Some of you have probably already seen this but my son sent me the link and I thought I’d share it here.
These are all 253 of Messi’s goals for Barcelona montaged together.
A great English striker (Jimmy Greaves) once said “You don’t have to break the net to score a goal”. Well Messi is living proof of that. You can count the ones he spanked in on one hand. The rest are all practically passed into the goal.
I often think it is difficult to judge a player’s real status as an individual when they play in an all round great team. It is not only easier to score a lot of goals when you have great service, it is also an advantage to have the extra space allowed when your opponents have a bunch of brilliant players to worry about, not just you. But the incredible consistency of quality in these goals is truly astonishing in my opinion and show that mixture of sublime ball control and ice cool headedness that makes Messi so special. There are some penalties in there of course but not that many actually, especially early on and the majority are just magnificent, clinical finishing with some superb dribbling thrown in for good measure. The amount of goals here scored when he is surrounded by a bunch of defenders who might just as well not be there is incredible.
Messi may not dominate a game the way Maradona did but on this evidence and considering he is still only 24 he can make a firm case for being considered one of the best ever I think.
I don’t know. He must build a new team AND qualify for the World Cup 2014. I don’t think anybody in Holland now reckons that Oranje will be among the favorites within two years, but we simply need to be there. We’re in a group with Turkey and Rumania (plus a couple of others), so that should be possible. Not that easy, but feasible. We can’t afford to miss a World Cup (we missed one, under Van Gaal, in 2002!)
He’ll need a few older players for the qualification, but it will be difficult to select the right ones. There have been a lot of troubles among the players (I’ll tell more about it another time, still checkin’ a few thing out). Moreover the younger generation (19-23 years) isn’t really very talented. There are a couple of good players, but only one top talent, so it seems (Maher, who is at the moment only 17 years old). Biggest problem will remain our defense. We simply don’t have four decent defenders. But then again, Van Gaal is very good at working with younger players, he showed that in Munich (and in the past in Amsterdam, when he brought the likes of Davids, Seedorf, Kluivert, etc.)
The new Dutch team, with a lot of very young players (Willems, Narsingh, Martins Indi, Strootman, Clasie, Janmaat - all unknown to foreigners, I suppose) and only a couple of old-timers (Sneijder, Van Persie, Robben) beat Turkey 2-0. They were a bit lucky.
Best news probably is that Belgium finally seems to live up to its standards, beating Wales 0-2 in Cardiff (comfortably). The great test will be tuesday, in Brussels against Croatia.
Germany and England winning their games comfortably, although I would have expected a bit more from Germany than this 3-0 home against FarOer Islands
No real surprises, as far as I know, unless you count a Portugese victory in their first qualification game as one.
What the hell is that, El Topo? You’re supposed to qualify in the very last minute.
[quote=“scherpschutter, post:2089, topic:527”]The new Dutch team, with a lot of very young players (Willems, Narsingh, Martins Indi, Strootman, Clasie, Janmaat - all unknown to foreigners, I suppose) and only a couple of old-timers (Sneijder, Van Persie, Robben) beat Turkey 2-0. They were a bit lucky.
Best news probably is that Belgium finally seems to live up to its standards, beating Wales 0-2 in Cardiff (comfortably). The great test will be tuesday, in Brussels against Croatia.
Germany and England winning their games comfortably, although I would have expected a bit more from Germany than this 3-0 home against FarOer Islands
No real surprises, as far as I know, unless you count a Portugese victory in their first qualification game as one.
What the hell is that, El Topo? You’re supposed to qualify in the very last minute.[/quote]
Ah well it was only the first game, and a 1-2 victory over Luxembourg is not what I considered a good start, at least all goals were Portuguese even the Lexembourg one, scored by a son of Portuguese, which are not hard to find in that region
He was the snake in the grass then
1-2 over Luxemburg isn’t a result to be proud of, that’s true, but it’s important to win your first game, and if I’m not mistaken, Portugal has a history of doing not so well against small opponents in early games
Yes true, we normally struggle against teams that defend a lot with all players behind the ball, but these days a victory is a victory. But its always strange when a team like Portugal with all those big stars suffers a goal by a guy that is an accountant by day
I guess Luxemburg isn’t a very inspirational opponent either. At this stage, that’s often the problem for teams with stars, those star players dream of playing Spain, Italy, England, not Luxemburg or God knows who’s playing too in these qualifications. I guess that also was the German problem against those Faroer Islanders too. Too many players behind the ball, not an inspirational opponent, etc.
Now that my team is going all but downhill this start of the season, :’( (it seems that a Dutch coach is coming), I just read that my English team Leyton Orient, is going to change name to London Orient, I wonder what Phill got to say about that, I confess it doens’t sound that good, and I’m pretty conservative in these things a club name is for eternity
Well Topo, as the old saying goes, 'There’s many a slip 'tween cup and lip.'
The fact that Barry Hearn’s plan is dependent on our securing a ground share for a stadium that is far too big for us with a neighbouring club who don’t want us means that I won’t be getting too emotionally involved in the idea just yet. That said, renaming any London side ‘London’ anything seems a bit ludicrous to me. For cities which have only one or maybe two teams it is fine but at last count London had about 13 so no one can really claim the city as their own. May as well call ourselves England Orient.
We do have a history of name changes though. We were originally Clapton Orient (Clapton is a neighbouring suburb) and only changed to Leyton Orient when we moved down the road in the 1930s. Then they dropped the Leyton bit in the 1960s because we were facing imminent financial collapse (again) and seemed like we would have to leave our stadium. Then put the Leyton back in the name twenty years later when it seemed like our future was secure. Of course the words ‘secure’ and ‘Orient’ (in a football context anyway) don’t sit together well so who knows what the future will bring. In the end, what’s in a name anyway? As long as the club survives I’ll keep on supporting them the same as my Dad, Grandad, Uncle etc did before me. I’m genetically coded to need a certain level of misery and disappointment in my life and The O’s can always be depended on to supply just enough of it.
I did mate. There was also a 5 minute scene shot there for the 1967 Stanley Baker crime film, Robbery. A good film by the way.
If you want to see what it was like there when I was first going you can check it out on the youtube link below. The scene is at around the 43 minute mark and runs to around 48. The scene takes place in the behind the goal terrace where my Dad used to take us.
P.S. The O’s used to play in blue back then. Just goes to show there’s always been change.
Van Marwijk is free, but I don’t see him going to Portugal (don’t know why exactly, the language could be a serious barrier)
Ronald Koeman works for Feyenoord, Van Basten for Heerenveen (but he’s not very happy with the Club’s financial situation and the players he therefore has to work with); they could both be good coaches for a Portugese team. Koeman already worked in Portugal and speaks Spanish, Van Basten speaks Italian, which makes it a lot easier to make himself understood (and to learn Portugese). Who knows Guus Hiddink pops up in Lissabon one day. Now that would be a surprise … (or … Johan Cruijff ???)
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