Please don't

Well, I don't know if Messi would give up all his club titles, but I'm pretty sure he would have given up quite a few of them to have won that Copa America final (not even talking about the World Cup).

He gets annoyed by the criticism from the media and fans for not performing for Argentina the way he has done at club level. He is not reveared anything like as much as Maradona.
The last WC was by far his best, but he couldn't quite turn a very good WC into a great one for him.
Sadly, in two years time I think he'll be on the decline.

Unless Messi wins the WC, Maradona will always be Argentina's biggest legend. It's a fact and Messi knows this, which is why he puts himself under so much pressure for Argentina and never plays his best.

Since he appeared for Argentina as a teenager, Messi has always played as if he still has another shot at the WC. It's always "next time", but now there may no longer be a next time.

I'm not a Messi fan at all, but I did feel for him in the Copa America final

Always has been in my lifetime!

However, right at this moment in time I would sat the standard of the very best teams at National level isn't as high as it has been. The level of the worst and average teams is higher though.
But i would also say the level of the top club sides is not what it once was.
The three best in Europe Barca, RM and Bayern have all had better sides than they have at the mo.
Across Europe the standard is very average. No great Italian sides, or Dutch, Eastern European, Germany a one team league, PSG remain little more than a pretty good team and then there's the very moderate level at the top of the EPL. Probably the weakest in 25 years.

I am a big fan of him as a footballer. I would have loved to have seen the best if him at WC's, but we haven't. Equally, we never really got to see the very best of fat Ron at WC's, but that was due to him carrying injuries. He was still great enough to be able to pace him games though and get himself through the tournaments, apart from that disgrace of him being sent out to play France in the WC final when he was clearly in no fit state to be on the pitch.

BIB - I always thought the French poisoned him

Again, the true greats dit it week in week out but were able to peak for the really big ones, just like the athletes do for the Olympics and other big one in sport
You say the pressure is the same playing for RM as it is for Portugal. You say that despite everything said by past and present players and managers who all say it's on a different level.
Brendon Foster used to vomit before races at the Olympics and was never able to produce his best because of nerves and pressure. He did not vomit running a regular race at somewhere like Crystal Palace.
Ron playing for RM against the likes of Granada or Ebar in LA Liga or Lyon or Malmo in the CL, is a million miles away from the pressure he's under here.

As for Tyson vs Douglas.
Douglas did not have a "punchers chance"
He was a light hitting boxer, who simply stood his ground and actually threw punches back at Tyson.
He destroyed him with very basic boxing skills of a jab, jab, jab and right crosses. Tyson had no answer.

IIt could have just been a reaction to the drugs he was having to take ( he was carrying injuries) to get through the matches? That, along with the stress and pressure of such a big match could have made him unwell?
Either way, it was a disgrace to send him out to play in such a state. He looked like hr hardly knew where he was.

One last thing on this Ron, and it's a firm prediction.
He will see these Welsh lads and see this as kind of an EPL game. He will be mentally right for a game like this and be at his best.

Why are you referencing individual sports? You are making my point for me. Brendon Foster had the exact same thing to do in the Olympics as he did at a meet at Crystal Palace - run. He had to rely on no-one else but himself so he can be judged by the Olympics because its the exact same thing he was doing as he does week in week out. Footballers are being transplanted from their club teams into a foreign environment with different players who may be far worse, or a manager who may be worse and expected to play in what would normally be their time to rest. Its not really a suitable environment for judging how great a player is,. George Weah could never play at a World Cup through absolutely no fault of his own, why cant his club career be used to gauge how great a player he was? His club career is the thing he had control over.

Mike Tyson - again an individual sport, a sport where one punch can change everything no matter how good bad or otherwise you are. Tyson's head was not in the game for that fight, that's a cast iron fact - no pun in tended!!

Buster Douglas beating a mentally and physically wrecked Tyson, who'd done little preparation is not a good example to back up an argument.

You think? All the pressure is on him though. Bale has no pressure whatsoever, as Wales are already happy just being there. Plus, Bale is in MUCH better form than Ron and he always turns up for big games. I don't expect Ron to play well at all.

Foster was just another example of how stress and pressure affects top sportsmen/women, past and present at the very highest level. It can cripple their performances. The bigger the stage the bigger the stress and pressure. Simple human reactions.

Tyson went in to that fight about the same weight he always was. If he was not fit he would have showed and he would not have lasted as long as he did that night.
He was always a bully, and even some of his team later admitted as much. It was the first time anyone had stood up to him and he had no answer to that.
It was not as if he was up against a great fighter and lost a close fight. He simply had his ears boxed off from round one til the finish

I don't think there's much pressure on either tbh.
Portugal and Ron have had an extremely fortunate draw to get through and have not played at all well, do nobody should expect too much from them.
Wales have done better than expected, so no real pressure on them either.
I'm just hoping for a good game to be honest. I would like Wales to go through but don't think they will.

Yeah, like he was unfit and taken apart by Holyfield, an over the hill, blown up Cruiserweight.
Excuses, excuses, excuses.

But disregarding the fact that Portugal are a terrible team who have been lucky to scrape through to this stage of the tournament... This is going to be Ronaldo in an (on paper) much stronger team than his club mate (and not necessarily best friend) Bale two games away from a title he has been craving for years. I can't envisage Ronaldo not seeing this as a big game and letting his club mate steal the limelight.

Portugal aren't the sparkling side of old, but they're far from terrible. Let's dial back the hyperbole a little.

But then you also wanted me to dial back my England critique... I guess by England standards, Portugal are truly far from terrible

It's just that not everything needs to be world's worst everything all at the same time in order for a point to get across.

They're not a terrible team, just one that hasn't played very well.

Apparently, they rate several of their younger players very highly, but word is they are actually being inhibitted by Ronaldo. Every time one of them makes a mistake Ronaldo shouts and waves his arms at them. Everytime he makes a mistake he shouts and waves his arms at them. That is no way an experienced and leader should behave.
Like Becks and Rooney, he's too big a name to be dropped. They have not got here because of him, but if they dropped him and lost it would be because he wasn't in the team.
It's a no win situation for the manager.

England against Iceland was almost unbelievable!
Portugal have just been deadly dull.

Thank you! I started to think I watched a different game with the amount of people defending them on here. Honestly, I've not seen anything like it aside from Brazil against Germany, but that was Germany in their WC form and even Brazil managed to score from open play

Yes I appreciate what you are saying about Foster but again Ronaldo (for example yet again) has performed in far more pressurised environments that the Portugal national team! Having a bad game against Croatia or Iceland is fairly meaningless when you have had great games against Barcelona and Man Utd.

There is no point in discussing Tyson if you are suggesting that it wasn't outside factors that caused his defeat to Buster Douglas, this is clearly another one of your blind spots.

You've not watched much football, have you?

I have, but then my team are Bayern. They can actually play