Barcelona: Charged with corruption .... again!

Gee Male

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Lots of Dembele fans in the Barca thread. Who would have guessed, I suppose 12 months is a long time in football.

He's the exact type of player that I just can't stand. Loads of talent, regularly misapplied. He doesn't have any competitive edge, poor mentality, terrible decision making. The type of player I just get frustrated by, because if he just did the right thing on the ball he would be brilliant.

Someone referred to him as top 5 wingers in the world - I'd rate him somewhere between the winger version of Rashford and the winger version of Sterling. Funnily enough, I reckon all 3 of these will look back at careers that peaked either in or before their early 20s.
 

Pickle85

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This is not true. I just took a look at all of CSKA’s profesional sections and their number of combined CL’s in all sports is lower than that of Barça let alone all domestic, European and international titles. Besides CSKA is only strong in basketball, volleyball and ice hockey. You cannot compare that with the dominance of Barça and success across so many sports. None of those sports are marginal either. Roller hockey is not an insignificant sport worldwide, it enjoys quite a big popularity in many populous nations such as India, Pakistan, the Americas etc.

https://www.purehockey.com/c/history-of-roller-hockey

El Barça es el mejor club polideportivo del mundo. De los grandes equipos del fútbol europeo, el Barça es el único que ha ganado Ligas y Copas de Europa en todas sus principales secciones profesionales. De lo que no hay duda es de que es un club de clubs con un historial exitoso a nivel internacional. Ser del Espanyol es un sufrimiento permanente. Es decir, mira, entiendo tu frustración, pero no se puede negar lo obvio.
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

arthurka

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This is not true. I just took a look at all of CSKA’s profesional sections and their number of combined CL’s in all sports is lower than that of Barça let alone all domestic, European and international titles. Besides CSKA is only strong in basketball, volleyball and ice hockey. You cannot compare that with the dominance of Barça and success across so many sports. None of those sports are marginal either. Roller hockey is not an insignificant sport worldwide, it enjoys quite a big popularity in many populous nations such as India, Pakistan, the Americas etc.

https://www.purehockey.com/c/history-of-roller-hockey

El Barça es el mejor club polideportivo del mundo. De los grandes equipos del fútbol europeo, el Barça es el único que ha ganado Ligas y Copas de Europa en todas sus principales secciones profesionales. De lo que no hay duda es de que es un club de clubs con un historial exitoso a nivel internacional. Ser del Espanyol es un sufrimiento permanente. Es decir, mira, entiendo tu frustración, pero no se puede negar lo obvio.
Ding ding ding we got a winner.
Best post of the year by dinner margin.
 

GhastlyHun

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They looked good tonight. If we played this match ten times, they score in nine and do not lose in 7 or 8. Much better team than when we met in last year's group stage.
 

Cloud7

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I only got to watch the second half but I thought they played really well. From the highlights of the first half it looks like they had better chances there as well and a penalty that wasn’t given. The Bayern goals were a real sucker punch and Bayern are a quality team so it’ll be difficult to come back there.
 

MexicanCowboy

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They looked good tonight. If we played this match ten times, they score in nine and do not lose in 7 or 8. Much better team than when we met in last year's group stage.
A lot of people just care about the latest result.
How Barca played today makes me feel optimistic.
 

Niemans

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They looked good tonight. If we played this match ten times, they score in nine and do not lose in 7 or 8. Much better team than when we met in last year's group stage.
Last year's team was with players who have no level to play these matches.

Barcelona still lacks things like making tactical fouls and covering opposing players without giving them as much space.
 

BayernFan87

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They were really good tonight, I was especially impressed by their pressing.

Pedri...what a player. He plays incredibly calm for a player his age.
 

MUnchies

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I don't and never got the hype with Dembele to be this one of a kind world class player. Most of the things he tries in a game don't come off, he must be the most frustrating player ever to play with. Whenever he dribbles, it never looks like he has control of the ball, he is fast so it bails him out and recovers from poor and heavy touches. He is basically like Martial, you don't know what you are getting on the day and mostly what you get is shit performances topped off with injuries.

The only thing I will give him is speed and his two foot ability.
 

