This is absolutely brilliant. You are trying to characterise a comment about you as being one about your entire continent. Let's remind ourselves that you claimed there were no expectations on Zidane because you had never heard of him. You had never heard of the player who was the star for the tournament's second favourites and who had finished third the previous year in the Ballon d'Or, a man who was regarded as arguably the best attacking midfielder on the world. Despite admitting that you never watched European football and were unaware of one of the game's foremost players you have seen fit to comment on who had expectations on them and who didn't based on your own ignorance. That doesn't mean that I discount the views of all South Americans. There are a number of South Americans on this board that I have a great deal of respect for and who really know their stuff. If you go into an argument claiming not to have heard of someone, particularly one of the world's leading players, don't be surprised if your opinion on the matter is not treated seriously. Now did I know what the expectations of Romario were in 1994? I certainly knew what the European expectations were of him. He was the star player for the favourites going into the tournament, had played in Europe for the previous 6 years and so we were pretty well aware of him. In essence, don't mouth off about something you admit you have no idea about.
Guigs is a similar poster as argentinesoccerfan with worse writing skills, general prose and hipster terms. Content is interesting.
Seems to me than people overstating a lot Romario, and underestimate Baggio. Baggio was not great in the final, but even romario, Baggio had physical problems, Romario has not this excuse. What makes Romario so speciale? He scored 3 tap-ins, 1 pk and 1 great goal. I have seen all the World Cup of 1994 and he not impressed me, not more than Bebeto(Bebeto against Netherlands was better than Romario in any other game) Ronaldo and Suker in 98, Ronaldo and Rivaldo in 2002, Cannavaro, Pirlo, Buffone and Zidane in 2006 or Iniesta, Villa and Forlan in 2010. Matthäus in Wc 1990 was the best player I've seen since Maradona in a WC. In conclusion no one of these is close to Maradona, in the history of Wc, Garrincha is the only that can be compared to Maradona, Romario was good but like many others, and inferior to others.
About Ronaldo: Brazilian soccer player Ronaldo suffered a heart attack just before the 1998 World Cup final, when Brazil lost to France national team, by a score of 0-3, said in an interview with Mediaset the cardiologist Bruno Caru, informs the As newspaper. Bruno Caru, president of Italian Society of Cardiology for Sport, examined all documentation on file for Ronaldo dating back to 1998. Caru worked with doctor Piero Volpi from Inter Milan, the Italian soccer club Ronaldo where played in 1998. During the 1998 World Cup, Volpi was sent to Paris by the management of Inter Milan to investigate Ronaldo’s health problems. “Ronaldo was in bed watching a Formula 1 race on TV and, after an abnormal bending of the neck he compressed the carotid glomus (a small cluster of chemoreceptors responsible for regulating heart rate and blood pressure. The heart rate dropped, leading to fainting and seizures”, said Caru. Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo’s roommate at the World Cup in France, told the doctors that it was an attack of epilepsy, and the Brazilian soccer player was taken to hospital and treated at the department of neurology. “There were various tests made, but we well know that a neurologist do not waste his time for an electrocardiogram, which I did with Volpi when Ronaldo returned from Paris. The electrocardiogram showed a very low heart rate”, explained the doctor. Subsequently, the medicines taken by the player were indicated for epilepsy attacks, and have affected Ronaldo for several days. “Physicians have taken in consideration Roberto Carlos’ diagnosis and Ronaldo was given a powerful medicine for epilepsy, the one used by Marilyn Monroe to commit suicide that reduce brain activity. This explains his playing during the final game against France. And that explains why the player fell on the stairs of the airplane as he was drunk at his arrival in Brazil, after the World Cup”, said Bruno Caru. http://www.dailypressdot.com/ronaldo-suffered-a-heart-attack-before-the-1998-world-cup-final/754731/ a simple research on GOOGLE. Brazilian striker Ronaldo could have be killed by the ignorance of doctors. He was not drunk when he