no. not even close. he mght have touched his shoulder, and thats as about as much contact as it was besides eto'o'oo or lolnry just falling down

if chelski dont attack next game then i have no respect for them. barca will be without puyol in the middle cause of a yellow card(and he should get another yellow after that awful tackle) and it looks like marquez has a bad injury...so barcas gonna be weak at center back

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 4:19 PM. Reason : d]

4/28/2009 4:17:31 PM

looked like he was assisted to the ground via a hand to his arm.

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 4:19 PM. Reason : k]

4/28/2009 4:18:49 PM

I thought someone would at least score in this game.

4/28/2009 4:25:42 PM

link to stream?

4/28/2009 4:26:15 PM

for all you who talk about how messi is the best in the world...this game is showing me why hes not. he WILL NOT go up for anything in the air, at all. ronaldo doesnt shy away from 50/50 balls in the air. and that def shows by the number of header goals he gets each year. ronaldo is the total package. can pass, can dribble, can shoot(with either foot, messi cannot), scores headers, and scores free-kicks...the only bad thing about ronaldo is he does whine, and it does bother me sometimes but id rather have him than messi on utd.


wtf iniesta, yeah you got elbowed and it was a foul but way too embellish it by holding one side of your face then getting up and holding the other side of your face....jesus.

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 4:29 PM. Reason : g]

4/28/2009 4:27:42 PM

Quote :

"for all you who talk about how messi is the best in the world...this game is showing me why hes not. "

are you talking about at their respective best performance possible? or this season? There's no way Messi is not the hands down best player this season.

4/28/2009 4:30:49 PM

im talking anytime. ronaldo is having just as good a year as messi is right now...no one realizes it cause most people are comparing ronaldo this season to ronaldo last season, which no one is gonna repeat anytime soon.

im not even sure messi is the best on his own team...henry imo has played as well and been ridiculously clutch for them all season.

im not saying messi isnt playing great. hes had a lights out season. but its been against a really weak la liga and now that they play someone good in the ucl hes been nonexistent this game.

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 4:35 PM. Reason : g]

4/28/2009 4:32:33 PM

United blinders bro

4/28/2009 4:33:53 PM

im not saying ronaldo should be world player of the year again...if anyone from utd i would vote either ferdinand or vidic before ronaldo. honestly, id put gerrard in front of messi this year. pool wouldnt be anywhere without him this year.

4/28/2009 4:37:48 PM

^ suspend

4/28/2009 5:00:47 PM

So let me get this straight, your world player of the year rankings are:

1. Rio
2. Vidic
3. Ronaldo
4. Gerrard
5. Messi

Yep, very unbiased and correct.

4/28/2009 5:02:18 PM

^you left giggs off that list

4/28/2009 6:21:57 PM

Quote :

"im not even sure messi is the best on his own team..."

agree 100%


I was thinking Messi was the shit all season, too, but after today, and after his poor showing last year vs United, I am not impressed.


Basically he benefits from the Spanish style of play, and as a result it makes him look better than he actually is.


Iniesta was the best player on the pitch today BY FAR.



Messi is not the WPOY. Not after that show today.

Gerrard or Torres are both better candidates than Messi.

and that's just so you don't think it's some sort of United bias that has me saying that.

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 6:39 PM. Reason : Messi got contained by an average RB who played out of position.]

4/28/2009 6:35:31 PM

One sub-par game does not discount an entire season...


It's ridiculous when Xavi makes claims La Liga is better than the Premier League but let's stop treating the English league like it's light years ahead of every other league

4/28/2009 6:57:13 PM

On evidence of the past two years, English football IS light years ahead of Spanish football.


And Italian.

And German.

And French.


It wasn't just "one bad performance."


Messi was nowhere to be found at this stage last year, either.

The writing is on the wall. Messi can't cut it against teams that are stronger than Barca. Which is not saying that Barca's not strong - obviously they're the only non-English side left, which makes them the strongest non-english team in Europe by default.

but the fact that this is the third year running that this has happened, and that it looks like Barca is again the worst of the group, speaks VOLUMES to the power of the English league.

