World Cup in Football (Soccer) 2014

[Mike1998]

Originally Posted by Jerome W

Messi is a great player but he did not deserve the title of best player of the World Cup. Surprising to say the least....

http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/stor...rld-cup-071414

Even Maradona agrees, Messi's contributions outside of the group stages were minimal. I think that the award should have gone to James Rodriguez of Columbia, he truly was the best player. Even Robben of the Netherlands contributed so much to his teams success, he also could have received the award over Messi.

[bart]

Originally Posted by Mike1998

Maradona says Messi did not deserve to win FIFA's Golden Ball | FOX Sports on MSN

Even Maradona agrees, Messi's contributions outside of the group stages were minimal. I think that the award should have gone to James Rodriguez of Columbia, he truly was the best player. Even Robben of the Netherlands contributed so much to his teams success, he also could have received the award over Messi.

Mike, there is so much rivalry between Maradonna and Messi...
Of course Maradonna will not show much enthusiasm about Messi, he wants to remain the 'best Argentinian player ever'.

[EfeTe]

Originally Posted by eljr

why?

Was rather poor by his own standards, not 100% fit or healthy (threw up again in 2 of the games) and clearly did not deserve the prize. I know the system worked in his advantage (for the prize what counts is mostly the Man of the Match selections) but overall he was not quite himself and clearly inferior to, say, Robben, Rodríguez or Mueller.

Also Messi has been less than inspiring whilst at FC Barcelona all year -something physical is going on and I just hope it's not going to marr the remainder of his career as it's been so incredible so far, so many years at his peak and still just turned 27.

Mascherano is a beast though, what World Cup finals he had.

[eljr]

Originally Posted by EfeTe

Was rather poor by his own standards, not 100% fit or healthy (threw up again in 2 of the games) and clearly did not deserve the prize. I know the system worked in his advantage (for the prize what counts is mostly the Man of the Match selections) but overall he was not quite himself and clearly inferior to, say, Robben, Rodríguez or Mueller.

Also Messi has been less than inspiring whilst at FC Barcelona all year -something physical is going on and I just hope it's not going to marr the remainder of his career as it's been so incredible so far, so many years at his peak and still just turned 27.

Mascherano is a beast though, what World Cup finals he had.

what we saw IMHo is vintage Messi. He is a player that does not make his team better but rather uses his team to make him better.

Sorry, I am no Messi fan, a serious sin in soccer but I speak the truth. The most over rated footballer ever IMHO.

[EfeTe]

eljr,

Well he certainly made that incredible Barcelona team (some would argue the best ever football team in history) a few years back didn't he. And he did score 70+ (!!!) goals in one season for them huh -when he was at his peak.

I think form is the key here and, knowing a bit of football and knowing Lio (personally, as I do) it is my impression that he's started to fade into a period of decadence. Also to judge by his recent muscular issues and all the throwing up whilst on the pitch, I cross my fingers but do have the feeling he might retire before his time.

Cheers

[new order]

Messi is a fantastic player, Maradona was also as good but personally I prefer Messi 7 days a week.
First of all he isn´t a psycopatic junkie. He is not a cheater that use doping. He got a winners head but doesn´t bend the rules. "Gods hand" wtf was that?
Messi is not like that. He doesn´t dive and plays fair most of the time. That makes him a better and more honest fotballplayer than Maradona ever was. Even if he had his fantastic moments, and by that I do not mean the time he used his air rifle on journalists... :P

[EfeTe]

Ha! All I can say is I was there at the time (I am a journo by trade) and the air bullets went not very far from this fatty.

Great player indeed -but what scumbag. Psychopatic is a pretty accurate term to describe him.

[eljr]

Originally Posted by EfeTe

eljr,

Well he certainly made that incredible Barcelona team (some would argue the best ever football team in history) a few years back didn't he. And he did score 70+ (!!!) goals in one season for them huh -when he was at his peak.

I think form is the key here and, knowing a bit of football and knowing Lio (personally, as I do) it is my impression that he's started to fade into a period of decadence. Also to judge by his recent muscular issues and all the throwing up whilst on the pitch, I cross my fingers but do have the feeling he might retire before his time.

Cheers

I think Barcelona made him. He played with the best players in the world. perfect for his game, a tipping point as it were.

Look at the numbers, to get those goals he took more shots than anybody and had a fair to poor shot on goal ratio.

Also he is not known for his lack of possession errors on the pitch.

Is he a talented player? Yeah.

That's all I can give him.

Soccer sucks because only scorers receive glory.

Meantime a midfielder may be way more valuable.

[antipop]

Originally Posted by eljr

Look at the numbers, to get those goals he took more shots than anybody and had a fair to poor shot on goal ratio.

Look back in the thread, I posted a link to a site that crunched the numbers. They show the opposite of your claim, that he is the best scorer with the highest ratio.

[bart]

I also think he was very good.
He often opened up the game, kept the adversary busy, and if Di Maria would have made the final, Argentina would have had a big chance to take the cup home.