BayernFan87

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I don't and never got the hype with Dembele to be this one of a kind world class player. Most of the things he tries in a game don't come off, he must be the most frustrating player ever to play with. Whenever he dribbles, it never looks like he has control of the ball, he is fast so it bails him out and recovers from poor and heavy touches. He is basically like Martial, you don't know what you are getting on the day and mostly what you get is shit performances topped off with injuries.

The only thing I will give him is speed and his two foot ability.
I think that's a bit harsh on him.
I didn't see any Barca match this season for 90 minutes until today but I watched the highlights of every game. And Dembele is in my opinion clearly their 2nd best attacking player this seasons next to Lewandowski.

He didn't have much space today and we defended pretty good (Davies <3) but Dembele was still clearly better than Raphina, Torres and Fati.
 

RedOrange

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I am Canadian and nobody cares about roller hockey here at all. In the summer some people play ball hockey (running around on pavement), but roller hockey isn't much of a thing here.

I think roller hockey is more of West Coast/Southwestern USA thing, but I doubt many people do it professionally and if they do they're not making much money out of it.
 

MUnchies

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I think that's a bit harsh on him.
I didn't see any Barca match this season for 90 minutes until today but I watched the highlights of every game. And Dembele is in my opinion clearly their 2nd best attacking player this seasons next to Lewandowski.

He didn't have much space today and we defended pretty good (Davies <3) but Dembele was still clearly better than Raphina, Torres and Fati.
But Raphinha is new and hasn't even played 10 games, Torres joined last year in a mess and probably needs time (plus he never has been that great, he is average as you can get since his City days) and Fati is just a kid coming off a brutal injury.

Let's put it this way even without injuries he would blow hot and cold, not consistent enough. He has never been better since he blew up at Rennes than Coman, Gnabry, Mane, Salah, Sane, Son and even Sancho and many wingers in his entire career.
He was good at Dortmund but Sancho time there was more sensational in terms of play, goals and assist.
 

colombianmancunian

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I don't and never got the hype with Dembele to be this one of a kind world class player. Most of the things he tries in a game don't come off, he must be the most frustrating player ever to play with. Whenever he dribbles, it never looks like he has control of the ball, he is fast so it bails him out and recovers from poor and heavy touches. He is basically like Martial, you don't know what you are getting on the day and mostly what you get is shit performances topped off with injuries.

The only thing I will give him is speed and his two foot ability.
You are one of the few sensible posters who don’t overrate Dembele. He is a headless chicken that runs without aim, lacks discipline, has bad decision making, got bad mentality and disappear on big matches. It makes me laugh when some posters get mad when someone notices the faults of their beloved Dembele… Heck on his thread the Dembelievers compare him to Pele ffs.

About the match. It’s good to see the more cnutish team in the world lose. Specially to their daddy Bayern.
 

Tyrion

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Lots of Dembele fans in the Barca thread. Who would have guessed, I suppose 12 months is a long time in football.
Barca and Real fans are incredibly fickle. If the club stopped trying to push out FDJ, their fans would quickly decide he's OK and start to cheer him again. They can go from hating someone to loving them in a few months.
 

sglowrider

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Barca and Real fans are incredibly fickle. If the club stopped trying to push out FDJ, their fans would quickly decide he's OK and start to cheer him again. They can go from hating someone to loving them in a few months.
Tbf United fans are too. 18 months ago, Bruno was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Now many cant wait for ETH to sell him off.
 

Tyrion

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Tbf United fans are too. 18 months ago, Bruno was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Now many cant wait for ETH to sell him off.
Anyone who can't wait to sell him off is acting stupid.

I still think Barca and Real fans are uniquely fickle. Real fans booed Ronaldo for God's sake. We haven't booed him and he's tried to leave twice.
 

Waywestofthere

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I am Canadian and nobody cares about roller hockey here at all. In the summer some people play ball hockey (running around on pavement), but roller hockey isn't much of a thing here.

I think roller hockey is more of West Coast/Southwestern USA thing, but I doubt many people do it professionally and if they do they're not making much money out of it.
I live on the West Coast. There is a Roller Derby team in Portland (I’ve got to think for the laughs, but…who knows). I know of zero Roller Hockey teams—professional or otherwise. Maybe the Southwest? Let’s just say it isn’t a sport even approaching “significance” in the US.
 

