10 - Lionel Messi - v4
- Thread starter Barcaman
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He would if he was your regular mercenary and glory-hunter.
He loves Argentina and there was never a doubt in his mind about which shirt he'll wear.
Stric
New member
The level of misunderstanding and just pure unfounded criticism of Messi's NT career is astounding. Yes, he missed a penalty last night and that's absolutely his responsibility. BUT. It's amazing how extreme the double standards have become with Messi. People see him and Argentina reaching three finals and losing them, and they see it as a failure. That's absolute total criminal bullshit. I understand why people think so, but it's still bullshit. And what's even worse is that somehow they put the blame on Messi for this "failure". The truth is, the Argentina NT is not anywhere near the level of reaching finals in whatever competition, let alone the WC. If someone asked you in 2013 about how far Argentina would go in the WC, most people would probably have very low expectations. The fact that they even reached a single final, let alone three finals in three years, is a fucking amazing accomplishment, and that's Messi's credit to a large extent. That's the truth when you look at it from an objective perspective. Argentina without Messi and Mascherano wouldn't have exited the group stages of WC, and they couldn't even dream of reaching the finals. Messi's NT career isn't a story of a good team failing to win, it's a story of a brilliant player dragging a completely worthless team to heights they never could have or should have reached, and only missing the final step towards absolute unexpected glory. Argentina is basically a shit team that's badly managed, to boot, and their only plus is that they have a few exceptional players. Yet somehow for that reason people have incredibly high standards for them once they take even the slightest step towards winning something.
Well he wouldve joined Spain before the start of their domination. Nobody expected Spain to win 2 ECs in a row and a WC. And there are lots of players choosing to represent the country in which they live instead of where their ethnicity belongs.
Guess half of Germany NT are a bunch of glory-hunters and mercenaries
Spain too since a lot of them are catalans and basques and they hate spain.
Zidane121
Banned
Guys relax. Messi's said those comments of retiring from the NT straight after the loss, so it was in the heat of the moment. The goalkeeper Romero has said he's hopeful Messi will change his decision to retire, after he gets over this loss. And I'm pretty sure he will, he's only just turned 29, by the next world cup he'll be 31 so that isn't too old. Other great players in the past have retired from NT before like Zidane, and then reversed the decision and come out of retirement to play in the 2006 WC. I could see Messi doing something similar for the 2018 WC.
Also CR7 has played 7 international tournaments, WC's and Euro's and only reached 1 final, in Euro 2004, so I think Messi has overall done better with the NT, 3 Finals, including 1 WC Final. Let's see how CR7 does in the remainder of this Euro 2016, it could decide The Ballon D'or.
Also CR7 has played 7 international tournaments, WC's and Euro's and only reached 1 final, in Euro 2004, so I think Messi has overall done better with the NT, 3 Finals, including 1 WC Final. Let's see how CR7 does in the remainder of this Euro 2016, it could decide The Ballon D'or.
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Zidane121
Banned
I called it spot on guys, Higuain failed again, had a great chance to score 1 on 1 with the keeper.
Devils
Senior Member
Yeah I don't doubt that he loves Argentina. But nobody could really label him as a gloryhunter if he chose Spain 10+ years ago. They weren't anything special at the time.
I personally don't think Messi should quit though. Quitting will hurt his legacy and bring forth a ton of negative criticism. While he could continue to play and even if he doesn't achieve anything more with Argentina it still wouldn't bring as much damage as saying 'I Quit'.
Robben was considered to be one of the biggest chokers in the world until the age of 28/29 and and then he changed that stigma even though he didn't achieve anything significant with the national team. He kept playing and put on dominating performances with both Bayern and The Dutch and rubbed off the negative stigma.
Not saying Messi is a choker, but you don't want to be remembered as a quitter. Which he will if he goes through with this.
JackaL
New member
I love the mercenary comment, as if nations are not built on some fictional borders. Messi could have won 3-4 titles with Spain, even with the Catalan national team (Xavi, Busquets, Puyol, Pique, Pedro etc.).
Of course not winning a final is not his fault, it is never one players fault. People tend to exaggerate all the time when winning and loosing. Messi is the closest a player can come to individually decide so many games. In football, in contrast to Basketball, one guy can't make all the difference, Messi comes the closest to that guy. But again, this should remind you that football is based on luck, especially in KO games. The reason why there are group stages and more repetitive games is (a) more money for the organizers and (b) giving luck less of an impact that is already has. The CL (including final) is also based on a lot of luck. So, remind yourself of that fact when mocking other players to be "chokers", criticizing some coaches for not winning the CL (e.g. Pep).
Messi leaving the NT shows how emotional this thing is for him and his NT team mates. I think he can handle any pressure, but this is so much that even the greatest do not feel confident enough at some point. I hope this is just a signal for the federation to be more professional when choosing coaches/strategies, so he can give his come-back! Why else would a 29 year old hero end his NT career?
Of course not winning a final is not his fault, it is never one players fault. People tend to exaggerate all the time when winning and loosing. Messi is the closest a player can come to individually decide so many games. In football, in contrast to Basketball, one guy can't make all the difference, Messi comes the closest to that guy. But again, this should remind you that football is based on luck, especially in KO games. The reason why there are group stages and more repetitive games is (a) more money for the organizers and (b) giving luck less of an impact that is already has. The CL (including final) is also based on a lot of luck. So, remind yourself of that fact when mocking other players to be "chokers", criticizing some coaches for not winning the CL (e.g. Pep).
Messi leaving the NT shows how emotional this thing is for him and his NT team mates. I think he can handle any pressure, but this is so much that even the greatest do not feel confident enough at some point. I hope this is just a signal for the federation to be more professional when choosing coaches/strategies, so he can give his come-back! Why else would a 29 year old hero end his NT career?
serghei
Senior Member
Yea, that's the problem. People treat losing in a final like they've been eliminated in the group stage. Imagine Messi and Argentina being eliminated in the WC group stage like Ronaldo and his Portugal.
Finals are great to play. Sure, winning is the best feeling, but nobody can have it all. Sport is never about perfection.
another angle is, Argentina has always been cold to messi, even in the last copa finals when he scored the only pen, argentines blamed him and called him pecho frio. Messi can never win the battle to win over Arg, because they don't want him.
meanwhile higuain,Di Maria and the other bottlers walk away scotch free year after year.
meanwhile higuain,Di Maria and the other bottlers walk away scotch free year after year.
blaugrana1987
New member
Argetina team is definition of NOT "pecho frio". They are so emotional and nervous to deliver that they are choking every time final comes.
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