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 8:10 PM. Reason : .]

4/28/2009 8:03:14 PM

Champions League results don't mean shit judging an entire league..

The West Broms and Boros are just as shitty as the Getafes and Bolognas. You're acting like La Liga is MLS or something.

4/28/2009 8:10:29 PM

No I'm not.


I'm saying that across the board, the EPL is better than any other league in the world, based on results.


Look at both the UCL and the UEFA Cup over the past 2 years. The EPL holds a statistical advantage in every category.

4/28/2009 8:16:02 PM

isnt it even the past 3 years? im not sure and not looking it up haha. i expect someone to do it for me!

4/28/2009 8:26:19 PM

Quote :

"I'm saying that across the board, the EPL is better than any other league in the world, based on results."

And I'm not arguing with that... I'm just saying that you can't take away from what Messi has done this season simply because it wasn't done in England. Or that he can't score a goal against a bunkered down CL runner-up squad.

4/28/2009 9:00:15 PM

It wasn't that he didn't score a goal. If that were it, there'd be no issue. Plenty of big time players have failed to score against a Winner or runner up.


It was that he was completely missing from the game.



That alone, regardless of all other circumstances, knocks him down from his pedestal.




Gerrard would've never been MIA in a game like that. Ronaldo either.



Bojan came on at the end and created more in one missed header than Messi did all night.

Dani Alves had zero problems bombing down that same wing.

So why was Messi MIA?



All I'm saying here is that Messi is overhyped for what he has delivered so far. If you were to take Christiano Ronaldo RIGHT now and do a player for player swap with him and Messi, it would be glaringly apparent to you which player is better.

Ronaldo could go to Spain and completely dominate the league. Messi could NOT come to England and do the same.



That is what I consider the mark of a WPOY.

Eto'o could go anywhere and be good. Gerrard could. Ronaldo, Torres, all the same. Messi - no.

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 9:51 PM. Reason : .]

4/28/2009 9:43:24 PM

I disagree about Messi being good in England but oh well

There's no question I would rather have Ronaldo or Gerrard, they're better overall players 100% but this isn't the lifetime achievement award, it's the player of the year

Quote :

"Ronaldo could go to Spain and completely dominate the league. Messi could NOT come to England and do the same. That is what I consider the mark of a WPOY."

Do you think Ronaldinho of 3 or 4 years ago could come into England this year and dominate? Probably not, but there's no question he was the WPOY those few years. What you're describing is the answer to "if you could pick any one player, who would it be?"

[Edited on April 28, 2009 at 10:38 PM. Reason : .]

4/28/2009 10:34:41 PM

well i can put it this way, if barca get knocked out this round of the UCL, messi prob wont win WPOY...and if he does, it will be extremely close to either lampard if chelski win UCL, ferdinand or vidic if utd win UCL, and lawlmunia from arsenlol....haha

last one obv not serious.


jokes aside, the champs league in the last few years has pretty much measured who was gonna win.

[Edited on April 29, 2009 at 1:03 AM. Reason : edit]

4/29/2009 1:03:15 AM

If Barca do win it, I would expect Iniesta to be WPOY over Messi, based on the performance from last night.

4/29/2009 7:20:05 AM

I guess we'll just have to see, you don't have to win Champions League to be WPOY

my money is still on Messi, especially since he's been runner-up the last two years and now he clearly has the numbers advantage this year

4/29/2009 8:02:36 AM

^ seconded, although i wish a player from the winning team would get it.

drogba would be a lock

4/29/2009 10:59:01 AM

COME ON UNITED!!!

have to dvr the 2nd half. DONT TEXT ME AMAC! lol

4/29/2009 2:21:00 PM

Manchester United: Van der Sar, O'Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson, Ronaldo, Tevez and Rooney.

Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Silvestre, Gibbs, Diaby, Fabregas, Song, Walcott, Nasri and Adebayor.

i love seeing tevez and rooney

[Edited on April 29, 2009 at 2:25 PM. Reason : ]

4/29/2009 2:24:57 PM

id rather see giggs in the midfield than fletcher...fletcher had an awful game against tottenham, and frankly i cant remember the last time hes had a good game. hopefully he proves me wrong and scores 2 or 3

i can only guess this lineup will have fletcher out wide on right and ronaldo out left...i think SAF shouldve started this game with the team that left the field against tottenham, except replace scholes with anderson


and i will be very upset if we cant score at least 2 goals against that make-shift defense of arsenlol's...

[Edited on April 29, 2009 at 2:35 PM. Reason : f]

4/29/2009 2:33:53 PM

to me that would be to many attackers for an entire game with berbatov


anderson will get on the score sheet for the first time

you heard it hear first

4/29/2009 2:40:00 PM

i keep forgetting he hasnt scored.. i dont see him scoring

interesting line-up the way espn just showed it with anderson out wide...

4/29/2009 2:44:24 PM

wow rooney nearly scored there on a header

gibbs looks shaky already for arsenlol

[Edited on April 29, 2009 at 2:47 PM. Reason : f]

4/29/2009 2:47:25 PM

great save by almunia. thought tevez was gonna score there

4/29/2009 3:02:27 PM

O'MOTHERFUCKINGSHEA!!!!

4/29/2009 3:02:53 PM

brilliant save

lol, too bad it didn't matter

[Edited on April 29, 2009 at 3:03 PM. Reason : .]

4/29/2009 3:02:57 PM

o'shea? rly?

4/29/2009 3:04:13 PM

walcott should have just ran at goal there

4/29/2009 3:34:26 PM

my dvr went retarded. anyone tell me what happened between 45' and 70' minutes? anything crazy?

4/29/2009 9:18:38 PM

a snorefest

4/29/2009 9:28:02 PM

i just saw a highlight that ronaldo smashed the crossbar. that first half, i do know, lawlmunia saved arsenlol's asses. their defense was definitely and obviously shaky.


^snorefest cause it was 1-0? cause the first 30 mins and last 20 mins(which is pretty much all i saw) had plenty of action to me. just good goalkeeping to prevent arsenlol from being destroyed. the first 20 mins of this game was better than the entire game yesterday.

[Edited on April 29, 2009 at 10:36 PM. Reason : edit]

4/29/2009 10:22:54 PM

yes because I need to see GOALS to be satisfied

I am an American you know, scoring is everything damnit

4/30/2009 7:47:41 AM

back today with the return leg at the emirates


no double fail predictions from me like last week

5/5/2009 7:04:18 AM

so.... anyone know of a stream?

5/5/2009 1:54:33 PM

http://atdhe.net/6854/

http://atdhe.net/6855/

The backslash after the number appears necessary.

5/5/2009 1:55:25 PM

fucking sweet

thanks

5/5/2009 2:02:28 PM

We will see the Wenger Dance today.

Mark it.

5/5/2009 2:05:33 PM

Man Utd: Van der Sar, O'Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Anderson, Park, Ronaldo and Rooney. Subs from: Kuszczak, Rafael Da Silva, Evans, Giggs, Scholes, Berbatov and Tevez.

Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Toure, Djourou, Gibbs, Walcott, Fabregas, Song Billong, Nasri, Van Persie and Adebayor. Subs from: Fabianski, Eboue, Silvestre, Diaby, Denilson, Vela and Bendtner.

5/5/2009 2:26:07 PM

No way Arse gets a clean sheet.

I'm predicting 1-1.

edit: those links don't appear to be working


okay they seem to be working now

[Edited on May 5, 2009 at 2:43 PM. Reason : .]

5/5/2009 2:27:34 PM

haha that didn't take long

see ya dudes

5/5/2009 2:53:25 PM

dang dude. a quicky!

5/5/2009 2:54:31 PM

i tried to post earlier they should attack arsenlols left side before i got oh shit error. gibbs is so inexperienced. while the attack came down the right/middle, it finished on arsenlols left with gibbs making a mistake...did not expect park to ever score in this game though...

[Edited on May 5, 2009 at 2:55 PM. Reason : k]

5/5/2009 2:54:46 PM