D4X73r

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To mention, that Chess is not a sport to compare and therefore titles doesn't matter and afterwards bringing up roller hockey trophies. :houllier:
 

RedDevilMachine

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Barca must be so sick and tired of playing Bayern now, can't think of a big team's nemesis more than this. Almost like how we used to dominate Arsenal during SAF days.
 

kthanksbye

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Did everyone here really just watch Barca play away at Bayern and made up their minds about what they were already assuming about Barca and their players?

Disappointed with the finishing yesterday, Lewa, Raphina, Pedri, all 3 missed at least 2 good chances each and a stonewall pen wasn't given, finishing aside, yesterday was a very good performance. I wouldn't say the team fell asleep for 5 mins when they conceded two, but the first goal was a sucker punch and the players didn't really recover from it, also it's Bayern, they really closed the game well.

Lewa should be burying his chance in the first half and we'd be looking at a different game altogether.
Dembele had a poor game according to his recent standards and as good as Pedri played yesterday, he was taking an extra touch or an extra second to release the ball or make a decision.

In conclusion, this is a young team with lots of potential, they'll get used to the big games in good time. Happy with the progress.
 

MUnchies

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You are one of the few sensible posters who don’t overrate Dembele. He is a headless chicken that runs without aim, lacks discipline, has bad decision making, got bad mentality and disappear on big matches. It makes me laugh when some posters get mad when someone notices the faults of their beloved Dembele… Heck on his thread the Dembelievers compare him to Pele ffs.

About the match. It’s good to see the more cnutish team in the world lose. Specially to their daddy Bayern.
I agree

crying @ Dembelievers :lol:
 

NoLogo

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Did everyone here really just watch Barca play away at Bayern and made up their minds about what they were already assuming about Barca and their players?

Disappointed with the finishing yesterday, Lewa, Raphina, Pedri, all 3 missed at least 2 good chances each and a stonewall pen wasn't given, finishing aside, yesterday was a very good performance. I wouldn't say the team fell asleep for 5 mins when they conceded two, but the first goal was a sucker punch and the players didn't really recover from it, also it's Bayern, they really closed the game well.

Lewa should be burying his chance in the first half and we'd be looking at a different game altogether.
Dembele had a poor game according to his recent standards and as good as Pedri played yesterday, he was taking an extra touch or an extra second to release the ball or make a decision.

In conclusion, this is a young team with lots of potential, they'll get used to the big games in good time. Happy with the progress.
It actually was, Barca was definetely the stronger team in the first half, if not for the chance wasting and VAR being asleep I could have seen them walk away with at least a point yesterday, but hey finishing is part of playing football if you can't do it, you can't win. Pedri was amazing yesterday once again, can't believe the kid is only 19, imo he is already one of the top 5 attack minded midfielders in the world right now.
 

CruyffMaradonaMessi

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Stop changing the goalposts. You asked if any other institution had more european cups across all sports. CSKA has more.

Más Copas de Europa:

85 CSKA Moscú (33 de esgrima, 20 de hockey hielo, 13 de voleibol, 8 de baloncesto, 3 de ajedrez, 3 de voleibol femenino, 2 de esgrima femenina, 1 de balonmano, 1 de rugby seven femenino y 1 de waterpolo)

45 FC Barcelona (22 hockey patines, 11 balonmano, 5 fútbol, 4 fútbol sala UEFA, 2 baloncesto y 1 de fútbol femenino)

Next question.

Stop getting all your info from Sport (or MundoVomitivo, Marca or As for that matter). It is all bullcrap.
Not sure if serious? 33 fencing titles? Chess? If we include such sports and individual sports as a whole Barça remains the sports club with the most European titles and the most titles that are the equivalent of the CL.

Take our athletics sections with several active Olympic champions and the amateur sports. Barça has 1 Club World Cup in beach soccer (equivalent of the CL in this sport) on top of my head.

Overall, with all due respect, CSKA is not in the same stratosphere as Barça.

Truly such a unique club... oh wait... the sports club in my home village has about 1,500 active players in about two dozen different sports.

