Our friend zahzah having a go at it again in the ref section, breezing through the 2 LPB PK's and getting straight to business. https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1919819&highlight=ronaldo
See mysterious, this is how you can post and still be respected. You may have missed it in my post Dhajj but I said he can be argued as the best. Not saying he is the best. Anyways he is only 24, although the chances are extremely slim with the back 4 of Argentina, but Messi still has 2 chances to do it. from goal.com Following his treble against Switzerland recently, Messi now has 22 goals for Argentina in 67 games. Diego Maradona, incidentally, netted 34 in 91 internationals for the Albiceleste. Assuming that is true, then yeah it speaks of itself. edit LOL wtf man, it is like we are the ones winning by 6 points. They are shitting their pants. lol
I found this Sid Low's article on the Madrid debacle. Good analysis. http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2012/mar/22/madrid-la-liga
Hehe thanks i think messi will continue to have amazing stats on club level and hell continue to get player of the year awards.. I just dont see him getting the holy grail though, someone cant single handedly win the world cup... Especially as you mentioned the back 4... Look what germany did to them last world cup, the team relied too much on glorifying one man (maradona) and no real long term plan or strategy... Spain are already on top of the world when it comes to complete balanced team, from players, to strategy, to philosophy to experience, etc.. Germany are behind spain, and so on.' Argentina i dont know where the heck they are, coaching wise, philosophy, long term strategy, balance, etc same with brazil atm. Thats why i think south american teams have fallen behind a little, the top european teams have been dominating and it seems like a cycle, and it seems like their cycle will last for quite a bit.. The south american teams, will need some serious catching up. But who knows....this is football anything and everything happens at the world cup.... for crying out loud greece won the euro and italy won 2006....
I am just looking at the overall picture and where i see the south american teams in the next couple world cups, to where the european teams are... The power shift has been in europes favor since 2006+ and i dont see it changing for quite some time. spain, germany and holland are just to far ahead imho. Then you got france starting to re-emerge again, italy, and back of the line england
That's fine, you are entitled to your opinion; even though I don't see how anybody can view the next 6 years unless you know some man named Dr.Emmet Brown who has this car who goes into time(Make sure you go 88MPH though ). How do you rank the top 10 in the world right now?
Yeah that back-four. lol. I think Maradona even used Gutierrez as a right-back at the world cup. Not calling up Zanetti and Cambiasso after they had won the treble, w.Samuel being injured too. Simply put, Heinze, g.Milito, Rojo, Fernandez, Zabaleta, Diaz etc. These guys are just not good enough. With such a huge list of great attackers it really sucks that Argentinas best defender is a defensive mid Mascherano. Some of those players don't even start for their clubs lol.
Madrid cancel the press conference ahead of the Sociedad game. This is getting to ridiculous childless levels. I wonder how much of this is coming from Mourinho himself. I can't imagine that the upper echelons in the club are enjoying the amateurish image that this is portraying.
Messi's current teammates are a lot better than what maradona had to play with and still maradona won it. []__[]
I really can see it though. You are right no player can single handedly win the world cup, but a brilliant attacking player might win you the world cup if you have good defense. This was the reason Maradona won the world cup. People saying Maradona won the world cup single handedly knows too little about football. That Argentina side were great defensively and it was the defense that took them to the final in 1990 too. Sabella, the new coach seems more tactically aware than most Argentine coach recently. He is trying to build the team from backward. Last game against Switzerland, he gave chance to Garay and Fernandez in CB position and they did very good job. Next world cup in Brazil, if Argentina sort out their defence, they will have a hell of a chance to win it because ahead of that defense will be sitting Mascherano(the best defensive DM) and most probably other CM will be the one that can both attack and defend, then up front there will be Messi, Di Maria and Aguero/Higuain. Give this team good defensive structure then we will see Messi giving the team atleast a goal every game, which might just be enough to win the tournament.
They didn't care about the amateurish shit he did after the Supercopa; why would they care about this? Something bad has happened to that organization at its very core. Since Mourinho has come on board, they've lost their self-respect.
Dunno why is LPB cancelling anything. If I was them, I'd try to downplay the Villarreal match's final incidents in order to keep up the normal, cool routine and relaxed work atmosphere within the squad and not create extra tensions. I mean, sometimes things don't go your way but you try to make the best moves in whatever circumstances. This doesn't seem like an ideal move to make. Also: circumstances aren't the worst for them, leading Barcelona with 6 points, being close to a CL semifinal spot etc. They have a realistical chance to win a double this season, but if they start to crumble and get nervous and stupid and overdramatic now, they won't win even Liga, let alone CL.
I don't think this will help them, I think this whole thing will bring nothing but more atmosphere and drama... It will be carried on to the next game and CL 1st leg... They need to cool off and move on, things like this happen all the time to all teams..
Again, I don't know what you're basing this on. Only ESP, GER and NED were any good at all in the last World Cup. And 2 of those teams are past their peak most likely (ESP and NED). Out of the top 5 contenders for WC 2014, I think 3 of them are South American with Brazil being the obvious #1 favorite. I really only see Spain and Germany with a decent shot at winning from UEFA. Italy and France are capable outsiders, but they really have to turn things around in a hurry. At the moment, Uruguay are better than both.
I believe Mourinho does this to emphasize his point about the refs. The more attention he brings to the situation, the more he expects the refs to feel intimidated and less likely to make calls against his team. I am pretty sure that's his tactic and it's pretty pathetic.
Brazil are not "the obvious #1 favorite". They are the home team, which probably helps (and adds extra pressure), but in all likelihood they won't have the best keeper, the best defence, the best midfield, the best attack or the best squad. As for celito's theory on Mourinho's tactics, I agree.
i think these are fair comments. brazil and argentina have the individual talent to match spain, holland and germany, but at an organizational level they have both been a bit of a mess lately. long-term thinking going back at least a decade, is really what has set spain/holland/germany at another level. but the talent is still there for argentina/brasil to mould. but don't forget that s.america is much more than just brasil/argentina and the likes of chile and uruguay especially deserve a lot of respect for their recent accomplishments. it's also worth pointing out that this isn't really a fair time to be comparing the european and s.american teams, with the EUROs coming up this summer the european teams are obviously going to be at a more advanced stage, whereas the s.americans are focused on preparing for 2014.
They are the favorite in any betting site I've looked at. 1 - Brazil 2tie - Germany, Argentina, Spain 5tie - Uruguay, Netherlands 7- England 8 - Chile 9 - Paraguay (bwin) Everyone else is worse than 25/1.
yes, i think he also does this to take the attention (and pressure) away from his players and create a kind of backs-to-the-wall-us-against-the-world atmosphere within the squad, which has made him a lot of enemies in SerieA, EPL, and laliga, but has ultimately proven a successful tactic with all his teams.