Soccer 2023 thread

Messi scores the first and last goal in regulation as his team battled back from 3-1 and 4-2 deficits to tie Dallas on the road in the Leagues Cup tournament. These games go straight to PK's, and of course he slotted home his team's first as Miami wins again. The free kick goal was absolutely incredible!



 
Phall said:
Messi scores the first and last goal in regulation as his team battled back from 3-1 and 4-2 deficits to tie Dallas on the road in the Leagues Cup tournament. These games go straight to PK's, and of course he slotted home his team's first as Miami wins again. The free kick goal was absolutely incredible!



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He’s just on another level. That free kick was world class, that only a handful of guys can reliably make.
 
The truth is that MLS soccer on the aggregate is trash. Most of the players are low in cognitive ball skills and average in skills and thus, an elite talent like Messi, even in his declining years will shine.
 
Messi scores a goal in his fifth straight game, a fifth straight victory for the previously-worst Inter Miami team


"mls is trash" is a lazy take but also one that i'm not eager to refute, mostly because the league is so "diverse" already. i think the league has decreased in play quality recently by constantly expanding (now toward 30-32 teams!!!). search engine queries rank MLS between 10th (fair) and 29th (laughable), showing how worthless the spread is between objective measurements.

Messi (and his two friends, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba) have taken a team in dead last place and turned them around to win five straight games in this MLS - Liga MX tournament. Of course, they are a nice roster upgrade for any MLS side.

The charm of Messi seems to be that every player has dialed up their own intensity to meet him as a teammate! Hapless "losers" now get this shot in the arm that they are playing in front of an international audience every single moment. There is a scent in the air when he is playing: I am definitely watching, myself.
 
Phall said:
this is the best play i've ever seen. if you've seen a better one, please post it.
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Incredible! I didn’t realize Rooney was still playing. Nice to see he’s still a fantastic talent.
 
this is the best play i've ever seen. if you've seen a better one, please post it.
Phall said:
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Glad they didn't determine that to be offside. I've seen some really questionable offside (& penalty) calls since VAR was introduced, such as part of a player's arm not being level with the last defender. I strongly doubt the rule was ever intended for that type of thing. The extreme precision technology allows us to see could not be seen by the eye of a player, refereee, or fan thus making some of these decisions farcical. Then there is the ridiculousness of matches (like at the women's WC) having close to 15 minutes of time added to sort out decision after decision.

On a different topic yesterday I put on the Strasbourg v Olympique Lyonnais match, first of the season in France, and there were times when every player within the camera view was black. I'd be surprised if even the South African league is as black as what I've seen from the French league every time I've put it on in the last year or so.
 
The Rooney play is a few years old now, sorry. I just meant to show that the MLS isnt full of total bums.

Rooney is actually the DC United manager, I think. He definitely isn’t in it for the money.

That play though is so awesome… if I were another race, I’d say hey, that’s why those guys are the best at this game. I see a feat like this and swell with racial pride!
 
Rooney was 39 or so at this point and put out to pasture. Think about that, then reflect on him busting ass to win the game. What a maniac! Again, I swell with racial pride when seeing a play like that.
 
Phall said:
Messi scores a goal in his fifth straight game, a fifth straight victory for the previously-worst Inter Miami team


"mls is trash" is a lazy take but also one that i'm not eager to refute, mostly because the league is so "diverse" already. i think the league has decreased in play quality recently by constantly expanding (now toward 30-32 teams!!!). search engine queries rank MLS between 10th (fair) and 29th (laughable), showing how worthless the spread is between objective measurements.

Messi (and his two friends, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba) have taken a team in dead last place and turned them around to win five straight games in this MLS - Liga MX tournament. Of course, they are a nice roster upgrade for any MLS side.

The charm of Messi seems to be that every player has dialed up their own intensity to meet him as a teammate! Hapless "losers" now get this shot in the arm that they are playing in front of an international audience every single moment. There is a scent in the air when he is playing: I am definitely watching, myself.
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MLS has never been a high quality league, primarily because the players are of a lower cognitive competency. Call it a simple observation but, it's factual. Most MLS players couldn't perform well in T2 or T3 Euro leagues because they can't process the game well enough. It's why most of Concaf soccer is so weak, a reliance on the physical at the expense of the mental aspect of the game.

