PinoyPS Fifa 11 League

This might be the best game of the knockout stages so far. Not taking away with Schalke’s victory but I felt that Valencia was the better side in this match. The Los Che dominated the match in terms of possession and shots on goal but one thing that they didn’t expect is that how a select few can easily change the flow of the game. These individuals are Germany no.1 Manuel Neuer, the hard working Mario Gavranovic and Jefferson Agustin “Little Dynamite” Farfan. Gavranovic caused problems to the Valencia defense the whole match resulting to a hard earned goal, that made the match 2-1, and 2 shots that hit the woodwork, more importantly, he was responsible in winning the free kick that led to Farfan’s equaliser. Manuel Neuer was at the top of his game that night, performing countless of saves time and time again, and he bailed Schalke’s shaky defensive partnership of Metzelder and Howedes with a point blank save from an Aduriz shot.  The man of the match was Jefferson Farfan, dubbed as “Little Dynamite!!” by me, was all over the pitch and was involved in all of Schalke’s goals (scoring 2). Little Dynamite was the spark that Schalke needed with his suicide runs into the box. Schalke’s goal chances the whole game were far and few but almost all were finished clinically.

Watching the 2nd leg late last night, it seems that the gunners were just waiting for the inevitable which was a Barcelona victory. Arsenal spend the whole game backpedelling and never had a clear cut chance the whole game. The only good thing that came from the match for Arsenal was the corner kick that led to Busquets own goal, but It will be remember as a Barcelona mistake rather than a decisive play by Arsenal.

Arsenal played with their tradional (4-3-2-1) formation but with all the constant Barcelona pressure the formation began to look like a (4-4-2) and sometimes (4-5-1). As a result, Robin Van Persie never had a chance to run the break as he was left to battle virtually alone and loosing the ball countless of times. The weakest links for the match was Cesc Fabregas and Laurent Koscielny. The only contribution Fabregas was the good backheel assist to Iniesta that led to Messi’s first goal, he shouldn’t have played in this game as he was just a liability. Koscielny  look out of position the whole game, letting his mark past him countless of times and leading to countless Barcelona Chances. He made tons of reckless fouls and gave away the penalty, a pitiful performance.

Barcelona played with their famous (4-3-3) formation,and just destroyed the Arsenal midfield with slick 1-2 passing. Besides Messi ,Xavi and Iniesta, two players caught my attention and that would be Pedro and Adriano. Both of them caused trouble to the right flank of Arsenal and really made Sagna work. Adriano runs were explosives that almost resulted to a goal but the ball just hit the woodwork. Pedro run Sagna to the ground and fully supported David Villa and Messi, his work led to the third goal for Barcelona as he was pull down by Koscielny. The Barcelona defense had no trouble stopping Arsenal , not including the own goal, both Abidal and Busquets (Played for Puyol and Pique) were solid the whole night.


Post match – Arsene Wegner said that the had the chance to win the game but the referee blew it by sending of Robin Van Persie because of kicking the ball away seconds after he was caught offside. In my opinion, that was the right call as this was really a card booking offense. Fifa already sent a memoramdum about this play way before the season started. In fact , the same thing happened to Ibrahimovic during the match against Roma this season.

Frustrating night for Roma as they were manhandled by the fast Shakhtar offense in both legs. Roma was a goal down prior to this game but needed a 2 goal lead in this game if they are hoping to advance (away goal rule). After the sending off of Philippe Mexes in the 41st Minute, the Lupi just gave up and played half-heartedly as they were thrashed with 3 goals by the miners.


Roma used a (4-2-3-1) formation, and was on fire early on with 6 quick shots on goal in the first 17 minutes before being caught with a Shakhtar counter attack that led to the first goal of the game. The problem with the counter attack offense of Shakhtar is that the wingbacks can't committ to the offense for fear of being caught with their pants down. This was the case in this game, Missing Cassetti, Riise was the only wingback for Roma and he was being cautious in joining the offense. Mexes has been a hit or miss the whole season, as he is either the best defender for Roma or the worst. In this night, it proved to be the later, as he had a hard time containing Luiz Adriano and resulting to him being sent off for tripping the brazilian to stop the counter attack. Taddei didn't do anything in the game and was a dissapointment, Borriello was in his typical self which is folding up in big pressure games as he miss a penalty with a weak-ass shot.

Not playing Totti on this game and missing Jeremy Menez really hunted Roma but the main problem was Shaktar's formation and tactics. Like in the group stages, the miners are capitalizing against teams that builds plays on the midfield and teams that uses attacking wing backs. With their quick attacking trio, they are catching these teams disorganized and leading to some easy goals.

TEAM	MANAGER	Score	MANAGER	TEAM
Barcelona	cjei05	1-5	takussa	Bayern Munich
Barcelona	cjei05	3-1	takussa	Bayern Munich

TEAM	MANAGER	Score	MANAGER	TEAM
Chelsea	sleepwalkcircus	-	ASS_EXPECTED	Real Madrid
Chelsea	sleepwalkcircus	-	ASS_EXPECTED	Real Madrid

TEAM	MANAGER	Score	MANAGER	TEAM
Manchester City	wildriver_23	-	eijan31USA	Roma
Manchester City	wildriver_23	-	eijan31USA	Roma

TEAM	MANAGER	Score	MANAGER	TEAM
Bayern Munich	takussa	1-2	eijan31USA	Roma
Bayern Munich	takussa	1-1	eijan31USA	Roma

TEAM	MANAGER	Score	MANAGER	TEAM
Real Madrid	ASS_EXPECTED	2-1	cjei05	Barcelona
Real Madrid	ASS_EXPECTED	1-0	cjei05	Barcelona

TEAM	MANAGER	Score	MANAGER	TEAM
Manchester City	wildriver_23	-	sleepwalkcircus	Chelsea
Manchester City	wildriver_23	-	sleepwalkcircus	Chelsea