got off the plane, instead he just passed near death after experiencing a cardiac arrest just before the World Cup Final match!!! Ronaldo was unrecognizable in the duel against France. He had serious problems shortly before the 1998 World Cup final (France – Brazil 3-0) when he collapsed in the hotel room. Officially it was said he would have had an epileptic seizure. Now horrifying version of the story emerged: the diagnosis was wrong, and that could have cost one of world’s biggest players his life. Professor Doctor Bruno Caru, president of the Italian Society of Cardiology in Sports, re-checked the medical records of former Brazilian striker and during a program broadcast by “Mediaset” the doctor explained that the puzzling collapse was not related to epilepsy, but to heart issues, i.e. heart attack. Overview of the 1998 World Cup incident “Blood was not circulating” “Ronaldo was lying in his bed watching an F1 race on TV. Then he dropped his head in an unnatural way. Because of that specific position,his blood did not circulate properly. He had a fall in heart rate and blood pressure. He was like in a vegetative state” said doctor Caru who added: “Roberto Carlos saw Ronaldo in convulsions and thought about an epilectic attack. Ronaldo was quickly transported to the hospital and went through a series of neurological examinations. The ECG examination was not considered right”. “Ronaldo’s heart no longer beat” “During that day of 12 July 1998, Ronaldo was very close to death,” said Caru. He continued saying that the French doctors did not work properly: “I checked the file carefully and I learned that Ronaldo had ony 18 heartbeats per minute when he reached hospital. It means that at the moment of the collapse his heart had stopped beating. So the French doctors trusted the epilepsy hypothesis given by Roberto Carlos and not a doctor.” “Marilyn Monroe case similarity” This medical error could have cost “Il Fenomeno” his life: “Doctors gave him very strong medication, good for epilepsy, but not recommended for heart problems. They gave him Garden, a strong sedative which was used by Marilyn Monroe to commit suicide. This sedation greatly reduces and inhibits the brain activity. This explains Ronaldo’s disappointing performance during the World Cup final against France. This explains also why the footballer was staggering like a drunken man when he got off the plane in Brazil the next day.” - See more at: http://www.foxcrawl.com/2012/02/03/...at-1998-world-cup-final/#sthash.OIeCoa0F.dpuf
I encourage you to watch the final match WC94 again (in case you haven't) like @Guigs did, for you will noticed that your views on Romario for that final match should be changed. He gave a good during that final match, except he did not score. But he was all over the place doing what he was expected to do as a striker. Ask @Guigs for he has recently watched the full match again after 20 years and now he said he was left with a total different view that prior watching the video. And when you are finished with watching, check the stats of NT94 in that tournament. For you will notice another thing you're missing. That the whole NT94 squad scored 11 goals in that WC, of which 5 (half of the total) were scored by Romario. Besides scoring he gave a world class assist to Bebeto in Knock out stage and then went to take the PK in the final. So all in all he had more then 80% stake in all NT94 victories in the WC94. And before the world cup he scored 2 goals in the final qualifiers match against Uruguay. And then he scored 5 goals in 3 pre-WC matches. 1 goal vs Canada, hat trick vs Honduras, 1 goal vs Guatemala. So from September 1993 , Romario scored in total 10 goals and 2 assists in 13 games related to the WC94. So he gave great performances and was already all lot involved in the successes of NT94 in the build to WC94 on the outset. That means his gpg in 1993/94 with NT was 0.77 Now back to the WC herself, He didn't get the "Golden Ball" award of WC94 for nothing @Lewa9 right? There were many contenders for the Golden Ball, since Hagi, Stoichkov, Baggio were all contenders for the title. But Romario got and not as a "good will" gesture but because he clearly was the most convincing player of the tournament. It is an established fact even stated many times by Brazil's NT managers that without Romario Brazil would have never won that WC. And it's a common view by many pundits and football circles that WC94 is dubbed quite often as the world cup of Romario. Tap in? Uhhhh? You're stats on Romario above is