Michel Platini, the UEFA president has been making the right noises since the time he won the elections. He may not be the most approved or most revered UEFA president but at least he gives an impression of knowing what he is doing. To replace Lennart Johansson would have been tough, but there is no denial that Michel Platini has done a very decent job till now. His plans never was evenly accepted but he seems to think as a footballer while initiating new plans. Earlier I have written a post of Platini’s idea to Introduce a Spending cap, I may not have been in complete favour of the idea, but Platini at least decided to address it. He has always been considered as the greatest talent produced by France, but he is also known for his straight talks. Just before the EURO 2000, Platini said the famous statement comparing Zidane and Maradona - “Zidane does some extraordinary things, it’s true. But you have to put everything in context. What Zidane does with a ball, Maradona could do with an orange”. I do agree with him for what he said, but that blatantly straight forward.

Michel Platini’s Experiments make Champions League more Interesting

There was a huge hue and cry among football faithfuls when Platini announced to do away with seeding in Champions League qualifying stage. I have to admit that even I was not in favour of it. And my doubts were made firm when I saw Celtic was thrown out after getting paired with Arsenal. Panathinaikos was another causality. As we feared there were some really incompetent teams. Debrecen failed to register a point in their group stage but Unirea Urziceni finished third in their group ahead of Rangers. So it was kind of even, but there was no denial that all these clubs celebrated their participation in the Champions League. Their fans in particular enjoyed every minute of their participation. With these moves Platini took the Champions league towards the smaller nations in Europe. Participating in Champions league will be a huge financial boost for these clubs and should definitely help making their league more competitive.

But what made me saw happy was the decision to spread the knock-out round across a month. Here in India, the most watched football league is the English Premier League. Its the same in most of the Asian countries. Every Year we used to miss the Knock-out stage actions of teams like Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. The channels whether ESPN-Star or Ten Sports always preferred to show English club’s matches. The only chance to catch your favorite team in action was to hope that they get drawn against an English team. But that is the last thing we want at such early stages in the League. With the entire Knock-out stage being spread out now I can watch FC Barcelona - Stuttgart match , both the legs live. Now that’s a very welcoming change. This change would be a huge hit among TV Networks. They can telecast more matches live now and earn more revenues from advertisement.

There could be more reforms coming out from Platini in the future. The two most contagious could be the decision to restrict the number of teams participating in Champions league from a single nation to three from present four. Another one would be the 6+5 rule which even Sepp Blatter supports. That one rule is not going to bother Barca fans a bit, we have that covered with an exceptional academy.

In fact, it could be killing it.

Of course being chosen to play for your country is a fantastic honour, it would be for anyone, and you cannot stop players from doing so. But to me, it appears that Vela plays more for Mexico than he does Arsenal.

He is such a big talent but it’s such a bigger shame that we have yet to see the best of Carlos in an Arsenal shirt. We’ve seen flashes of what he can do, but we haven’t seen enough because frankly, he hasn’t played enough.

I know that he is young and that Arsene Wenger is easing him into English football but I thoroughly believe that the Arsenal gaffer would use him a lot more if he was actually available!

It seems that when Vela goes on these long trips to play for Mexico he either comes back injured or is suffering from jet-lag and it must be very frustrating for Wenger to consistently not be able to pick Carlos in his squad as a result.

Vela’s Arsenal career has been stop-start and you have to feel for the boy because, as promising as he is, he isn’t actually getting the chance to have a run in the side and I think its because of the games he plays for Mexico.

The likes of Brazil and Argentina come over to Europe quite a lot to play their international friendly matches. This is mainly because their players are based in Europe so maybe an option for Mexico would be to do the same.

It would certainly help the jet-lag factor!

As frustrating as it is to have yet seen Vela’s Arsenal career explode I think we have to have patience with him. I know we’ve had plenty of patience over the years but in my opinion Carlos Vela is a special case.