Barca fans really keep on embarassing themselves here.
Yes, Barça is unique by being the most successful sports club in Europe if all sports are combined. I would claim that it is a quite unique achievement to have won the equivalent of the CL in all of your professional sports sections. Whatever your local village club is, I doubt that they can compare in this regard. No club in Europe can. This is a factual statement, not just opinion.

I can forgive United fans for mouthing this fake news but are you really a Barca fan or are you a troll sent to make people dislike Barca ... Di Stefano was never stolen from Barca.

Argentina was Fifa-affiliated but not a professional league. Players (including Di Stefano) went on strike due to corruption/unpaid wages/poor scheduling. After striking for almost a year, top players decided to leave the league and Di Stefano ended up in Colombia which was a professional but Fifa-unaffiliated league. It is important to note that Di Stefano's contract had expired and his Argentine club still owed him money from previous years that they were unwilling to pay (think Frenkie De Jong).

4 years later Madrid and Barca both came calling. Madrid approached his Colombian club (not Fifa affiliate) and Barca approached his previous Argentine club (Fifa affiliate) since they believed that his last year's contract (when players went on strike) with Argentine club was still valid as the strike was illegal. To resolve the issue both Barca and Madrid agreed to share him for 2 years each. Barca finally pulled out of the deal because this was unacceptable to their socios.

In any dictatorship you have to have good relationships with dictators or you can suffer grievous consequences. Dictators also force successful clubs/people to associate themselves with the regime for propaganda purposes.

Franco's biography clearly states his love for Atletico Madrid. Why would a dictator who portrays himself as a working class hero and an anti-royal, support 'Royal' Madrid?

Didn't Franco also execute a few Madrid board members?

Are you saying that UEFAlona have never received favorable decisions? Did you forget how Uefa handed Guardiola his first CL title. Disgusting!
No offense but you can’t be from Spain or a Spaniard when writing such an ignorant post. Hence your iimited knowledge of the topics at hand and lack of access to primary literature in Spanish. What you wrote is pure nonsense.

The di Stéfano case has been widely covered and it has been proven beyond any doubt that foul play did occur and that he was literally stolen from the nose of Barça who signed him first. In fact Di Stéfano played his first matches in Spain in a Barça shirt. There are photos and footage of this. Nor did Barça ever agree to him leaving for RM.

RM has always been the state-supported/sponsored club and always enjoyed favorable referring decisions (incomparable to those of Barça) and most of the media control to create narratives and put pressure on referees and the local football discourse. We see this to this very day. I talked about the joke that is El Chiringuito de Jugones and that it might as well be called Real Madrid Televisión. It has always been that way.

RM will always be closely associated with the Franco regime as will Santiago Bernabeú (a well-known and public fascist bigot whose open anti-Catalan sentiments are well-known and widely covered). Franco was not interested in football to begin with but the Franco regime clearly used RM as a vehicle for international exposure for the country and as such favored it and looked the other way whenever there were any "obstacles". It did not hurt that RM were seen as a “pure” Spanish team and not located in the many historically autonomous communities (Catalan, Basque, Galician etc.).

Not much different from the time of Sanz when the club was close to bankruptcy but suddenly under Florentino managed to sell land for an inflated price and under dubious circumstances and the whole Figo transfer (bank guarantee at a time of great economic crisis - no levers!). Basically nothing will change the fact that RM has been and remains the club of the establishment to this very day. The same Florentino controls much of the sports media in the country. Ever wondered why there are hardly ever any leaks coming out from RM (other than the famous Florentino tapes during the Covid-19 crisis which were 20-10 years old) while this constantly occurs for Barça? Gerard Romero said it very well this summer, in BCN the local journalists report what they want to, in Madrid most of the journalists are in the pockets of Florentino and only report what he tells them to report.

You guys literally won 2 CL finals (and God's know how many European Cup/CL titles due to refereeing decisions going your way - not to mention the first 5 were tinpot European Cups compared to later tournaments - the whole early history of the European Cup and the involvement of Santiago Bernábeu and RM is another topic altogether) due to wrongly allowed offside goals (1998, 2017) on top of my head so this "UEFAlona" nonsense is what it is. There is no top club in Europe that has had so many favorable refereeing decisions and outright luck than RM. We saw it last season once again. But for your lot this is normal so you get very upset when somebody points the obvious out.

Here is your "clean" RM history.