Moving on to Messi, he has been a delight to watch and has elevated a few of his teammates play, Taylor being a prime example. Some of them will parlay their success with Messi into a bigger cheque down the road.
 
NikoDuke said:
MLS has never been a high quality league, primarily because the players are of a lower cognitive competency. Call it a simple observation but, it's factual. Most MLS players couldn't perform well in T2 or T3 Euro leagues because they can't process the game well enough. It's why most of Concaf soccer is so weak, a reliance on the physical at the expense of the mental aspect of the game.

Moving on to Messi, he has been a delight to watch and has elevated a few of his teammates play, Taylor being a prime example. Some of them will parlay their success with Messi into a bigger cheque down the road.
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It seems like you are making some stern point to be contrarian (or anti-MLS) on purpose. I've followed international soccer for three decades as a fan and have never heard of this new metric of "cognitive competency." Like any other (relatively) "startup" league, MLS cannot compare its best to clubs with an international brand.

If I had one hundred billion trillion dollars, I could buy the world's most in-form players every year and defeat my rivals my accumulating all of their assets.

You can make a point that the American path to professional soccer is inferior to that of Europe and South America, and you'd have a great case.

I googled "MLS global ranking" and learned that it is anywhere between 10th and 29th. I considered that last ranking to be very dubious; it seemed to be from a made-up firm representing Christiano Ronaldo... but I don't know, and who does?

MLS teams have decreased in quality since they've kept adding expansion franchises every year. The brass in charge wants to have a 32 or 40 team league with no relegation. I would prefer the standard of play and coaching to be better, but here we are.
 


Here is Messi's NINTH goal in six games as he brings Inter Miami in the final of the Liga MX / MLS tournament. He's clearly in the best form of his life and has all his teammates exceeding their scouting reports.

No "retiring" star has yet to use his swan song to this sort of instant success. It's exciting to watch, obviously, and yields the impression of an absolute legend.
 
Phall said:


Here is Messi's NINTH goal in six games as he brings Inter Miami in the final of the Liga MX / MLS tournament. He's clearly in the best form of his life and has all his teammates exceeding their scouting reports.

No "retiring" star has yet to use his swan song to this sort of instant success. It's exciting to watch, obviously, and yields the impression of an absolute legend.
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Thank you for continuing to show his goals. This has been incredible to follow!
 
I'm a bit behind on my Messi goals-posting. I saw this game in person last night and admit I couldn't help myself from being one of the fools with my cell phone in hand constantly, trying to catch 'lightning in a bottle' and record the magic moment. Messi is just too fast: this goal came out of nowhere and was almost too fast to follow.

This sequence gets extended by an absurd, probably somewhat lucky sidewinder touch from Jordi Alba. Messi controls the ball and maneuvers it like he was jiggling a video game controller stick. Then, he skins the Red Bulls' only good player (Tolkin) with a through ball to his teenage teammate, who slides it back to him for a tap-in. Incredible!

 
Phall said:
I'm a bit behind on my Messi goals-posting. I saw this game in person last night and admit I couldn't help myself from being one of the fools with my cell phone in hand constantly, trying to catch 'lightning in a bottle' and record the magic moment. Messi is just too fast: this goal came out of nowhere and was almost too fast to follow.

This sequence gets extended by an absurd, probably somewhat lucky sidewinder touch from Jordi Alba. Messi controls the ball and maneuvers it like he was jiggling a video game controller stick. Then, he skins the Red Bulls' only good player (Tolkin) with a through ball to his teenage teammate, who slides it back to him for a tap-in. Incredible!

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That pass to Cremaschi was unbelievable. First off, who has that vision? Of the few that do, how many could place that pass with the perfect touch needed?
 
Phall said:
I'm a bit behind on my Messi goals-posting. I saw this game in person last night and admit I couldn't help myself from being one of the fools with my cell phone in hand constantly, trying to catch 'lightning in a bottle' and record the magic moment. Messi is just too fast: this goal came out of nowhere and was almost too fast to follow.

