(06-26-2019 05:44 PM)Loco Bearcat Wrote:  

(06-26-2019 03:40 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(06-26-2019 02:50 PM)VA49er Wrote:  

(06-26-2019 12:46 PM)Volkmar Wrote:  

(06-20-2019 07:57 AM)VA49er Wrote:  Been watching the Copa America. Feel sorry for Messi with how clueless that Argentina team looks with a temp coach hired by a terrible football association. Sometimes I wonder why he even keeps playing.

Anyway, VAMOS PERU! . One win and a draw puts them in second place in their group right behind Brazil. Peru plays Brazil Saturday afternoon.

I don't feel for Messi at all. He has $$$, the love and respect of not only everyone in his country, but fans worldwide, and a life of luxury for essentially being good at kicking a ball. I feel bad for the Argentinian fans because their association repeatedly hires clueless coaches to handle some of the finest talent in the world.

Messi definitely doesn't have the love and respect of everyone in his country, quite the opposite. I know it's hard to believe but he's always compared to Maradona, and constantly chastised for winning with Barca and not being able to replicate that with Argentina. The phrase "pecho frio" comes to mind. I feel bad for Messi and the Argentina fans due to the the clueless AFA. A part of me wishes he'd played for Spain. He could have but chose Argentina. He'd have a world cup and couple euros by now.

If that's the case, then I don't feel bad for the Argentinian fans either. He'll never be as beloved as Maradona was as a player. Even if Maradona is one of those clueless managers I spoke about, his fans will always just point to his playing days with the national team, and the title they won.

But you can't pin everything on Messi. At the top levels of the WC, winning is more about teamwork and how well your stars work together, versus the stars of your opponent on the other side of the field. It's more about quality coaching than any one player on the field. That said, Maradona is the outlier because he single-handedly carried his squad in 1986, though the 'Hand of God' goal also sticks out in people's minds about that tournament.

Messi isn't that type of player, and I've always felt that Ronaldo was the better between the two because while their stats with their respective clubs are comparable, Ronaldo does a better job of carrying Portugal than Messi does of carrying Argentina. But Messi shouldn't have to carry his team, with the talent they have. And not being able to also shouldn't mean that the people of Argentina should dislike him anyway, because it's still mostly the fault of their association and their choices for coach. So if many Argentinian fans can't understand that, and just wanna throw their premier player under the bus and blame everything on him, then screw them.

The 1986 Argentina was short on attacking talent however they had physical defenders and one the most underrated defense midfielder ever in Batista. Plus when Maradona played most of the Argentine players came from the top clubs in Argentina and they knew each other. Now they are all scattered over Europe and it's really hard to build a cohesive team. Italy, Spain, and Germany were able to build cohesive teams because the bulk of their starters came from just a couple of teams in their respective leagues.

Messi also hasn't had much luck with Argentina. His best Argentina team was in 2006 when they had World Class defenders such as Heinze, Ayala, and Zanetti. Plus they had great attacking talent and Riquelme. They had to Play the host nation Germany in the Quarterfinals and were dominant until their coach took off Riquelme too early and didn't bring Messi off the bench. Klinsmann later said that Argentina was the best team Top to Bottom and had it not been for Coaching Errors and their Home Crowd, that they would have gone on to the Final against France. The other 2 strong teams in that World Cup Italy and France said that they really feared Argentina. In 2014 they reached the Final with a squad that was banged up. Had Aguero, Di Maria, and other players been at full strength they would have won that World Cup.

Yeah, what you said in that first paragraph, about more Argentinian players playing in Argentina back then, as opposed to now when they're scattered throughout European leagues, applies to pretty much all South American teams, and to an extent, some North American teams, even Asia.

It was arguably more entertaining to watch back then because it has become a dive fest these days, which frustrates the hell out of me. For the life of me, I don't understand why more hasn't been done over the years to combat that, and penalize players who do that repeatedly. Maradona was kicked, scratched, hit, nearly everything under the sun, and wouldn't go down; just kept plowing ahead with the ball. These days the slightest graze will make even a seasoned veteran fall in overly dramatic fashion, and grimace with pain as if some egregious wrong had been committed against him. As we've seen, they'll often even fall just in anticipation of contact, even when no contact ends up occurring. It's such a black eye on the sport.