Das Gästebuch » Champions League. The official matchday program

MINNEAPOLIS -- The shots were clanking and the frustration was mounting for J.J. Barea during a three-game shooting slump that was getting him booed off his home court with regularity. With the lowly Milwaukee Bucks hitting everything in sight, Minnesota coach Rick Adelman gave Barea some time with the Ricky Rubio in the same backcourt, and the throwback lineup helped jumpstart Barea and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Kevin Love had 27 points, 10 rebounds and six assists and Barea scored 19 points to lift the Timberwolves to a 112-101 victory over the Bucks on Tuesday night. After going 5 for his previous 25, Barea hit seven of 10 shots to help wake up the sluggish Wolves and Kevin Martin scored 26 points to help them finish a four-game homestand at 2-2. After carving a niche for himself in this league as a helter-skelter, mini-shooting guard who thrives when playing alongside a bigger point guard, roster limitations have forced Adelman to play Barea as a more prototypical backup point guard this season. But Milwaukee plays a smaller backcourt, which allowed Adelman the chance to pair Barea and Rubio. "I love it. I miss it," Barea said. "I miss playing off the ball a little bit, especially with Ricky. When Im making shots, its great for our team." Brandon Knight scored 21 points for the Bucks (13-51), who led at halftime and were looking for their first set of back-to-back victories this season. But after scoring 61 points in the first half and leading by 11 points in the second quarter, the Bucks were outscored 19-4 to start the fourth quarter. "Fourth quarter, we couldnt really get anything going," said Bucks guard Nate Wolters, who had 14 points. "Weve had problems all year in the fourth quarter closing games. We gave ourselves a chance to win, having a lead going into the fourth, but just couldnt get it going and win." Rubio had 11 points and 10 assists and three steals for Minnesota. "J.J.s a great scorer and sometimes he needs to play the (shooting guard)," Rubio said. "But its hard to do it when they have a (big) two. But I like playing with him. He made shots today and he played a lot." The Timberwolves scored 30 points off of 15 turnovers by Milwaukee to offset some porous defence that allowed the Bucks to shoot 52.7 per cent. They trailed by six points at halftime, but Love and Dante Cunningham fueled the game-clinching run with a flurry of jumpers that pushed the lead to 105-88. "There was no pace and we let them get defensive stops," said Bucks forward ZaZa Pachulia, who had a career-high 10 assists with nine points and six rebounds. "They are one of the best teams in transition and they got out in front of us and got easy buckets in transition. We just werent able to get back." The Wolves (32-31) entered the game five games behind Memphis for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. In all likelihood, they kicked away their chance to make the post-season for the first time in 10 years with losses to the Knicks and Raptors earlier in this homestand. A loss to the worst team in the league at home surely would have ended any slim hopes that remained. The Bucks have been playing better basketball, at least offensively, since a trade last month brought Ramon Sessions and Adrien from Charlotte and sent disgruntled guard Gary Neal to the Bobcats. Even so, they were playing the second night of a back-to-back while the Wolves were playing their fourth straight game at home. The Bucks also were missing starting power forward Ersan Ilyasova because of a sore ankle. But as the Timberwolves have done all year long, they delivered a listless defensive effort to give their opponent life it had no business having. Milwaukee made its first 12 shots, the longest streak without a miss to open a game in the league this season, and shot over 71 per cent in the first quarter to jump out to a 33-22 lead. Barea made his first six shots in the second quarter, including a layup that tied the game at 49. NOTES: Wolters, from nearby St. Cloud, Minn., had a large contingent of fans who came both from his hometown and from South Dakota. Wolters starred in college at South Dakota State. ... Timberwolves F Luc Richard Mbah a Moute hosted a dozen young fans from the south of France. The fans made plans to travel to the U.S. to see him play for Sacramento against New York. But Mbah a Moute was traded to Minnesota in December, so he picked up the tab to change their flights. Cheap Air VaporMax Store . As the only competitor to try two quads, much less complete them, Kovtun ended the day nearly nine points ahead of Japans Tatsuki Machida, who opened with a clean quad but then stepped out of the triple toe loop that was the second jump in his combination. Supply Air VaporMax Shop . -- The guys in green raced off the court and into the locker room where they danced and sang, compared whose shot was most likely to end up featured on "One Shining Moment," and checked Twitter to see who was giving them a shoutout. http://www.cheapairvapormaxoutlet.com/. There will be no Down Under four-peat for Djokovic, as the eighth-seeded Swiss slugger Wawrinka outlasted the second seed 2-6, 6-4, 6-2, 3-6, 9-7 at Melbourne Parks Rod Laver Arena in yet another five-set thriller in their burgeoning rivalry. Womens Air VaporMax Online . Tampa Bay Buccaneers RB Doug Martin broke the news that hes cleared for full activity moving forward. Green Youth Air VaporMax . Some will say that Martin is too sensitive while others will say that it is part of the way football is in the locker room. But to have to absorb what was said to him for any rational and intelligent person is too much.It hit me this week. There it was staring at me in the form of a magazine advert for posters. Placed together as portraits were drawings of four high-profile football managers but one made me do a double take. It wasnt long ago that the face of David Moyes, placed next to Jose Mourinho, Manuel Pellegrini and Arsene Wenger, would not have made me think twice. I have always hoped he would succeed, back to the days when I covered him as a manager of Preston North End. Yet, heading into Wednesdays crucial game against Olympiakos, it was easy to look at him differently after what has taken place under his watch at Manchester United this season. I am not a United fan but when I visited Old Trafford for their clash with Chelsea in August I was pleased that he had been given a chance. "The Chosen One" sign hung