Arena "The Beautiful Game" - The Official JCC Football (Soccer) Thread.

Abramovich seems worried.

 

reports out of agrentina saying that maradona has died :/

 

On the BBC now. Sad when anyone dies, but this is not a surprise.

 

I heard his recent surgery was successful.
But he'd had health problems for a while.

Still, as with George Best I remember the sportsman he was not the man he became.

A fabulously talented player

 

Yeah, sadly I'm not surprised. I watched a documentary about him recently; he has had health problems for some time. I imagine he wrecked his cardio-vascular system with his lifestyle. Very sad... genius footballer.

 

Some interesting stories

 

LOL @ Liverpool
LOL @Diggy
LOL

 

lol for a draw? Living in your head rent free, is the phrase I believe.

 

Oh, that's definitely a LOL. 2 disallowed goals, missed penalty, and a very dodgy 2nd penalty given in injury time. So many LOLs

 

Brighton were wasteful.

Should have been 2-0 up even before Salah's goal was ruled out for offside.

 

Losing at home to Köln is why Dortmund will not win the League. Can't drop points like that. The League is won by taking all the points you can from all the sides you're supposed to beat, so it doesn't matter H2H with the Bavarians. But, Köln, winless in eighteen games ... You simply can't drop those points. Even with the midweek game and not starting the first choice XI. You can't.

 

Pretty much since their runner up season in 17-18. The UCL performance that next year masked things, but they were 14th (of 18, mind you) in the league that year. Last year, they had a sixteen game winless steak ... And didn't fire the manager. He finally got fired after a terrible start to this campaign, but the team has sold off a bunch of talent over the summer the last three years, so you can't entirely blame him.

Just be glad McKenzie got out before they started giving him a real winning mentality

 

Thats debatable.

Pele

 

For the majority of Pele's playing career transfers outside of a players home country where extremely rare. And the Brazillian government actually blocked Santos selling him to multiple European clubs by declaring him a national treasure.

It took Pele begging the Government of Brazil to let him come to the US as a way to grow the sport for them to allow him to do it.

And to comment about the majority of players smoking while Maradona was a cocaine addict and Alcoholic for the majority of his playing career is an odd arguement to make.

 

It's the age old question

Is a prolific player in a terrible league really good, or do they look great because the league is terrible?

Pele undoubtedly was a talented striker, he performed well on the international stage against many good teams with players from top European leagues.

But the GOAT? Probably will always have an asterisk because he never showed what he could do for a top club side

 

I did not mean do what ever a that. I had the edit function open immediately after posting wanting to Change my wording and was stuck on it for awhile. You posted while I was doing that, I did not want to double post.

Honestly we won't agree. Its the same as arguing if Jordan or LeBron is the greatest of all time. People have different criteria. I feel its Pele because of his record in internationals, his goal scoring profiling, longevity etc.

Both you and @SithLordDarthRichie keep pointing out Pele was a striker, but he played in a 424 formation most of his career, whereas Maradona played in a 442 as a withdrawn striker or attacking midfielder. There is not That much difference between those and Pele(and Maradona) where both underrated as defensive players.

 

Similar argument used for Messi.

He's has a wonderful club career, won everything. But he's never really done anything on the international stage the way Maradona did, so some say Diego is better because of the World Cup wins.

C. Ronaldo has won all the major club trophies and also won the Euro international tournament. Does that make him better than Messi?

 

I personally think Ronaldo is better than Messi. There isn't much in it but Ronaldo has proved his ability in multiple leagues whereas Messi hasn't

Ronaldo was part of a team that won a major international tournament, Messi hasn't