Congrats to Gio. Have to say, South American teams have absolutely mastered the art of the tactical yellow. They even rotate players in and out of danger areas so as to avoid any one player having to commit two yellow card offences. Then when that doesn't work, they sub on more players to earn more yellows .It's equal parts annoying as it is mesmerising to watch. Anyway, Neymar's crying so on that note I'll bid you all a good night...or morning!
Lovely winning goal. Shocking miss at the end by Messi, if you can even call it that. Didn't even shoot.
Apparently winning the Copa America means that Lionel Messi can be considered one of the all-time greats due to winning an international trophy Johann Cruyff continues to prove that line of thinking is complete bollocks, yet it keeps getting regurgitated
Toby-ball FTW. And Messi indulging in a bit of 'Mueller time' (the bookies will be round to collect your house deeds in the morning) .
Something in the water (given I am in that parish - goes and checks the water tank for pee socks ... ) ??
Some people don’t like Messi and will use any weak excuse not to acknowledge his greatness. Now he’s won a Copa America, they will move on to the ‘he needs to win the world Cup’ argument which is tedious isn’t it. Guess in their eyes that makes Pogba better than Ronaldo and Messi because he’s won the World Cup and they haven’t
Steven Nzonzi won it. Can't get into the Roma team and barely played for them since, but still... Christoph Kramer won the previous edition and it's his only trophy, rather bizarrely. Roque Junior won the 2002 World Cup and he was ****ing ****. Couldn't get in the Leeds team that got relegated in 03/04.
Stephane Guivarc'h is the example I always bring up: universally agreed to be the worst striker to ever win a World Cup, and his sole international goal was in a friendly, yet apparently because he won a World Cup that makes him better than van Basten, Batistuta, Baggio etc I've always though the need to put an asterisk on Messi's name was mainly from Cristiano Ronaldo fanboys, considering how Clive Tyldsley was always finding stats to say how Messi wasn't great
I give it three days before we announce that Gio has picked up a shoulder injury... please log in to view this image
Yup. The whole Messi/Ronaldo question was the prototype to modern football Twitter IMO. Both in terms of divisiveness and following players instead of clubs.
Does anyone genuinely doubt Messi's place amongst the best players, though? I've never met anyone that does.
It's always slightly pointless comparing footballers from different eras because the game has changed so much in every way From playing surface to equipment and not least fitness regimes, from diet to fully equipped gymnasia overseen by sports scientists. Compare all that to 30 ***s a day Cruyff or a few swift pints with Greaves and Gilzean. Despite all that I think it's safe to safe that Ronaldo and Messi are up there with Maradona and Pele but for me it will always be Johan Cruyff because not only did he posses huge ball skills he invented new ways to play the game with the fabulous Dutch team of the 70's. The Brazilians from that era were truly awesome but the Dutch were the Picasso's of football and much of how football is played today is down to them.
There's always been this weird culture of "...but has he done this?" around Messi, most obviously his lack of World Cups Clive Tyldsley demonstrated it the most in the 2011 CL final as he was shifting the goalposts throughout, because during the match he came up with - He's never scored against English opposition - He's never scored on English soil - He never scores headers The match saw Messi put Barca 2-1 up against Man Utd with a header at Wembley, which is possibly the biggest RCL in history
One player I would love to have seen and often mentioned by elder people is George Best. I only have seen clips of his game and most of what I know about him was his post football life and being known for his struggles with alcohol. Some say he’s up there with the very best, others say he’s not.
His place as an all time great is assured. Pele Maradona Best Ronaldo and Messi are the 5 best players ever, any debate is about the order I would suggest. That said, Copa America is surely easier to win than the Euros. The strength in depth is not there possibly. I heard the commentator say that both Neymar and Messi had never won one going into the game, which I find staggering.
