ITT: LEO 'KING' MESSI

not really, centre of gravity and all that.

Mind you, heskey was an ox at leicester, only turned into england's #1 most obvious, shameful and worst diver under houllier at liverpool.

gerard 'foreign' houllier

just how it happened imo, no further connotations to be drawn from it.

Tho he did have a big influence on gerrard, just sayin

idk

just about everyone dives, gerrard is only egregious because he's a hypocrite

doubt houiller is any different to ferguson et al

iirc Barca vs Bayern Champion's League Semi or Quarter Final from a couple of years ago, messi was clearly fouled in the box but instead got booked for diving. Pep so incensed he was sent to the stands. Of course the ref was Howard Webb mind.

Spanish supremo Sid Lowe makes that case that Lionel Messi’s world player of the year award was a slap in the face for Spain’s world cup win. “Only one Spanish player has ever won the award – Luis Suárez in 1960 – and for years the reason was assumed to be that, while Madrid and Barcelona had been among the continent’s very best teams, there was no international success to push Spanish players over the line. Now at last there is. But this time, more than any other time, the World Cup has not been decisive. If it had been, Messi would not have won the award.”

James Lawton also criticises the award to Messi, claiming Andres Iniesta should have scooped the top prize. “Iniesta fought serious injury all the way to South Africa, playing whenever it was humanly possible for Barca, and then had a magnificent World Cup. He was the relentless fixer of crisis and when Spain’s first World Cup triumph was in jeopardy he delivered the coup de grâce to the thuggish Dutchmen. On a cold, dangerous night in Johannesburg he won the prize by the force of his nature as much as his extraordinary talent. His name should have been in Blatter’s pocket and then brought out of that dark place into the light of authentic fame.”

this is bullshit. "sure iniesta may have barely played all season (and villa was spain's best player) but he should have won it over the greatest player in the world and possibly the history of football"

well done for winning the world cup spain, you just don't happen to have the best player in the world != a kick in the teeth.

I think there's some kind of weird convention where in a World Cup year you're meant to give it to a player from the winning country. Cannavaro and all that.

but it's voted on by a huge group of people, it seems weird that people are making it out as a conspiracy against spain.

little guy just scored his second against betis. persistent.

Decided not to bother watching. Foolish.

opta sonderangerbot

betis actually being pretty good.

hat-trick.

Had second thoughts and switched on after all. Timely.

that were shite

that were not

Afellay was 3 million euros. Bargain.

I think there's some kind of weird convention where in a World Cup year you're meant to give it to a player from the winning country. Cannavaro and all that.

― Number None, Wednesday, January 12, 2011 5:09 PM (Yesterday)

Helped that Cannavaro was a fucking beast at juve/real that year too, in a year with no real obvious other contender (gerrard? lol.)

lol u mad rite? he got sonned by arsenal in the cl last 16 and was generally pretty crap for madrid until the latter half of that season

prirlo/buffon were arguably more influential, and deco ran the midfield for barca in their double season before getting portugal to a semifinal

Eh, they also had two players sent off in that cl tie. Buffon couldn't have got it because he played half the year in the second division. I guess Deco otm but he's always been a hard player to like.

i've always liked deco

http://www.simpsonstrivia.com.ar/simpsons-photos/wallpapers/milhouse-van-hout.gif

little cunt innee

Did he have a dream dessert that he had tried and failed to perfect? He nodded. “Yes, there’s one I’m working on. I haven’t really . . . perfected it yet. You see, I’m a big fan of F.C. Barcelona”—the soccer team—“and I wanted to make a dessert that would re-create the emotions Lionel Messi feels when he scores a goal.” Messi is the great Argentine striker who stars for Barcelona. “I feel I’m close. Could I try it out on you at the end of lunch?”

Finally, the server arrives with the Messi dessert, as Jordi fusses anxiously in the background. He presents half of a soccer ball, covered with artificial grass; the smell of grass perfumes the air. On the “grass” is a kind of delicately balanced, S-shaped, transparent plastic teeter-totter—like a French curve—with three small meringues on it, and a larger white-chocolate soccer ball balancing them on a protruding platform at the very end. A white candy netting lies on the grass near the white-chocolate ball.

