Better tactics: Defend & Win -CFc style or Attack to Lose?

[Vindave]

Just to put some people on the thinking side ...

Is it better to attack, create lots of chances, spurn them all and lose as Barca did or to defend, create one chance, score it and win as Chelsea did? I'll let you lot argue that out here my guys. I know exactly which one of the two tactics to choose, what about you?

[Vindave]

I love winning games.... more especially if there is a big price attached.

[oluphemmie007]

i'll take defend and win.does not matter if i rented all of NRC's bad trains.

[GUEST]

END RESULT IS ALL THAT MATTERS--"W".

[jimmy]

Bros, football is all about winning and good result. In fact, defenders are under rated! Their shd be getting similar praise the forwards get whenever their put in a good shift like Chelsea did tonight.

Defending is also tactic and strategic just like attacking. There are many ways of doing things and achieving same result.

What matter most is winning!

[Vindave]

Hear what somebody said just now in BBC SPORT.

"Chelsea defended better than Barca attacked, therefore Chelsea were the better team. Defending is criminally underrated." - Conor Deering

[kamerun]

Barca missed tap in master Eto'o today.

Kai that cameroonian boy would have stolen the limelight again. I now understand why he made a name for himself at Barca. As a stiker that team creates so many chances that you just have to be decent to shine. Eto'o today would have punished Chelsea. Did Villa play? Where is he? Barca lacked just a decent poacher today thats all...

[juventuss]

Barca missed tap in master Eto'o today.

Kai that cameroonian boy would have stolen the limelight again. I now understand why he made a name for himself at Barca. As a stiker that team creates so many chances that you just have to be decent to shine. Eto'o today would have punished Chelsea. Did Villa play? Where is he? Barca lacked just a decent poacher today thats all...

Common.. How many trophies have they won since he left ?

[asabe]

Barca missed tap in master Eto'o today.

Kai that cameroonian boy would have stolen the limelight again. I now understand why he made a name for himself at Barca. As a stiker that team creates so many chances that you just have to be decent to shine. Eto'o today would have punished Chelsea. Did Villa play? Where is he? Barca lacked just a decent poacher today thats all...

Barcelona never had a goalless game when Etoo was on the field.























nb: sarcasm

[kamerun]

Thats why I asked where was Villa because he is another top striker (in facte even better than Etoo in my opinion). You see at this stage of the comp semis and final details make the difference. I am telling you that any decent striker that can score at least 1 goal out of 3 chances (not even 2 but 1) would have dumped chelsea out of the competition today.

[furiously frank]

Barca missed tap in master Eto'o today.

Kai that cameroonian boy would have stolen the limelight again. I now understand why he made a name for himself at Barca. As a stiker that team creates so many chances that you just have to be decent to shine. Eto'o today would have punished Chelsea. Did Villa play? Where is he? Barca lacked just a decent poacher today thats all...

I actually agree. Etoo would have made a difference today.

[asabe]

Thats why I asked where was Villa because he is another top striker (in facte even better than Etoo in my opinion). You see at this stage of the comp semis and final details make the difference. I am telling you that any decent striker that can score at least 1 goal out of 3 chances (not even 2 but 1) would have dumped chelsea out of the competition today.

If Villa was playing and not Alexi Sanchez you probably would be saying the opposite. A team plays with 11 players and sometimes you win and sometimes you lose.

[Coach]

This is not even a question worthy of debate. T'is only in the world of Wenger that silky skills that yield as much as the shriveled ovary of a 60 year old with Turner's Syndrome are celebrated. Greece won the European Championships playing on the counter, one attempt, one goal. History will never ask of how they played, just what they won.

[tfco]

Barca missed tap in master Eto'o today.

Kai that cameroonian boy would have stolen the limelight again. I now understand why he made a name for himself at Barca. As a stiker that team creates so many chances that you just have to be decent to shine. Eto'o today would have punished Chelsea. Did Villa play? Where is he? Barca lacked just a decent poacher today thats all...

Africa's #2 has been out of action for a while.

[Bigpokey24]

[joplass]

Africa's #2 has been out of action for a while.

Africa #1 retired with a hefty bank account

[tfco]

Africa's #2 has been out of action for a while.

Africa #1 retired with a hefty bank account

..nice article on Africa's Numero Uno

A few hours before Chelsea stunned Barcelona 1-0 in the first leg of their Champions League semifinal on Wednesday, Time magazine released its annual list of the 100 most influential people on the planet.

Four athletes who might qualify as household names — depending on where your house is — made it.

The first three ranged from dumb (Jeremy Lin) to dumber (Novak Djokovic) to Mt. Dumberest (Tim Tebow). Only one of those three guys is globally famous, and he’s famous for being the Martin Short of tennis’ Three Amigos.

None of them is particularly influential.

If Tim Tebow tells you to switch from homo to 2 per cent — which is just a good idea — your reaction is going to be, “And when did Florida start giving out doctorates?”

They got it right with No. 4 — Lionel Messi.

If Messi reads an article on global warming tonight and suggests tomorrow that half of us move to the moon, a lot of the world is going to start packing.

Messi doesn’t say much, which only makes him more influential. In a field full of narcissists and blowhards, shyness now passes for wisdom.

Off the top of your head, you could come up with 20 or 30 better choices from the world of sport. One of them was undoing Messi on Wednesday.

Facing the finest professional football team in history, Chelsea was faced with one major question — How badly do we want to lose? — and one minor one — Who’s going to start up front?

