Who do you all think is the most complete soccer team in the world right now ? My bet is for my own team BARCELONA FC they have right now the most complete team i have ever seen in my 21 years of age. Total offense there first game in the LA LIGA they won 2-0 but deserved at least 3 more goals, it was totall analiation of there opponent. And that game was without Ronaldinho. Feel free to make your own observations. Victor Valdes Ronaldinho Deco Xavi Etoo Larsson Giuly Puyol Van Brochorost Marquez Belleti
Well I haven't heard of any of those players, but I trust they're good. Did Bayern Muenchen make the champions league? I guess that's the team I would cheer for since I bought one of their jerseys when I worked there a while back.
Arsenal. They are the hottest team in Europe right now, not Barcelona. 16 goals in 4 games, plus a 3-1 drubbing of ManU (who Chelsea only beat 1-0 at home). And they don't even have world-class Viera or Campbell, up and coming Edu and Robin Van Persie back in the team yet. And they're about to add Trabelisi from Ajax and Valencia's Angulo. We took Barcelona's best player young player and gave them gio vb, who couldn't even make our first team bench.
Excellent choice, bigtexxx! Should have let me know that you are in the country, though . Yes, Bayern München is in the Champions League. We are in the same group with Juventus Turin, Ajax Amsterdam, and Maccabi Tel Aviv. A tough group, but Bayern will get to the next round.
Angulo: "The 5 million euro, four-year contract, was always on the cards since the player has only one year of his contract left and was stalling over re-signing. The Spanish champions had already announced that Angulo would not be playing in Monday evening's season-opening fixture against at home to Villareal, and the player missed training on Sunday, setting tongues wagging. The 26 year-old was an invaluable member of last season's Championship and UEFA Cup winning squad and he has scored 37 goals in 240 League matches." I'm reading pretty good stuff about Angulo, but can any of you guys give me a first hand opinion of him? I don't see to much Valencia/Spanish League.
Did you know that Bayern München is a club with about 100,000 paying members? They also have a very good website: http://www.fcbayern.t-com.de/en/index.php?fcb_sid=996ba1c26e0f3d37d2313e545cb6f226
There site is pretty good. Thanks for the link. "The seeding mechanism and the luck of the draw combined to keep Bayern and the big guns from Spain and England apart in Thursday's Champions League group stage draw, but the 2001 winners from Munich have been handed a tough enough task after former France great Michel Platini assigned the Reds to Group C with Turin giants Juventus, Ajax Amsterdam and Israeli cracks Maccabi Tel-Aviv." You don't want none of these big guns ... Can you rank who you think is the top in the Bundesliga. Who we should watch out for?
Over the last 40 years, there is no doubt that Bayern Munich is by far the dominant team in Germany. They also had some success on the European stage, winning the Champions League (formerly National League Champions' Cup) several times, as well as all other European competitions at least once (UEFA cup/Cup Winners' Cup). I think that over the last 25 years, Bayern probably won the German league at least every other year. However, they are struggling a bit at the moment. They have a lot of stars, but are still looking for a way to make a team out of all the stars. I think they must have something like 20 national team players. Obviously, only 11 can play (maybe 13 with substitutions), so some very good players will have to ride the pine. Kahn is still the goalie. I am a bit fed up with him, but he is still above average on the European level. Some of the defenders are Lucio (Brazilian world champion), Kuffour (Ghana), Kovac (Croatia), Sagnol (France), Demichelis (Argentina)...but the midfield is where they should really shine. They have Ballack, who is one of the most dangerous midfielders, but also Ze Roberto (Brazilian world champion), Deisler (most talented German player of the decade, but he had some mental problems), Frings (German national team), Scholl (still very good), Schweinsteiger (young talent, also plays for the German national team), Salihamidzic (Bosnia, always used to give Roberto Carlos fits due to his speed and grit), Hargreaves (English national team). Forwards are Makaay (Holland), Roque Santa Cruz (Paraguay, great talent, but needs a breakthrough season), Claudio Pizzarro (Peru), Hashemian (Iran). Overall, a really great team that, if they manage to play together as a team, can measure up to ANY team, really. In the Champions League, I think Bremen and Leverkusen might also play a decent role. Bremen has less stars than Bayern, but they have a very good coach and everyone seems to know their role in the system. Their team is good enough that they can afford to keep Charisteas (leading scorer for European champions Greece) on the bench most of the time. Leverkusen seems to be on a roll...they destroyed Banik Ostrau (Czech) 5:0 in the qualifying round for the Champions League, and their forwards Franca (Brazil) and Berbatov (Bulgaria) seem to be in great shape. However, I think Bayern is the only German team that can seriously challenge for the Champions League title. They have been disappointing in recent seasons on the European stage, but I hope they will turn it around this year. Go Bayern!
