On April 14 2010 03:03 Holgerius wrote: That is, in comparison to how he usually plays, making him completely harmless. Running past the left back is all fine and dandy, but Chelsea obviously focused on making sure Messi (or anyone else for that matter) would never get possession of the ball inside the box. They were quite satisfied with that. When he went into the middle he did not accomplish much at all due to the solid defence. When even Xavi can't find a hole, you know you're doing something right. My italian heart glowed with love and appreciation when I watched that game. Turtling vs a team as good as Barca is not easy, it takes well thought out defensive tactics and skill that I never knew english teams were capable of it. ^__^
Yeah I was incredibly impressed by Chelsea against Barca too. Especially when you think how bad their season with Scolari started.
Oh and I take the part with the lucky shot back. Chelsea didn't advance because either the ref was BIASED or PAID to make sure Barca advance.
Barca never deserved to reach the final last season.
On April 14 2010 03:03 Holgerius wrote: That is, in comparison to how he usually plays, making him completely harmless. Running past the left back is all fine and dandy, but Chelsea obviously focused on making sure Messi (or anyone else for that matter) would never get possession of the ball inside the box. They were quite satisfied with that. When he went into the middle he did not accomplish much at all due to the solid defence. When even Xavi can't find a hole, you know you're doing something right. My italian heart glowed with love and appreciation when I watched that game. Turtling vs a team as good as Barca is not easy, it takes well thought out defensive tactics and skill that I never knew english teams were capable of it. ^__^
lol well if i put 10 defenders in my defensive line, of course no one is going to find a hole. it's a matter of quanity rather than quality defense hell if tenerife did that Barca would had a hard time going past them. The only attack i saw from chelsea in that game and hopes of grabbing a goal was Cech sending the ball as far as he can and pray drogba run towards it. It's almost comical that not even with that he could score a goal
On April 14 2010 03:03 Holgerius wrote: That is, in comparison to how he usually plays, making him completely harmless. Running past the left back is all fine and dandy, but Chelsea obviously focused on making sure Messi (or anyone else for that matter) would never get possession of the ball inside the box. They were quite satisfied with that. When he went into the middle he did not accomplish much at all due to the solid defence. When even Xavi can't find a hole, you know you're doing something right. My italian heart glowed with love and appreciation when I watched that game. Turtling vs a team as good as Barca is not easy, it takes well thought out defensive tactics and skill that I never knew english teams were capable of it. ^__^
Yeah I was incredibly impressed by Chelsea against Barca too. Especially when you think how bad their season with Scolari started.
Oh and I take the part with the lucky shot back. Chelsea didn't advance because either the ref was BIASED or PAID to make sure Barca advance.
Barca never deserved to reach the final last season.
if you see the matchup against chelsea seperated from the whole season then yes, they were obviously not the better team on the other hand it was only 0:0 and 1:1 - quite tight if you take the whole season into account barca was for sure the best team and they fully deserved to win the CL most title winners get lucky at one point or another in an knockout tourney
edit: and one lucky shot cost chelsea the final the question remains, what's the better scoring opportunity this
On April 14 2010 03:03 Holgerius wrote: That is, in comparison to how he usually plays, making him completely harmless. Running past the left back is all fine and dandy, but Chelsea obviously focused on making sure Messi (or anyone else for that matter) would never get possession of the ball inside the box. They were quite satisfied with that. When he went into the middle he did not accomplish much at all due to the solid defence. When even Xavi can't find a hole, you know you're doing something right. My italian heart glowed with love and appreciation when I watched that game. Turtling vs a team as good as Barca is not easy, it takes well thought out defensive tactics and skill that I never knew english teams were capable of it. ^__^
lol well if i put 10 defenders in my defensive line, of course no one is going to find a hole. it's a matter of quanity rather than quality defense hell if tenerife did that Barca would had a hard time going past them. The only attack i saw from chelsea in that game and hopes of grabbing a goal was Cech sending the ball as far as he can and pray drogba run towards it. It's almost comical that not even with that he could score a goal
Nope, not any team can do that. If you think you could coach a team into keeping a clean sheet vs Barca then you are extremely mistaken. There are teams who try to park the bus in front of the goal all the time, and it fails almost always. I think Barca has scored every game this season except vs Valencia and Inter, and last season there were only two or three games (Chelsea game #1 included), or something like that, in which they didn't score. It takes a very tight, well-knitted and well-orchestrated defence with enormous chemistry and dicipline to prevent it during 90 minutes. And a bit of luck. ^__^ Defence is an art. It is not as eye-catching as the opposite art, but it is very demanding. Chelsea did great, no doubt. Hopefully Mourinho has some tactics up his sleeve so that Inter can pull off a similar performance. Messi+Xavi might be too good this season though.
