The Kansas Comet
Footballguy
Psyched about Barcelona's win in El Clasico yesterday. It was great to snap Madrid's lengthy winning streak in the Bernabeu for the second season in a row and basically show the gulf in quality between the two teams. I was surprised at how utterly cynical the Merengues were yesterday. Obviously there is no love lost between the two clubs, but I expected to see Madrid play more quality soccer and hack less than they did.
I thought Pep did a better job yesterday in adjusting to the circumstances of the match than Pelligrini. Starting Dani Alves on the right wing was a strange move and ultimately and unsuccessful one I thought, as it didn't help the attack and often had Puyol coming up the right side, which meant that when Madrid counterattacked, Pique had to come over and deal with Ronaldo who had a full head of steam - not something Barca wants to see. However, it did keep Bojan out of the lineup, which is something I definitely agreed with. He is too soft to rely on in important matches and wouldn't have held up well yesterday. Moving Alves to right back was a smart move, as was moving Puyol to the left, which eventually paved the way for Iniesta to replace Maxwell at left wing in the second half. In contrast, I thought Pelligrini was not smart to take out Marcelo for Guti - Marcelo was giving Barcelona problems on the wing and taking him out did the Blaugrana a favor.
The refereeing was bizarre yesterday - Madrid finished with 30 fouls and Barcelona finished with 15 and yet each team had the same number of cautions and three of those cautions were given to players when they hadn't committed a foul. And somehow, Sergio Ramos escaped without a caution - he nailed Puyol with his shoulder after being nutmegged by the guy, and then kicked Messi in the chest - bizarre.
The goals were well taken - perfect pass from Xavi to Messi, who had a great first touch to get him around Albiol for the first, and then Xavi threaded to the needle to Pedro who had a great first touch as well and a classy finish. I was shocked that Messi didn't add at least one more with the chances he had in the second half - he definitely rushed his chance around the 77th minute or so. But it didn't matter.
Valdes played very well in goal, coming up big against Van der Vaart (who did a terrible job with his chance) and otherwise handling all other shots and crosses in his area. Puyol was fantastic and Pedro's work rate was excellent as well. So nice to see Madridistas heading for the exits with 10 minutes remaining. Hopefully Barcelona can hold on to the league lead and come back to the Bernabeu in a few weeks to win the Champs League and celebrate in the Cibeles, rubbing salt in Madrid's wounds.
I thought Pep did a better job yesterday in adjusting to the circumstances of the match than Pelligrini. Starting Dani Alves on the right wing was a strange move and ultimately and unsuccessful one I thought, as it didn't help the attack and often had Puyol coming up the right side, which meant that when Madrid counterattacked, Pique had to come over and deal with Ronaldo who had a full head of steam - not something Barca wants to see. However, it did keep Bojan out of the lineup, which is something I definitely agreed with. He is too soft to rely on in important matches and wouldn't have held up well yesterday. Moving Alves to right back was a smart move, as was moving Puyol to the left, which eventually paved the way for Iniesta to replace Maxwell at left wing in the second half. In contrast, I thought Pelligrini was not smart to take out Marcelo for Guti - Marcelo was giving Barcelona problems on the wing and taking him out did the Blaugrana a favor.
The refereeing was bizarre yesterday - Madrid finished with 30 fouls and Barcelona finished with 15 and yet each team had the same number of cautions and three of those cautions were given to players when they hadn't committed a foul. And somehow, Sergio Ramos escaped without a caution - he nailed Puyol with his shoulder after being nutmegged by the guy, and then kicked Messi in the chest - bizarre.
The goals were well taken - perfect pass from Xavi to Messi, who had a great first touch to get him around Albiol for the first, and then Xavi threaded to the needle to Pedro who had a great first touch as well and a classy finish. I was shocked that Messi didn't add at least one more with the chances he had in the second half - he definitely rushed his chance around the 77th minute or so. But it didn't matter.
Valdes played very well in goal, coming up big against Van der Vaart (who did a terrible job with his chance) and otherwise handling all other shots and crosses in his area. Puyol was fantastic and Pedro's work rate was excellent as well. So nice to see Madridistas heading for the exits with 10 minutes remaining. Hopefully Barcelona can hold on to the league lead and come back to the Bernabeu in a few weeks to win the Champs League and celebrate in the Cibeles, rubbing salt in Madrid's wounds.
nice to see new MLS fans. I used to be an MLS-hater myself until I started accepting it for what it is.
