Goooooooooooooooooooooooooool

[mjazzg]

7 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

I look at it this way - he's got maybe 3 years to go, before we start seeing patently-obvious sings of decline. Why not play these remaining years for a symbolic salary or even for free in a club that have given him everything he deserved since he was a little boy, and for the enjoyment and love of the fans in the city that idolizes him? He's got to be worth hundreds of millions. Does he need more millions?! Paris will never, ever laud him like the people of Catalonia have.

Have you been to Barcelona? You literally can't walk 100 paces without encountering some kind of effigy to the man.

I don't disagree with much of that.  I still think the tears were genuine. 

It would seem that the obvious solution for both parties does seem to have been for him to stay and play for nothing, or next to nothing, which makes me think there's more to all this than meets the eye.  Barcelona should have let him go when he asked to last summer.

There's an interesting article here about the idea of him playing for free, you may have read it already

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2021/aug/10/messis-exit-shows-players-are-abottom-of-footballs-power-structure-barcelona

Either way, he's still one of the top three footballers I've seen in my lifetime, possibly the best but Diego has something to say about that...

I have been to Barcelona a few times but not in the last twenty years so have missed the effigies.

[Dmitry]

1 hour ago, mjazzg said:

I don't disagree with much of that.  I still think the tears were genuine. 

It would seem that the obvious solution for both parties does seem to have been for him to stay and play for nothing, or next to nothing, which makes me think there's more to all this than meets the eye.  Barcelona should have let him go when he asked to last summer.

There's an interesting article here about the idea of him playing for free, you may have read it already

https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2021/aug/10/messis-exit-shows-players-are-abottom-of-footballs-power-structure-barcelona

Either way, he's still one of the top three footballers I've seen in my lifetime, possibly the best but Diego has something to say about that...

I have been to Barcelona a few times but not in the last twenty years so have missed the effigies.

Thanks for the link, just read it. Author seems to be enamored by his own prose. Alas he's no Evelin Waugh. Still, the glaring inconsistencies sprinkled across the text are too hard to resist pointing out. For instance:

Now it has emerged that even with his entire wage off the books, Barcelona would still have been unable to register him under La Liga rules.

The real lesson of Messi’s departure is of the ultimate powerlessness of the elite footballer in the jaws of unregulated capitalism, a reminder that even the very greatest are not immune to the game’s more malign and rapacious forces.

How can La Liga have rules, if it's unregulated?

More often this struggle is fought and lost on a smaller scale: the armies of talented young players wasting their best years on the rosters of big clubs, dispatched on loan at the flick of a pen, stockpiled and mothballed like a bag of alfalfa in a warehouse.

 Mothballed...alfalfa?! The author is full of it [alfalfa by-product excreted by cows]. 

-----------------

Messi's net worth is estimated to be  about half a billion dollars. The near-billionaire calls a press conference, cries in front of the whole world. He could've bought the club...

His Barca salary for this year was 71 million euros....and he cried. He is, by far, the best footballer I've seen in my adult life. I was too young to realize how great Diego was.

The absolute most bizarre aspect of this travesty for me is that his teammate will be fucking Ramos...you just couldn't make this stuff up.

Edited August 10, 2021 by Dmitry

[mjazzg]

Jonathan Liew is not a great writer at all, too clever by half.  I like the idea that he could have bought the club, that makes me laugh, he could've have then benched Ramos for the length of his contract!

Edited August 10, 2021 by mjazzg

[Dmitry]

15 minutes ago, mjazzg said:

Jonathan Liew is not a great writer at all, too clever by half.  I like the idea that he could have bought the club, that makes me laugh, he could've have then benched Ramos for the length of his contract!

Will be a hoot to watch when he loses his s..t, and tackles Messi for old time's sake... 

[Brad]

At the end of the day Barcelona spent unwisely and it just wasn’t sustainable; the reason they find themselves in this position is they haven’t been able to reduce debt sufficiently. RM are in a similar position but they’ve made some improvements in their balance sheet. 

[Dmitry]

No World Cup discussion?! 

