2012

[El Turco]

barcelona lost/draw 10 games after january of last year too, bound to happen towards to end of a long season. wouldn't surprise me if they were juicing but doubt it changes the playing field whole lot other than the recovery time from injuries.

[Slava]

They dropped more points before January last season but yeah results get harder later in the season. Its their hit streak and subsequent drop off that just stands out. I'll have to check if there is a trend in goal differences as well.

[Ted Lasso]

Between the injuries and their comfortable domestic lead, i think it's pretty natural that Barcelona have gone on a poor run. They should have done much better against Bayern obviously, but **** happens. Bayern are a fantastic side. The way they went from a sublime possession team with Kroos to a deadly counter attacking team against Barca is remarkable.

[Massimo]

The best part of massimo is he thinks he's right. Gotta love blind hatred and bias, oh well, what more than ignorant hate can one expect from a half italian turk? That's not exactly an objective and informed combination.

Wow you just discriminated Turks and Italians. Clearly a sign of maturity and graciousness. Welcome to massimo's level.

My level?

Financial analyst(maex) and cgf have a lot to go in order to come to my level.

[IronChef]

lol

[Foye]

Love the video of Ribery. Gotta love that guy.

He is kind of a douche sometimes on (and once off) the court but you really can only love him.

On the court he is fighting for his life (although lately his form has dropped slightly compared to the amazing first leg he had) and off the court he is the master of jokes.
The dude he gave the jersey to probably felt like the happiest man on earth yesterday although he likely got jailed for a few hours.

He'll also likely extend his contract that is running until 2015.

[Boognish]

Everyone just keep calm and Massimo!

[El Turco]

[cgf]

The best part of massimo is he thinks he's right. Gotta love blind hatred and bias, oh well, what more than ignorant hate can one expect from a half italian turk? That's not exactly an objective and informed combination.

Wow you just discriminated Turks and Italians. Clearly a sign of maturity and graciousness. Welcome to massimo's level.

I have no issues trolling trolls cause Massimo says the funniest **** when he gets going.

Apologies to our non-massimo turkish and italian posters, that was meant solely for Massimo to have something to respond to.

[ATL Boy]

Trolling taken to a whole new level by Massimo. Eh he's probably just butthurt that Germany is far superior than both Italy and Turkey in soccer both at the International level and especially at the Club level. I'm waiting for him to reply with some bs about how Italy has more World Cups, but looking at Soccer right now Germany is dominating the beautiful game and they'll make it much farther that Italy in the next World Cup and Turkey won't even qualify.
Germany>Italy
Germany>Turkey
Heck, even my Country, Bosnia, is far superior to Turkey at the international level at this point.

Trolling is somewhat funny but knowing the fact but claim opposite is done by only those who have no idea what people are talking about.

Germany is better than Italy at the international level??? what??

Don't you remember Balotelli's header? Don't you remember his stunning strike??

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97K7T92_AlY[/youtube]

Here it is for you.

Italy has 4 World Cups, Germany 3.
Italian teams have 12 CL winners, Germany 6.
What are you talking about son? Make a research a little bit first, then talk.

Robinho will be the best player in the world or Germany will win euro cup in 2012.

I don't care about future tense. I talk about past and present.

What happened last summer? Italy destroyed Germany. So you STFU or learn a little bit.

Lol, so are you saying that the future doesn't matter? My point is that moving forward Germany is far superior to Italy and they are, oh and yes right now Germany is far superior to Italy looking at the talent level. In the past Italy has achieved more I concede that but they won't achieve anything else for a long time looking at their national team and neither will any of their club teams in terms of the Champions League where-as a German team will definitely win the Champions League this year and possibly next year, and the German National team has just as much of a chance to win the World Cup as any other nation. You tell me to learn a little bit but you're the one who's been trolling this board for Months.

[BUCKnation]

What was the deal with that Ribery thing. That guy cleary wasnt ugly enough to be his brother.

