Cesc Fabregas
“The protracted will-he won’t-he transfer of Cesc Fabregas from Arsenal to Barcelona shows little sign of reaching a timely conclusion. From Arsène Wenger through to Xavi, here’s who said what and when.” (Telegraph)
“The efficiency that holding midfielders provide teams makes them very important in the modern football. International competitions are always fascinating tactically if anything for the inflexibility they confront managers with. Arrigo Sacchi, in charge of the Italy side who reached the final of World Cup ’94, stated it was “impossible” for a national manager to drill the same understanding that club level coaches are afforded due to the lack of day-to-day availability of personnel. The sporadic amount of time they have with players means it can be difficult for coaches to develop plans so they usually are forced to stick with philosophies they think are correct – and that in turn highlights the common trends in the thinking of modern coaches. And certainly, what has become oblivious from the recent World Cup in South Africa and indeed club football for the past few years is that the use of two holding midfielders in front of the back four is become crucial in the modern game.” (Arsenal Column)
“Evolution never stops. As the World Cup showed, 4‑2‑3‑1 has come to replace 4‑4‑2 as the universal default (18 of the 32 teams played some form of 4‑2‑3‑1 at some stage, with another three fielding a 4‑4‑2 that perhaps should have become 4‑2‑3‑1) so the system at the very highest level has already begun to mutate. Spain, by the end of the World Cup, had followed what Barcelona did at times last season, what Arsenal seemed to be reaching towards, and set up in a 4‑2‑1‑3.” (Guardian)
“Yelling football chants in the street. Puffing on tabs. Urinating beside bins. Contrary to what you might expect, the Rumour Mill doesn’t frown on such loutish behaviour. Indeed, anyone who saw us strutting proudly into work this morning, head back, chest out and arms spread in the classic Big Brave football-fan-backed-by-his-mates “you want some?” pose will know we’re wholeheartedly in favour of it. It impresses people. It earns us respect. It leaves our scent and a puddle on the street.” (Guardian)
“The 2010 Emirates Cup wrapped up on Sunday, August 1, 2010 with hosts Arsenal taking on SPL side Celtic. The match highlights can be found here at Free Soccer Highlights. Arsenal would take a comfortable 3-0 margin but another late surge from Celtic made for a close match.” (The 90th Minute)
Exequias de un emperador romano, Domenico Zampieri
“Arsene Wenger is today being quoted as stating that the new Premier League rule reducing squad sizes to 25, as being “a disastrous decision for football and for the players”. When the rule was introduced, the rules stating that Premier League clubs had to have a ‘Squad List’ of just 25, with eight of these being ‘Home Grown’, it was seen as a great thing for the England football team.” (twohundredpercent)
“So. England have won the World Cup. (In case you haven’t got it yet, I’m asking you to imagine a hypothetical scenario. Try harder.) Wayne Rooney, Frank Lampard, Steven Gerrard, Ashley Cole and Aaron Lennon have all fulfilled their potential and England have pulled off the greatest feat in the nation’s sporting history. Gerrard, looking slightly less miserable than usual, lifts the trophy aloft in Soccer City. But is it a good thing?” (Footballing World)
“During the excellent world cup coverage on my home channel RTÉ, two ex-footballers decried the rise in the defensive midfielder. Johnny Giles and Liam Brady are two certified legends of Irish football both won multiple trophies at club level and Brady is currently the director of Arsenal’s famed youth system. Both were also midfielders who played at an elite level for most of their careers and have commented on football and have provided genuine insight into the game.” (EPL Talk)
“Having made front-page news earlier this week for offering to find a nice sanctuary for para-sailing Russian donkey Anapka, Harry Redknapp is showing no such compassion to David Bentley, Jermaine Jenas and Robbie Keane, who he appears ready to ship out to Aston Villa in exchange for Ashley Young.” (Guardian)
Stiliyan Petrov
“Liverpool boss Roy Hodgson wants Aston Villa midfield general Stiliyan Petrov as the shock replacement for transfer-seeking Javier Mascherano. (Mirror) Chelsea want to wrap up the £17m signing of Benfica star Ramires in time for their pre-season tour of Germany. (Star) With Sol Campbell heading to Newcastle, Arsenal are ready to turn to Per Mertesacker to solve their defensive crisis. Arsene Wenger will offer Werder Bremen £10m for the German international centre-back. (Mirror)…” (Telegraph)
“Since I withdrew, game-worn, from full-time sportswriting in 2007, the question I’ve gotten most is: ‘Do you miss sports?’ I wonder if these same people ask retired weathermen if they miss weather, or ex-food critics if they miss food, or recovering nudists if they miss nudity. Because missing sports is not an option. I couldn’t miss them if I tried. And I have tried. But sports, it turns out, are always there. Even when I think they’re not, they’re present — silent and odorless and invisible but emphatically present, like radon gas.” (SI)
