^Yes I know Barcelona controlled the ball, but Manchester United had their chances too. It could have easily been 2-2 at the end of regulation.

5/27/2009 7:21:08 PM

ronloldo had about 5 chances in the early first half, 2 of which had the keeper beat but went just wide of the post(and one had the keepers hands tied and park nearly put it in). man utd shot themselves in the foot by playing a 4-3-3. i ddint get that. they havent played a 4-3-3 all year and then hey, barcas got weakness out wide, well i know what we can do! lets play a formation that works well for up the middle attack....serious error on the part of SAF there.

really didnt help that rooney had easily the worst game of the year for him. as for ronaldo and messi. it was a huge let down to me if thats what people were wanting to watch. ronaldo had a bunch of great chances at the beginning then the whole team disappeared for a while after the goal and he had a couple good chances to do something in the 2nd half. head to head, ronaldo prob did more with the ball than messi, but messi did what ronaldo did last year and got the ball into the net(and it will most likely give him fifa player of the year award). honestly, like i and a couple others have been saying, its iniesta that pulls the strings on that team and messi gets all the hype from it. iniesta was unstoppable. i really didnt think he'd be fit, unless we were lied to. how the fuck can you come back from a torn hamstring muscle in 2 weeks...but he completed 86% of his passes with a lot of passes, thats unreal.

you guys can try and flame away that messi was the star of the game but he was pretty much nonexistent. hell, i think i saw eto'o on the ball more than him. iniesta and xavi controlled the middle and thats what i was afraid of since them 2 alone would easily overpower what carrick can do. also, sad to see the 2 goals they score were off of mental lapses by vidic and ferdinand...oh well, props go out to barca, i really didnt think they would stand a chance...

[Edited on May 27, 2009 at 7:35 PM. Reason : edit]

5/27/2009 7:34:29 PM

Quote :

"head to head, ronaldo prob did more with the ball than messi, but messi did what ronaldo did last year and got the ball into the net(and it will most likely give him fifa player of the year award). honestly, like i and a couple others have been saying, its iniesta that pulls the strings on that team and messi gets all the hype from it. iniesta was unstoppable."

I must have watched a completely different game than you did because I made a comment around the 35/40 minute mark that they hadn't even said Iniesta's name at all in the first half. He wasn't bad overall but I'm not sure how you say his performance was "unstoppable" but Messi was "nonexistent" and just happened to get a goal.

I'm not really sure what Ronaldo did with the ball either considering every pass to him was over his head or too far out of his reach... he rarely had time or space to dribble and if he did, nothing ever came of it. His chances were from dead balls and that one deflection that came to him at the edge of the 6.

Messi was far from the player of the game (Puyol hands down for me and probably Pique after that) but you can't tell me he ONLY showed up with his goal. He had to be fouled multiple times because United couldn't win the ball fairly from him and he was waaay more involved in the game than you just gave him credit for.

Quote :

"sad to see the 2 goals they score were off of mental lapses by vidic and ferdinand"

Getting completely turned around by Eto'o isn't what I would call a "mental lapse" either but whatever...

[Edited on May 27, 2009 at 8:16 PM. Reason : .]

5/27/2009 8:08:54 PM

ronaldo nearly struck the post twice in the first 10 minutes. one of which we all thought was going in when he hit it. iniesta completed a ton of passes and was all over the field. that first 30 minutes of the game was pretty bad from both teams. it was pretty obvious it would be a mostly boring final, all finals are like it, and especially like it if the press hype it up to be an offensive game. and i stand by my claim that messi wasnt much in this game, he showed up on the goal when ferdinand decided to leave 5 yards of space behind him...i would honestly hope anyone on that field couldve scored that goal. i was impressed that he headed it in since he never does that. but fouling him is what you do and take him out of the game. thats what chelski did. you play him physical.

united just gave iniesta and xavi too much time to look around and they were completing 1-2s all over the field. im sorry that lolverpool couldnt hack it this year again, but youre not gonna make me believe that messi played a great game cause he scored a wide open header. the game was already over with before his goal. united just never looked into it and came out with the wrong tactics.

