Champions League Final

[Jadoo]

Completely outplayed, but that was a given even before a ball was kicked. Barca, the only football team in the world that actually makes the game worth watching.

[ganeshran]

This was the football version of the IPL final

[Sachin=GOD]

This was the football version of the IPL final

:facepalm: :facepalm:

[ganeshran]

:facepalm: :facepalm:

CSK completely outclassed RCB like the Barca did to ManU :dontknow:

[Sachin=GOD]

CSK completely outclassed RCB like the Barca did to ManU :dontknow:

that was the only thing common between these two matches :P One was sheer brilliance and quality from one of the best sides ever to play the game. The other was........Tamasha!!!

[saneindian]

that was the only thing common between these two matches :P One was sheer brilliance and quality from one of the best sides ever to play the game. The other was........Tamasha!!!

Is the country vs club debate limited to cricket alone?:--D Isn't Messi like say the Rohit Sharma of football? A franchise player who doesn't do much when playing for his county?:winky:

[Sachin=GOD]

Is the country vs club debate limited to cricket alone?:--D Isn't Messi like say the Rohit Sharma of football? A franchise player who doesn't do much when playing for his county?:winky:

In cricket they play 2 months of IPL and 10 months of International cricket - Rohit Sharma plays well for 2 months and when it comes to the rest of the 10 months when he has to play well if selected for India, he usually fails to deliver. Also, quality of international cricket is much much higher than IPL and performance in IPL doesn't matter :--D In football they play 10 months of club football and only a few international matches every year and Messi has been the best club footballer for some years now. Also, the quality of club football is usually better than international football friendlies :winky:

[ganeshran]

the quality of IPL is no lesser than international T20s. If the IPL clubs played One day internationals they would produce better cricket than most of the test playing nations. IPL however one sided it was, still had better matched teams than 80% of the Cricket world cup which were just minnow bashing matches

[Sachin=GOD]

^Sure, the quality of the IPL is no less than International T20s, but the point is that the quality of T20 format itself is not great so IPL being as good as International T20s doesn't necessarily make it good.

[saneindian]

In cricket they play 2 months of IPL and 10 months of International cricket - Rohit Sharma plays well for 2 months and when it comes to the rest of the 10 months when he has to play well if selected for India, he usually fails to deliver. Also, quality of international cricket is much much higher than IPL and performance in IPL doesn't matter :--D In football they play 10 months of club football and only a few international matches every year and Messi has been the best club footballer for some years now. Also, the quality of club football is usually better than international football friendlies :winky:

So to summarise 1) If IPL was to be played for 10 months out of 12 in an year 2) If cricket standards in IPL were to get better "Club over country" would be justified. Wonder why we have seen so much of morality being preached on the cricket forum on why one should represent the country and not the club :--D

[Rusty]

This was honestly a case of men against boys.

No, not at all. This would have been the case if barca were playing arsenal. This united side is experienced enough to compete on the biggest stage and most members of this squad have won almost every trophy. Barca have raised the standard so much its unbelievable. Sure their play acting is hard to bear at times its no question that they play the best football on the planet. Having Messi in your ranks helps too. United are in dire need of atleast two midfielders IMO. They wouldn't get away with it even in the league anymore now because of their name.

[Sachin=GOD]

So to summarise 1) If IPL was to be played for 10 months out of 12 in an year 2) If cricket standards in IPL were to get better "Club over country" would be justified. Wonder why we have seen so much of morality being preached on the cricket forum on why one should represent the country and not the club :--D

if IPL was not a T20 competition and it had some quality cricket instead of Kirkut+Bollywood tamasha then there wouldn't be so much problem methinks :--D

[Sachin=GOD]

No, not at all. This would have been the case if barca were playing arsenal. This united side is experienced enough to compete on the biggest stage and most members of this squad have won almost every trophy. Barca have raised the standard so much its unbelievable. Sure their play acting is hard to bear at times its no question that they play the best football on the planet. Having Messi in your ranks helps too. United are in dire need of atleast two midfielders IMO. They wouldn't get away with it even in the league anymore now because of their name.

This. They've raised the standard so high that they make good players (like the ones of United) look like novices. Other teams in the world have a lot of catching up to do before they can hope to seriously challenge this Barca team.

[Rusty]

This. They've raised the standard so high that they make good players (like the ones of United) look like novices. Other teams in the world have a lot of catching up to do before they can hope to seriously challenge this Barca team.

Yes but I want to see someone beating them fair and square and playing good football. Unlike the s**t mourinho comes up with each time against them.

[Sachin=GOD]

Yes but I want to see someone beating them fair and square and playing good football. Unlike the s**t mourinho comes up with each time against them.

with the resources and the squad depth Mourinho has at his command at Madrid, he can defeat this Barca side IF he decides to play football instead of employing dirty tricks.

[Rusty]

with the resources and the squad depth Mourinho has at his command at Madrid' date=' he can defeat this Barca side [b']IF he decides to play football instead of employing dirty tricks.

That's the main word though. Mourinho will never drop his negative and cheating tactics.

[ganeshran]

Barca EPL :beee:

[Bradman99]

Yes but I want to see someone beating them fair and square and playing good football. Unlike the s**t mourinho comes up with each time against them.

I don't think that's even possible. At this point in time any team which beats Barca would most likely have been outplayed still.

[Mariyam]

This was the first football game I saw after the WC final last year. I think that Barcelona were so much better. They should have scored at least 5 goals. And Manchester's goal came out of nowhere. The entire game was played inside Manchester's section of the pitch. I had a question. How is it that UNICEF sponsors Barcelona? Isn't that unethical? I mean that money should go to sponsoring education of poor kids. For a non profit organization, diverting funds meant for social work to sports seems very wrong.

[ravishingravi]

This was the first football game I saw after the WC final last year. I think that Barcelona were so much better. They should have scored at least 5 goals. And Manchester's goal came out of nowhere. The entire game was played inside Manchester's section of the pitch. I had a question. How is it that UNICEF sponsors Barcelona? Isn't that unethical? I mean that money should go to sponsoring education of poor kids. For a non profit organization, diverting funds meant for social work to sports seems very wrong.

"Since its founding, Barcelona has never worn corporate advertisements on their shirt. On 14 July 2006, the club announced a five year agreement with UNICEF, which includes having the UNICEF logo on their shirts. The agreement has the club donate €1.5 million per year to UNICEF (0.7 percent of its ordinary income, equal to the UN International Aid Target, cf. ODA) via the FC Barcelona Foundation.[97] The FC Barcelona Foundation is an entity set up in 1994 on the suggestion of then-chairman of the Economical-Statutory Committee, Jaime Gil-Aluja. The idea was to set up a foundation that could attract financial sponsorships to support a non-profit sport company.[98] In 2004, a company could become one of 25 "Honorary members" by contributing between £40,000–60,000 (£45,800–68,700)[99] per year. There are also 48 associate memberships available for an annual fee of £14,000 (£16,000)[99] and an unlimited number of "patronages" for the cost of £4,000 per year (£4,600).[99] It is unclear whether the honorary members have any formal say in club policy, but according to the author Anthony King, it is "unlikely that Honorary Membership would not involve at least some informal influence over the club"