[ATL Boy]

Since 2000, we became third in South Korea world cup, then 2008 made the semi final.

What did Bosnia Herzogovina do?

LOL We? Didn't you just say that you don't support Turkey and made up some bulls*it excuse for it just a few posts ago? And let's take a look at the present for a second: Bosnia is dominating its World Cup Qualification group and will actually go the World Cup where-as Turkey probably won't even go. Looking at the future Bosnia has many rising stars coming up in the system while most good young Turks are in Germany's system. And if you wanna look at some recent history remember that Bosnia finished ahead of Turkey in WC 2010 qualifiers finishing 2nd behind mighty Spain.

But hey even if we weren't doing good, and we weren't for a long time, at least I'm not ashamed to support my country just because they're not all that good, I'll stand by my country instead of making some up bs excuse not to and turn my back on them until they become good.

I love Turks and consider them my brothers, but you're just something else.

[Point forward]

Bosnia has the some of the worst luck. They regularly play a strong qualification, but then draw the strongest opponent in the playoffs. I mean, even we (Germany) would have a hard time putting away Denmark (2004) or Portugal (2010 and 2012).

[Maex]

Wow, last seven days have been rough for us Barça fans. This is an unprecedented beating for today’s Barça, and may be the end of the Xavi-Iniesta-Messi era. This meltdown, though, was not completely unthinkable of, specially if you have been following their games this year.

IMO the main factor here is Xavi’s decay. We’ve been seeing this through Barcelona’s last years slumps and poor game streaks, where their passing and movement between lines was rather innocuous and predictable. Any time Xavi’s game is not incisive, the whole team fails to follow the game plan. Xavi is THAT BIG, he can fuel the best offense in the world, and when he is not up to his usual level, his team seems soulless. He is one of the true greats, dunno when we will see a player like him. This Barça looks depleted, I guess it’s time to revamp their core, and just stop patching their superficial flaws, and the most compelling need is a player that can play the Xavi role. Not even Xavi is forever . Maybe Thiago can fill that need, we’ll see.

The other HUGE factor is the defense. DEFENSE! This team can’t pretend to be a UCL favorite with Piqué playing like complete ass, being a shell of his former self, Puyol being harassed by injuries, and Mascherano and Song/Busi standing as the main replacements. Unless healthy and in a 100% form, that is NOT a championship caliber defense. Barcelona desperately needs a couple center-backs that ensure a safe goal again. I still remember when Piqué-Puyol formed a defensive juggernaut that wouldn’t concede any chances to rival strikers. Wow, have they decayed since 2010… It is well-known that Barcelona is pushing hard for Hummels, and it is also being said that they’re after Kompany. Would be nice to FINALLY acquire a top-class center-back after all these years trying to. Then there’s also Dani Alves, once the best right-back in the world, having little impact on offense, coming short when putting pressure on the rival and being sub-par defensively.

Aside from this two obvious deficiencies, the smothering on-ball pressure that used to be Barça’s trademark has left the building. Well, that’s no news, but it also contributes to the meltdown.
We’re still winning La Liga, but this calls for big measures.

That being said, I’m REALLY gonna enjoy this UCL final, I absolutely love both teams, and I can’t decide which one I want to see winning the championship. I’d hate to see Bayern lose again, the 3rd time in 4 years IIRC, but B. Dortmund is the most spectacular team I’ve seen this season. I guess Bayern really deserve it. Wish the best for both teams.

You really made a great summary with your post and I AND1ed it. But maybe you missed one major point. This would be either the absence (due to cancer) and/or the incomptence of the coach. They are more depend on Messi than they ever were before. Even more important, under Vilanova is that they’ve pressed less than under Pep Guardiola, but here they did attempt to press higher up the pitch. This really exposed their defence, especially against teams with good wings.