On April 14 2010 03:03 Holgerius wrote: That is, in comparison to how he usually plays, making him completely harmless. Running past the left back is all fine and dandy, but Chelsea obviously focused on making sure Messi (or anyone else for that matter) would never get possession of the ball inside the box. They were quite satisfied with that. When he went into the middle he did not accomplish much at all due to the solid defence. When even Xavi can't find a hole, you know you're doing something right. My italian heart glowed with love and appreciation when I watched that game. Turtling vs a team as good as Barca is not easy, it takes well thought out defensive tactics and skill that I never knew english teams were capable of it. ^__^
Yeah I was incredibly impressed by Chelsea against Barca too. Especially when you think how bad their season with Scolari started.
Oh and I take the part with the lucky shot back. Chelsea didn't advance because either the ref was BIASED or PAID to make sure Barca advance.
Barca never deserved to reach the final last season.
if you see the matchup against chelsea seperated from the whole season then yes, they were obviously not the better team on the other hand it was only 0:0 and 1:1 - quite tight if you take the whole season into account barca was for sure the best team and they fully deserved to win the CL most title winners get lucky at one point or another in an knockout tourney
On April 14 2010 03:03 Holgerius wrote: That is, in comparison to how he usually plays, making him completely harmless. Running past the left back is all fine and dandy, but Chelsea obviously focused on making sure Messi (or anyone else for that matter) would never get possession of the ball inside the box. They were quite satisfied with that. When he went into the middle he did not accomplish much at all due to the solid defence. When even Xavi can't find a hole, you know you're doing something right. My italian heart glowed with love and appreciation when I watched that game. Turtling vs a team as good as Barca is not easy, it takes well thought out defensive tactics and skill that I never knew english teams were capable of it. ^__^
lol well if i put 10 defenders in my defensive line, of course no one is going to find a hole. it's a matter of quanity rather than quality defense hell if tenerife did that Barca would had a hard time going past them. The only attack i saw from chelsea in that game and hopes of grabbing a goal was Cech sending the ball as far as he can and pray drogba run towards it. It's almost comical that not even with that he could score a goal
Nope, not any team can do that. If you think you could coach a team into keeping a clean sheet vs Barca then you are extremely mistaken. There are teams who try to park the bus in front of the goal all the time, and it fails almost always. I think Barca has scored every game this season except vs Valencia and Inter, and last season there were only two or three games (Chelsea game #1 included), or something like that, in which they didn't score. It takes a very tight, well-knitted and well-orchestrated defence with enormous chemistry and dicipline to prevent it during 90 minutes. And a bit of luck. ^__^ Defence is an art. It is not as eye-catching as the opposite art, but it is very demanding. Chelsea did great, no doubt. Hopefully Mourinho has some tactics up his sleeve so that Inter can pull off a similar performance. Messi+Xavi might be too good this season though.
defending is an art yes, but parking the bus is not. is just a cheap way to aim for a draw. i stil believe any team can give barcelona trouble if they park the bus unless they play with completely terrible defenders, although sure have to they give up their posession and attack threats.
