@ demonyo - so by "lately" i didn't mean yesterday and last week or the last few months but recent years in general

i don't look at the stats of la liga, but maybe it's the way real plays that makes cronaldo stand out more as the difference maker at least in games i watch-- namely champions league + international matches.

yes, marcelo was the amazing one this week yet cronaldo scored the goals. and it's always him for some reason that comes out of nowhere with a piece of genius and completely changes the complexion of a game right where it makes a difference. he just handles those crucial moments so fucking well. nobody else does it like him.

it's not just the ballons d'or he's taken from lionel but also there are the champions league cups and the euros and all these amazing victories while messi wilted at 2 copa américas and world cups and had a fit and quit playing for his team.

yes it's a team thing but also (again maybe due to the system of play) i haven't seen messi single-handedly change the direction of an important game lately the way cronaldo does. he does it of course. but his teams don't make it as high as his archrival's. who are probably going for la duodécima this years unless someone (something) stops them.

tldr; i've seen it's possible to shut down messi in big games-- but cronaldo... good luck trying.

--

i gotta watch that juve game today if possible. yesterday's split screen was mind-boggling and exhausting and not good to take in strategy and tactics. so apparently it deserves its own viewing and i should

There's a lot to agree with there, not least that Ronaldo has had the edge lately, I just took objection to the blown out the water bit. I wasn't snapping at you it's just this Messi v Ronaldo thing is out of hand now. Neither are at their peak anymore so it seems a bit pointless making overall claims about them based on it (not that that's what you were doing).

Bottom line for me, at their respective peaks Messi was the best player I've ever seen and nothing that I've seen from Ronaldo at any time in his career makes me question that. Ronaldo is bigger, stronger so it makes sense his career will last longer but for about 5 years Messi was playing at an almost supernatural level, doing things I've never seen anyone do. As brilliant as Ronaldo has been, I've never seen him do anything that made me think only he could do that. In that sense I put Ronaldo in the category of players like Zlatan, R9, Raul, etc and probably better than any of them. I put Messi in a different category, with players like Maradona, Zidane, Cruyff, etc, whose greatness, while backed up by stats, seems less reducible to them.

ha ha ha hah ahahahahahahahaaaaa

[this post is # 8-420, on 4/20 and 11:2... 1 (my time). pity i didn't make it at 420. but it was 4:20 somewhere when i saw it.

fuck hitler, btw

but anyway, short lunch break

@ demonyo

yeah i agree, messi pre-scandal and at his peak was otherwordly and played in a different dimension. no question. he was on top of everyone then.

but i think the pair are still considered the best players right now--aren't they?

so post-panama papers yeah i think lio takes 2nd chair unfortunately in all fairness

sad but true

last he won he had that funny suit as i recall ha ha ha

eta: i don't think it's so much physical as much as a mental/focus thing

(but he used to never get injured and now he does, too)

It's pretty incredible how ling those two have been the top two world players. Wonder if that'll be toppled next time round.

So I'm off to Seville for a week on Wednesday. Turns out Sevilla are playing Celta Viga at home on the Thursday. Just bought my tickets for it!

What was insane is that it cost £24 per ticket and they're decent seats. It costs me £30 to go see my local team Preston North End. For Symbols, PNE are a league down and middling at that. To see a top 4 team (and winner of the Europa cup three times in a row) cost less than a fucking championship team. How did it get to that state?

Have a great time h8kurdt. Massively envious here!


I think they're still considered to be but honestly, I'm not sure. I think we're currently back in the standard situation where the best we can do is pick 11 players who are best in their specific positions. A few years ago Messi and Ronaldo were clearly playing above the level of everyone else, regardless of position, but I'm not sure that's the case now. I imagine Neymar will be the number 1 sooner rather than later but will even he transcend his position the way Messi and Ronaldo did?


I'd say it's both but on the level of focus, while Messi's clearly no slacker, I wonder if we'll ever see another player like Ronaldo. As a person, I admire him far more than I do Messi. His determination. The fact he's had to work for everything he's achieved. The ultimate football ubermensch.

Real vs. Atletico
Monaco vs. Juventus

That's the perfect semi final for me. Plus it all works toward my bet of Man United and Juventus to get to the first also.

Yeah, that's perfect. Part of me wants Atletico to go through but a Juventus-Real final would be more conclusive.

I never really saw any of Monaco's games. Are they actually any good? Like realistic chance of winning good?

I saw the Man City games and there a team clearly getting better as each game goes on. Whether they can beat Juventus is another question.

I want "el Aleti" to fuck "el Madrí" up with a totally ugly, petty, anti-spectacle hyperdefensive game, and then lose the final 7-0.

Just put Lukaku to score against West Ham tomorrow in my accumulator. And as demonrail knows (sorry man) he's scored in the last 9 9! games against them. Here's to the football gods he does it again tomorrow.

monaco is not a team that will dominate a game with possession and not by parking the bus either. they can be scored against from what i've seen.

but what they will do beautiful is these explosive, precise, deadly counters that will punch the air out of the other team.

granted this i only witnessed against man city and dortmund, teams that are not at their top form currently.

but the quality of their strikers is just fantastic. mbappé, falcao in form, germain as an almost griezmann, carrillo... i think this team can cut open the guts of any defense. and they're not invulnerable, but their goals are... so pretty... and abundant.

really fun team to watch regardless, deserved spot on the semis, i think on a good day they could win it all

and enjoy them this season, before they get pilfered by bigger clubs

I hope he does so you get your money, in a 2-1 West Ham win (like that's gonna happen). Fully expecting you to hammer us (pardon the pun).

Oh yeah, the Man City games. I forgot that was them.

watch some excerpts of their dortmund games though. some gorgeous goals

Depends on how you go about it, I guess:

Suspect in Borussia Dortmund Plot Hoped to Profit Off Attack, Officials Say

Suspected Borussia Dortmund bomber and speculator was total 'fool': analysts

Officials: Greed drove BVB attack suspect

Borussia Dortmund bus bomber was no terrorist — just a greedy trader, prosecutors say

Prosecutors suspect market speculator could be behind German soccer club attack

:eek::D

i just heard on npr this afternoon he took out a loan to buy dortmund stocks

what a fucking dork

hang him by the huevos

holy shit bayern down 2-1 at halftime vs. relegation-fighting mainz

with boateng and martinez resting, alaba had to be central midfielder, bayern got scored on, alaba got knocked and kimmich came in, bayern scored real pretty, then mainz again from pentaly

bayern defense in disarray! and the attack lacking a bit

oh, an neuer w/ a broken foot out for the rest of the season. his replacement looks like needs more practice

ancelotti is making coman warm up last i saw. there he is running around the pitch right now

What is it they say about a fool and his money? :D

Seriously though, what a shit match.