MLS should be charm offensiving the hell out of Messi to keep playing as long as possible. Its fantastic for the bottom line, its fantastic for the league. There is absolutely no reason he cannot lead another Argentina copa america campaign............who is their biggest threat? It isnt Brazil. Theyre just mountains over everyone else and he can be a part of that. I would even say his 2030 prospects are higher than zero. He needs to be encouraged and reminded of that, and use any carrot and stick method available to encourage and facilitate that.
I agree but wild to think an MLS player would get it. He was technically on Miami when he won it last but in reality he had just gotten there. Whereas this time he’s been on Miami the whole time. Of course no one has done the MLS Cup World Cup double before.
Absolutely. But if someone is going to win in MLS, it's going to be the GOAT winning a World Cup in a year where he basically beat the big names and big stat guys. Like, how would you give it to Kane over him and keep a straight face? We all watched that game, and I'm sorry, I don't think Leo's teammates were better than Kane's. I get that it's one game, but when all of Kane's big stats were him on Bayern crushing the Bundesliga ...
I mean if England won the World Cup I think Kane would have won the Ballon D’Or. But no chance now. And yeah I think he scored a ton of goals because of Bayern dominance but that was true of Lewandowski when he was at Bayern previously also. But he’s also someone who scored a ton of goals in the EPL and would have finished the all time leading goal scorer in EPL history had he not gone to Bayern. But they didn’t win the Champions League and in a World Cup year the Ballon D’Or is disproportionately decided by what happened at the World Cup. If Spain wins I’d guess they give it Yamal even if he hasn’t been super integral to their run.
Which would just be odd to me. But yes, the Ballon D'or has largely just come down to Champions League + World Cup. And I don't necessarily think that is wrong given the lack of parity in actual leagues.
I think it'd (somewhat undeservedly) be Lamine Yamal, but I would love to see Oyarzabal get some consideration. He even spearheaded Real Sociedad to the Copa del Rey, which makes it a bit more plausible.
As much as I like unsung heroes, I think I'd like it if it simply broke from taking from the winners here. The player has to have some claim to being the best in the world. Oyarzabal is underrated and has been getting the goals, but no one thinks he's ever the best player on Spain, let alone the world. Maybe it goes straight stats and goes to Kane; maybe the sting of this loss fades. I dunno. Lamal does seem likely but so very unearned.
I also think that a player should be able win the balon and not have their team with world or cl Using kane as an example it wouldnt only be stats. his teams made semifinal in CL and World Cup. That is a lot of winning.
I get that ... but it was also hard to watch that game and say Kane was the best player in the World. He didn't play like it, and the teams there didn't even act like it. Everyone knew who the most dangerous player on the field was.
Its difficult for me to watch a game where the defense and midfield capitulate and say the CF is to blame though.
I’d also contend that his MLS stats are so good that you can’t argue he doesn’t deserve the award based on them. If he was the 5th best player in ligue 1, then it’s clear he wasn’t the best player at club level. But there’s no proof he *isn’t* still the best club player in the world based on his MLS stats.
Holy smokes. This Toronto-Montreal game is literally the worst MLS game I've seen in a while. So boring. So little quality on display, from either team...
Well I didn’t miss anything then for that game. Too bad the Fire White Caps got postponed for poor air quality.
I've watched Brunell before, but don't remember him being so technical in tight spaces. He's pretty good.
He didn’t have a great year for City (which was mostly a product of not being fully back) and even this tournament he didn’t really turn it on till the last couple of games.
IDK if that play in the box was especially "technical". He scrapped for the ball and seems to have tripped on his own feet. The announcer said he should've gone down, but I don't think he'd have gotten a penalty. I'm focused on him, and he's having a much better game than Dotson, IMO.
Kane is not and never was the best player in the world. And he’s not even the best 9 (which is Haaland). But if England had won the World Cup the totality of the season that he had at Bayern and his overall goal scoring record at the World Cup would have meant he won the Ballon D’Or (and it wouldn’t have been undeserved). Though Bellingham would have won the golden ball I’m guessing if England had won the tournament. The Ballon D’Or doesn’t always go to the consensus best player in the world anyways. The last two winners (Rodri and Dembele) are awesome but I don’t think either has ever been considered the best in the world. And since Messi and Ronaldo have aged out I don’t think there is a consensus best player in the world (though it should be Mbappe). On Kane also I think he was a bit gassed from playing every minute of the tournament basically and particularly in Miami and the Azteca. But Tuchel was never going to take him off of course. This was his chance for the Ballon D’Or and that’s not happening ever but I think his legacy when all is said and done will be that he was one of the best 9s of his generation and maybe the best English player ever. And I don’t think it’s crazy he leads England to the Euros at home in two years which cements that status.
Ragen was meh. His CB partner was pretty bad, Kossa-Rienzi, the RB was really bad IMO. The attackers didn't seem to know what to do with the ball, and there were misplaced passes all over the field. Portland just chilled, waited for a counter, then ran down the other end and popped in goal after goal. Andrew Thomas made a couple saves and one good one, and also let one through his legs, so not a great day at the office. It ended 5-1, so it's to be expected. I don't know if Jesus Ferreira even touched the ball once.