Is this the single greatest own goal ever?

And it handed Dortmund a win. Well done, dickhead.

Haha.

Almost as funny as watching Arsenal and Man City lately.

Major coup. I've got tickets for Argentina's friendly against Croatia on Wednesday, at West Ham's ground.

Hopefully Messi, DiMaria and Modric will all play.

Go me.

^^ sounds fun

--

about your cr 7 rgument, i've been mulling it over and i think you're 70% correct. i have some 30% conterarguments.

but looking back at the short history of this trophy (i looked @ wikipedia) the obvious ones have always won, so okay. robben in 3rd place.

--

fun weekend in the bundesliga. dortmund finally won-- with an own-goal by monchengladbach! who of all people did this-- do you remember the german who was walking around concussed during the wc final game, looking goofy? the same one. hilarious. still dortmund couldn't score. wtf.

--

ps oh yeah ha ha you saw that! funniest thing is when kramer gets slapped on the head by his own teammate.

Ohhhh poor baby Saurez complaining about "being treated like a criminal" by the Uruguayan team.at the WC. DUH! dude breaks the rules yet again humiliating his entire.country what did he expect? The reason.I hate on Suarez is no matter how many guys he bites, or how many times.he.handballs in big.games, or how.many suspensions gets for misconduct he NEVER owns up to it. NEVER!

Back from the Argentina Croatia game. Just a friendly but an excellent match. Most importantly though got to see Messi, Aguerro, Tevez and DiMaria. Great atmosphere. Tevez got a standing ovation from the West Ham fans there. Argentina deserved the win but Croatia were good.

So who'd you put 2nd?

me i'd put robben first ha ha ah. but if we're going with market valuation etc then i'd put the obvious messi 2nd. since messi's market value is higher than cronaldo's due to age but one could argue this year cronaldo is best, etc. messi won @ the WC anyway, sadface & all.

reason i picked robben 3rd is because ribéry made it to 3rd last year, not out of any sense of ranking i'd create myself. just trying to guess what people will vote, which are different from my favorites where i'd have neuer for example who's been phenomenal this year so far.

Not that he deserved it and Messi knows that too.

probably. for my taste, james or muller or robben or neuer or mascherano were the stars of the world cup in retrospective.

...

to answer demonyo's previous comments about robben's schtick, yes maybe if you look at him that way he always does the same thing, but what impresses me the most is the effect he gets to have on games, the way defenses melt down before him, and even if they all know what he's going to do they can't stop him.

i see this in bayern week in and week out, and i think it was the same with the netherlands in the world cup--he carried them as far as they could go. and this year he's been unstoppable. of course he won't win, he might get a place though (3rd?), but i think he's gotten better with age and he's underrated right now. (of course he didn't score 51 goals in a season. holy shit, who does that. insane.)

Messi sad face pissed me off.. so disrespectful even if he was let down with himself

Can't argue with any of that. I don't see enough of Robben to really comment but you seem totally right about his impact on games. And yeah, Ronaldo's goal tally is absurd. I read somewhere recently that at one point this season he'd scored 3 hat-tricks in 4 games. 3 goals in 4 games is impressive but hat-tricks?!? As you say about Robben improving with age, you could say the same about Ronaldo. He was superb at Man U but there were always doubts about him. His time at Real though has meant that any arguments now about whether he's as good or even better than Messi at his best probably come down to personal taste. So far this season, in La Liga alone, he's scored 18 goals in 10 matches played. Whichever way you look at it, that's an absurd stat.

James had the best wc from a, 'who the fuck is this guy?' pov (unless you followed the French league, which I don't). But overall I'd have given it either to Robben or Muller. Neuer too but I think a goalkeeper will always be a special case.

Mascherano was probably my favourite player of the tournament but that had more to do with his attitude and sheer heroics. He played last night against Croatia and was brilliant again, without doing anything remotely spectacular. But playing that role will always make you under-appreciated compared with those in more superstar-friendly roles.

Hard to believe he was once a West Ham player, and barely even got a game

I'll agree that Robben has gotten better as he got older. Feels weird to think he was at Chelsea, especially given how much better he's gotten since then.

So FIFA have been cleared of corruption...by having FIFA investigate whether they are or not. Brilliant.

I await Suchfriends' rant about corruption. He would be right to a certain extent.

hahahahah.

The best bit was how they managed to turn the spotlight on the English FA. Not sayin we're squeaky clean but that's like a Nuremberg trial deciding the real problem was Alf Garnett.

Oh FIFA is so inherently corrupted I dont even bother, itd be like complaining about the rain while living in England. Ive more or less come to terms with sports corruption.

All football needs is to replace Blatter with a dream team of Bernie Ecclestone and Don King and it could give up any pretence of credibility altogether.

Another awards thingy, this time Fifa's Puskas Award for the best goal of the year. (Can't be long before football has its own fully fledged Oscars)

Shortlist is

Tim Cahill – 18 June 2014, Australia v. Netherlands, 2014 FIFA World Cup™

Diego Costa – 23 November 2013, Atlético Madrid v. Getafe, Primera División (Spain)

Marco Fabian – 15 February 2014, Cruz Azul v. Puebla, 1a División 2014 Clausura (Mexico)

Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 19 October 2013, Paris St. Germain v. SC Bastia, Ligue 1 (France)

Pajtim Kasami – 21 October 2013, Crystal Palace v. Fulham, Premier League (England)

Stephanie Roche -20 October 2013, Peamount United v. Wexford Youths, BEWNL (Rep.Ireland)

James Rodriguez – 28 June 2014 – Colombia v. Uruguay, 2014 FIFA World Cup™

Camilo Sanvezzo – 6 October 2013 – Vancouver Whitecaps v. Portland Timbers, MLS (USA/Canada)

Hisato Sato – 8 March 2014 – Sanfrecce Hiroshima v. Kawasaki Frontale, J.League (Japan)

Robin van Persie – 13 June 2014 – Spain v. Netherlands, 2014 FIFA World Cup™

I'm going for James' goal in the WC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GESyL3MkgNU

by "the year" the mean last season yes? august --> august?

how long has it been since zlatan's bycicle kick vs. england? that has to wind the decade.

these awards are kind of funny. nice to remember some of those goals though, like van persie's superman flight. but yes, of those listed, james all the way. tim cahill's a 2nd? i haven't seen the vancouver whitecaps (lol) or the mexican 1a división or getafe for that matter.