10 - Lionel Messi - v4

[hardyboy]

When is the next world cup qualification round??

 

[ThwiX]

Barely anyone would have cared if they won it, but now that they lost people won't stop talking about it. This stupid irrelevant tournament was lose-lose from the start for Leo.

I don't believe he will be gone for long, though. The biggest newspapers in Argentina, even the ones who criticized him after the WC, are all begging for him to stay. It's a bit extreme to say it right now, but in the long run this might have done more good than bad.

 

[Zidane121]

Ronaldo would've been having a big party when he heard the news.

 

[Kerrybai]

Will be very disappointing if he retires, many people out there are already labelling him a coward for doing so. He better come back, trophy or not he should play till the end with Argentina.

 

[Question17]

He will change his mind eventually and win them the world cup. This was just an emotional decision right after a third heartbreaking defeat where he will blame himself for pulling a Baggio.
Add all the problems with the FA and its understanding. Let him sleep on it for a month and focus on Barca. Think he needs it since I have never seen him so destroyed, not even against Chelsea or when they lost the wc final.

Do you really believe that? Not the unretire part but the win them the world cup part. He will be in his 30s by then and these World cups final runs are so unforgiving and hard to get to. They could just as well not make the quarters as as make the final its not like champions league where you get two legs and have a chance every year.

 

[KingMessi]

They'll make the finals in Russia against Portugal. Messi headbutts Pepe and gets sent off. It goes to penalties, CR scores the winning one and takes off his shirt and yells Siuuuuuuu!

 

[Aryagorn]

Nevermind us, Uefa and FIFA will turn world upside down to make him play in Russia WC.

But he should show them a finger, do a Zlatan for once and say "A World Cup without Messi is nothing to watch so it is not worthwhile to wait for the World Cup." to rub salt in their wound

 

[Luftstalag14]

Take your time to lick the wounds, Messi, spend time with your family to cheer up. Once you feel better, stand up and reverse the decision, please.

 

[NotInHere]

Can he still play for Spain?

 

[Zidane121]

Can he still play for Spain?

Yep, Diego Costa played for Brazil once and then Spain now, so why not lol.

 

[6 Ballons for Messi]

This is higuain's fault, not for the chance itself but because it gave ptsd to everyone, it triggered them, as soon as he missed they all thought "oh no, its happening again".

 

[NotInHere]

Yep, Diego Costa played for Brazil once and then Spain now, so why not lol.

He should really consider playing for Spain, the 2018 worldcup would be perfect, he gets to play with guys he grew up with, pique, cesc, iniesta. But then again he would receive major major criticism lol

 

[Flavia]

Posted before, by a very good text by a former Bf member, @Metaphysical: http://www.squawka.com/news/the-unb...-broke-argentina-talisman-lionel-messi/709173

Mental strength?

Too many people don't mention that skill at all.
You all mention either technical skills of players, or good/bad luck, or good/bad coaches.

If a team loses numerous finals in a same way, there can be something horribly wrong with a mentality of that club/nation/players.
On the other hand, if someone else is winning all the time (in a somewhat lucky way), it can't be just luck.

For example, can anyone imagine German NT team losing several finals in a row in a same way?
Absolutely no chance.

Can you imagine Argentina, Netherlands, current Brasil and similar losing xx finals in a row?
Oh, yes, quite easy.

About Messi, in the last few days we have debated about whether is a CR7 a choker or not.
Messi is somewhat similar to Modric now.
With Barca, Messi is not scared in finals.
With Argentina, when the pressure is high, Messi is choking. And as the time goes by, and as the pressure grows (because of previous failures), he is choking more and more.



Flavia, this is not a reply to your post, but in general.
I mean, we can still adore Barca and Messi.
But we can also say: boy, he was crap and choked in his NT career, sadly.
He will still be a Goat, a best player ever, a player who brought us (Barca) the best era in our lives.
But also, we have to be realistic. His NT career was really not good enough for his standards.
He will surely never win a WC (Argentina is not good enough).
So, yes, Messi had weak teammates (but not THAT weak), his coach was bad (but not THAT bad) etc.
Argentina should have probably won at least 1 copa in his NT career.

Messi didn't choke in the final. He played a good game. Higuain and Aguero choked 3 good chances, with higuain's being the worse.
Messi choked in the pk shootout. The pressure of 23 years without a trophy, 3 finals in a row, the mess that is AFA, with all this in context, is understandable why it got to him. Stupid maradona saying they shouldn't go back to argentina if they didn't win, for instance. All the pressure he had for years from his own countrymen, shattering him to bits, no matter how much he tried. No wonder he decided to quit after the game. Freaking Tata as a coach. It's actually a miracle they reached 2 finals with him at the helm.

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.

 

[lasexta]

He should really consider playing for Spain, the 2018 worldcup would be perfect, he gets to play with guys he grew up with, pique, cesc, iniesta. But then again he would receive major major criticism lol

No way. He would be a fcking gloryhunter.

 

[Topolino]

FIFA regulations currently permit players with more than one nationality to represent a second country if they had only represented their first country in friendly matches.

Can't join Spain.