Still surprised Lass didn't start for Real.Liked the lineup yesterday as it seemed to work well to win us the game. Certainly more defensive than normal but we still possessed the ball and attacked alot. Should certainly have been more cards on the cynical play of Real yesterday. First time every winning four straight in el Classico. 
I am also going to try to play some 8v8 on Tuesday nights if my body will hold up. Since I turned 40 a few weeks back, just like what happened when I turned 30 and then 35, it seems like something else is starting to ail me. I've had some swelling in the back of my right knee lately which is kind of odd since I didn't hurt it or anything so I'm not sure what it's from. It's similar to what happened when I tore my ACL (15+ years ago in right knee, got it fixed and haven't had any problems with it since until now) and PCL (2-3 years ago in left knee) so I must have irritated something, I just don't know exactly what the cause is. It was causing some severe discomfort and I wasn't able to bend at the knee all the way causing some reduced mobility but it's been better over the past week or so. It's a ##### getting old! I remember about a week after I turned 30, I pulled some muscle in my leg that I had never pulled before. And then when I turned 35, within a week or so of that, I had some weird foot injury that I never had before either. Now I turn 40 and this happens. 
Hopefully we can continue playing in a men's league after the game. I need that sort of competitive and athletic challenge and would love to keep playing until I get to the age of some of those old guys that I see out there. I have found that as I get older (and slower) my game has changed from speed and size to more fundamental soccer (distributing the ball more effectively) and have actually improved quite a bit in that respect.
nice to see new MLS fans. I used to be an MLS-hater myself until I started accepting it for what it is.
I am also going to try to play some 8v8 on Tuesday nights if my body will hold up. Since I turned 40 a few weeks back, just like what happened when I turned 30 and then 35, it seems like something else is starting to ail me. I've had some swelling in the back of my right knee lately which is kind of odd since I didn't hurt it or anything so I'm not sure what it's from. It's similar to what happened when I tore my ACL (15+ years ago in right knee, got it fixed and haven't had any problems with it since until now) and PCL (2-3 years ago in left knee) so I must have irritated something, I just don't know exactly what the cause is. It was causing some severe discomfort and I wasn't able to bend at the knee all the way causing some reduced mobility but it's been better over the past week or so. It's a ##### getting old! I remember about a week after I turned 30, I pulled some muscle in my leg that I had never pulled before. And then when I turned 35, within a week or so of that, I had some weird foot injury that I never had before either. Now I turn 40 and this happens. 
I was going to ask you specifically because I know you play. Mjolnirs too.I wasn't aware that you'd moved. I'd imagine that the amateur/semi-pro leagues in Miami are great, a lot of more talent/competition, and simply more teams. Sometimes they struggle to fill the 40-team league (total, split into 3 divisions) here.
You're not going to see the wonder goals of the world's elite and the brilliant buildups towards chances on goal - but that's what the European leagues are for. You'll see a lot of giveaways and there'll be times when you'll kinda sit there and laugh at the television....but it's a beautiful game. It might not be the beautiful game you're used to seeing, but it's a beautiful game nonetheless - beautiful in a different way. It's a lot of fun to watch once you get past the initial snobbiness of "it's not English football" (that used to be me...I'm sure if you went back and hunted for posts from like 2006 in here, I was saying the same thing). No, it isn't....it will never be English football. But that doesn't mean it can't be enjoyable to watch.
I don't really feel like googling it, but yes, a narrower field does have a big impact on the game, IMO. Teams can't spread the field as wide, you tend to see more play bottled up in the middle, which probably would lead to more giveaways. I know that Boca Juniors plays on the field that's about 64.7 m wide (I wikipedia'd that one), which is a bit over 70 yards wide - and they're still a world-famous team with a famous stadium.
And Craig Gordon didn't play, so his transfer to either Sunderland or Aston Villa is basically completed. It's gonna be a long year.....maybe Arsenal can get my hopes up.