I cannot post Youtube links yet, but write "Real Madrid-TV3:La leyenda negra de la gloria blanca, la gran estafa de Franco. SUBT. ESPAÑOL CC".

As for Franco being anti-royal, it has to be one of the worst jokes out there. The same Franco made Spain a kingdom shortly after the end of the Spanish Civil War and personally appointed a successor (Juan Carlos I) years before he died. Nice try, though. However Franco was a well-known anti-Catalan bigot whose regime forbade and actively combated Catalan language, Catalan identity and Catalan culture but you "curiously" forgot to mention all of that as if the world is ignorant of those historical facts.

Everybody Hates FC palancas.
Which is why FC Barcelona is the most followed sports club in the world across all social media and arguably the club that has had the most iconic football players in its history. On the other hand who genuinely likes or even respects Chelsea other than Chelsea fans? Tinpot club only made relevant by a criminal Russian oligarch some 19 years ago. No offense.

Luka didn't play in Europe. Luka destroyed european basketball playing for - wait for it..... REAL MADRID

The origin of mes que un club is actually entirely a marketing ploy. They came up with it in the 70s, after Franco's death. The deep meaning about Catalunyan values is something they attached to it later
As for Luka Doncic, he never destroyed European basketball, he won 1 Euroleague in 3 seasons. Great Slovenian player though.

Anyway Pau Gasol > Doncic.

Marketing plot? Are you joking? It was first used in January 1968 by Narcís de Carreras after he was elected as president. Franco died in November of 1975.

https://blogs.20minutos.es/yaestael...el-eslogan-mes-que-un-club-del-f-c-barcelona/

It was a clear reference to the Franco fascist dictatorship and its well-known oppression of Catalan culture, language etc. Hence "més que un club" having a political origin more than anything (hence my initial comments about Catalanism) which must be understood in the context of the Franco regime (1968). Narcís de Carreras later claimed that it was also a reference to the multiple sports sections of Barça (Barça not just being a football club only) that ironically became enormously successful AFTER Franco's death.

As I already wrote, later this slogan (which is just that, a slogan) was used to explain the overall club values and the playing style of offensive possession based football.
 
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CruyffMaradonaMessi

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As for yesterday's game, not the slightest surprised by the result as much as it does not reflect what happened on the pitch. We really should have been leading by half time. By at least 1 goal. A 2 goal lead, based on the chances created, would not have been “unfair” either. A strange decision not to award a clear penalty to Dembélé as well but Makkelie has always been useless if you ask me. How we did not even score once in that game is absolutely amazing.

Just further confirms that those Germans are our biggest black sheep in Europe by far. Statistically speaking as well.

Anyway this is a new team and a new project. The team plays far better than I would have thought that they would be playing so early on. There is much reason to be optimistic for the reminder of the season.

Not impossible to qualify as the first-placed team either but we will have to see whether that will be a positive or a negative depending on who eventually qualifies and in which positions. The next two games against Inter will be critical.

Given the absurd loses and performances in the CL in the past 5 years (I covered this extensively earlier in this thread) it is not a surprise if the team has developed some sort of CL-complex (overrated tournament that will eventually be replaced by the Super League and end up as a defunct tournament, hopefully not far from now, lol) and as such we might be 1 or 2 great wins away from breaking this spell and complex. A victory last night could maybe have helped but on the other hand the group stage is mostly irrelevant as long as you qualify which is of course not a given.

I feel that a healthy Barça team that has jelled more can beat any team over 2 games from February onwards if Xavi and the team continues to improve. We are already at a relatively high level and should only be improving unless we implode.
 
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roonster09

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They did very well vs Bayern, even more impressive considering it was away from home. They are serious squad now, won't be surprised if they win League title.

Pedri is just gold, what a player. Barca have all the pieces in place, maybe couple of good FBs short (Kounde is good but need better attacking FB).
 

WeePat

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They did very well vs Bayern, even more impressive considering it was away from home. They are serious squad now, won't be surprised if they win League title.

Pedri is just gold, what a player. Barca have all the pieces in place, maybe couple of good FBs short (Kounde is good but need better attacking FB).
It's so annoying but yeah they're great. For me, they're one of the genuine contenders for the CL too and they have looked more impressive than Real Madrid so far in the league.