OFFICIAL 2009/2010 La Liga Season Thread

[carlos tevez]

Barca vs. Real on Saturday in which could very well end up deciding who wins the domestic title this season.

 

[carlos tevez]

And so the biggest match of the season is just hours away.

Barca will be missing Abidal and Ibra. Iniesta has recovered from his injury and it'll be interesting to see if he gets inserted back into the starting line-up or if he comes off the bench. My two concerns with Barca right now are Maxwell at LB and how much the team is relying on Messi. Pedro and Bojan aren't ready to be regulars for Barca IMO but Pep has shown a lot of faith in them.

As for Real, I believe that Kaka is still out. Real have to avoid losing this match...if they do lose then they'll have to win 2 more matches than Barca in the remaining 7-weeks if they want to be crowned domestic champions.

My prediction is a 1-1 draw.

 

[sirius lee handsome]

Should be a conservative match from both teams. I think Barcelona will win by one goal.

Only seven more games to go after this one. Seems Barcelona have an overall easier 7 games left compared to Real Madrid (though Real's only real competition comes from Valencia).

 

[kicker6136]

any TV coverage today?

 

[sirius lee handsome]

GOLTV

 

[black chiney]

Originally Posted by kicker6136

any TV coverage today?

on goltv or espn deportes

 

[carlos tevez]

Deportivo @ Barca in about 10 mins.

Barca going with a mixed line-up...some second stringers + Xavi + Messi + Alves + Pedro.

 

[ezln1]

barca is ballin

if Dani would have made that chilena...

 

[sirius lee handsome]

 

[carlos tevez]

Barca have a really busy stretch coming up. They play away on Saturday, travel to Inter on Tuesday, then return home for 2 matches the week after that. Maybe Pep rests Messi on Saturday so that he's fresh for the match @Inter.

Any word on Ibra's status?

 

[persiafly]

at Alves. It's gonna be really interesting to see what Dunga does with him and Maicon. Some are calling for Alves to play on the left and cut in. I don't see how you bench him right now.

 

[carlos tevez]

Dunga pretty much has his mind set on what Brazil will look like during the WC...they're a lot like Spain in the sense that very rarely do you see changes to their lineup. I personally believe that Maicon is a more complete player than Alves and so unfortunately for him, Alves usually only comes on as a sub.

Brazil should look like this...

------------Fabiano-----------
Robinho---Kaka-------------
--------------------------Ramires
--------Melo--Gilberto---------
LB-----------------------Maicon
---------Juan--Lucio------------
------------Cesar-----------------

The biggest question mark is LB...Dunga has recently used Santos and Bastos there. A lot of people dislike Ramires but Dunga uses him because he's a utility player that can play centrally, can play back (allowing Maicon to attack) and also attacks himself.

I think that Brazil are fine at the back...the biggest question marks for me are central midfield as well as Robinho and Kaka. Melo, Robinho and Kaka have had difficult seasons...meanwhile Gilberto is aging and is playing in the Greek league where he likely has not faced as good competition as he'll be facing during the WC.

 

[persiafly]

So you don't think he'll entertain the possibility of having Alves cut in from the left? Not sure how much experience he has over there, but it seems to me that you want a player of that quality on the field one way or another.

Not too crazy about this Brazil squad personally. They better win their group and avoid Spain in the second round.

 

[erascism]

Goal Ronaldo

 

[erascism]

Merengues 1 point back now...

Barca still have to play @ Villareal, Sevilla
RM have to visit Mallorca

Don't stop believin', putos.

 

[marionthebarberian]

I hope some leagues consider head to head matchups before GD

 

[carlos tevez]

It's not over just yet.

Barca have 3 easy home matches remaining against the 3 worst teams in the league. However, they also have to play @Villareal and @Sevilla and may have to deal with injury/fatigue in the next couple of weeks due to their 2 matches with Inter.

Real have 3 matches on the road and 2 at home. Their toughest remaining matchup is @Mallorca.

Anything is possible at this point...

Persiafly, Dunga hasn't used Dani Alves at LB and Alves hasn't played LB since his Sevilla days. Alves has been consistently used by Dunga as a 2nd half sub. It's likely that Santos or Bastos will be used as starting LB. I'm not crazy about this Brazil team either but they've been getting results ever since Dunga took charge. They're not as flashy as past Brazil squads but they should still be considered as very serious WC favorites. While Spain are currently the 'glamor team' of the world, I think that Brazil are more likely to win the WC than Spain.

