Quote: (06-16-2018 01:09 PM)Mekorig Wrote:  

Agree with Messi having the personality of a sea cucumber, but Pancho, take Maradona`s saying with a grain of salt, the guy is burned in the head because of all the drugs he did.

Maradona has enough crazy personality for 10. Messi should have known that Maradona is more like a loud brash uncle who has a big heart and bigger mouth.

Messi is an introverted delicate shy boy with skills at the level or above of Maradona. Sure - he won't be whipping forward a team like Maradona did in his prime, but that does not take away from his abilities.

And what the fuck is this in the stadiums:



I am proud of Iceland. A country of 350.000 counters great Argentina.
And Croatia forward - send the Nigerians home.

Ronaldo seems like the only player out there not tatted up. Another reason to like the guy .

Messi is not better than Maradona in my opinion.

I think he looks much better than he is by playing in the spanish league with no physicality and surrounded by superstars in his club.

Yeah, Iceland is very impressive, particularly when you consider they are also now in basketball and handball in the euro/world cup in addition to dominating strong man competition.

Quote: (06-16-2018 03:03 PM)TigerMandingo Wrote:  

Ronaldo seems like the only player out there not tatted up. Another reason to like the guy .

He does not advocate tats cos he regularly donates blood.

Messi isn't in the same league as Maradona.

Maradona can talk shit because he won shit and did his talking on the field. He won a World Cup for Argentina by carrying a lackluster team on his back, a team that didn't have the same quality of players that on the Argentine team today.

Maradona also did the same for Napoli, helping them win a Serie A title beating giants like Juventus and AC Milan.

I knew Iceland would be a tough team to play against, they are no slouch. They did the obvious thing and put 10 players behind the ball in defence. Messi had an easy task of putting the ball in the back of the net from a penalty, which was a weak call to begin with.

Yeah, it is okay winning titles for Barcelona when you are surrounded by the best players in world football.

I may not like Ronaldo as a player, but he delivers under pressure. Spain was obviously a better side, but to come from behind and tie that game with a hat-trick is something special. Ronaldo is the real deal, he has delivered for his country and in two tough leagues in Europe.

What's with all the players being tatted up like crazy? I think if they go that far, then they should consider getting corporate tattoos and selling body space for 5-10 mio. $ a pop:

Why not be tatted up?

It's the standard in all other forms of entertainment and sports. Not that I agree with it, but sports stars are generally rather nihilist and hedonist.

I would prefer national level sports to go back to being amateur honestly.

@Simeon_Strangelight what's up man?! You trying hard to derail this thread. What's the part of "Soccer Side Only" you can't comprehend?! First ISIS, now tatoos... Stick to the game, that's it! Let's enjoy the World Cup! Soccer Side Only!!!

France as usual plays poorly, owing victory to technology.

Waiting like crazy for Senegal Poland on tuesday, to see Africa do something.

John Silva, no one is complaining and his posts do have something to do w/ the sides. stop being so hard up, just enjoy the damn game(and idiosyncratic posts)!

Quote: (06-16-2018 04:38 PM)John Silva Wrote:  

@Simeon_Strangelight what's up man?! You trying hard to derail this thread. What's the part of "Soccer Side Only" you can't comprehend?! First ISIS, now tatoos... Stick to the game, that's it! Let's enjoy the World Cup! Soccer Side Only!!!

21 posts and dick swinging pissing on everyone telling me what to say and how to say it.



When I was talking about market valuations, teams playing according to their potential in competitions or below it, then those are relevant factors when assessing actual team results.

African teams have sometimes excellent players, but are unable to make much out of it - this has been proven to be true once again.

Senegal has the strongest team on paper, but the bulk of the valuation is based on 5 players with a large drop-off for the others.
We will see how they will fare.

Both Ronaldo and Messi are all time great players but they have different strengths and weaknesses partly due to their physical attributes.

Messi is much faster, quicker dribbler than Ronaldo. Ronaldo has great ball control and tricks but can't run and turn with the ball at speed past defenders like Messi. However Ronaldo is stronger and better at headers and free kicks.

Both play for two of the best teams in the world and set insane records for goals and assists season after season for about fifteen years in a row. They have easily scored more goals and broken more records than Maradona. The Spanish league may not be the most competitive but they also show their quality and break records in the extremely competitive Champion's League.

Before they were playing there were great players like Zidane and Ronaldinho but no one was dominating football like that at really any time in history. They're just head and shoulders above everyone.

That's more important to me on judging their quality, than the amount of world cups their nation wins or their personality or any silly trivial stuff like that.

Besides let's be honest, the athleticism of players today is far far higher than it was back in the 80s with Maradona. Players would smoke and drink a lot more back in those days, there was less focus on speed and strength. You can easily see that the games were slower paced back then.

It's difficult to say how good Maradona would be in our times, since the discipline and physical speed demanded of players today are much higher. Ronaldinho dropped off fast after age 26 simply because he lacked that discipline going to clubs too much, drinking and eating badly. This has to be factored into the current performance.

