Inter Miami are in Orlando next week, and the cheapest tickets are starting from nearly $300. Any other Orlando City games is under $20.
Messi in Miami
- Thread starter Bastian
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Nik (@Rood) and Imran (@Annihilate Now!) discuss United's fantastic win away against Athletic Club in the semi-final of the Europa League.
They also pick out the positives of United's 4-3 loss away at Brentford, and Nik reviews a day out at Old Trafford watching Manchester United Women qualify for the Champions League.
Capitalism be capitalizing.
I know its heavily speeded up but its fun to watch Messi playing against a lot of his team mates at the time.
I think it’s quite likely I won’t see a player as good as Messi was a few years ago for the rest of my life. Quite sad to think about.
You never know.
Maybe someone pops up in 10 years.
Maradona was on the scene as a youngster before Pele's retirement. Messi was on the scene 10 or so years after Maradona. There's a good chance we get another player of that ilk in 10 years or so.
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I mean, as far as world cup impact and a dominating presence in club football yeah. But from a perspective of how elite he is in practically every facet of the game, I don't know if we'll see someone like that again. It would be like coming across a Michael Jordan crossed with Magic Johnson type passer mixed in with the Jordan scoring levels.
I guess someone could make the argument that Brazilian Ronaldo without injuries could have been the goal scoring version of what Messi became. So even a little better in goal scoring, but having less playmaker skills. Insane to think about, but the raw ingredients of scoring, technique, and dribbling were there
Don't get me wrong, for me Messi is the better footballer than CR7. Nobody can deny that. But the question of who is the better striker is still open for me.
When I heard the reason why he opposed the SPL, I almost fell off my chair.
Although Saudi Arabia is the safest country on the planet, with a crime rate of almost zero, Messi is drawn to one of the most criminal countries of all. Wt*?
Who is he trying to take for a fool here?
I think someone didn't want to take on the challenge of the SPL. Messi knew 100% from the negotiations with al-Hilal what the league was up to and planning. He knew what level awaited him there.
For the love of football and football fans worldwide, he should have done this for a season. It's just a 38 year old CR7! Come on!
Messi: Against CR7 again? Not even for a fortune.
Well, at least he was honest when he said he wanted to have fun with football. In this country he is exactly right. They even make football jokes there. Sad.
When I heard the reason why he opposed the SPL, I almost fell off my chair.
Although Saudi Arabia is the safest country on the planet, with a crime rate of almost zero, Messi is drawn to one of the most criminal countries of all. Wt*?
Who is he trying to take for a fool here?
I think someone didn't want to take on the challenge of the SPL. Messi knew 100% from the negotiations with al-Hilal what the league was up to and planning. He knew what level awaited him there.
For the love of football and football fans worldwide, he should have done this for a season. It's just a 38 year old CR7! Come on!
Messi: Against CR7 again? Not even for a fortune.
Well, at least he was honest when he said he wanted to have fun with football. In this country he is exactly right. They even make football jokes there. Sad.
Looking at football history its hard to dispute that it won't happen. Messi just feels like the Mozart of football. Its a gift he was born with. But obviously that applies to Maradona and Pelé as well. Its for some reason just hard for to imagine. Players like Haaland and Mpabbe might just surpass his goals record but essentially his genius combined with his end product. I dont know. Apart from early seasons he's been fortunate to have so few injuries. I think with direction modern tactics have taken i think more talented youngsters will be coached to into a system where they dont have license to take on the entire defense like messi did at times but if they are good enough why not i suppose? I can remember Cryuff saying "I can be another Di Stefano but i could never be another Pelé". For Messi is like that, his bar in his prime is set so high combined with his longevity and consistenty its hard to imagine. But i hope there will be because players like Messi make me want to not miss out despite not supporting Barcelona or Argentina.
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This will be one of the big barriers. Football as a whole focuses far more on the collective than it did in years gone by. Work off the ball is now such a massive factor and we've seen how this has impacted on certain player types and positions, the way that the traditional 10 type player has been sort of phased out after once being ubiquitous is a good example. Players still do the job, but the comparable players now for the main part still have to do a lot of pressing work, and have to be more disciplined in a positional sense (it's hard to envision Riquelme functioning the way he did in many current teams, even at the time it led to problems with LVG, which is unsurprising considering his ethos and adherence to positional play).
Having said that I agree with what you say when you mention if they're good enough then tactics will be bent to get the best out of them. As Eddy said there's a good chance it will happen (relatively) soon. It's just you need a bit of a perfect cocktail, a player who establishes himself as so good that the team is built completely around them (accommodating their lack of defensive efforts, while accentuating their attacking prowess), being relatively free of injuries, and stability at their club (Messi would have been world class at any club, but he benefitted from coming through and spending the majority of his career at a club that was usually in the top few sides of world football). When you add in the incredible longevity there's a lot of boxes to tick.
What level? Saudi league is still poor level. There's just 3 or 4 decent marquee signings plus 3 or 4 random foreign players who are unknown in each of the 4 Saudi govt clubs.
There's also Stevie G's club who isn't govt backed but have spent some money but not as much as the rest. The rest of the players are just Saudi players.
There's a total of 18 Saudi clubs. The league is nothing special yet. Historically MLS has had more stars.
Are you working PR for the Saudi League? Genuine question. Your post history is legitimately mental if you've no 'horse in the race' otherwise.
If you look at the names running around at the top clubs in the SPL, these names could just as easily have been in a UCL quarter-final:
al-Ittihad: Grohe, Filipe, Fabinho, Kante, Jota, Romarinho, Coronado, Benzema
al Hilal: Bono, Koulibaly, Savic, Neves, Michael, Malcom, Mitrovic, Neymar
al-Nassr: Telles, Laporte, Fofana, Brozovic, Otavio, Talisca, Ronaldo, Mane
Al-Ahli: Mendy, Ibanez, Demiral, Kessie, Veiga, Maximin, Firmino, Mahrez
And thats just the beginning. Now there is also discussion about increasing the number of foreigners.
