Dec 6, 2009
Deportivo -1, Barca - 3
FC Barcelona retained their lead at top of five points with a 3-1 comfortable victory against Deportivo at the Riazor. Messi gave Barca a deserving lead in the 27th minute but Deportivo equalised in the 39th minute. Secons half goals from Messi and Ibrahmovic then gave Barca a truly deserving victory. This was Messi's first match after winning the Balon d'Or and he gave a performance intune with the award. He easily could have got a hat-trick last night but was let down by his own finishing. Guardiola's choice of defensive midfielder might have sent enough message for Yaya Toure about his future. Busquets was preferred in place of Toure and he played his part well in Deportivo goal. Meanwhile Barca had their strongest possible line-up except for Toure. Alves, Pique, Puyol and Abidal lined up in defense infront of Valdes. Iniesta and Xavi formed the midfield along with Busquets. Henry, Ibrahmovic and Messi formed the attacking trio.Dec 5, 2009
Vote For UEFA Team Of The Year
UEFA has started the process of selecting UEFA Team of the Year on their website. You can pick your best Eleven ast UEFA Team of the Year. Eleven Barca players have been nominated for this year's award. Manchester United has six players in the list. The Barca players on the list are Valdés, Alves, Puyol, Piqué, Txigrinski, Abidal, Touré, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and Ibrahimovic. Meanwhile ex-barca player Samuel Eto'o has also made into nomination list. I am not so happy with the way the formation has been selected. UEFA has gone for a traditional 4-4-2 formation while selecting the eleven. But what makes me angry is that there is no defensive midfielder position, a role which has become the most important one in modern day football. They have the central midfield, attacking midfield, right midfield and the left midfield position. The central midfield role should have been the defensive midfielder. Right now we have Xavi and Yaya Toure together in the central midfield role; it is clear that Yaya after having a great lst season, will not get any vote because he is paired with Xavi. Chelsea's Michael Essien mysteriously finds no place in the nomination list. My selection is on the picture have a look.
FIFA World Cup 2010 Groups are out
Last night the drawing of groups for FIFA World Cup 2010 was completed in Cape Town. Next year's World cup will feature two group of deaths - Group D and Group G. Out of both Group G looks terrible with Brazil, Ivory Coast, Portugal and North Korea. Argentina and Spain looks to have drawn into very easy group, but Spain has trouble in their hands with a possible meeting with either Ivory Coast or Portugal in the knockout stage, maybe even Brazil. Ivory Costa feature in the group of death in the 2006 edition and will consider themselves extremely unlucky featuring once again in the Death Group. France which was featured in pot 4 got into a very goood group. The Groups areGroup A
South Africa
Mexico
Uruguay
France
Group B
Argentina
Nigeria
South Korea
Greece
Deportivo vs Barca Preview
FC Barcelona will be looking to preserve their five point advantage against Real Madrid by the end of this week. Even though Real has a match on hand the five point lead could assert enormous pressure on them. Gerrard Pique and Busquets has been included in the squad after their last match absence. Guardiola has selected a 18 men squad for the trip to Deportivo - Valdés, Pinto, Henry, Xavi, Piqué, Iniesta, Sergio Busquets, Puyol, Pedro, Ibrahimovic, Bojan, Maxwell, Messi, Chygryskiy Alves, Abidal, Keita, Touré. Deportivo is lying in fifth place in the league table. they have the same point as fouth placed Valencia. Deportivo always have been a tough ground for us to travel. Eventhough this Deportivo side may not be dangerous as the likes which terrorised side in late nineties. But our away form has been far from perfect. Actually we have struggle in almost every one of our away match so far this season. This combined with the fact that our traditional record against Deportivo is not that great, makes this tie a very interesting one.
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