Then, with a cat-that-swallowed-the-canary smile, the server puts a small MP3 player with a speaker on the table. He turns it on and nods.

An announcer’s voice, excited and frantic, explodes. Messi is on the move. “Messi turns and spins!” the announcer cries, and the roar of the crowd at the Bernabéu stadium, in Madrid, fills the table. The server nods, eyes intent. At the signal, you eat the first meringue.

“Messi is alone on goal!” the announcer cries. Another nod, you eat the next scented meringue. “Messi shoots!” A third nod, you eat the last meringue, and, as you do, the entire plastic S-curve, now unbalanced, flips up and over, like a spring, and the white-chocolate soccer ball at the end is released and propelled into the air, high above the white-candy netting.

“MESSI! GOOOOOAL!” The announcer’s voice reaches a hysterical peak and, as it does, the white-chocolate soccer ball drops, strikes, and breaks through the candy netting into the goal beneath it, and, as the ball hits the bottom of a little pit below, a fierce jet of passion-fruit cream and powdered mint leaves is released into your mouth, with a trail of small chocolate pop rocks rising in its wake. Then the passion-fruit cream settles, and you eat it all, with the white-chocolate ball, now broken, in bits within it.

You feel . . . something of what Messi must feel: first, the overwhelming presence of the grass beneath his feet (he’s a short player); then the tentative elegance of acquired skill, represented by the stepladder of the perfumed meringues; and, finally, the infantile joy, the childlike release, of scoring, represented by the passion-fruit cream and the candy-store pop rocks. I saw Jordi watching us from the kitchen entrance. He had the anxious-shading-into-delighted look that marks the artist.

you'd expect me to scoff at that - really though I'd rather scoff it - awesome

although by that logic alan wright must be a botanist in his post-playing career

everyone involved in that needs a serbian tackle

Have you seen the Adidas Messi cartoon ad? (it's in spanish, but even if you don't speak it, I guess it's quite easy to understand) :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__oFYH1RxjY&feature=player_embedded

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/mar/10/barcelona-lionel-messi-transfer-bid

can't believe he's got 45 goals in 40 games. i keep saying i need to go and see him play in person so i can tell my kids i did so, feels like one of the unique opportunities for this generation.

otm. tho I'll probably never have kids at this point #10yearswithalaptoponmyballs

also otm.

having kids was prob the other unique opportunity for this generation.

shit.

thread got hugely depressing

Not quite in the same legendary category and I doubt I'll ever tell the grandkids, but Joe Jordan was playing in the first match I ever went to see. Getting my eras all mixed up now - I thought he'd retired before I was born.

Dalglish was playing too, and now I've seen him managing Liverpool.

The thing I noticed most seeing Messi play in person was his control. Time after time what looked to me like bad/over-hit passes would fly in his general direction and every single time the ball would be instantly at his feet with him pointing in the direction he wanted to run (usually at poor Lee Naylor).

i saw freddy adu's first professional goal, which i'm sure is all my kids will care about.

was that the 2-3 in 2007 xp?

that was one of the best attacking performances i can remember, also the only time ronaldinho, messi, henry and eto'o all looked great in one match

I was at Ledley King's debut for Spurs v Liverpool at Anfield in 1999. Oh yes.

I saw emile heskey score with a bicycle kick at anfield. surely thats up there with spotting the loch ness monster or something.

was that the 2-3 in 2007 xp?

That's the chap - well early 2008 (we're terribly proud of staying in Europe beyond Christmas you know - took us 20 years to get any good at it). Probably the most entertaining of our six meetings with Barca in recent years. We did okay considering the gulf in actual talent.

shit it was the second round wasn't it

those were the days

The one and only time i've been to Old Trafford David May scored the game's solitary goal

i saw nani's first proper cunted goal for utd

i saw the first goal in the premier league (deane, b. 4 mins)

Got a deflection though darragh, so it doesn't count.

wasn't it a deflection off tevez, thus making it not nani's goal at all

david may was vs blackburn right (from memory)

May goal was against Shef Wednesday. It was way back in 95 though.

tough crowd tough crowd

i saw it from the side tbf, looked a beaut strike from my angle.

Of course, turned out to be a deflection that fatty should have saved anyway.

Tv replays are killing the game imo