The Euro 2012 thread

[lestatdark]

Naninho said:

lestatdark said:

Naninho said:

lestatdark said:

Naninho said:

Today on CR7: “This time last year Messi was eliminated from the Copa America which they were playing at home. That’s worse right?"

He just digs a bigger hole whenever he does that Messi comparisons, but I don't exactly reproach him. Everywhere he turns he hears Messi cheers or taunts and gets his performance compared to everything Messi does. He's only human and a person can only take so much crap. 

Messi barely does any worthwhile perfomances for his team as well when it matters too.

I'm from Argentina and I can tell you that Messi is playing exceptionally with the national team. At 24, he's already the 4th all-time top scorer and has a great chance to finish his carrer at least as 2nd. It's not his fault that our defense is useless...

C. Ronaldo is an awesome player too, but the bigger differences are their personalities: CR7 is arrogant and talk shit, while Messi retains an incredibly low profile. Although journalists can get really annoying with comparisons, his attitude IS reproachable since he's the only responsable for his words.

The media also compares Messi with Neymar, but the latter only declares his admiration for him and therefore goes unnoticed.

Ronaldo is obsessed with Messi. He is jealous, makes it public, and that affects his performances negatively. I think he needs a psychiatrist...

He's playing great, but on friendly matches. That's the big difference. 

Ronaldo is also one of the top scorers in Portugal as well, alas, he's in 3rd place with only 10 goals behind the best scorer. Since he has at least 6 - 7 years, in good form for the national team, he has a big shot of being the best scorer of all time in Portugal. Is that relevant? Not really, since when push comes to shove, he disappears. 

Messi's a bit of the same. What has he done in the most important tournaments? in WC 2010 he was non-existant and as far as I remember he was hugely critiziced even on Argentina because of his performance in the last copa america. 

I agree with you in every other regard though, mostly because I think the same. Even though it's more than journalists that do those comparisons (even national fans do the same against him), if he just kept a low profile, in time those things would go away. He doesn't need to be obsessed about it, because he's a phenomenal player himself in diferent aspects than Messi. Personally, I think Messi is the best player in the world (and probably one of the best in history).

That's right! It's good to talk to someone about football objectively. Usually when I have this kind of discussions with my countrymen, it all ends up with "Penaldo; Gaynaldo" or "Messi is a Spaniard!; He should stay in Barcelona!" (no kidding).

I disagree only with the bolded paragraph. Messi played wonderfully during the first 4 matches in the World Cup. He just went unnoticed in the match against Germany because, well... Maradona's tactics were non-existant (I wish I could delete that tournament from my brain...). In the Copa America, he didn't shine as much. But still, he was the best.

The main problem for our success-oriented public was that he didn't score. During important competitions, everybody starts to watch the matches and even without football knowledge, express their views, insult the players. For them, no matter if he managed 20 assists in a single game, the objective is the goal! That's what really happen here last year, sadly...

Don't worry, it's usually the same around here. The whole Ronaldo vs Messi debacle is really out of proportions, especially with those who side in favour of "Ronaldo's da best player forever" because they start pointing fingers at you for not being "patriotic" or some nonsense like that.

I agree that Messi suffered a lot with Maradona's tactics in the WC, but that was just a reflection of how poorly the team was placed in the field. Basically Argentina had no midfield to support the offensive and there was a big hole in the middle, which led to a lot of wasted potential. I don't doubt he was the best player in the CA, but IMO, he's on a whole different level to any American player so that kind of award should come naturally to him. 

When big competitions arise, that's usually a very big problem at least for the "latin" countries. I still remember when Figo was constantly being bombarded with criticism for some of his "poorer" performances for the national side, criticism that was borderline laughable (he was our best player, by far. Much better than Ronaldo is and probably will be) mostly because he had a long draught in goals...but he was consistently on top of the goal assists, passes and recoveries most of the times.