You’re comparing the championship of the NFL to the opening round game? Don’t quit your day job, statistics are not for you.
Messi with a hat trick in Argentina’s WC opener
- Thread starter FlotownDawg
- Start date
Don’t you ever let the fact that basically no one agrees with you stop you. You just keep being you and keep on keeping it real (dumb)…
LOL You think that worries me? I might be a tad worried if yall did agree with me on most things. I’ve been seriously keeping up with this stuff since the early 90s. Top players do not come to MLS if they are still capable of putting in a season at the top level. They just don’t. The fact that he is playing for Miami says it all. He knows what he is capable of. Do you for one minute think if he was still a Barcelona level player he would be in MLS? Y'all really don't understand how far off base you are. Can he still pull off a one off game or two, especially against MLS or lower tier WC teams, sure. He might even have a decent game against better opposition. He has an excellent team around him, and that helps Players past their prime.
And it was a total joke when he did, and widely recognized as so. He won it the last time because he is MESSI. Y'all are caught in the same trap. Make no mistake, he WAS the best player in the world for a LONG time. Father Time catches up with even the best eventually. The last time I watched him play for Barcelona it was quite evident he had lost a lot. A lot of yall are also making a common American mistake when it comes to soccer: Y‘all seem to think the World Cup is the highest level of play there is……it’s not. That would be the top leagues in Europe and the Champions League. That’s where the best teams on the planet play. The top teams in those competitions are basically all star teams picked from international teams.
If he could, he would. I’m not talking about ANY teams By the way. He doesn’t want to be playing in the league cup on a rainy Tuesday night in January in Leeds, I’ll give you that. But he isn’t capable of putting in a season at the level he was accustomed to, so he retired to a league where he can still be the star, and that isn’t really noticed back in Europe. Nothing wrong with that. He isn’t the first one and he won’t be the last one.
I think it worries you a tiny bit, considering the 150 word response to my two sentence jab.
Let’s compare apples to apples. You're comparing a first round, nom-elimination group game for the USA versus Paraguay versus a Super Bowl. A quick glance shows 1.5 billion (global) for the 2022 final and about 30 million domestically. Global viewership for the Super Bowl may be as high as 200 million.
Futbol fans globally think the NFL is the same as the WNBA.
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Let me drop this snippet from the WSJ today:
“Messi’s hat trick was a noisy rebuke to the skeptics who worry he’s lost a step, who think his sunny coda with the MLS’s Inter Miami is akin to a sun-tanned semiretirement.”
He’s never had a hat trick in the WC, not many people have. Just imagine what he could’ve done if he was still an elite player.
“Messi’s hat trick was a noisy rebuke to the skeptics who worry he’s lost a step, who think his sunny coda with the MLS’s Inter Miami is akin to a sun-tanned semiretirement.”
He’s never had a hat trick in the WC, not many people have. Just imagine what he could’ve done if he was still an elite player.
There have been 34,873 different players in the WC. That puts him in the top 0.1% all time. And to still be at that level at age 38 is astounding.
He's occasionally a really good player. Occasionally.
Edit: I got curious and Googled World Cup hat tricks. Apparently they were pretty common 60+ years ago. 23 hat tricks in the first 6 World Cups. And these were much smaller tournaments with fewer games. In the "modern era" looks like it happens about once or twice per World Cup.
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Jason Nappi drove in an SEC record 11 runs in a game against UAB back in the day.
Anomalies happen. Messi is not an anomaly.
Widely recognized by whom?
So Messi won it because he was Messi, but Ronaldo didn’t even though he’s Ronaldo, Mbappe didn’t even though he’s Mbappe, etc.? Completely nonsensical argument. He was not the only famous soccer player in the world in 2023.
The “trap” of using objective facts and subject matter expert judgments on a topic in order to help form an opinion? Okay.
Beats the hell out of forming an opinion based on nothing more than your subjective judgment of a life choice made by a highly decorated billionaire who decided he wanted to slow down a bit without completely stopping his passion.
Nobody is arguing that he is still the best player in the world right now.
So what? Arguably the greatest player of all time can certainly “lose a lot” and still be a Top 15-20 player in the world at the time he’s playing. No different than Tom Brady with Tampa Bay, Jordan in his latter years, etc.
1) The World Cup is the highest level of play on planet earth, right now, in June and July of 2026.
2) 99% of the best players in the world are playing in it right now.
3) Messi’s performance in said competition, right now, has clearly been as good or better than any other player in the competition.
All of the above suggests that his peak capability as a player is still exactly what all experts say he is….a Top 15-20 player in the world. Right now.
No. I don’t think I’d even give myself that much credit. Started casually following a bit more often only 2-3 years ago as my son started getting more into playing.
That’s why it’s so hilarious that I (and several others) still know so much more about this topic - than a dude with an EPL team reference in his username.
LOL! I thought as much. You obviously have no clue at all what you are talking about. You were off base on every single point you made in that epistle.
Just a suggestion. Let the Messi **** go. You’ve got a board full of guys who are actually trying to enjoy soccer. Have fun with that and quit picking BS slap fights.
I for one, will try to do the same.