Maradona based on that would have fared very badly - also the athleticism would have been very bothersome to him in our times. Though of course - it's too hard to compare players from highly different timelines. Pele might smoked them all for all we know.

Messi and Ronaldo have both what it takes in our times - raw athletics, speed, immense discipline and huge talent. In our times you cannot have just talent.

It is comparable to tennis of old. Players like McEnroe and Jimmy Connors who sometimes admitted to hardly have trained would have been wiped off the court in our times. There is also a massive height advantage which has entered tennis - 6"3 player of today is more athletic and moves faster and more agile than the 5"8 player of old.

Fact is that Messi and Ronaldo have managed to stay at the top for such an extraordinary time far beyond the level of others. Maradona was also beyond the others, but again - difficult to say whether he would have had the necessary discipline for today. I have no trouble believing that Pele might have done well in our times.

I'd rather have Zidane, original peak Ronaldo and peak Ronaldinho, over either Ronaldo or Messi.

Edit: Simeon I agree, modern soccer requires far more discipline, which can take away some of the creativity and personality.

Quote: (06-16-2018 06:43 PM)nomadbrah Wrote:  

I'd rather have Zidane, original peak Ronaldo and peak Ronaldinho, over either Ronaldo or Messi.

Edit: Simeon I agree, modern soccer requires far more discipline, which can take away some of the creativity and personality.

No way. Only Paco Gento won more ECL as Cristiano Ronaldo...

Brazilian Ronaldo did not even won one.

Numbers don't lie.

Another thing when it comes to Maradona.

Remember, in the 80s, teams feared Maradona and Argentina because of that cockiness, arrogance, shit talking, alpha, swagger that Maradona had. Its what made Argentina so feared around the world. His teammates knew who the leader was and passed him the ball every time. That aura rubbed off on his teammates which is what made him so great.

That is something I feel Messi is lacking and why I think Messi teams always play so sluggish. He's the default captain because he's Messi, but its true that Messi lacks that leadership.

That is why I feel like Maradona is the greatest of all time.

Quote: (06-14-2018 12:59 PM)Foolsgo1d Wrote:  

People claiming Brazil to win. If they win in Russia whilst losing on home soil in the last WC what makes it different this time?

This. Brazil is totally overrated. I think the puny Swiss are going to give them all they can handle and then some.

Maradona had to face defenders that were very physical and made hard tackles, one dirty player broke his ankle with a brutal tackle when he was playing for Barcelona.
Back then we didn't have this diving nonsense, that is so prevalent today. Messi and the rest of these ballerinas wouldn't have stood up to the tackles that Maradona had to deal with.
Not sure how you can question his fitness, he ran through the English defence in Mexico 86 and scored one of the best goals ever in a World Cup. He carried that team to victory all by himself, he didn't have the luxury off having quality players like Aguero, Higuain and DiMaria on his team.
Sure Messi is great, when he is beating Celta Vigo and Malaga every week. Plus he has always played for Barcelona and been surrounded by world class players. Ronaldo plays for the Galaticos with world class players as well, the difference being that he went to Man Utd as a kid and left a legend.
I give Ronaldo more credit, where would that Portugal team be without him.

Ronaldihino was always a party guy, I would take him in his prime over Messi and Ronaldo.

Pele is also a legend, it is a pity he never played in Europe. That will always leave a question mark besides his name, playing in the NASL was a joke.

So who is going to win this World Cup?

^ England!

< Germany. Let them have the last title before they descend into an Islamic Republic and civil war.

Though - while we are at political decisions to have it, then Poland should win.

...

Great to see we're back on football.

Really enjoyed ISL vs ARG. Two very different styles clashing. The physical availability of the Vikings is really impressive. Messi was felling the pressure and didn't delivered. Still, without him ARG would be in much more trouble.

Looking forward to the games of the two favourites today: GER and BRA. I'm expecting the emocional breakdown of BRA last World Cup won't happen again, Tito has made a solid work so far. Switzerland is a good side, but Neymar should work their defense with ease.

GER, well.. They ubber alles... Can't really see MEX having a chance, but then again this is football, anything can happen.

Quote: (06-16-2018 05:58 PM)Simeon_Strangelight Wrote:  

Typical Simeon, posting a video of an attempted beheading in a football thread...

Today will be a first time for me to watch Costa Rica. Hope for an exciting match.

Quote: (06-16-2018 10:08 PM)Pancho Wrote:  

Another thing when it comes to Maradona.

Remember, in the 80s, teams feared Maradona and Argentina because of that cockiness, arrogance, shit talking, alpha, swagger that Maradona had. Its what made Argentina so feared around the world. His teammates knew who the leader was and passed him the ball every time. That aura rubbed off on his teammates which is what made him so great.

That is something I feel Messi is lacking and why I think Messi teams always play so sluggish. He's the default captain because he's Messi, but its true that Messi lacks that leadership.

That is why I feel like Maradona is the greatest of all time.

I dispute that. The greatest of all time is here below. Still underrated nowadays.

When all kids in my street wanted to be Maradona, Gullit, Papin, Van Basten..etc and I came up with wanting to be Romario...I was a laughingstock...a few years later and WC 94 made me have the last laugh ))))