flawed. He scored 5 goals plus 1 pk. and gave 2 assists. And they were none tap in either! Which one do you class as a tap-in? Russia? That toe poach is far from tap in. Cameroon? No tap in Sweden both matches? No tap in USA? did not score but gave world class assist Holland? No tap in So what tap in are you talking about? You must have seen a different WC, sorry to say that. Which of these goals are tap in? And it is not only that he scored those goals that is remarkable but that 80% of those goals were opening match goals and 2 were direct clutches! And as for the other player names you mentioned here i have no comment except to say that it is irrelevant. All the guys you mentioned were WC greats in their own right. But Non of them had the Romario factor. To understand Romario you need to discuss this more often with members like @celito or other Brazilians who are old enough to have seen the whole process from 1990's onwards. They have experienced the build up to WC94 from a Brazilian pov. First, not one member has ever compared Romario to Maradona, where that you get this from? Second, like many of us, you obviously have the right to pick your own WC favourite players. Matthaus was great and so were the others, no doubt. But ignoring Romario's importance for NT94 (even if you're not his fan) is like ignoring Maradona 's importance to NT86 or Matthaus role in NT90. Either you simply don't like Romario's style or you simply haven't paid much attention to WC94 or perhaps not even watched it up close at all. Any one who seen WC94 life would attest that Romario was the best player to come out of that WC. This view is quite valid, cause if you were to take Romario's goals and assists out of NT94 you will see that Brazil would have never reached not even Semi-final, let alone final. It could also be argued (which we have debated a while back) that Romario's impact on the success of NT94 might as well as go as far as having a direct or indirect impact on NT94 qualification for WC94, even when he only partook in the last match only. For NT94 last qualifiers match was at stake (odds were high) to some degree back in September 1993. So without Romario NT94 might as well as not been qualified for WC94 at all! But like I said this latter view is debatable. Some members here disagreed with this view, while others did agree. It's a topic that remains divided. @Pipiolo @JamesBH11 @celito @Guigs @PuckVanHeel @comme @leadleader
As mentioned previously by another poster, shouldn't a large majority of the above posts have been raised on another thread as they have no relevance whatsoever to the Ballon D'Or 2013 award.
Matthaus at WC90 is extremely overrated, it was a good performance but I never saw him take control of a match except against UAE At WC94, Romario's (and Baggio's, Hagi's, Stoichkov's) are much better performances. @greatstriker11
Yeah. Fair enough mate. Would it be an option to close the thread and therefore gently push the posters participating in the various debates on this one thread to post in the correct one or start a new one to encompass their discussion?
Romario did a tap in the game vs. Russia, a tap against Holland(great assist form Bebeto), he just touched the ball with the head in the match against Sweden, he scored a tap in or easy goal in the match against Cameroon. Do not get me wrong, the important thing in a tournament of just 7 days is to score goals. but fans of Romario says that he won the Wc by itself, and he is a bullshit. This is the typical way that have the South Americans to overrated their players. In Europe Romario is considered(rightly, he was not great for many years in Big Leagues), lower than strikers like Eto'o, Raul, Henry and some others.
Greatstriker, You are responding to Alexander (now as Lewa). He is fanatic for Messi and Ronaldo de Lima. And he did not watch WC94 or WC90. Unfortunately, he does not even care about watch the past matches to give his honest opinion about old legends of the game.
The Barcelona and Eindhoven faithful disagree with you, they know better than you about Romario in Europe @Lewa9 aka @James88 aka @Alexander88 aka @Killer93 aka @riflex
Eindhoven???? Are you saying that the Eredivisie is a great league?? continues with yours speculations if you think I'm a troll, you just can ask to admin the IP address.
You're no fun. Personally I was looking forward to this thread's lifespan overlapping that of the 'Ballon d'Or 2014' thread, with both threads discussing everything under the sun (except for the Ballon d'Or, of course).