“It’s that time of the season again, and we have time this year for a pre-season piece on all twenty of the clubs in this season’s Premier League. First of all, since we’re doing this in alphabetical order, Arsenal, where the big question over the next nine months may turn out to be what they can do to end their run without a trophy and how long supporters’ patience with M. Wenger will last.” (twohundredpercent)
Newcomers boost Arsenal’s hopes
“By the time defender Thomas Vermaelen had played just four games for Arsenal after last year’s $13 million move from the Dutch club Ajax, coach Arsene Wenger already knew he had a bargain on his hands. It was after that fourth game, a Champions League-qualifying victory against Celtic, that Wenger spoke of the Belgian’s “football intelligence,” an intangible quality he had also spotted in Alex Song, the young midfielder written off by many who had his breakout season the previous year. Against Celtic, Vermaelen was marshaling the defense, even telling the more experienced William Gallas where to position himself on corner kicks.” (SI)
The Premier League 2010/11 Previews 2 – Aston Villa: Becoming A Single Issue Party
“Aston Villa’s summer thus far can be neatly condensed into two words, and the second of those is “Milner”. Their own supporters will be thoroughly sick to the stomach of the constant pas de deux that has been going on over the last couple of months between their most-prized asset and a team which they last season regarded as rivals for the final Champions League place, and it is starting to become a little wearing for the rest of us, too. Consider, for example, the front page of The Guardian’s section on Villa. At the time of writing, eleven of the fifteen main articles on the site concern the long, drawn-out saga. Aston Villa Football Club are at the point of becoming a single issue party.” (twohundredpercent)
David Villa
“With a new European season fast approaching, we got in touch with various bloggers, prolific members of the footballing twitterati and friends of The Equaliser to make a few pre-season predictions that will undoubtedly make us all look very silly in ten months’ time. So, here are the results of our collective FIFA-approved crystal ball gazing…” (The Equaliser)
“Now that the World Cup is over (and there will be a couple more bits and pieces to tidy it up over the next couple of days), it is time to start looking forward to the new domestic season, which starts in just over four weeks, and what better way could there be to start it all off than with our annual look at the kits that the teams of 2010/11 will be wearing. As ever, it’s a mixed bag in the Premier League this season, with some clubs getting it right, some clubs getting it woefully wrong and a couple of clubs treating the launch of their new kit as if it is some sort of state secret.” (twohundredpercent)
“Someone wrote on Twitter yesterday that “Is Spain boring?” is the new “Will soccer ever make it in America?” And yes, it is, in the same way that it’s the new “Can Lampard and Gerrard play in the same midfield?” and possibly the new “Can Asians think?” It wants a word, nevertheless, if only because Spain-Germany was so divisive; and because this is the World Cup final, and a bubble of resentment against the pre-tournament favorites and anointed Best Team on Earth is one of the conditions in which history’s about to happen.” (Run of Play)
“This has been the tournament of 4-2-3-1. The move has been apparent in club football for some time; in fact, it may be that 4-2-3-1 is beginning to be supplanted by variants of 4-3-3 at club level, but international football these days lags behind the club game, and this tournament has confirmed the trend that began to emerge at Euro 2008. Even Michael Owen seems to have noticed, which is surely the tipping point.” (Guardian)
Diego Maradona
“The once-great Maradona wants everyone in the world to know, just in case there was any doubt, that he’s not gay. No sirree, he certainly is not. He likes women. He really likes women. He’s fucking pretty Veronica.” (TNR)
“It’s alarming to even consider, but for the next two days there will be no World Cup matches. After gorging ourselves on football of varying quality for the past weeks, we suddenly have to think of others things to do. Read a book? Take a walk? But to what end and purpose, when all we have known for weeks is the spectacle of the fates of nations unfolding before our eyes?” (Soccer Politics)
“A World Cup is like time speeded up, a kaleidoscope of emotions crammed into a month. But the tournament is rarely won by the team that gets out of the blocks fastest. For those sides that start well, dealing with euphoria can often present problems – as the Germans might find after their superb 4-0 win over Australia. Pacing tournaments is normally a traditional German strength, but the 2010 team are young and it will be interesting to see how they cope with the expectations they have now aroused.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)
Francisco “Pancho” Varallo
