Shades of Maradona 86 for me. He looks to be in the mindset to single-handedly drag Portugal to the WC champions line.
You never know - nobody looking exceptional right now - although Belgium seemed very comfortable - Iran could easily have snatched a draw against Spain last night (that nutmeg on Pique!!!!!) - Germans looked knackered - French struggled against the Socceroos and the Argies looked laboured and lacking ideas ... might be a bit of a watershed worldy cup for the established order... who knows?
Difficult to say if the players in the big fish squad are suffering club season fatigue or not, or whether the weather is catching some of them out. There is a definite trend for lesser nations to go towards busparquet, and it is in the main working to date (in that at worst they are losing by one goal and not being utterly demolished) . This will get tested a lot more IMHO by Arg vs Croatia today (both are technically good in MF at least) , as we hope that Portugal vs Spain is not the one-off game for the entire tournament.
I'm loving Ronnie's Spinning the finger goal celebration. I think he wants to win the World(Spinning finger) Cup. Best player in tournament so far
It's a good shout...he's been pulling the strings for Spain. Not many players can take the bull by its horns like Ronaldo though, for me.
yeah, there is a real lack of quality in the Portugal squad, but it doesn't really matter because Ronaldo is so consistently playing at an unbelievable level that he'll make the diference, Messi has so far failed to do it.
I wonder if Messi may not be as (outwardly) ego-driven as CR7, and so his undoubted brilliance does not reflect on pitch for Argentina to the extent it does for Barca.
He has, which is quite disappointing...would love to see Messi lead the Argies but it's just not clicking for him. His game needs some good players around him for the Tikki Takka...he doesn't seem to have that with the Argies. Ronaldo on the other hand is more direct and powerful. The other players just need to do the basics right, Ronnie will do the rest.
Could be...but I think Messi has always been like that, yet he's been pulling up trees all his career. I think it's more to do with him lacking the ball playing quality around him that will compliment him.
Ronaldo is definitely man of the world cup so far. (Still a ****er though). Messi definitely a more well rounded player usually though. Got the same attacking abilities plus additional abilities all over the park. No question who is having the better world cup so far though.
I think Messi is the most naturally gifted, but Ronaldo has worked the hardest, which is why he's still so devastating at 33, he's also braver and has great athletic physicality, I don't think Messi would've even tried that header. hopefully Messi will prove me wrong later and do a Maradona '86.