This kid will make it and make it big. I really believe that. Wenger has faith and has invested a lot of time with him so I know that Carlos has a great chance at Arsenal.

I only hope that that patience doesn’t wear thin because of the fact he never seems available! That may sound stupid but I’d hate to see him shine at another club, because he would.

The question is; How do you deal with it?

Keep it Goonerish……………..

	20:45 - 22:45	The UEFA Champions League							Live!
				Chelsea	vs.	Inter Milan

From myp2p

Almeria vs Barca Match Report

Almeria vs Barca Highlights.
Barca dropped two vital points after managing only a draw from their visit to Almeria. Actually Barca can consider themselves lucky not to have lost the match after Ibrahmovic was sent off in the beginning of first half. Once again it was Lionel Messi who scored twice to equalise for Barca after conceding two extremely soft goals. Everything was going against us in the match. Real Madrid meanwhile turned around their match against Sevilla after going 2-0 down , eventually winning the encounter 3-2. That victory has taken them ahead in the table on better goal difference. Barca should have been placed first as we have better head to head record this season. But there is no denial that Real Madrid have found their grove lately and are producing some sensational performances. Guardiola who managed to get himself send off, chose Alves, Puyol, Milito and Maxwell in defense in front of Valdes. Iniesta and Xavi formed the midfield partnership with Toure. The front three had Messi, Ibra and Pedro lining up together.

Barca Went down early against run off play

Barca took control of the game early on. Guadiola adopted the same tactics which he employed against Malaga. He had Messi playing in a pocket behind Ibrahmovic and Iniesta playing in the wing. I was not in favour of this tactic as I believed any team who can put pressure on our midfield can capitalise with this tactic’s weakness. Malaga wasn’t ready for that but Almeria at least tried. If we try this against Stuttgart, then forget Champions Legue. Pep convinces me again that he is a no-hope tactician. The first ten minutes gave an impression that Almeria was going to have a tough night. In the 12th minute Cisma put Almeria ahead against the run of play. He beat Puyol to head home a corner. Toure was the one marking Cisma and allowed him to get off easily. All of Barca’s attack was coming via Lionel Messi. Xavi and Messi forced splendid save from Almeira custodian Diego Lopez. In the 24th minute Ibrahmovic had a great chance to equalise, but he headed wide from a Iniesta cross. In the 27th minute Guardiola saw himself being send off to the stands for complaining about a possible penalty. In the 4nd minute Barca were awarded a free kick just outside the box. Messi cleverly chipped the ball over the wall and into the near corner to take the scoreline 1-1.

Barca Players fail to take control in Second Half

Barca players failed to take control of the game from the start of second half. We were made to pay for being complacent when Puyol slide directed a cross from Guilherme on the left to his own goal past a on rushing Valdes. To make matters worse Ibrahmovic managed to get himself sent off at the other end for swinging his leg on Cisma. That sent off did revitalize us a bit and we equalised in the 66th minute. Iniesta played the ball to Pedro on the left, the defender failed to clear Pedro’s cross , actually he played it into the centre where Messi stabbed it home. But eventually the fact that we were a player down prevented us from winning the game. Messi had some chance to complete his hat-trick, but failed to take those. Almeria had a couple of chances also, but luckily for us failed to take any of those.

In the end of the game, we paid dearly for our complacency. The players looks far from interested in the proceedings in the pitch. Going for Ibrahmovic in the summer is still proving to be a disaster. The pace has dropped from barca’s game and it is hurting us a lot. Ibrahmovic is sure to miss Valencia’s visit to Camp Nou. Bojan could get a rare start and he should take it with his hands down. Pep Guardiola is showing again that he is no tactician. Stop experimenting with the formation like this. By doing so he is cutting the pace from the wings especially the right. Puyol was at fault of second goal and Toure was at fault for the first. With Real Madrid in such revived form it is time for Barca to take their destiny to their own hand.