“Once the World Cup hosts have got the action under way in South Africa on Friday afternoon the drone of the vuvuzelas might die down and the sound of drums should come through as the second game kicks off in Cape Town. They might sound straight out of Africa but the drums will be pounding for Uruguay, telling a tale that stretches across oceans, religions and races.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)
Pastorale, François Boucher
“Hot on the heels of the Goals of the Season, we move on to the Football Further European Team of the Season. As in any decent dream team this side is strongly, perhaps even foolishly, oriented towards attack. Feedback, particularly of the irate, finger-jabbing kind, is warmly welcomed.” (Football Further)
Diego Maradona
“‘Maradona’s crazy! He doesn’t know what he’s doing!’ is the general attitude towards Argentina’s manager since he took over 18 months ago. The first part is undeniably correct – Maradona is crazy. He celebrated a crucial goal late on in qualifying by diving along a rain-sodden pitch, Klinsmann-style, and when Argentina finally secured qualification, he sat down in the post-match press conference in front of the gathered journalists, and immediately declared, ‘You lot take it up the a**e’. He is definitely crazy.” (Zonal Marling)
Dejan Stanković
“In the hope of provoking plenty of debate, disagreement and downright indignation, Football Further proudly presents – in purely chronological order – its Goals of the Season 2009-10…” (Football Further)
“The Champions League final has been and gone, so we are now officially at the end of the 2009/10 season. This would not be an internet football site without an article outlining some reasonably pointless ‘awards’, but since this is a site focussed on tactics, hopefully the tactical angle will – like a newly-signed winger that doesn’t appear to fit into the team – ‘provide something different’.” (Zonal Marking)
“David James is said to be interested in taking over from Avram Grant as Portsmouth manager. James could be a good fit for the club – if anyone is likely to know what the Portsmouth players need to do, it could be the man who has been standing behind them for the past four years. For the player, however, taking the job could be a disastrous career move. James is not short of job prospects.” (WSC)
“An interesting (if ultimately pointless) graph that shows the points tally of equivalent clubs from the Premiership, La Liga and Serie A (all of which play with a 20-team, 38-game season).” (Zonal Marking)
Claude Gellée, Idyll: Landscape with a Draughtsman Sketching Ruins
“On the surface, the praise for Lionel Messi during his current extraordinary run has been pure. Astonishing — astonished — praise has followed his every deed. Not for a generation has there been such a rush to consider someone alongside the pantheon of great players past; to name a planet after him; to dress him in armour, plonk him on a horse, dip him in bronze and place him halfway between La Masia and Camp Nou, beside a stall selling miniature bronze-coloured plastic replica hims. Scienticians are rushing to prove by July that he is, in fact, a physical constant.” (Sport is a TV Show) (Must Read Soccer)
“Despite another implosion late in the season, the Gunners have plenty of positives to take forward to next season.” (Arsenal Column)
“There are strong rumours this morning that, in Gareth Barry’s absence, Fabio Capello is considering switching to a system featuring three centre-backs for the World Cup. It would unquestionably be a risky move, completely changing England’s shape that was so successful in qualifying, and installing a three-man defence that hasn’t been used effectively by England for twenty years. The BBC report states that ‘A switch in formation would be a major change for the Italian, who has demonstrated his preference for 4-4-2 throughout his coaching career’, which is certainly true, but a three-man defence has not been alien to him.” (Zonal Marking)
“The Premier League may not be home to the best football, an honour belonging to La Liga of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but it is certainly home to the most excitement. The Spanish keep their beach-balls on the beach. The season lacked a star but not drama and there was enough barmy material to keep soap-opera scriptwriters in episodes for years.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)
“As the dust settles on a Premier League season that somehow managed to be full of surprises and yet completely predictable at the same time, Football Further looks at some of the tactical trends that characterised the campaign.” (Football Further)
The 2010 Premier Premiership Revue Review
“Was this a season of disappointment? Of competitive balance? A two horse race with an overpriced and underachieving show pony stealing headlines? Has the European soccer planet shifted gravitational pull towards the Iberian peninsula? The story lines abounded, and a few refreshing moments shall wet your appetite before the MOST IMPORTANT EVENT is explained.” (futfanatico)
“It depends how you want to interpret the number ‘1′. There is no shame in losing a league title by a single point, but the flip side is that when you’re a club as used to success as Manchester United, a mere one season without silverware is considered a failure. The statistics about goals easily sum up United’s problems. They had the best defensive record, despite the fact that first-choice central defensive partnership Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic started just nine of the 38 games together.” (Zonal Marking)