proudly in the famous Stretford End and the United fans sung songs with his name in them and mocked the manager in the opposing dugout. "You wanted the job...you wanted the job...Jose Mourinho...you wanted the job!" Seven months on and the joke has turned on them. Oh how they must wish for Mourinho to be in charge of Manchester United today. The same amount of home league wins as Crystal Palace. Fewer home league goals than Stoke, Swansea and West Ham. More than twice as many league losses than Chelsea. "This has been a difficult season," admitted Moyes in his programme notes for Wednesdays home match against Olympiakos in the second leg of their last 16 encounter in the crown jewel of club football, the Champions League. The official matchday programme had a message for fans before they even opened it saying, on the front cover, the Reds are determined to give everything. Inside the desperation reached new heights with a message from Moyes telling the fans to "make time wasting noticeable to the officials." It all felt a little forced. Defensive, in fact. From a team full of stars who have underperformed this season, the one message they wanted to make sure they got across was that they would give it everything. Manchester United expect more than effort but on a day when it felt like their managers job was seriously on the line, this was the message they were given. It was a night when more than a managers job seemed in jeopardy. A club who this season have badly lost their identity, were in danger of losing their place amongst the sports elite. On Wednesday night they claimed back a little bit of both. Before Robin van Persie scored a terrific hat-trick, United were in danger of falling from the balcony hosting the greatest clubs in the world and hanging on by their finger nails. Their position, outside the room, is not exclusively David Moyes fault but an elimination on Wednesday would have certainly played a massive part in the eventual sacking of the manager, whether that would have been this week or in the summer. The truth is United dont think they should be on the balcony, instead they think they should be inside hosting the party, but a home win against Olympiakos wont get them back in. What it does give them is two more games to show if they can once again be back where they belong as well as a victory that this club badly needed, not just for Moyes, but for themselves. To understand Uniteds demise at the elite level it is important to look at their performances in the true big games. No United team should be judged on past victories over any team out of the top 7 of the Premier League. For the purpose of this study, I looked at all of Manchester Uniteds matches in the last six seasons against Arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Liverpool, Manchester City and Tottenham and their games in EEurope, whether it be in the Champions League, Europa League or the European Super Cup.dddddddddddd Over the last three seasons (2011/12, 2012/13, 2013/14) United have now played 66 of these big game matches. They have won 28, drew 15 and lost 23 for a very disappointing win percentage of 42 per cent. They have been knocked out of the Champions League in the group stage and the last 16 in the last two seasons. In the three seasons prior to this stretch (2008/09, 2009/10, 2010/11), United played 70 big game matches. They won 45, drew 18 and lost 17 for a very impressive win percentage of 64 per cent. During this time they went to the Champions League final TWICE and lost in the quarter-finals on away goals to a team called Bayern Munich. The alarm bells should have been sounded during Sir Alex Fergusons penultimate year in charge when United were well and truly outplayed at Old Trafford in Europe by Benfica, Basel, Ajax and Atletico Bilbao. Likely, this was when Ferguson knew his time to retire was coming soon. He no longer belonged in the room at the top table with the sports best clubs. A collapse in April in two more big game matches, 4-4 at home to Everton and 1-0 at Manchester City, gave away the title and Ferguson returned for one more year but the big game cracks continued to show. The four previous seasons United had lost 24 big game matches combined – an average of 6 losses per season. Despite cruising to the Premier League title last season, United lost nine big game matches in 2012/13. Yes, they were Premier League champions but against the best sides they looked desperately short of genuine world class players. Alarmingly, in the last 14 months, heading into Wednesdays match, they had played 27 of these matches and won just seven of them. This is where the intense pressure fell on Moyes. This season, before Wednesday, in 18 of these games, his United team have scored more than one goal in a game only three times. No wins in four games against Chelsea and Tottenham. One goal, from a set piece, in two matches against Arsenal. A loss at home to Everton and away at Manchester City and, above everything else, two losses to rivals Liverpool who absolutely demolished United at Old Trafford on Sunday. All of these results, and specifically the performances, stayed with Moyes like bruises on the face of a prize fighter and with every new failure in a big game his loyal supporters started to doubt him more. Moyes wasnt just on the ropes on Wednesday night. He was on the floor facing a count to 10. Thats what makes the victory over Olympiakos so enormous. It is arguably the biggest victory in the career of Moyes. A victory that proves to himself, his bosses and his players that he can take charge of a significant victory in a big game. A loss would have capped off a nightmare season for United and the only way the club could have hung on to that balcony will have been to fire Moyes and blame him for their season. Players care about three things. Money, trophies, and playing at the highest level. It is essential that Manchester United are always able to offer that. If they had been knocked out on Wednesday they will have only had money in their hands to offer players who will have been worried to play for Moyes. Yes, the 3-0 victory saved Moyes but it also saved United who have been treading water in big games for far too long. It is clear star players need to come in to improve their record in those games but, perhaps, a star manager does not. Wednesdays win is only one game but for Moyes it can help change perceptions that, perhaps, he belongs amongst the games best managers without anyone looking at him twice. ' ' '