from being ALONGSIDE fernando torres,david vila, drogba or fabiano since these strikers have won the big games for their teams and are more consistent.

He’s better than Huntelaar indeed, at least for now (but just wait and see if Hunter gets his form back at Milan and get some 90-minutes games in). Grafite I don’t know that well.

The advantage in having a striker like Zlatan is that you can force a goal without needing a good creative team, but if you have a good creative team (like Barcelona) you’d want quantity, not quality, consistency not flashes of brilliance, effectiveness and productivity in goals not beautifully artisticly barely missed shots at goal and actions that lead to something that looks good but ultimately fails to convert to a goal. So sort of what Lucas also said.

Posted from  Netherlands