Do you have any quotes about why Messi decided on the MLS rather than the Saudi league? But also no one is going to the saudi league to challenge themselves. They are just going to make a fortune like the MLS. Its ridiculous to that some people harp on about challenging themselves in semi retirement past the average retirement age of footballers not to be mention Messi is the most decorated footballer in history and by far the most individually decorated footballer. He has nothing to prove. He's just having fun and making money. I think joining the worst team in the MLS is a bigger challenge than joining Al-Hilal one of the top teams there. Personally i love seeing Becks and posh spice celebrate when Messi pulls something out of his hat. I honestly never thought about Saudi Arabia having a football team untill the last WC but i just dont care. Sorry i dont. George Best, Pelé, Cryuff etc went to the MLS when they were past their prime. It just feels more apt for Messi to go there.
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That was the NASL which folded in the mid-80s.
Does it matter much? Like the first division being turned into the pl etc?
It's not a knock against anything, calm down. Just letting you know it was a much different league.
NASL in the late 70s was probably the pinnacle of the professional sport in the US. The leagues are quite different in rules namely salary caps and roster designations, which probably kept the MLS from self-imploding early on. The NASL needed to reign in its spending by the early 80s and ultimately killed itself off, along with fading public interest. It's unfortunate as the league had about a 20-year run and the sport should have taken off from that pinnacle era but lots of factors involved.
All right.
And please have another one for the 'safest country on the planet'
"They even make football jokes there. Sad"... no ones ever made jokes a about the great footballing heritage of Saudi Arabia.
What are you talking about? It will take YEARS for SPL to be really competitive. Right now is just a bunch of stars and old stars, but major part of the teams are just Saudis.
And living in Arabia will never be the same as living in a country like USA. All the player who went to SPL are there just for the money, don't fool yourself thinkin otherwise.
Everyone said this about Pele then Maradona, didn't take that long till Ronaldinho then Messi and Ronaldo.
Player cycle going to cycle.
Meanwhile Messi can dominate the MLS whilst strolling around the pitch and not too much training. Ideal for him and the lifestyle in Miami, not far from home either.
Saudi can be an awful place to live, if you want a social scene, clubs and the rest. He's got enough money.
Miami are absolutely gash without Messi. This is why that unbeaten run and that cup run was such a big feat for Messi at Miami.
Some folks truly believed Miami were one of the best teams in the league. Not on your life. Even with Busquets in there they're comfortably one of the worst. Messi not playing tonight and finally Miami get the pounding that they've been gettimg pre-Messi
.
5-2 FT.
Some folks truly believed Miami were one of the best teams in the league. Not on your life. Even with Busquets in there they're comfortably one of the worst. Messi not playing tonight and finally Miami get the pounding that they've been gettimg pre-Messi
.
5-2 FT.
Arguably none are as good as Pele, still now. We won’t see anything like Messi for at least the next 40 years imo, he’s an alien, we didn’t see anything like Pele till Messi which is about a 50 year gap itself.
All time great scorer, all time great playmaker, all time great dribbler.
Literally every post that poster has made is in relation to the Saudi league. Every. Single. One.
Both leagues are just as gash as this post and before you try and drone on about a few teams having 4 or so decent players in Saudi that is irrelevant when the rest of the squad is made up of players who wouldn't even be playing conference football in England.
They both chose the retirement home that they felt benefited them the most financially and based on the quality of life.
Well at least he started out by saying that Messi is better than Ronaldo without doubt.
That poster is not a Ronaldo fan, they are some kind of Saudi PR thing. Every single post they make is related to the glory of the Saudi league.
I think this is a really good point about forum culture.
Use the Shahid™ app or consult your local Sky Sports™ vendor to have access to the 1001 Arabian Highlights© of the Saudi Pro League !
Hey Saudi League promotion team (cc @morisjee), I'll make a post a week praising your league for €5000 per week, DMs open
I'm also available for praising opportunities KSA. Send a PM, I'll do it for €4000 a week.
I know you're temped, but you have to stay strong, @Cheimoon
America is arguably the greatest country on the planet end of the day. Certainly culturally right now it is 110%. Saudi is basically a backwater compared to the States.
They brag about money but facts are the average Saudi has none. Americans get paid double and lead far more prosperous lives in a country that doesn’t destroy their rights as a human being.
If given the chance to live in Miami or Saudi the only reason you would move to a desert is for some of that sweet oil money they don’t give to their own people who need it the most.
The fact they lavishly spend that money on foreign mercanaries is because their economy is unsustainable long term. Oil money runs out so does their country.
The USA is the USA. They make money hand over fist regardless hence why they dominate markets and culture as a whole.
Wow. It's amazing how you haven't been banned yet given your post history. If you're a bot, you're a dumb one as you kept on posting the same bullshit even after being pointed out.
that pizza is one of my favorites, it’s disgustingly good
Btw regarding to the Saudi thing, CR7 has legal issues and can’t put a foot on US soil right? Because otherwise I don’t understand how he isn’t at the MLS creating a big impact with all the celebrities in there, I see him doing that more than Messi, who doesn’t even want to comunícate in English.
Btw regarding to the Saudi thing, CR7 has legal issues and can’t put a foot on US soil right? Because otherwise I don’t understand how he isn’t at the MLS creating a big impact with all the celebrities in there, I see him doing that more than Messi, who doesn’t even want to comunícate in English.