On the first, they abstained. On the second, they preferred the aging power of Didier Drogba to the manic and depressive style of Fernando Torres.

If by influence we mean the athlete who has more visibility and more sway than any other, Drogba is an easy answer to Time’s proposition.

The Ivorian once stopped a civil war by dropping to his knees during a post-match press conference and asking for peace.

Two men. Both taking knees. One saved thousands and thousands of lives. The other inspired a Saturday Night Live skit.

We can see how difficult Time’s choice must have been.

At 34, Drogba is not the force he once was on the pitch. He has only 10 goals this year.

Going into Wednesday’s game, Messi had notched 63 times season, more than Chelsea’s top five goal scorers combined.

But the London club’s interim leader, Roberto Di Matteo, played a hunch, and may have played himself into a permanent job.

Where Messi was typically brilliant and usefully flashy, Drogba was resilient and cunning. Chelsea did the only thing you can do against this Barcelona team — they backed up in front of them. But they did so purposefully.

Barcelona was far the better team and far the unluckier.

In the first half, Alexis Sanchez chipped goalkeeper Petr Cech and hit the crossbar. Cesc Fabregas whiffed on one clear chance and under-hit another that was cleared off the line. Gary Cahill tackled Andres Iniesta as he skinned by him in the box. Iniesta — in many ways the most easily admired player at work today — refused to fall and draw the penalty.

And then the unlikeliest goat of all emerged.

Shortly before the end of the first half, Messi slipped and tugged his groin. After the restart, Javier Mascherano immediately outletted to Messi. The Argentine, moving gingerly, allowed the ball to be taken off his foot by Frank Lampard.

Lampard outletted to Ramires. Ramires squared the ball across the face of goal. The entire Barcelona backline — obviously Time subscribers — forgot about Drogba, who hustled up for the muscular tap-in.

Barca pressed throughout the second half, but could do no better than hitting the post with seconds left.

This was supposed to be a procession to the final for the two Spanish sides, Real and Barca. Both now find themselves headed home for the second leg and trailing by a goal (Real sits in the better position, having lost 2-1 to Bayern Munich on Tuesday).

Complicating matters, they play each other in a crucial La Liga encounter on Saturday. Barcelona trails Real in the title race by four points with five remaining contests.

So it’s two more wars in the next week for Spain’s finest.

Still, despite the early results, we will expect a highly motivated Messi to be the one prompting calls for ceasefires in Tuesday’s return

[galoise]

Common.. How many trophies have they won since he left ?

Tel them lol.. When Eto'o ledt, the story was Barca needs another dimension.. now u are back to Barca misses Eto'o! Common, true an inform Eto'o has no match in the world, but Barca has done well with & without him! Barca's problem today was the same problem they've had for ages... They just dont know how to play against Chelski.

In any case, Vill ahas been injured for donkey months now...

[Kabalega]

Just to put some people on the thinking side ...

Is it better to attack, create lots of chances, spurn them all and lose as Barca did or to defend, create one chance, score it and win as Chelsea did? I'll let you lot argue that out here my guys. I know exactly which one of the two tactics to choose, what about you?

The right answer is, it depends. AC Milan played Barca in a similar way and lost.

However, your question is based on a myth that Barca attacked, most of the time. They did not do so in this game. In fact, they were overly defensive against Chelsea (though they were the more attacking team). It's just that their primary form of defense was/is to quickly win back the ball and move it around, which they did to near perfection. When Chelsea was open at the back, Barca simply moved the ball around giving Chelsea defenders enough time to recover.

Barca's defensive transition (wining back the ball) was almost excellent but their attacking transition was slow. Chelsea had the opposite, a slow defensive transition and a fast attacking transition. A fast attacking transition wins most of the time wether a team holds onto the ball or parks 2 banks of 4 players in front of goal.

[zoro]

PUYOL, NO ETO and ABIDAL, SIZE AND HEIGHT KILLED BARCA.

Pror to last nights match, serious minded analysts knew Chelsea were going to pack the bus and they did. Now Messi loses possession and there comes a counter from Chelsea. Where was Puyol? Puyols ball watching and lack of defensive discipline left Drogba unmarked and unchallenged hence the goal. This is where the defensive prowess of Abidal is severely missed in Barca.

In the real play Chelsea had packed the bus so barca needed somebody like Eto to match the physical challenge of Chelse defenders. There was non.Brarca played wide yet there wasn't any with adequate height and size for the nedded aerial battle. Even in corner kicks, these materials were lacking.
So how will barca do at the Nue camp? Barca will have to introduce a style that will get Chelsea defence to disintegrate. How they will do that is what we await.

[mcal]

....how they will do at nou camp is import the best referres case closed. But i think drogba will 'act' again sending them into a trance-like mood. Btw, eto o been gone for long and barca been playing on the ground because of the midget play maker closest to the ground

[zoro]

Vindave,
I no more hear the English press shouting against "negative" football

[kajifu]

Yes they miss player like Eto'o and Villa in attack.Yes Adriano was a bomb if Chelsea would have attack them.This is where Abidal come with experience.He would have close down Drogba and Puyol was looking to go after the Kenya acting like Brazilian.
One thing i know is Chelsea defend well and take Messi out of them game with too much players around him when he has the ball.Even at that the little midget was still the most threat.
Barca will be out on tuesday.Chelsea can defend well and all they need is Drogba acting up again.
Get an away goal and defend as a unit.The is no way Chelsea will allow 2 goals.
If the first 45 minutes is 0-0 then Barca is out period.