La Liga Jornada 13 + 15 (Xerez-Barcelona MIDWEEK!)

Wednesday features Xerez-Barcelona (Jornada 15) which is moved up ahead to accomodate Barcelona's commitments in the World Club Cup (don't forget your predictions!!!!).

At the weekend a full bill of matches including several very intriguing encounters:

Sevilla - Valladolid Sab 18:00
Xerez - Atlético Sab 18:00
Real Madrid - Almería Sab 20:00
Deportivo - Barcelona Sab 22:00
Tenerife - Sporting Dom 17:00
Espanyol - Racing Dom 17:00
Mallorca - Zaragoza Dom 17:00
Málaga - Osasuna Dom 17:00
Villarreal - Getafe Dom 19:00
Athletic - Valencia Dom 21:00

Deportivo-Barcelona is intriguing considering it will be the azulgrana's third match in a week plus Deportivo are extremely stingy at home and have been in good form all season.

Athletic-Valencia should be a good one too. Valencia are without Silva until 2010 but are playing well while Athletic are extremely hard to beat at San Mames. Attacking players such as Mata, Villa, Pablo, Llorente, Muniain, and De Marcos should all be on display.

Villarreal-Getafe could be good too. Villarreal are still up and down, while Getafe destroyed Xerez at the weekend.

CONFIRMADO:

---------------------Valdés

D. Alves----Márquez----Chygrynskiy----Maxwell

----------------------Touré

------------Xavi--------------Keita

Pedro----------------Bojan----------------Henry

So Pep rests Messi, Iniesta, Puyol, Pique, Abidal, Zlatan...and throw Toure a bone.

COME ON XEREZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The 25m man finally starts a game eh?

Jaime wrote:So Pep rests Messi, Iniesta, Puyol, Pique, Abidal, Zlatan...and throw Toure a bone.

COME ON XEREZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

who is on the bench?

Lordanger wrote:

Jaime wrote:So Pep rests Messi, Iniesta, Puyol, Pique, Abidal, Zlatan...and throw Toure a bone.

COME ON XEREZ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

who is on the bench?

Pinto (GK), Puyol, Abidal, Iniesta, Jeffren, Messi, Zlatan.

ta. still 0-0: messi, iniesta and zlatan at halftime please.

Lordanger wrote:ta. still 0-0: messi, iniesta and zlatan at halftime please.

Stay here please:

Come on Barca!

xerez doing well.
is VV still seen as a joke in spain?
I've not seen him make a cockup in ages.

He hasnt cocked up in a while. Actually he's been coming up with some pretty big saves. A few in the Madrid game, and the Chelsea semifinal and ManU final he made some big ones too. I remember one against Drogba that was immense

PS Henry is fucking shit, why does Pep keep playing him? (I know he scored)

has he got a cap yet?

yes henry is shit.

this is going to end 1-1.

And whoever invented ‘live streaming video’ had to be a sadist. Tantalizing, yet ultimately, massively frustrating and shit.

Still 1-0.

Agree on Henry. The man is very much on decline.

Jesus how did Iniesta miss that

Bojan Messi had hit the bar just before Iniesta too

Ibra 0 - 2

Still hasn't had a cap i dont think. Never will either I reckon

Casillas, Reina, Diego Lopez (who are all 'Spanisher' as in not Catalan) and now younger keepers like Asenjo

I get the impression that Valdes isnt that fussed about the Spain team

WHAT A MISS BY INIESTA!!!!
deary me, open goal. really really bad miss

pure class by ibra

TheCrazy58 wrote:Jesus how did Iniesta miss that

Bojan had hit the bar just before Iniesta too

Bojan was substituted already.

ronnies teeth wrote:pure class by ibra

Class player. He made a trademark kung fu pass eariler. But ref blew the whistle for high foot.

Dualist wrote:

TheCrazy58 wrote:Jesus how did Iniesta miss that

Bojan had hit the bar just before Iniesta too

Bojan was substituted already.

watching on a stream is it? its hard enough to distinguish between black and white players, let alone between xavi, pedro, messi, iniesta, bojan etc.

Ibra is pure class

He is just class, not pure enough.

ronnies teeth wrote:
I get the impression that Valdes isnt that fussed about the Spain team

Considering Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta and now probably Pique are getting a lot of recognition and plaudits for their international showing, I doubt he doesn't care. Its strange that he should not be at least 3rd choice. He's not as bad as he used to be and its surly helps when the GK has a day to day understanding with possibly half the defence. Especially as he's a starter for one of the big two.

Ibra will win WPOTY and Ballon d'or on this form.

But good to see a win in a training match.
And dont judge Henry because he is given a chance to play with Pedro and Bojan in the attack and only Xavi in the whole team with enough brain to distribute the ball.
He needs Ibra and Messi in the attack and Iniesa and Xavi in the middle same as last year.

Dualist wrote:

TheCrazy58 wrote:Jesus how did Iniesta miss that

Bojan had hit the bar just before Iniesta too

Bojan was substituted already.

I know, corrected I saw the whole thing on tv but from some distance and without my glasses on They do look quite similar from the back.

does VV have English great, great, great grandparents?

or argentinian?

I don't think the English angle will work. Laporta will just have to get on with getting independence for Catalunya before Valdes gets too old.