Preseason Friendly: Dinamo Bucharest vs FC Barcelona

Dinamo Bucharest vs FC Barcelona! With just one week to go before the league gets under way, Barça face Dinamo Bucharest tonight in the last of their preseason friendlies

Tito Vilanova’s side is unbeaten in preseason fixtures after beating Hamburg and Raja Club Athletic and drawing with PSG and Manchester United, although they won both those games on penalties

At 19.15 CET on Saturday evening, Barça face Dinamo Bucharest in their final warm-up match before the 2012/13 season officially commences. The Catalans are unbeaten in preseason friendlies this summer, after winning at Hamburg SV and Raja Club Athletic Casablanca and then drawing with Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United after 90 minutes, although they followed both those games with wins in penalty shootouts.

In the Romanian capital, Tito Vilanova’s ‘mini-tour’ of Gothenburg and Bucharest will come to an end. The squad then returns home to start focusing on the Liga opener against Real Sociedad, which will be on Sunday August 19 at 21.00. A win in Romania would be the perfect boost for the side ahead of that clash with the side from San Sebastian.

Fontàs back

After making his debut against Manchester United, Jordi Alba could feature even more prominently in tonight’s game. We may also get our first glimpse of Andreu Fontàs after a seven-month absence through injury. Dani Alves is also expected to play, for despite spraining an ankle against Man United, fortunately it was a far less serious injury than originally feared. Carles Puyol, however, missed the final training session in Sweden with thigh injury.

Messi on fire

Leo Messi is Barcelona’s top scorer this preseason with four goals. He’ll be looking to add even more to his account on Saturday, and it’s a comforting thought for Barça supporters to know that the Argentinian superstar doesn’t seem to have lost anything of his goalscoring touch.

Historic Romanian side

With thirty-three titles, Dinamo is the second most successful club in Romanian football history. In total, they have won eighteen Leagues, thirteen Cups and two Supercups, a record only surpassed by their biggest rivals, Steaua.

The club’s most legendary figure is the great Dudu Georgescu, who won the Ballon d’Or in both 1975 and 1977, the latter for what was an all-time European record of 47 league goals in the 1976/77 season. Some wondered if anybody would ever be able to amass a tally like that ever again, but it happened. And the man who did it was none other than Leo Messi with his extraordinary 50 goals for FC Barcelona in the 2011/12 Liga season.

Date and Time: 08/11/2012 19:15 CET

I read somewhere that the pitch is so bad that some areas are painted green to hide some bald spots!!! LOL

Fingers crossed no injuries. I hope barca players take it easy on that pitch, it deosnt matter if we lose.

gondov wrote:I read somewhere that the pitch is so bad that some areas are painted green to hide some bald spots!!! LOL

Fingers crossed no injuries. I hope barca players take it easy on that pitch, it deosnt matter if we lose.

It's a lie. The pitch is quiet good. The only match it was bad was at Romania-France.

The pitch looks like shit.

Lots of questions for Tito to find answers for, the search continues for goals

it seems messi will have to score 70 liga goals next season...

Sanchez actually had a good game this time and tried to dribble a couple times, and pressured extremely well. I posted the fulltime highlights in the multimedia section but if it's OK, i'll post it here too:

Here's a nice dribble by Sanchez. Showing us he's still got it. Also some nice pressing by him.

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Every game highlight I see, I see Alexis and Messi connecting for chances. He also connected well with him last season.

Somewhere here said they dont connect well, which I found very wrong at the time.

Nice finish Affelay.

Alexis had great game...
Bartra was good too, but Masche did some mistakes at the back!

Alba is doing well... Impressed by Rafinha, he played just 15 minutes (replaced Messi), but really showed confidence and some good skills..

One more thing, Busquets = God of football

Khaled wrote:Alexis had great game...
Bartra was good too, but Masche did some mistakes at the back!

Alba is doing well... Impressed by Rafinha, he played just 15 minutes (replaced Messi), but really showed confidence and some good skills..

