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Ronaldo was injured: What was Messi's excuse?
Boxfresh
Posts: 2,764 Forum Member
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Cristina Ronaldo didn't have a particularly good World Cup, but he was coming into the tournament carrying an injury. And he was also carrying a very, very mediocre Portugal team.
Messi has a pretty strong team in Argentina (and it was nowhere near the one-man team bias pundits tried to claim). Messi knocked in a few goals against some minnows, but as Gary Linekar said before the final, he's generally been a disaapointment. He didn't turn up in the match against Holland, and he didn't turn up against Germany either.
I don't think either Ronaldo or Messi are the greatest ever. They are ijn a battle to be the best of their generation, but I think neither are in the same tier as Pele, Maradonna or even Zidane
Messi has a pretty strong team in Argentina (and it was nowhere near the one-man team bias pundits tried to claim). Messi knocked in a few goals against some minnows, but as Gary Linekar said before the final, he's generally been a disaapointment. He didn't turn up in the match against Holland, and he didn't turn up against Germany either.
I don't think either Ronaldo or Messi are the greatest ever. They are ijn a battle to be the best of their generation, but I think neither are in the same tier as Pele, Maradonna or even Zidane
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I do agree with the OP in they are the best for their generation, Zidane Pele and Maradona miles ahead.
Golden Ball is a joke. Nobody is going to take that seriously, and every football fan with half a brain will know FIFA only gave it to him to keep the Messi hype train going.
Messi wasn't even the best player for Argentina, let alone the tournament. To get it over Muller, Neuer, Robben or Rodrriguez is ridiculous
Did you actually watch the last game? It ended up a penalty shoot out. He was poor, as he was tonight.
If Messi wasn't in the squad they would be out in the groups hope that makes it easier for you.
Yea, because they've got some really rubbish players like Zabeleta, higuain, Di Maria, Aguero.
I'd go as far as to say in a team game, this isn't great, if he's not pulling any magic out the hat.
I'm not buying all this one man team bollocks. He's a forward. His job is is to score goals. Getting goals against the likes of Iran and Switzerland does not deserve some sort of extra credit. It's standard stuff. When the real challenges came, Messi shrunk.
Argentina has Di Maria, Mascherano, Zabeleta, Higuian and Romero. Argentina had an excellent squad. You've been falling for the shite the BBC pundits were trying to sell you.
He was alright, nothing more, nothing less, certainly nothing too special.
Most players would dream to have the above said about them during a World Cup, yet for Messi it's deemed a below par effort.......
......that itself shows how high his standards are, if the above is deemed as 'poor' or below par
He's not been his best, yet he still gets his team to the final
If you want to look to a high profile player who had a terrible tournament then look no further than Casillas.
And never will be.
To be fair to Messi, Maradona's boots are almost impossible to fill. I can't see any player repeating what Maradona did in '86.
His group goal games against minnow sides were fine. Nothing exceptional. but fine.
He scored no goals in the knockout stage, where the most difficult opposition came. he was a flattrack bully in effect.
Argentina had a lot of excellent players doing hard work to get them to the final, but you'd never actually know it to listen to the BBC or ITV pundits. The last two Argentina matches, even when Messi barely touched the ball, all they can talk about is him.
The fact that people are trying to claim he single handedly dragged a world class squad to the final shows how overrated his contribution has been. He played his part, but the team itself is incredibly solid. Argentina have an incredible defense and a great midfield. They are a great team. One of the best in the world. People who are making out as if they are some sort of Vauxhall confrence Pub squad have no idea.
I think that sums it up for me. He clearly didn't have a bad tournament, he just didn't light it up as people expected or hoped
That's only because Messi was so awful in the semi-finals, that not even the most creative pundits could find a way to give him credit for "carrying" the team, even if they dearly wanted to. So they had to finally acknowledge another Argentina player than Messi was doing a job for the team.
The bias is insane. Mascherano was just as effective in previous games, but as long as Messi got a couple of touches or a goal, no matter how average his overall performance, his contribution gets overhyped ahead of better performers on his own team.
if the pundits wanted to, they could have been hyping Mascherano every time he touched the ball (like they do with Pirlo for Italy), but that wasn't on the agenda. Pumping up Messi every chance they could was, till it was no longer feasible.
People here are quite intelligent. I'm surprised you can't see through this stuff
Fitness problems or some sort of mental fatigue?? Certainly not the player of 18 months ago either way and this will be an interesting season ahead for him.
Messi took his team to a world cup final, something which isnt as easy as you and others seem to be suggesting. Also got four motm awards consecutively which is a record, four goals, 1 assist, created the most number of chances of any player.
He also came off a two-three month injury and hasnt looked the same since even for barcelona where he ran less in one match than even the barcelona goalkeeper.
He doesnt have to prove anything. He is still one of the greatest players of all time, and the greatest ive ever seen live.
Zidane came VERY close in 2006. He was spectacular and if not for his headbutt (which still makes me go
Messi was not properly as Ronaldo was struggling with fitness. I remember watching Messi in the 'title decider' against Atletico Madrid and it appeared that he was unable to move with fluency. It was as if he was fatigued. I watched Ronaldo play against Ghana and he was definitely injured. Towards the end of the match, when he was off the ball he had to kneel down onto the side of his bad knee. It was sad to watch, however it was great to see him play live.
Maradona or Zidane were completely different types of players. They got involved everywhere all the time. You could always see their presence on the pitch. They could take a ball from their own half and drive it forward and make a game. They were also extremely confident and ballsy, which Messi does not appear to be.
So Messi can never be Maradona because they are just different types of players. Funnily enough, I think Messi plays more like Pele than like Maradona.