I remember almeria with a modest squad doing this and basically barca couldn't find a hole in all the game. there were personal markings going on too but finally a space was created and xavi could grab the victory with a goal. Plus who would want a team like that advancing lol but thats another topic
If you're a Chelsea fan you would've loved to see them advance no matter how boring they might play. Turtling is incredibly frustrating, infuriating and annoying to watch when you are rooting for the team that is desperately trying to score or if you're a neutral spectator watching for pure entertainment. But it's a legitimate strategy and it does take great skill and organisation to perform correctly.
if you try to beat barca at their own game u end up getting mauled like arsenal did. only reason barca went through vs chelsea was through some horrible/corrupt refereeing.
Plus who would want a team like that advancing lol but thats another topic
why bother playing with defenders then if attack is all that matters?
barcelona was the best team last season chelsea was the best team in the games between barcelona and chelsea last season. thinking that chelsea just turtled with 10 players and that this is something any decent team could pull off is ridiculous, a lot of teams are very content with drawing 0-0 vs barcelona and there's a reason why that result almost never occurs. chelsea kept them from scoring for 180 minutes AND had a greater amount of good opportunities (at least if you count "shouldve been PK" as one. )
but barcelona winning cl was definitely deserved because they were probably overall the best team in the world. they're more ahead of the other teams this season than last though.
As Mourinho said and I think he is the one who understands Chelsea the most, the strength of Chelsea is that they can play extremely consistently the football that they plan before the match. Its not easy at all to do that under pressure especially when you play vs Barca.
On April 14 2010 09:20 Liquid`Drone wrote: barcelona was the best team last season chelsea was the best team in the games between barcelona and chelsea last season. thinking that chelsea just turtled with 10 players and that this is something any decent team could pull off is ridiculous, a lot of teams are very content with drawing 0-0 vs barcelona and there's a reason why that result almost never occurs. chelsea kept them from scoring for 180 minutes AND had a greater amount of good opportunities (at least if you count "shouldve been PK" as one. )
but barcelona winning cl was definitely deserved because they were probably overall the best team in the world. they're more ahead of the other teams this season than last though.
Man, I agree with every word you say there. How weird is that? ^__^
It would have been such a shame if chelsea advanced last season with their boring ass tactical defense turltling football.
inter probably going to try the same thing. laaaaaame...when a team tries to play like that, they're basically admitting 'we suck compared to barca and we have to do this to win'
On April 14 2010 14:17 AngryLlama wrote: It would have been such a shame if chelsea advanced last season with their boring ass tactical defense turltling football.
inter probably going to try the same thing. laaaaaame...when a team tries to play like that, they're basically admitting 'we suck compared to barca and we have to do this to win'
What the fuck do you expect them to do? Football is a multi-billion dollar industry and the players are well paid professionals whose jobs are to win. Chelsea realized they wouldn't win by outplaying Barca with the type of football Barca wants to play (a very open and offensive game), so they naturally chose the strategy that would give them the best possible chance of advancing.
On April 14 2010 14:17 AngryLlama wrote: It would have been such a shame if chelsea advanced last season with their boring ass tactical defense turltling football.
inter probably going to try the same thing. laaaaaame...when a team tries to play like that, they're basically admitting 'we suck compared to barca and we have to do this to win'
Look at Arsenal, those kids wanted to prove otherwise and then got crushed
On April 14 2010 14:17 AngryLlama wrote: It would have been such a shame if chelsea advanced last season with their boring ass tactical defense turltling football.
inter probably going to try the same thing. laaaaaame...when a team tries to play like that, they're basically admitting 'we suck compared to barca and we have to do this to win'
Look at Arsenal, those kids wanted to prove otherwise and then got crushed
Agreed.
What annoys me about Arsenal is that they complain when they are fouled but they themselves do the same.
Even in that first leg of the Barca/Arsenal game they did some pretty terrible fouls.
That's what you have a coach/manager for to set the team up in a way to not lose 4-1, what team is going to try and out play Barcelona? Barcelona is such a cut above the rest it's ridiculous imo, their whole football way of growing homegrown players is soo amazing.
EPT