One more thing, Busquets = God of football

Okay busquets is slowing becoming my favourite Barca player after Messi. Seriously this guy is amazing. That pitch was rubbish but some of his passing is

Its not just about accuracy for him too, its how quickly he moves the ball and most passes go foward too!!

gondov wrote:

Khaled wrote:Alexis had great game...
Bartra was good too, but Masche did some mistakes at the back!

Alba is doing well... Impressed by Rafinha, he played just 15 minutes (replaced Messi), but really showed confidence and some good skills..

One more thing, Busquets = God of football

Okay busquets is slowing becoming my favourite Barca player after Messi. Seriously this guy is amazing. That pitch was rubbish but some of his passing is

Its not just about accuracy for him too, its how quickly he moves the ball and most passes go foward too!!

exactly...

Sanchez played better. His dribbling was better, passing was better and was creating chances. The tika taka this preseason has been very good though we haven't been creating enough chances. Today however, we did though we couldn't take them. Alba had a terrific game. Was very good attacking wise and has the pace and stamina to come back. He was solid defensively and that really impressed me... Barta had another good game. I think he deserves at least 10 appearances this coming season starts or substitution as he has shown class. So good to see Villa come back. Fontas also was back though he didn't do enough to get a 'rating' though I fear that his playing days with Barca are over. When Dinamo were on the counter, he was really struggling to come back and was relying on his fullback and midfielders to cover for him though saying that, it was his first game back after recovering from a major injury.

Bartresi I think's the real deal. Whenever he has played this pre-season he has looked confident and cool under any pressure.

Sanchez was much better ( probably was reading this forum lol)

dat Afellay finish

FCBarça wrote:

Excellent first touch.

Where is the guy who said he has thw worst first touch of any pro he seen, or some nonesense to that effect.

Yeah let's forget all the other times his touch *bleep* up and focus on the one occasion he succeeded.





OMFG these two must be the best strikers in the world then!

Spoiler:

Yes thats the point im making, he now has the best first touch in the world lol

Fluke? Get a grip buddy.

All I can say is that I have never been frustrated by a player's touch as much as I have while watching Afellay. It may be his confidence, that I am unaware of, but it remains a fact for me that his first touch is poor.

Stop hating on afellay I never really see him misplace a first touch. Your just a hater

Fair enough, but as quick as your are to criticise his bad touches, your not as quick to recognise the quality moments when they arrive and brand them as luck.

Got to be fair, it goes both ways. Call them out when they doing something bad, praise them when they do something well.

Casting it off as luck makes it seem like your have another agenda, you just dont like him and will do anything to show that.

The Franchise wrote:Fair enough, but as quick as your are to criticise his bad touches, your not as quick to recognise the quality moments when they arrive and brand them as luck.

Got to be fair, it goes both ways. Call them out when they doing something bad, praise them when they do something well.

Casting it off as luck makes it seem like your have another agenda, you just dont like him and will do anything to show that.

This 1000x

also some good highlights for anyone who didnt watch the match
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-iMD5zdXEU

What's the point in not keeping Afellay?

He's a pretty good winger and would start there for many teams, and he can play in the midfield- he came cheap and while I don't know how much he makes p/w I'm sure it's not much (comparatively).

He's the perfect supersub, and in a team which has shown a lack of depth over the years despite great success, this is invaluable. He also has other things to offer: pace that is matched by very few in Barca, a strong shot which almost none here have, and a long shot (which goes hand in hand with the strong shot).

I like Afellay, his first touch isn't orgasmic, but it's not below average, it's pretty decent. The only reason his might look bad is because he plays with Barca.

It would be a shame if we sold him, in my opinion.

We won't sell him, his agent said he will stay. He will add extra depth in the squad...

Never said he was a bad player. In fact I always thought he gives Barcelona a new dimension (when needed), as you said, with his pace and shooting capability and his overall 'directness'. I recall him coming from the in CL semi-final Bernabeu two years ago where he assisted Messi, causing Marcelo all sorts of trouble on the right flank with his pace and quick feet during his short 20-minute stay. He could be a potential super-sub indeed.

Doesn't change my opinion about his touch however. Also I'm not too fond of his work-rate when Barcelona don't have the ball. Pedro, Sánchez and Villa are superior in that regard. And I regard Pedro and Villa tactically smarter than him, and Sánchez while we are at it.