“Chelsea – Premiership champions 2009/10. A great side? Probably not, but it’s hard to argue that, over the course of the season, they do not deserve to lift the trophy. In terms of the players who have started the greatest number of matches, Chelsea’s XI this season reads: Petr Cech (34); Branislav Ivanovic (21), John Terry (37), Ricardo Carvalho (22), Ashley Cole (25); Jon Obi Mikel (21), Michael Ballack (26), Frank Lampard (36), Florent Malouda (25), Nicolas Anelka (31) and Didier Drogba (31). And yet, on only one one occasion this season has that XI actually started a match together, in the 2-0 home victory over Arsenal in February, when Ancelotti fielded a Christmas Tree formation with Anelka and Malouda playing Didier Drogba.” (Zonal Marking)
Carlo Ancelotti eyes long Chelsea stay & more trophies
“Boss Carlo Ancelotti plans to establish Chelsea as the leading force in English football after winning the Premier League in his first season at the club. The Blues last lifted the title in 2006 but thrashed Wigan 8-0 on Sunday to wrest it away from Manchester United.” (BBC)
Chelsea Wins Premier League Title
“Chelsea regained the English Premier League soccer title from Manchester United with a 8-0 victory over Wigan on Sunday as Didier Drogba scored three goals. Even though United finished the campaign with a 4-0 home victory over Stoke at Old Trafford, the big celebrations were at Stamford Bridge in London where goals by Mr. Drogba, two by Nicolas Anelka and one each by Frank Lampard, Salomon Kalou and Ashley Cole left Chelsea champions by one point in manager Carlo Ancelotti’s first season in English football.” (WSJ)
“‘What makes a player?’ Answers to this question, here quoted from Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger’s foreword to the newish book A Beautiful Game, are plentiful in world football. We debate the right age to go pro, the role of intensive youth academies, shifting population demographics, the dangers and benefits of increasing professionalization, and more in hopes of figuring out how to best tap the potential of millions of children playing the game with unstructured joy.” (Pitch Invasion)
” In the third of six excerpts for Fair Play, Galeano reads ‘Goal by Garrincha,’ in which he recalls the on-field wizardry—and ultimate tragedy—of Brazil’s original free spirit.” (Fair Play – Part Three), (Part One), (Part Two)
“The increased conditioning and speed of the game means the technical level of players will be forced to improve thereby exposing the specialists. Juventus’ problems started with their over-reliance on Diego and Felipe Melo. That, some would argue, is justified given that they were big money summer signings but the Old Lady’s woes should not be entirely blamed on the Brazilian pair. Diego, in particular, is not a traditional ‘trequartista’ as he likes to drop deep but Juventus were expecting him to play as one.” (Arsenal Column)
Andrea Mantegna, Pallas Expelling the Vices from the Garden of Virtue
“Tottenham emerged victorious from this Champions League playoff, primarily because they created more clear-cut chances. Peter Crouch’s winner was slightly fortunate, but it was no more than Spurs deserved. Manchester City played their expected line-up in a game they needed to win – two strikers with Emmanuel Adebayor as the targetman, and Carlos Tevez dropping off in behind, in a position he seems to prefer, judging by his recent display at Arsenal. Craig Bellamy and Adam Johnson continued as inverted wingers.” (Zonal Marking)
Manchester City 0 Tottenham Hotspur 1: match report
“Fortune favoured the brave last night and the brave now inherit a fortune. Adventurously set up by Harry Redknapp, Tottenham Hotspur hit the heights of the lucrative Champions League and it was the 6ft 7in Peter Crouch who lifted them and their ecstatic support into dream-land.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)
Match Of The Midweek: Manchester City 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur
“When the Champions League play-off suggestion was made earlier this season (and laughed out of court accordingly), few would have guessed that we would be where we are with four and a half days of the Premier League season left to play. Aston Villa’s wobbly second half of the season coupled with Liverpool ably demonstrating that the abjectness that they displayed during the first half of the season was absolutely no flash in the pan have set up something approaching what the originators of the plan had envisaged. With two matches left of the season, either Manchester City or Tottenham Hotspur will be taking their chances in the final qualifying round of the Champions League. It has been a very odd season indeed in the Premier League.” (twohundredpercent)
Manchester City 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur – Video Highlights and Recap – EPL – 5 May 2010“The battle for the last UEFA Champions League spot in the English Premier League was at stake on Wednesday, May 5, 2010 as Manchester City hosted Tottenham Hotspur. Spurs had a one point lead over City before the match and would clinch a top four finish with a victory. Both teams will be playing in Europe next season in either the Europa or Champions League.” (The 90th Minute)