 

[jjgrt5]

I hope these reports are true, Villa to BARCA

http://www.skysports.com/...28,11827_6124704,00.html
http://www.marca.com/2010...7299a8f3977&t=1272660730

 

[persiafly]

We've been hearing Villa to Barca for ages it seems. It'd be a good move for them, might bring them back to what they were at the position before they sold Eto'o.

Augero to Chelsea seems to be done. I like his game but I could see him being a huge bust in the EPL. Not sure if he's built for that sort of game.

 

[jjgrt5]

^ I think this time its more likely to happen since elections are coming up

Joan wants to go out with a bang

If I were the Barca team president:
1. Buy Villa
2. Sell ibra (Barcelona end of summer sale... 40% off all underachievers)
3. sell henry (Henry + $ for cesc

)
4. sell marquez (Might as well get something for him while he has value)
5. sell/ loan chygryfsdjkfhlsdjfk

he was a fail
6. Replace 3-4 w/ youth

 

[fuser86]

^I like your thinking. My thoughts exactly.

1 pm pst against Villareal. Should be good.

 

[erascism]

Originally Posted by JJGRT5

^ I think this time its more likely to happen since elections are coming up

Joan wants to go out with a bang

If I were the Barca team president:
1. Buy Villa
2. Sell ibra (Barcelona end of summer sale... 40% off all underachievers)
3. sell henry (Henry + $ for cesc

)
4. sell marquez (Might as well get something for him while he has value)
5. sell/ loan chygryfsdjkfhlsdjfk

he was a fail
6. Replace 3-4 w/ youth

All of this makes no sense. You can't sell players who aren't even playing (Henry, Marquez, Chiggy). Why would a team want to buy them when they haven't shown any quality this season? Marquez is just a reserve CB, which is a valuable commodity for Barca. He is not bad in that regard and they are not going to sell him for more than 5m. Pep is loyal to him anyway.
Chiggy was signed for a hefty price and he is still young- they are not going to be stupid enough to give up on him in just one season. And Henry is a player who will only have success at centre-forward these days. I don't see him playing in the prem again, perhaps France or Italy he could have success again. Toure is their main bargaining chip going into the summer. An EPL team will probably fork over the big bucks for him and/or throw in a player Barca want.

 

 

[jjgrt5]

Originally Posted by ERASCISM

Originally Posted by JJGRT5

^ I think this time its more likely to happen since elections are coming up

Joan wants to go out with a bang

If I were the Barca team president:
1. Buy Villa
2. Sell ibra (Barcelona end of summer sale... 40% off all underachievers)
3. sell henry (Henry + $ for cesc

)
4. sell marquez (Might as well get something for him while he has value)
5. sell/ loan chygryfsdjkfhlsdjfk

he was a fail
6. Replace 3-4 w/ youth

All of this makes no sense. You can't sell players who aren't even playing (Henry, Marquez, Chiggy). Why would a team want to buy them when they haven't shown any quality this season? Marquez is just a reserve CB, which is a valuable commodity for Barca. He is not bad in that regard and they are not going to sell him for more than 5m. Pep is loyal to him anyway.
Chiggy was signed for a hefty price and he is still young- they are not going to be stupid enough to give up on him in just one season. And Henry is a player who will only have success at centre-forward these days. I don't see him playing in the prem again, perhaps France or Italy he could have success again. Toure is their main bargaining chip going into the summer. An EPL team will probably fork over the big bucks for him and/or throw in a player Barca want.

 

first, it's MY dream list... not an actual agenda. It's stupid to have the 5th best paid player in the world (according to Forbes) rotting in the bench. If he isn't even going to play for 1 second in the most important match of the season then why is he on the team? Send him to NY, Italia, France... wherever, give him his freedom if he isn't going to be used. I never liked the chygryalsjafdsa deal from the start, he is not performing at the level they expected. Loan him out so he can get more experience, the bench doesn't do him any good. 

I dont care for marquez, he's a decent quality bench player. 

I agree that that Toure is the most likely to go, but if it were up to me I would keep him. 

I could write an essay on my dream list but typing on my phone sucks. 

 

[persiafly]

Messi with another goal, Xavi with another assist.

 

[erascism]

BLEEP!

It's up to Sevilla now.