Arq

YES!!!! Let's win this now!! Nice phantom yellow on Essien. He barely touched Modric.

I heard Bossy got hurt. What happened? Could it be a long term thing?

Gotcha. Thanks!

What happened? ESPN reported a penalty then they took away those Gamecast lines. Was there a penalty and was it saved or did it just not happen?

Happy Birthday JT!

I agree as well. I always thought he was underutilized by Benitez.

There is nothing wrong with admiring how other teams play. What you had said was that they play the "right way", which at the very least implies that we should be playing the same way to play well. I don't agree with that. Barcelona can play some very entertaining free flowing football. Great on them. That's not our style though and we've been pretty well off minus some ruts, like the one we're currently in. I remember that game all too well. Unfortunately, you brought up another bad example. We were the better team that day, no doubt in my mind. We lost due to Orvebo, it's as simple as that. We should have had at least two clear penalties, probably three, that weren't called. The score should have been 3-1, not 1-1. Iniesta's strike in stoppage time shouldn't have mattered that much. That 65-70% of possession would have been wasted. 11 cannot beat 12. I know at times people harp on the refs and it may or may not be justified. That day, everyone knew that Orvebo screwed us. Even fans of our rivals and fans of Barca knew it. Still though, this whole thing doesn't help us with the rut we are currently in, and it's a heck of a rut.

I played goalkeeper back in the day. I never modeled myself after anyone, it was just something I latched on to and enjoyed it. I had started at Left Wing. Like Zola, my left is much better than my right and my coaches could never find anyone to fill that void. One time I had to sub for our starting GK at the time and I was deemed a natural so I was kept there. Now I coach GK to the my son's local club. My son is first choice GK and enjoys it a lot. He's been playing in net since he was 4 (he's 9 now). He plays where he's needed, but he loves GK the most. And I always wore #13. It's my lucky number (oldest daughter was born on a Friday the 13th, youngest daughter was born on the 13th minute of the hour... hehe).

Any StarCraft 2 players out there? :)

Exactly. It's not that Barca are playing good or better football than us. There are currently a lot of clubs that are playing much better than we are. It's that they play the "right way" and we aren't. I want our club to win. I want the players to show that they want to win. Carlo will determine the tactics and how those tactics should be executed. It's up for the players to execute. And if things are going well, it's up to Carlo to change those tactics and/or players as needed. The "right way" to play is the way it takes to win the game without being dirty. Whether that is defensive, offensive, or a mix in between. If that equates to a Chelsea victory, then that is what counts.

Saaladin, welcome to the forums first and foremost. With that said, you can't say things like... ...and really expect to get a positive response. Honestly, you don't deserve a positive response. Barcelona plays football the way THEY play football. Chelsea play football the way THEY play football. What I want to see is passion, desire, and heart from Chelsea. I could care less about Barcelona, unless we are playing them, and then it's just so we can beat them. I watch this club regardless of the way they play. This is the club I root for regardless of formation, coach, winning streak, losing streak, players, etc. This is my club team... Yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Your statement, and sorry but I don't know you, makes me feel you're more of a Barca fan. That's fine, just say it if you are. And quite frankly, I don't find Barcelona's game all that beautiful. Not even their drubbing of Real Madrid.

I'm just in shock. I thought we would have shown a lot more after going up in the first half. Gutted.

2 min + stoppage to fix this...

Oh my goodness... My heart just stopped with Everton hitting the post

Agree 100%. And would love to see that second goal!

I completely agree with you Cam. If FIFA is going to move the World Cup because of the heat in Qatar during the summer, then it shouldn't have been awarded to Qatar. What was the point? If this really is true, then the delegates need to revote on the other bids and award it to the winner. Of course, I would hope that wouldn't be a corrupted process and I'm not sure that would be possible... Here's something interesting that I heard on the radio yesterday. If the USA would have joint bid with Canada, we would have a better chance of winning the bid because the agenda that was supposedly made clear to the bidding organizations is that FIFA would rather expand to new places over ticket sales since it's not ticket sales that creates the bulk of the revenue, it's the sponsors. Somehow it appears that the USA, UK, and Australia all missed that memo. I also heard that Blatter is expanding to new locations to use that as his basis for trying to win the Nobel Peace Prize. That sounds a little more far fetched but thinking about it, it wouldn't completely surprise me if it were true. It was interesting to hear those angles on my drive home yesterday from work. Whether they are true or not, who knows...

Australia only got one vote?? Wow...

I had read somewhere that the Qatar stadiums were going to be ripped apart and shipped to other third world countries after the 2022 World Cup was over. I wish I had a link, but I don't remember where I read that from.

I'm so bitter for both results. I can't tell you how bitter I am...

I wouldn't insult Paul the octopus like that. ;)

Brilliant article. That was definitely a good read.

I understand, and totally agree. The win is what's needed, I don't care how our next goal goes in as long as one goes in and we get the 3 points.

I don't think we're quite that fragile, are we? ;)

Yes, but sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Like I said, I hope this fires them up for the second half. The quality is there, they just need to get the passion and drive to make it happen.

YES!!! KALLLOOOUUUU!!!! My poor fingernails can stop taking their beating they've had for the past 30 minutes or so. Let's hope that fires the boys up for the second half!