“Having supposedly died out halfway through the last decade, the 4-4-2 formation has enjoyed a surprising renaissance this season. England’s unthinking attachment to the shape first introduced by Alf Ramsey’s ‘Wingless Wonders’ in 1966 (pictured) took a battering when José Mourinho swaggered into English football in 2004 and promptly won back-to-back Premier League titles with a counter-attacking 4-3-3 at Chelsea. The 2006 World Cup, meanwhile, was dominated by teams playing in a 4-2-3-1 to such an extent that hosts Germany were the only side playing in a 4-4-2 to achieve anything of note in the tournament.” (Football Further)
“In 2004, Gabriele Marcotti wrote an article for The Times about Barcelona legend Pep Guardiola. It wasn’t a celebratory piece looking back at Guardiola’s fine career, nor remarking on his ability to defy the critics and keep playing at a high standard, like Paolo Maldini. It was about how, in 2004-spec football, Guardiola was useless. That is not to say that he had declined as a player. A physically unremarkable player, his domain was sitting front of his own defence and spraying passes across the pitch for his more illustrious teammates – Michael Laudrup, Hristo Stoichkov and Romario being amongst the biggest names to have benefited from his presence. When Marcotti wrote the article, at 33, Guardiola should have been at his peak.” (Zonal Marking)
“Arsenal’s pressing game has suffered since the start of the season mostly due to a matter of distances. Shortened names are all the rage these days. From Subo (Susan Boyle), R-Pat (Robert Pattinson) and Brangelina (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie), it’s a wonder they still haven’t thought of one for Babyshambles front man Pete Doherty. And after Barcelona swept all before them to bag six trophies last year, with Bordaeux and Chile prevailing as underdogs doing it, Arsenal became the latest side at the start of this season to adopt football’s trendiest tactic – that of ‘high intensity pressing’.” (Arsenal Column)
“The map shows the 14 clubs through to the Round of 16, plus the two Mexican clubs who were allowed to pick up where they were a year ago prior to the H1N1 scare in Mexico that forced the two clubs, San Luis and Chivas Guadalajara, to pull out of the 2009 Copa Libertadores. Click on the gif below to see photos, with flag of the country of birth listed, for the top 5 scorers in the competition so far.” (billsportsmaps)
Matthias Sammer, a classic sweeper
“Jonathan Wilson recently wrote in his excellent ‘The Question’ series about the possibility of the return of the sweeper to football. The sweeper prospered as the ’spare man’ in a three-man central defence up against a two-man attack, so now we have two-man central defences up against one-man attacks, should one centre-back not become a sweeper? The idea is music to the ears of anyone who fondly remembers Euro 96. The player of the tournament was Matthias Sammer, the sweeper in the German 3-4-1-2 system that went onto win the tournament. As well as being the most important player in defence, clearing up behind the two markers, he also had license to go forward and launch attacks, and found himself scoring (in open play) on more than one occasion.” (Zonal Marking)
Adidas advertisement makes the link between soccer and religion
“English football season has had more than its fair share of madness this season, but the race for the title is starting to give off a hint of being the title race that no-one wins. Only one of the top three clubs in the Premier League have been able to manage all three points, and even that came at the end of a less than inspiring performance with yet another injury time winner. Chelsea, Manchester United and Arsenal were all long ago guaranteed their places in the Champions League, and perhaps it is this that is firing the most nervy end of season run-in for several seasons.” (twohundredpercent)
“Tottenham record their first league win over Arsenal for a decade, and simultaneously rule Arsenal out of the title race. Arsene Wenger’s side have been written off on at least two previous occasions, but this, surely, is the end of the road. No major surprises in the starting line-ups – with injuries throughout the side, Wenger merely chose what he had. As against Barcelona, the only choice was between Emmanuel Eboue and Theo Walcott, and the Ivorian got the nod. Denilson played in space behind Abou Diaby and Samir Nasri in a 4-1-4-1 shape.” (Zonal Marking)
What a Debut, What a Goal
“What a Premier League debut and what a golazo. Danny Rose, a 19-year-old wing for Tottenham Hotspur, will have a difficult time topping the first goal of his English Premier League career — a 30-yard blast 10 minutes into the north London derby against rival Arsenal on Wednesday. (NYT)
Tottenham Hotspur 2-1 Arsenal – Recap and Video Highlights – English Premier League – Wednesday, April 14, 2010