Arsenal was "the best team in Europe" last season too, but all this domestic success has never earned them Champions League success. I suspect Vieira will be extremely dissapointed with his decision to stay. I think Arsenal are built for the EPL. Italian competition render a lot of their players useless, namely Vieira and Henry, their two best players.
True, but every great team has a breakthrough season. I believe its more mental than anything for Arsenal. With Reyes et al I don't think they'll have the same problem this year. They are stronger and deeper than ever before. Not sure why. He's got as good a chance for a CL win with Arsenal as with Real, and he can do it at HIS club, not as a underappreciated member of the galacticos. Sure, like when they destroyed Inter last year 5-1? Without Viera or Reyes? Not sure how Henry can be rendered useless with Reyes on the other side. Either he draws the defense or not. If he does he opens it up more for Reyes and Pires and Ljungberg. If not he's one on with a defender and that's fine as well.
Your post shows what all Arsenal fans show - hope. Inter, although my favorite team, have been a piss-poor team for the past decade. Didn't Cska Moscow or something put 4 past us in the same stage? Also, didn't they trash Arsenal in Highbury during the same group stage? I am not sure. I really doubt Arsenal have as good a chance as Real to win the Champions league. Even Patrick Vieira wouldn't put his money on that. However, I agree that if he won it with Arsenal, it would be more special than winning it with Real. Right now, I think Real have a better chance. If Vieira had joined Real? Hands down favorites to take it. Fact of the matter is that Arsenal have always had trouble in Europe because they keep bringing in players suited to the EPL. There is no space for Ljungberg, Reyes, and Henry to operate when facing an Italian team. They need to run, but Italian teams don't let you run. Ofcourse, they may not play any Italian teams along the way, who knows. I'm willing to bet you that they will perform horribly against Milan if they play. Are they in the same group? I like Barcelona as well. I'm hoping for a Real-Barcelona final. Probably the most entertaining derby in the world.
Arsenal- If Arsenal was in the Spanish League i doubt they would have played 40+ games without losing ....!!!
Do you know if Edgar Davids officially transferred there yet or not? Are the Champions League games going to be on ESPN 2 again? I like Man U but no V Nistlerooy and piss poor defense is killing them.
Yeah, I'm starting to really worry about this team. They're missing their best defender, midfielder and striker in Rio, Keano, and Ruud, but they still shouldn't have problems beating teams like Everton and Blackburn, even though we clearly dominated both games, you can't settle for one point. It now looks like the Rooney deal will go down before the deadline, but I'm starting to think that 25 million should have gone into bringing in a world-class midfielder.
Reyes seemed to do pretty well against Real, no? I'm really not qualified to answer these charges though. I have only been watching the CL for a few years. Can anyone else elaborate between the styles? ManU won a CL with an open game and Real won two with an open game. Monaco was in the finals with an open game and Milan was not last year, as I recall. If Italian playing not to lose actually mattered that much then I wonder why they don't have more recent wins in the CL?
You're right that ManU will be a lot better when they get everyone back, and Rooney. But you do have to wonder where the mystic has gone?
