The Beautiful Game Thread

[Leon]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

Alex Morgan might have the most underrated *** around.

Google.

What she lacks up-front, she makes up for at the back.

[Bellsprout]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

What she lacks up-front, she makes up for at the back.

So she's the Stoke of women?

[jvalverde88]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

Park Ji Sung's wedding invitation is a ode to Old Trafford:

[dickey1331]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6KeG_i8CWE8&sns=em

[Twenty Four]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

Just noticed on netflix streaming that One Night In Turin and The Four Year Plan were recently added.

Both Sports Doc, Turin covers the England National Team leading up to and during the Italia 90 Fifa World Cup

The Four Year Plan, follows the day to day operations of Queens Park Rangers as they try to reach the Premier League.

Seen this last night, and decided to watch "The Four Year Plan". As a new soccer fan, watching that documentary was awesome, just to get some deeper understanding of the inner-workings of European Football. I highly recommend it, thanks for the post.

[Mo]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/aeKwpwSV7Ug" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[Leon]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/KtIb-HK7NcA" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[rsnomar05]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

This Amazon review for the book on Liverpool's 13-14 season is pure gold:

"Football? Bloody hell!", as Bill Shankly once said.

By the final chapter of this book I was kneeling on the floor of my living room, floods of tears pattering onto my replica kit, wailing like a hysterical gibbon. My dogs, Rushie and Aldo, wailed in solidarity with me. They understood; my wife didn't. I felled her with a right hook.

Imagine if all you ever wanted was a carrot cake, and then, after 25 years without one, you see your most loyal friend walking towards your house smiling, carrying a carrot cake with your name on it. As he reaches your drive, he tumbles calamitously into a ditch. You rush out to find him writhing in agony amongst a cakey-muddy mess, a hungry raven pecking at his flesh. That is how we Liverpool fans feel about the 13/14 season (the raven is Tony Pulis, by the way).

This book is not just some cynical cash-in to make money out of Irish people. Paul Tomkins has truly encapsulated the modern-day Liverpool Football Club experience in literary form: the misty-eyed sentimentality, the endless self-mythologizing and, above all, the abject, humiliating failure. YNWA.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/They-Dared-Dream-Rodgers-Liverpool-ebook/dp/B00LEG66SE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1404816007&sr=8-1&keywords=they+dared+to+dream

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

I've always said I'd take Messi over Ronaldo if I were starting a team. This article perfectly articulates why:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/lionel-messi-is-impossible/

[Mo]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

Ba, I'd take Gabby Obertan or Michael Owen over Messi/Ronaldo

[eyeamg0dly]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

I've always said I'd take Messi over Ronaldo if I were starting a team. This article perfectly articulates why:

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/...is-impossible/

Yeah but the article also doesn't break down that Messi is also a product of Barcelona's offense. Of course his passing and shooting percentages are going to be higher because he is taking on defenders from a central position. He is the trigger man in that offense, if the defense allows him to drive and shoot, he will, if they let him pass he does that instead. He is still a world class player and an extremely rare talent, but statistically he would not even be close to the same if he played on the wing or for a different offense.

You can't compare him to anyone else unless they are playing under the same conditions. It is almost like saying that one NFL kicker is better than your favorite quarterback since they score more points and are more efficient at it.

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

I understand that, but I also don't believe that the number of times he's a statistical outlier is only down to the system he's in.

If anything, that article should have shown you how much better both Ronaldo and Messi are than all other players (all those other grey dots). I just prefer Messi's playmaking style if I'm building a team.

[KG]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

Some of the stats are little misleading (like Messi's pass-forward % which should be higher because he drops deeper than any other forward and is almost exclusively central now) but in no way is he a product of their system. He's the one who makes the system IMO. Not too mention he's already had success when he played out wide when Ibra & Eto were the central attackers. It's weird, I actually don't think of Messi as a selfish player but do with Ronaldo even though it's more of a Kobe situation where I think he trusts his own ability more than anyone else's. Great article though Tim.

[eyeamg0dly]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

Some of the stats are little misleading (like Messi's pass-forward % which should be higher because he drops deeper than any other forward and is almost exclusively central now) but in no way is he a product of their system. He's the one who makes the system IMO. Not too mention he's already had success when he played out wide when Ibra & Eto were the central attackers. It's weird, I actually don't think of Messi as a selfish player but do with Ronaldo even though it's more of a Kobe situation where I think he trusts his own ability more than anyone else's. Great article though Tim.

I would say it is more of extreme trust on his team and coaching staff. I doubt there are very many people who can play his role. However we shouldn't be surprised when he has abnormally high stats.

[Brahvocado]

Re: The Beautiful Game Thread

I would say it is more of extreme trust on his team and coaching staff. I doubt there are very many people who can play his role. However we shouldn't be surprised when he has abnormally high stats.

We really should though, we should continue to be surprised by the things they do because what they do is completely ridiculous. It's gotten to the point that Messi and Ronaldo perform at such a consistently unreasonable level that people are actively looking for reasons to take them for granted.

I'm not ranting specifically at you either, I'm guilty of this as well at times. I just think it's crazy that these two guys have performed at such a mind bending level for so long that we all have actually stopped being amazed at this point.