LOL We? Didn't you just say that you don't support Turkey and made up some bulls*it excuse for it just a few posts ago? And let's take a look at the present for a second: Bosnia is dominating its World Cup Qualification group and will actually go the World Cup where-as Turkey probably won't even go. Looking at the future Bosnia has many rising stars coming up in the system while most good young Turks are in Germany's system. And if you wanna look at some recent history remember that Bosnia finished ahead of Turkey in WC 2010 qualifiers finishing 2nd behind mighty Spain.

But hey even if we weren't doing good, and we weren't for a long time, at least I'm not ashamed to support my country just because they're not all that good, I'll stand by my country instead of making some up bs excuse not to and turn my back on them until they become good.

I love Turks and consider them my brothers, but you're just something else.

I liked the BH team when Dzeko, Misimovic, Salihovic, and Ibisevic all at their top. Ranked them as potential underdogs. Sadly it never payed of as I hoped.

Wow you just discriminated Turks and Italians. Clearly a sign of maturity and graciousness. Welcome to massimo's level.

My level?

Financial analyst(maex) and cgf have a lot to go in order to come to my level.

I am not an analyst

And yeah, you're right. There is a gap between you and some other guys at this forum...

[SVictor]

Wow, last seven days have been rough for us Barça fans. This is an unprecedented beating for today’s Barça, and may be the end of the Xavi-Iniesta-Messi era. This meltdown, though, was not completely unthinkable of, specially if you have been following their games this year.

IMO the main factor here is Xavi’s decay. We’ve been seeing this through Barcelona’s last years slumps and poor game streaks, where their passing and movement between lines was rather innocuous and predictable. Any time Xavi’s game is not incisive, the whole team fails to follow the game plan. Xavi is THAT BIG, he can fuel the best offense in the world, and when he is not up to his usual level, his team seems soulless. He is one of the true greats, dunno when we will see a player like him. This Barça looks depleted, I guess it’s time to revamp their core, and just stop patching their superficial flaws, and the most compelling need is a player that can play the Xavi role. Not even Xavi is forever . Maybe Thiago can fill that need, we’ll see.

The other HUGE factor is the defense. DEFENSE! This team can’t pretend to be a UCL favorite with Piqué playing like complete ass, being a shell of his former self, Puyol being harassed by injuries, and Mascherano and Song/Busi standing as the main replacements. Unless healthy and in a 100% form, that is NOT a championship caliber defense. Barcelona desperately needs a couple center-backs that ensure a safe goal again. I still remember when Piqué-Puyol formed a defensive juggernaut that wouldn’t concede any chances to rival strikers. Wow, have they decayed since 2010… It is well-known that Barcelona is pushing hard for Hummels, and it is also being said that they’re after Kompany. Would be nice to FINALLY acquire a top-class center-back after all these years trying to. Then there’s also Dani Alves, once the best right-back in the world, having little impact on offense, coming short when putting pressure on the rival and being sub-par defensively.

Aside from this two obvious deficiencies, the smothering on-ball pressure that used to be Barça’s trademark has left the building. Well, that’s no news, but it also contributes to the meltdown.
We’re still winning La Liga, but this calls for big measures.

That being said, I’m REALLY gonna enjoy this UCL final, I absolutely love both teams, and I can’t decide which one I want to see winning the championship. I’d hate to see Bayern lose again, the 3rd time in 4 years IIRC, but B. Dortmund is the most spectacular team I’ve seen this season. I guess Bayern really deserve it. Wish the best for both teams.

You really made a great summary with your post and I AND1ed it. But maybe you missed one major point. This would be either the absence (due to cancer) and/or the incomptence of the coach. They are more depend on Messi than they ever were before. Even more important, under Vilanova is that they’ve pressed less than under Pep Guardiola, but here they did attempt to press higher up the pitch. This really exposed their defence, especially against teams with good wings.

Yes lol, I was writing the post at work, and with all the hurries I forgot to include that point, I realised that in my way home Of course it is a BIG concern looking forward, we'll see next year, let's hope Tito has put all his illness behind him.

[EArl]

Were at 100 so everyone keep calm and Massimo.
Finals thread right here.
viewtopic.php?f=266&t=1248519