“Two London based clubs met in a derby match in the English Premier League as Tottenham Hotspur hosted Arsenal on Wednesday, April 14, 2010. Arsenal needed a victory to keep their title hopes alive while Tottenham needed a victory to keep pace with 4th place Manchester City. A draw or loss would likely end both club’s chances of their goals.” (The 90th Minute)
“If anyone had said at the beginning of this season that an unknown Belgian defender’s move from Ajax to Arsenal would be one of the best signings in the Premier League, they would probably have been laughed at. Yet Thomas Vermaelen soon proved his worth, adding steel to the Arsenal defence and chipping in with some good goals.” (ESPN)
“It rather seems as if every time there is a refereeing decision that costs a team a point or two, the usual suspects in the media start stating the case for all manner of whizzy gizmos to make sure that such a travesty of justice never occurs again. FIFA, however, are against the introduction of such technology and Rob Freeman has similar reservations.” (twohundredpercent)
“As an academic with an interest in economic analysis, the downfall of the English teams in the Champions League this season did not surprise me, even while it disappointed me as a Manchester United fan. Earlier this season, I was actually expecting that the English teams would “under-perform” in the competition, when set against general expectations, and now that United have followed Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool out of the Champions League, they have done so. Except I would argue they did not actually under-perform; they did what economic analysis suggested might happen.” (Sporting Intelligence)
“There’s little doubt that Thomas Vermalen has been a good signing for Arsenal. Lacking a top-class centre-back last year, Arsene Wenger did brilliantly to dispose of Kolo Toure and bring in the Belgian – and made a profit by doing so. Vermaelen is extremely popular with the Arsenal fans because he’s the type of player they haven’t signed in recent years – a tall, strong defender who enjoys getting tough tackles in and competing in the air. His early-season goalscoring form made him an instant hit, and he’ll probably win ’signing of the season’ in many pundits’ end-of-season awards.” (Zonal Marking)
“Bayern do it again. Their victory in the last round against Fiorentina featured a last-minute goal at home to win the first leg 2-1, and then a 2-3 defeat away from home, with a brilliant Arjen Robben ‘winner’ near the end. It seemed inevitable when Bayern pulled a goal back before half-time that the same would happen here.” (Zonal Marking)
Manchester United 3-2 Bayern Munich – Recap and Video Highlights
“Manchester United hosted Bayern Munich in the second leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday, April 7, 2010. Wayne Rooney, who was injured in the first leg, made a surprise start for the match. The winner of the match would face the winner of Bordeax/Lyon. The match took place at Old Trafford with over 70,000 in attendance.” (The 90th Minute)
“There’s so much talk about Barcelona’s style of play in large part because it’s just that: a style. And styles are not easy to come by in soccer. The term can mislead, because it suggests mere aesthetics, how a team looks. But a genuine style is more than that. Just as a poet’s style is not just a few habits of sound-making but a whole way of organizing experience and language, a coherent strategy for marshaling forces of thought and feeling and then deploying them, a soccer style is a complete approach to the game.” (Run of Play)
“So it has come to pass. For the first time in seven years, there will be no English clubs in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. The manner of the defeats of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United were from three different chapters of the book, ‘How To Get Eliminated From A Two-Legged Cup Tie’. Chelsea were edged out by Internazionale over two legs during which they seldom looked a considerably inferior team. Arsenal were thrashed – fortunate to find a way back into the first leg against Barcelona, they were hopelessly outplayed by one single player in the return match. Manchester United can, at least count themselves slightly unlucky – beaten on away goals after two very tight matches.” (twohundredpercent)
“Barcelona hosted the 2nd leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals against Arsenal with the score 2-2. The winner would advance to the semifinals to face Inter Milan. Arsenal came into the match without several key players (Gallas, Arshavin, and Fabregas) while Barcelona were without two defenders (Puyol and Pique). Arsenal would not be the favorites and have a tough task to get a win at the Camp Nou.” (The 90th Minute)
Barcelona 4 Arsenal 1; agg 6-3: match report
“They don’t need to hold an election to find the right man for No 10 here. Lionel Messi, who wears the Barcelona No 10 shirt with such distinction, scored four goals in a performance of such majesty that comparisons with the great Diego Maradona grow in substance with each stylish showing.” (Telegraph – Henry Winter)
Match Of The Midweek: Barcelona 4-1 Arsenal