Eindhoven won the EC in 88, fool. And the Eredivise then had that great Ajax side of the 90s. @Lewa9 aka @James88 aka @Killer93 aka @Alexander88 aka @riflex
I'm slowly losing the will to live with it. And yet, I still look at it periodically! I want it closed!
Well i am giving you some reps here to sweeten your patience. A few more lines and we're gone. I promise.
How many usersnames do you actually have then mate? Alexander88, James88, Killer93, Riflex, and now you come back to us with lewa9?? Oh Gosh you're doing my head in!!! In your own language perhaps you will understand: vaffanculo!!!!!!!! @Bruford thanks for giving me the heads up. I will avoid this fraudster troller. But how do we keep avoiding him since he keeps coming back with new usernames?
@Guigs @Pipiolo @PuckVanHeel @JamesBH11 @celito @Bruford@Jaweirdo Let's take this World Cup debate to a different thread and show respect to the members here. @frasermc is actually correct. We should respect this space for what it was opened for. No offense for I was one (but not the only one) of the first who wandered off topic and started it. But perhaps we should take our topic somewhere else. Perhaps we could continue this WC topic in @JamesBH11 recent thread on Headers, with James's consent of course? Then we would not have to open a new thread again just to discuss a topic that might be reaching it's climax already, and safe the effort. I mean how much more is left to reach a conclusion on this WC94 vs WC02 debate? And I guess the HEADER's thread by James is has past it's climax too anyway so let;s take it there.. What you say?
But is this topic worth opening a brand new thread from scratch to finish it. I don;t know perhaps you think there's a lot more juice left in it that it's worth opening a new thread?
You need to learn to listen and accept. You have a horrible thing going there where you are too ethnocentric. Again, this is a world wide forum, you as a moderator should be the first one to come out and point it as such to others, not the first one to come and defend your ethnocentristic views. Once again Shame on you. Once again, Ballon D'Or was not followed at ALL in South America, it was an European only award back then.. I've already mentioned to you and I'll repeat it. The people you see on this forum, from Brazil represent less than 1% of the regular football fans in Brazil. Most football fans in Brazil or South America do not care whatsoever about European football even today. If lucky the CL final will get 100-150k watching in Brazil, it's not something people plan around on watching it's not something that will knock out a Telenovela from their TV slots.. No it's not my opinion it's the popular opinion. Once again you're showing extreme lack of knowledge for S.American culture yet want to compare it to your own european lore. Once again, you're showing your emic point of view and not being open towards the opinion of over 350 million people. You are choosing to ignore this, because it's not your reality. You're the kind of person who could never be hired as the marketing manager for the EPL, La Liga etc. Because instead of thinking wow we can expand to the global market.. on your mind you're already all over the globe with amazing numbers, while the reality you just started to break into the US, you're still tiny in S.America and Asia. And before any slarky comments ... if you get 2 million viewers in Asia.. you're so small you shouldn't even be counted... Once again I will point towards my previous comment, they represent less than 1%, I'll go even further and say less than 0.05% of the population of these countries.. and Just like you said it.. you only respect the ones that share your points of view because they really "know their stuff". Any Brazilian back in 1993 thought Palmeiras was the best team in the world and it should be the base of our Selecao, and that Edmundo being left out of the World Cup was crazy since he was the World's best player.. Had 40+ assists during that season. Did you know about Edmundo? probably not because you simply weren't following S.American football and lore, I don't discount your opinion over it though.. I simply ask you to view it from another point of view, the S. American one, where Baggio is not counted as having a good tournament and is viewed as the guy that came into the tournament overhyped. He wasn't part of the NT until that Uruguay game, and he wasn't wanted by the Brazilian fans until 1993! Only then people started to ask for him because the Selecao was doing poorly (lost 1 game in qualifiers, something that had never happened before) In essence I'm mouthing off about something I know about and it's my point of view, and it's carried along with the point of view of 350+ million people So Once again.. Shame on you and I don't even know how you are a moderator being this small minded and completely unaware of your surroundings. Maybe you should moderate only the forums where just Europeans that share your point of view participate.