it is true that 2013 start to decline. he was a mediocre free kick taker even before that, just become worse and worse,possibly become the worst juven has dybala as well (who scored a winning goal last night after came on sub ronaldo) 1 - Players with the most direct free-kick shots and goals in top 5 European leagues since 2018:LIONEL MESSI 78/16Clément Grenier 46/2Memphis Depay 40/3A. Kolarov 32/4Florent Mollet 31/3Wylan Cyprien 30/2Nabil Fekir 29/3Daniel Parejo 28/2Cristiano Ronaldo 28/0Ace. pic.twitter.com/nZOUJnt75x— OptaJose (@OptaJose) November 11, 2019
not even to mention that those are not goals, are just slightly over the bar or hit the bar,stopped by goalkeeper. not many hit the wall. accuracy at its best.
He had/has tendionisis which is degenerative condition of the tendon. Which is more serious than tendinitis which is just inflammation. It can be for many reasons ... not only one. Most likely it's do to general overuse and not resting enough. With his playing style in his younger years, he put a lot of stress on his body. Plus, his tendionisis is on his left knee, not his right (striking leg). His FK conversion probably went down because of the condition, but it doesn't mean it's what caused it. Probably a combination of factors. Impossible to know. I know an English coach speculated in 2009 that'd he'd have knee problems because of that FK technique. But he was probably just guessing.
Most FK goals Europe's Top 5 Leagues - Last 10 seasons Messi - 33 Juve - 31 Madrid - 30 Man City - 29
Empty record . Still counting those youth goals I presume . That’s beneath his accomplishments . Messi has gone 0 for 6 in competitive matches . Not that it’s his fault because his team sucks .
Why wouldn't we count those? Well yeah, I think Argentina has scored whole one goal during competitive senior matches vs. Brazil. And almost all of Messi's goals have been individual goals, like yesterday. All-time top 8 goal scorers of Brazil and Argentina, most goals in ARG-BRA in relation to team edge: 8 goals from 18 team goals or 44%, Pele BRA 7 goals from 15 team goals or 47%, Messi ARG 5 goals from 11 team goals or 45%, Ronaldo BRA 4 goals from 13 team goals or 31%, Rivaldo BRA 3 goals from 07 team goals or 43%, Jairzinho BRA 3 goals from 09 team goals or 33%, Zico BRA 3 goals from 11 team goals or 27%, Bebeto BRA 3 goals from 11 team goals or 27%, Crespo ARG 3 goals from 16 team goals or 19%, Neymar BRA 2 goals from 08 team goals or 25%, Batistuta ARG 1 goals from 02 team goals or 50%, Romario BRA 1 goals from 05 team goals or 20%, Passarella ARG 1 goals from 05 team goals or 20%, Maradona ARG 0 goals from 00 team goals or 00%, Artime ARG 0 goals from 05 team goals or 00%, Aguero ARG 0 goals from 06 team goals or 00%, Higuain ARG
Because they are not Senior NT matches. Even the hat-trick in NY was scored against an U-23 CB pairing preparing for Olympics. Those 2 guys never saw the light of the NT after that. But that one isn't Messi's fault as the game was a regular friendly and Brazil chose to put out an Olympic test team. So Messi has 5 goals in Senior NT matches vs Brazil. But it's a statistic in friendlies which in all honesty, means little and is beneath his real achievements IMO. BTW .. that was a poorly taken PK too. Got lucky on that one. Hope he got that out of his system for Barca. That's the 2nd PK he misses in 2 vs Brazil.
For me, Argentina-Brazil friendlies have £o$t their £u$t€r since they began pimping them to the highest bidder outside South America.
I’m sick of all the comparisons with Cronaldo especially when they throw fakeRonaldo’s international goals into the ring ... Messi plays an awful lot of games against good quality South American teams whilst Portugal play loads of micro countries bordering on pub team quality..., The formidable Luxembourg defence lie in wait of CR07 next
Brazil does almost always take friendly games pretty seriously. Specially when you have players trying to prove something to secure a spot in the team. Generally speaking, I think SA teams give close to 100% in these games. They are pretty contested affairs. However it does stick out like a sore thumb that Messi has 0 goals and 0 assists vs Brazil in 5 (I thought it was 6 but he missed 1 WCQ game last time around) competitive matches and has been for the most part, pretty well contained. It does mean something, but not necessarily on Messi himself.
These are the teams Cronaldo has scored against in the last few years .. I reckon I’d score against a few of these
And I wasn't talking about senior matches, I was talking about ARG-BRA. All seven goals vs. Brazil. Seems really like to score stunners against you.
National team goals (games, ga) vs top 5 EU/SA (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Uruguay) 19 (46, 0.41) Messi (playmaker) 14 (35, 0.40) Neymar (playmaker) 13 (36, 0.36) Suarez (striker) 4 (25, 0.16) Cronaldo (striker)
This is why I have little doubt that Messi has actually been the better individual performer than Ronaldo on the international stage. If we take away goals against absolute minnows like Lithuania, Andorra, Luxerbourg etc. from both men, Messi actually has a lot more international goals as well. No matter how you slice the data, Messi has been much better against real opposition. People must also understand that the disparity between the best and worst international teams is also far larger than the disparity between the best and worst club teams in the context of Messi and Ronaldo. The worst squad Barca faces in La Liga or CL is still filled with top tier professionals like a Leganes or Slavia Prague. Meanwhile the national team of Andorra which is a country as big as a city block is well... If I say it's easier to make the national team of Andorra then a typical high school team in Buenos Aires I may not be exaggerating. Last but not least, the only real competitive matches that truly matter are the World Cup and Euro/Copa. Messi was arguably the best player at the 2014 WC, 2015 Copa, and 2016 Copa while Ronaldo was never the best.