[Edited on May 27, 2009 at 8:23 PM. Reason : ^he stabbed at it. he shouldve held him up or force him outside. defensive mental lapse]

5/27/2009 8:19:17 PM

Quote :

"i would honestly hope anyone on that field couldve scored that goal"

Watch it again, that's more than a simple header... it's a world class finish

Quote :

"i was impressed that he headed it in since he never does that. but fouling him is what you do and take him out of the game. thats what chelski did. you play him physical."

Yeah but that's just it... it didn't take him out of the game. He was still on and around the ball a lot and he scored a great goal.

Quote :

"im sorry that lolverpool couldnt hack it this year again, but youre not gonna make me believe that messi played a great game cause he scored a wide open header."

Not sure how the "lolverpool" (an always funny and clever joke, by the way) blast makes any sense here, considering I didn't say anything about them nor am I a supporter of them. Nobody's trying to make you believe that Messi played a great game. In fact, I said he was far from the best player on the field - I'm just pointing out he was actually in the game and Ronaldo was nowhere to be found, which is what all you were calling out Messi for before the final.

[Edited on May 27, 2009 at 8:27 PM. Reason : .]

5/27/2009 8:27:10 PM

yeah and i said neither did anything great. but in terms of head to head, ronaldo created more chances. messi got his goal on a wide open chance. this game was won through iniesta, as i figured it would be if barca were to win.

5/27/2009 8:31:29 PM

Quote :

"i said neither did anything great"

and I'm saying you're wrong because one scored a goal and one did not

5/27/2009 8:39:42 PM

Messi created a number of chances (free kicks from dangerous spots) because the only way United could get the ball off him was to put 2 defenders on him and foul him. None of those chances resulted in a goal, but it was still good work.

I wouldn't call his goal a world-class strike, but I wouldn't call it easy, either. He had to go far-post, and he took it perfectly.

I agree that it wasn't Messi that made this victory happen; it was Barcelona's solid defense and mostly their incredible ability to retain possession (for which Iniesta was probably mostly responsible; I haven't learned to differentiate most Barcelona players.)

Regarding Vidic: I think "mental lapse" is putting it too kindly. For whatever reason, he got beat in a 1-1 situation less than 10 yards from his own goal.

5/27/2009 8:55:10 PM

it was a lazy move on vidic, he stabbed at eto'o which is a retarded thing to do on a striker as good as eto'o. he's still one of the best defenders in the world, he just picked a shitty day to have a bad game, much like the rest of the man utd team.

5/27/2009 9:08:17 PM

vidic does have a tendency to stab at the ball sometimes...but he is usually good at it so im never too concerned with it...however it certainly backfired that move. and what was with eto'o's goal celebration?? does he do heroine?

5/27/2009 10:31:39 PM

Quote :

"Eto'o then explained his gesture of slapping his arm after the goal as he stated that it means "el sangre de mi padre" (my father's blood). "I dedicate this cup to my father, I am very happy, I helped my team to win and that's fantastic," he added."

it's too bad that it wasn't because he did heroin, that would be cooler

5/28/2009 11:32:18 AM

blah blah blah Messi

The better team won. Period.


I'm not going to make excuses for United. They had zero width the entire game, never really looked threatening after the first 5 minutes, and were the perfect example of how NOT to play defense. Rio, Vidic, O'Shea, and Evra all committed huge gaffes at different points, but out of the 4, John O'Shea looked the most solid.

That says a lot.

United absolutely did not come to play and got fucking steamrolled because of it.

5/28/2009 5:13:15 PM

I'm on the bandwagon now baby, ordered this last week



actually I'm not really on the bandwagon, I just love that they're back to the stripes and I haven't bought a jersey in a while. I actually wanted the Fulham away Dempsey jersey but its like $130 for some reason so screw that

5/31/2009 9:58:03 PM

lol wow. yes you are on the bandwagon...

5/31/2009 10:05:07 PM

haha all the defending I've done of Messi in this thread has made me like him even more - I had to get his jersey to represent

don't worry though I have some old school ManYoo jerseys too



and



[Edited on May 31, 2009 at 10:12 PM. Reason : united jerseys]

5/31/2009 10:08:03 PM

oic. well beware of KILJADN

lol

5/31/2009 10:11:49 PM