Football (Soccer)

[stereophobic]

Getting knocked out of the Champions League at home on away goals after going 2 goals up in 8 minutes > Getting raped by Lionel Messi

Well, it's going to be all Barca after this... great for the neutrals though.

Edit: That being said, pretty sure the whole of England dropped a deuce in their pants when Rooney started limping again. Also Nani + Rafael had a good showing.

[todestrieb]

A bloody sweet irony of fates with two ex-Real Madrid players being absolutely instrumental in getting their respective new teams into the semis - Sneijder for Inter and Robben for Bayern. Not to mention the auld enemy from Catalonia making it too.

[kofi3159]

^ Word up
Barca 4ever
Messi CANNOT be compared to Rooney
Just need Abidal back in time and the final against Bayern will be a walk in the park..
Eagerly looking forward to EL Clasico

[Bubu]

Rafael was naive. Ribery did the right thing for his own team - He had nothing on that young Brazilian. Poor boy must be crying right now.

[TheNotoriousT]

ManU will go through. I'm confident about that.

In other news, Arsenal has been brutally beaten by Barcelona. I love it.

Hate to say I told you so!
Bayern did it!

[mass]

fuck the goon
fuck manure
e i e i o
up the premier league we go
we are the geordies
super geordies

[kofi3159]

Again we outplayed Madrid..
Goals by OF COURSE MESSIAH and Pedro..
Thats 2 consecutive wins at the bernabeu.
I sincerely think that Messi is the greatest player of all time..
Pele is good, Maradona better but Messi is simply just Best??
Anyone dare to disagree...

[stereophobic]

Respectfully, he won't be the best player of all time until he is good enough to carry Argentina singlehandedly to a World Cup trophy. I don't think that would happen this year.

[jumpoff]

Respectfully, he won't be the best player of all time until he is good enough to carry Argentina singlehandedly to a World Cup trophy. I don't think that would happen this year.

Why would he need to win the world cup "singlehandedly" to be regarded the all-time best? Shouldn't this be down to be ability alone?

What Maradona did with Napoli and Argentina was astonishing, but people have a tendency to make them out to be pub teams hadn't it been for Maradona.

Of course, Messi has the advantage of playing for the arguably best club team for quite some time and Maradona had no Xavi, but why hold that against Messi? And Argentina will be up against the best national team in recent decades this summer as well. So what if he doesn't win it singlehandedly.

The kid is only 22 years old and if he continues to play the way he has been playing this season, he will be the all-time best, world cup or no world cup.

[lowrey]

there is no point in trying to declare someone "the best of all time". does best mean the highest ranked in terms of goals or other statistics? individual performance or contribution to a team? international or series level? does Messi even hold any records yet? probably not since he is so young.

either way, he is probably the most talented player right now, I prefer to leave it at that.

[jumpoff]

there is no point in trying to declare someone "the best of all time". does best mean the highest ranked in terms of goals or other statistics? individual performance or contribution to a team? international or series level? does Messi even hold any records yet? probably not since he is so young.

either way, he is probably the most talented player right now, I prefer to leave it at that.

True. I'm also against this constant need for labelling, even if my last post might not indicate that. It's difficult comparing players from the same generation and even more so comparing players from different generations. But when players are playing as good as Messi has been doing lately the discussion will always come up.

It was the same with Ronaldo last season, but I find the discussion more warranted today.

[kofi3159]

Interesting debate..

As for Argentina winning the world cup..
I believe that Maradona needs to build a team around MESSI..
But then again he needs Xavi in the midfield becoz Mascerano and Veron are not the playmaker types.. The catalan style is hard to replicate when you dont have the midfield..
Mike is right- Be that as it may- He is even more scary now. He is basically doing a lot of Maradona football career highlights in like what two seasons..

[stereophobic]

So... Chelsea for champions?

Can't imagine them losing to any of the other teams except for Liverpool.

[Sombre]

^We will see. The lead is cut to one point and they still have to go to Anfield. Spurs are in sensational form. I'm worried about Man U hosting them this Satruday.

Champions League: My brain is having trouble understanding that Inter Milan beat Barcelona 3-1 just now.

[stereophobic]

You know, I didn't even realize that the match was today, there was hardly any excitement or coverage online going into it. Inter played well but who knows what the effect of the land travel was on the Barca players.

Spurs v United will be a great game for neutrals and United haters alike Really great form right now.