Brazil-Croatia, my prediction 3-1 Brazil.

Argentina-Netherlands, a tough one, but 1-0 Argentina.

Hapless Germany, even more hapless Belgium (the best team in world history to win absolutely nothing), myopic Spain, are all gone.

[optatio]

41 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

No World Cup discussion?! 

Brazil-Croatia, my prediction 3-1 Brazil.

Argentina-Netherlands, a tough one, but 1-0 Argentina.

Hapless Germany, even more hapless Belgium (the best team in world history to win absolutely nothing), myopic Spain, are all gone.

... and Italy, European champions 2021, did not even qualify for the World Cup!

[Rabshakeh]

1 hour ago, Dmitry said:

No World Cup discussion?! 

I don't know how everyone else feels, but I am struggling to follow it. It just doesn't feel like a world cup.

The quality of the football has been abysmal in the games that I have watched. It's always fairly weak in world cup games, but this has been real lower league scrabbly stuff.

There've been all sorts of upsets, but I think a lot just comes down to the fact that it is December, mid-season for most football leagues.

Edited December 9, 2022 by Rabshakeh

[gvopedz]

Take another look at Richarlison's "scissor kick" goal:

 

[Dmitry]

Croats are really in it! Brazil is getting few chances. It may turn out to be a one goal game. 

[optatio]

1 hour ago, Dmitry said:

Croats are really in it! Brazil is getting few chances. It may turn out to be a one goal game. 

Croatia vs Brazil 4-2 on penalties - just finished!

[Dmitry]

Meu deus!!! Hrvatska!!!

[mikeweil]

10 hours ago, Dmitry said:

..... even more hapless Belgium (the best team in world history to win absolutely nothing)

Why are they called the best team when they never win a tournamnet? I don't get it.

[EKE BBB]

Very happy for Luka Modric. One of a kind, both as a footballer and as a human being.

Besides that.... go Argentina!

Semi-finals:

Croatia-Argentina

France - Portugal (my guess)

Edited December 9, 2022 by EKE BBB

[Dmitry]

44 minutes ago, mikeweil said:

Why are they called the best team when they never win a tournamnet? I don't get it.

That's English for you. To be the best at something, yet having not won anything. 

This was ....AMAZING. Both matches were what football should be about!

Edited December 9, 2022 by Dmitry

[mikeweil]

After Messi's disrespectful utterings twords the Dutch I now wish Morocco may win the title. I have never seen a more sympathetic soccer player than their keeper, Bono.

Edited December 10, 2022 by mikeweil

[Dmitry]

What a rollercoaster today's England-France match was!

[mjazzg]

Still recovering here...a more clinical and cohesive French side just outclassed a talented and likeable England team.  

C'mon Morocco!

On 12/9/2022 at 10:45 PM, mikeweil said:

Why are they called the best team when they never win a tournamnet? I don't get it.

Because as a collection of individual talents they should be one of the best but Football's a team game and Belgium have never found a way to fully realise those talents collectively

[Dmitry]

I was so waiting for Maddison to make appearance in the second half….and take the decisive shot.

[mjazzg]

24 minutes ago, Dmitry said:

I was so waiting for Maddison to make appearance in the second half….and take the decisive shot.

He's good and possibly better than Mount but I'm not convinced he would have made the difference. Not taking Saka off may have done so though and bringing Rashford on sooner but that's all hindsight and doesn't matter now.

"We're coming home..." 😃

[Dmitry]

Why he removed Saka, when he was England’s best man…disagree with that decision. Harry couldn’t keep up with Giroux, but that wasn’t a surprise.

Marocco for the win!!!

Final Argentina-Marocco!

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Dmitry

[EKE BBB]

[mjazzg]

40 minutes ago, EKE BBB said:

Very pleased that he finally got to do this. Such a special footballer.

A great final.

[Rabshakeh]

I ant remember a better final in a major competition than that. It was a great game. 

[porcy62]

Yes , it would have needed the greatest screenwriter to imagine a story like this.

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by porcy62