fc barcelona 2 - 1 athletic club...
Okay, that's one big opponent down. Enough left, though, so I won't stop being a bundle of nerves any time soon. *bites nails*
I suppose it was a mistake to watch this match at laola1.tv. I decided to finally give them a try after having heard from several people that the streams there are in acceptable quality and hardly ever freeze. This is true, as I was to find out, but people should have warned me of horribly biased commentators. Seriously, during the whole match the stupid Austrian commentator was praising Barcelona and saying "Well, of course, this is Xavi, he would NEVER give a pass to someone in an offside position!" and "Athletic are one of the last examples of the '11 friends' theory, nobody really stands out, maybe except for Llorente, but there's no greatness in any of the others". And he actually had the nerve to say "Athletic are beaten" when there were still 7 minutes left of the game and Athletic kept fighting. If he had been sitting in front of me, I would have punched him in the face.
Also, seeing Dani Alves for 90 minutes once again made me realise quite clearly that I loathe this guy. Not sure if liberta agrees with me quoting her, but I couldn't say it any better: "Dani Alves is a diving, cheating, kicking, fouling cuntface of a culé twat." And I'm not going to apologise for quoting that, just like liberta wasn't apologising for saying it.
Moving on. I guess everyone with a working pair of eyes could see that Athletic were pretty much outplayed during the first 20 minutes or so, but a couple of insecurities and mistakes from Barcelona's midfield and defense quickly helped the guys in red and white to regain confidence and by half time I was marvelling at the way they played, so fucking happy that the "old" Athletic (the one I'd missed completely against Mallorca) was back again. They fought like lions, ran after every ball, didn't shy away from tackles, and were finally awarded for their efforts when Busquets fouled Llorente in Barcelona's box and Andoni Iraola scored with his penalty.
Incidentally, Valdés's substitute Pinto tried to influence Andoni before the penalty, patting him on the back as he handed him the ball, but thankfully Andoni could care less about what Pinto said and coolly put the ball into the right corner as Pinto jumped to the left. If Raúl Fernández showed such crap behaviour towards our opponents, I'd be ashamed. Oh, and the same goes for Mascherano's silly demand for a booking. What are you, the fifth official? Shut up and continue playing.
Also, I still adore Borja Ekiza, who hasn't played a lot of matches for the first team yet but plays like a veteran.
All in all, I admit that the result was a lot better than anything I could dream of (I expected a hammering after the disappointing display against Mallorca), but seeing how Athletic fought against the so highly praised Barcelona and really had them cornered on occasion made me hope for more. Oh, and it definitely would hurt less if Barcelona's goals hadn't both been preceded by offside positions. :/
To quote Sid Lowe: "A little love for Athletic Bilbao? No. A lot of love for them. A proper team." So good to hear this after 90 minutes of having my team insulted and belittled by a stupid commentator.
As our colleagues in Pamplona helpfully smashed Espanyol 4-0, we're still 5th in the league, and Málaga held Villarreal to a draw so the distance to the 4th spot only grew by one point. I think this is a good basis for the next match against Valencia, which I'll hopefully be watching at San Mamés. *fingers crossed*
Last but not least, I was pretty amused to find out that Dani Aranzubia scored a goal for Deportivo today and became the 9th goalkeeper to score in the Liga BBVA. We taught him well, it seems. ;)
AUPA ATHLETIC!
I suppose it was a mistake to watch this match at laola1.tv. I decided to finally give them a try after having heard from several people that the streams there are in acceptable quality and hardly ever freeze. This is true, as I was to find out, but people should have warned me of horribly biased commentators. Seriously, during the whole match the stupid Austrian commentator was praising Barcelona and saying "Well, of course, this is Xavi, he would NEVER give a pass to someone in an offside position!" and "Athletic are one of the last examples of the '11 friends' theory, nobody really stands out, maybe except for Llorente, but there's no greatness in any of the others". And he actually had the nerve to say "Athletic are beaten" when there were still 7 minutes left of the game and Athletic kept fighting. If he had been sitting in front of me, I would have punched him in the face.
Also, seeing Dani Alves for 90 minutes once again made me realise quite clearly that I loathe this guy. Not sure if liberta agrees with me quoting her, but I couldn't say it any better: "Dani Alves is a diving, cheating, kicking, fouling cuntface of a culé twat." And I'm not going to apologise for quoting that, just like liberta wasn't apologising for saying it.
Moving on. I guess everyone with a working pair of eyes could see that Athletic were pretty much outplayed during the first 20 minutes or so, but a couple of insecurities and mistakes from Barcelona's midfield and defense quickly helped the guys in red and white to regain confidence and by half time I was marvelling at the way they played, so fucking happy that the "old" Athletic (the one I'd missed completely against Mallorca) was back again. They fought like lions, ran after every ball, didn't shy away from tackles, and were finally awarded for their efforts when Busquets fouled Llorente in Barcelona's box and Andoni Iraola scored with his penalty.
Incidentally, Valdés's substitute Pinto tried to influence Andoni before the penalty, patting him on the back as he handed him the ball, but thankfully Andoni could care less about what Pinto said and coolly put the ball into the right corner as Pinto jumped to the left. If Raúl Fernández showed such crap behaviour towards our opponents, I'd be ashamed. Oh, and the same goes for Mascherano's silly demand for a booking. What are you, the fifth official? Shut up and continue playing.
Also, I still adore Borja Ekiza, who hasn't played a lot of matches for the first team yet but plays like a veteran.
All in all, I admit that the result was a lot better than anything I could dream of (I expected a hammering after the disappointing display against Mallorca), but seeing how Athletic fought against the so highly praised Barcelona and really had them cornered on occasion made me hope for more. Oh, and it definitely would hurt less if Barcelona's goals hadn't both been preceded by offside positions. :/
To quote Sid Lowe: "A little love for Athletic Bilbao? No. A lot of love for them. A proper team." So good to hear this after 90 minutes of having my team insulted and belittled by a stupid commentator.
As our colleagues in Pamplona helpfully smashed Espanyol 4-0, we're still 5th in the league, and Málaga held Villarreal to a draw so the distance to the 4th spot only grew by one point. I think this is a good basis for the next match against Valencia, which I'll hopefully be watching at San Mamés. *fingers crossed*
Last but not least, I was pretty amused to find out that Dani Aranzubia scored a goal for Deportivo today and became the 9th goalkeeper to score in the Liga BBVA. We taught him well, it seems. ;)
AUPA ATHLETIC!