This sequence gets extended by an absurd, probably somewhat lucky sidewinder touch from Jordi Alba. Messi controls the ball and maneuvers it like he was jiggling a video game controller stick. Then, he skins the Red Bulls' only good player (Tolkin) with a through ball to his teenage teammate, who slides it back to him for a tap-in. Incredible!

Click to expand...

That was some incredible combination. Ty for posting
 
Messi is still starting for Argentina in World Cup qualifying. They needed his magic against middling Ecuador:


Not a great keeper effort, to be fair, but plenty of players regularly fail to put the ball on net - can't score if you don't manage that.
 
Phall said:
It seems like you are making some stern point to be contrarian (or anti-MLS) on purpose. I've followed international soccer for three decades as a fan and have never heard of this new metric of "cognitive competency." Like any other (relatively) "startup" league, MLS cannot compare its best to clubs with an international brand.

If I had one hundred billion trillion dollars, I could buy the world's most in-form players every year and defeat my rivals my accumulating all of their assets.

You can make a point that the American path to professional soccer is inferior to that of Europe and South America, and you'd have a great case.

I googled "MLS global ranking" and learned that it is anywhere between 10th and 29th. I considered that last ranking to be very dubious; it seemed to be from a made-up firm representing Christiano Ronaldo... but I don't know, and who does?

MLS teams have decreased in quality since they've kept adding expansion franchises every year. The brass in charge wants to have a 32 or 40 team league with no relegation. I would prefer the standard of play and coaching to be better, but here we are.
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Yes, I am being a contrarian as if I was not, I would have joined the legions of DWFs and not noticed how sports are being dumbed down. I would suspect majority of posters on this site are contrarians..

That's my point regarding the lack of cognitive skill traditionally in the MLS. This is one of the reasons why a player such as Busquets stands out so much in the MLS even at his advanced age. He is so much smarter than the average MLS player.

Unfortunately, this trend is happening as well in Euro leagues as the game becomes simpler and filled with more affletes..Similar to how the NFL has been dumbed down and QBs are displaying less game intelligence, soccer is going the same way. And is why watching Messi and Inter Miami is so enjoyable as he is raising the standard of play..
 
NikoDuke said:
Unfortunately, this trend is happening as well in Euro leagues as the game becomes simpler and filled with more affletes..
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Cruyff had already talked about this before he died, today players run too much And they think less, Van Basten trying counters by saying that in Cruyff's time there were 7 seconds to think when you received the ball, that in his (Van basten) time there were 5 and today there are 3. The game has become physicality-oriented which is why football today has fewer technical players than in the 90s, for example. Name me a player like de Bruyne today? There is practically no Player today like him, while in the 90s there were several excellent playmakers like Laudrup, Zidane, Hagi And stojkovic. A Brazilian player who played in Spain djalminha talked about this, that most of the time the academy coaches choose a strong, non-technical player above a skilled/Technician player who many times Is slight or not very physical, how many strikers like Michael Owen have appeared in England in the last 20 years?

An example of the playmakers I mentioned :





A player that now in Germany There is a need and would never be able to reach the professionals unless It had a certain skin color:

 
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Matra2 said:
On a different topic yesterday I put on the Strasbourg v Olympique Lyonnais match, first of the season in France, and there were times when every player within the camera view was black. I'd be surprised if even the South African league is as black as what I've seen from the French league every time I've put it on in the last year or so.
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Well, that's a good point to talk about, the French system is dominated by blacks, so it's a hostile environment for white players to form, and even get a chance, and that's why Griezmann was graduate in Spain (real sociedad) another example theo Hernandez (Despite his surname, he was born in Marseille), For a white player to grow in this environment, he has to have a lot of personality and determination to face hostility and prejudice.
 
Something interesting, I found an interesting article where a former black player and coach from South Africa questions why there aren't more white players playing for South Africa

“In the schools the white boys are playing football. Why are white boys not playing football in the PSL (south africa Premier league)? There’s so many white boys playing football. My son is 13 and he’s playing against talented white players. I asked myself, why we do not have them in the senior teams?” https://sportsbrief.com/football/18...-play-premier-soccer-league-represent-bafana/

Mosimane, He had a long career as a player and as a coach he coached the South African national team, in addition to winning the African club continental title with a South African team, so he is not a nobody in South africa context.
 
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