“How, then, do Arsenal solve a problem like Lionel Messi? If he isn’t unquestionably the best player in the world at the moment then he is in the top two or three, and if this evening’s Champions League quarter-final proves anything, it proves that one player, in irresistable form, can win a match. Lionel Messi has been in sensational form all season but this evening, with an individual performance so sublime that it feels at times as if he is the only player on the pitch, there is simply no stopping him. Arsenal supporters may wonder aloud what difference the injured Cesc Fabregas, William Gallas and Robin Van Persie might have made to their team, but it is difficult to imagine that anything barring a full, career-threatening assort upon Messi would have made any difference to what happens this evening.” (twohundredpercent)
Messi – the devastating decoy
“Reading Phil McNulty’s blog after the Arsenal-Barcelona game, I was struck by the number of people who went out of their way to criticise the performance of Lionel Messi. It is indicative of the enormous pressure the young Argentine will be under in the World Cup – the same pressure that broke his friend and former Barca team-mate Ronaldinho four years ago. People are expecting circus tricks and something special in every game. It is the dilemma of the big name star in today’s football.” (BBC – Tim Vickery)
Messi Lifts Barcelona With 4 Goals
“Lionel Messi pretty much put Barcelona in the European Champions League semifinals by himself. The reigning world player of the year scored four goals, getting a hat trick in a 22-minute span of the first half, to lift the defending champions over Arsenal 4-1 Tuesday night and advance Barcelona to the semifinals for the third straight year. ‘A player like this only comes along every 25-30 years,’ Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez said.” (NYT)
Barcelona 4-1 Arsenal: Messi produces a stunning performance, but Arsenal gave him the room to do so
“If there was any remaining doubt that Lionel Messi is the greatest football player of his generation, they were erased tonight, as Barcelona got the better of Arsenal in the much-hyped battle of the teams playing football ‘the right way’. Arsenal didn’t lose this match tactically, but they didn’t help themselves.” (Zonal Marking)
Barcelona – Arsenal: A Champion League Live Blog
“We all wish no one had to win. Of course we do. In a just world, these two teams would combine to form a pure white dove made of energy, which would fly across the land, fields greening in its wake. But they can’t (probably, depending on Xavi’s passing). Someone has to win this, and it won’t be Cesc Fabregas’s femur. Savagery is afoot, and if you’re using the word “dilly-dallying,” you’re dilly-dallying already.” (Run of Play)
Barcelona’s celestial No 10 has Nou Camp in raptures
“It is getting increasingly difficult not to resort to hyperbole when describing the feats of Lionel Andrés Messi. Judgement should be withheld until the World Cup, when the 22-year-old will carry the hopes of an Argentina team handicapped by having Diego Maradona as coach. If Messi can still perform then as he does for Barcelona he truly will rank alongside Pele, Alfredo Di Stefano, Johan Cruyff and Maradona himself.” (Independent)
Masterclass from Lionel Messi ends Arsenal’s European dream
“Arsenal were outclassed by a Barcelona side simply to good for them and a masterclass from Lionel Messi in which he scored a breathtaking hat-trick in twenty-one minutes. You could have tried blindfolding him. Handcuffing him even. To a railing. Quick-dried slabs of cement around his feet. Rolled a giant boulder off a cliff like a Wile E. Coyote contraption. In fact, no matter what you tried, nothing was going to stop him. Lionel Messi was that good and comparisons with the best ever are wholly justified.” (Arsenal Column)
‘Mythical, universal, the Lord’s anointed one’ – Spain hails Leo Messi
“Leo Messi did something impossible last night. He got even better. He had scored in the Champions League final, the Copa del Rey final and the World Club Cup final, emulated that goal from Diego Maradona, hit three in the clasico against Real Madrid at the Camp Nou, two at the Santiago Bernabéu, and scored two hat-tricks in a row. But he’d never scored four before. Until last night. Last night, even Marca and AS, the myopic leaders of the Madrid media dropped to their knees; last night, so did the English. They could ignore him no more. Last night, as El PaÌs, put it, “Messi ate Arsenal’.” (Guardian)
“It used to be that men were men, thighs were fierce, kits were muddy, fields were gouged, and every match was a wet November night away to Scunthorpe. It wasn’t pretty, but English football knew what it was. If you saw a ball, every fiber of a being that had been handed down to you through generations of hard-kneed public-house titans cried out to kick it as far as it could sail. If you saw the Mona Lisa, well, tosh, you’d knock her over once just to let her know you were there.” (Run of Play)
“Arsenal must remain disciplined first and foremost if they are to have a chances of success against Barcelona and exploit quickly on the break. ‘This will be the most spectacular of all the quarter-finals in terms of football. These are two teams that play open football and the match will be a duel to keep hold of the ball.’ That was the reaction of Barcelona’s sporting director, Txiki Begiristain shortly after the quarter-final draw was made but following the 2-2 draw in the first leg, there is only going to be one side who will have the ball.” (Arsenal Column)
“Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid will be preparing for Saturday’s Spanish “clasico” with Barcelona, but the rest of the soccer world will be fixated on the four return matches in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League. ‘I don’t like to watch the Champions League matches because it leaves me a bit annoyed because I know that our team was good enough to remain in the competition and we are not because of our own fault,’ Ronaldo told a Spanish television station.” (NYT)
Miracle of the Cross at the Bridge of San Lorenzo, Gentile Bellini
“Pep Guardiola described Barcelona’s supremely dominant first-half performance against Arsenal as “the best 45 minutes” the Catalans have produced during his reign. A thrilling encounter ended 2-2 at Emirates Stadium in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final, but Manuel Almunia had to be at his best in the first half to deny, amongst others, Xavi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic as Barcelona enjoyed 71% possession and produced a succession of excellent chances.” (ESPN)
Arsenal 2-2 Barcelona: Wenger’s side utterly outclassed, but somehow rescue a draw
“A crazy game of football to watch, a difficult one to analyse. Two open, attacking sides produced a wonderful game for the neutral, but one that will probably leave both managers absolutely fuming – Wenger because his side were awful and conceded poor goals, Guardiola because his side threw away a 0-2 lead.” (Zonal Marking)
Theo Walcott’s dazzling introduction gives Arsenal hope to take to Barcelona
“Theo Walcott’s introduction to the fray switched Arsenal’s flow to the dynamic and the direct to give the Gunners hope in the second leg at the Nou Camp. Barely twenty minutes had registered on the clock but those watching the game were in unified agreement that already, they were witnessing something spectacular. Arsenal had just survived the most relentless onslaught you are likely to see in world football this season but yet, somehow, came out of the early exchange with no goals conceded.” (Arsenal Column)
Fantasy Football Comes Alive
“Tonight, the game gets beautiful again. As Arsenal and Barcelona prepare to meet at London’s Emirates Stadium in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals, this is fantasy football come to life: a showdown between arguably the two most attractive teams in Europe today. Here are two sides linked by a philosophy of flair, a shared vision that prizes creativity and fast, free-flowing, one-touch football above all else. It’s what the Spanish call tiki-taka, what the Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, describes as ‘football that is like art’.” (WSJ)
School’s Out – 8 things I noticed from Arsenal vs Barca
“Before we start, I should probably preface this article by saying I’m going to be writing it in the style of the game itself. Which is to say, it will be overwhelmingly a Barca love in for the first 2/3rds before finally rallying to the Arsenal cause in the final stretch. So any over sensitive Gooners should probably skip to the end. You have been warned.” (FootballFanCast)
Arsenal 2-2 FC Barcelona – Recap and Video Highlights – UEFA Champions League – Wednesday, March 31, 2010
“Arsenal hosted FC Barcelona in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday, March 31, 2010. The two teams are known for playing very attacking and open styles that could provide a very entertaining match. Barcelona remain one of the favorites to win the tournament while Arsenal need a good result with the second leg at the Camp Nou.” (The 90th Minute)
“The benching of Arsenal’s too most gifted dribblers due to slight knocks did not help the Gunners’ cause in the 1-1 draw to Birmingham. Two goals. One had a bit of luck; the other was dizzyingly graceful. Yet both were just rewards for the almost impudent desire of both players – although paved with good intentions – to get as close to the goal as possible.” (Arsenal Column)
“The harmony of 60,000 voices that drifts out of the Emirates Stadium in London every other week is evidence that sport can bring people together. Singing as one, Arsenal fans serenade the leadership of the bookish, 60-year-old Frenchman who leads their favorite soccer team. ‘One Arsene Wenger,’ rings the chant . ‘There’s only one, there’s only one Arsene Wenger. One Arsene Wenger!’” (NYT)
“As we’re about to seamlessly pass into another Champions League week, what better time is there to look ahead to the mouth watering quarter final ties ahead? Well, slightly later in the week perhaps, or even actually in said week as opposed to just before it maybe, but sod it I’m gonna do it anyway and I’ll be damned if such a trivial thing will stop me. So without further ado…” (Football Fan Cast)
Inter
“A brief break from the in-depth tactical analysis here, to round-up the major European leagues, highlight this weekend’s crucial table-topping fixtures, and celebrate how wonderful European football has been this season.” (Zonal Marking)
Scissors Kick 