Messi: not just great, but the best?

[BlueSanti 290]

Possible.

It would make perfect sense. Little midget felt into magic potion, grew up and gained magical skill. Pretty much like Obelix, though he had to be big even before that.

We finally found secret of Lionel Messi.

[TacticalBlues 2,817]

Happy Birthday Messi! Only 25 and still writing his legacy.

[Marvin123 484]

Lionel Messi is 25 today. He's scored 281 goals, 70 caps for Argentina. He's won 21 trophies, 77 individual awards & holds 19 world records.

[robdog 2,084]

Lionel Messi is 25 today. He's scored 281 goals, 70 caps for Argentina. He's won 21 trophies, 77 individual awards & holds 19 world records.

You forgot one important stat...8 matches vs CFC & scored ZERO!!! Whose your daddy???

[Peace. 4,352]

Nice to see you back Peace.

Thanks.

The poor Euro from Spain just shows how Messi is important to Barcelona and that he isn't only benefiting of Xavi and Iniesta's passes. Spain, despite having a bunch of incredible midfielders (Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Alonso, Silva), seems to be toothless, to not know what to do with all of their ball possession. They are playing in Barça fashion, but are not winning in the catalan fashion : there's a missing link. There's no one to turn Xavi and Iniesta's passes into goals.

So we should rather look this way "The best team in the world is benefiting from Messi" than that way "Messi is benefiting from the best team in the world".

[BlueDutchy 63]

Thanks.

The poor Euro from Spain just shows how Messi is important to Barcelona and that he isn't only benefiting of Xavi and Iniesta's passes. Spain, despite having a bunch of incredible midfielders (Xavi, Iniesta, Busquets, Alonso, Silva), seems to be toothless, to not know what to do with all of their ball possession. They are playing in Barça fashion, but are not winning in the catalan fashion : there's a missing link. There's no one to turn Xavi and Iniesta's passes into goals.

So we should rather look this way "The best team in the world is benefiting from Messi" than that way "Messi is benefiting from the best team in the world".

It's just working both ways. Messi would still be great without Xavi and Iniesta but he probably wouldn't have scored as many goals. And as you said, Iniesta and Xavi benefit from Messi since they lack scoring ability. Messi offers them great runs, surprise, penetration in the box and most importantly; he creates soo much space. At Spain there isn't a player who needs two players to cover, no player who is always dangerous and creates space. Messi does that for Barca/Xavi and Iniesta.

Messi is obviously the best in the world. He only lacks aerial ability, but that's just because of his length. His heading is actually quite good

[KonohasOrangeFlash 2,607]

Messi is obviously the best in the world. He only lacks aerial ability, but that's just because of his length. His heading is actually quite good

I just hope CR7 wins the Ballon D'or as he deserves, for he has been the better of the two this year and helped Madrid win La Liga.

[capriccioso 2,545]

I think Martin Skrtel should win the Balon D'or.

Sorry, I was reading RAWK and now I think like RAWKites.

[robdog 2,084]

who needs Da Messiah when you have this guy:

[capriccioso 2,545]

The Shark of Messina is closer to being the greatest of all time than The Messiah.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Also why is it that defenders are never mentioned in debates of GOAT players? This about says it all, I think:

IMO Maldini > Messi.

[Spike 12,049]

Also why is it that defenders are never mentioned in debates of GOAT players? This about says it all, I think:

IMO Maldini > Messi.

Yet, Maldini was booed by the Milan Ultras upon his last home game for the club.

This guy wasn't.

[capriccioso 2,545]

Yet, Maldini was booed by the Milan Ultras upon his last home game for the club.

This guy wasn't.

Who would boo Maldini? What's there to dislike about him?

[Spike 12,049]

Who would boo Maldini? What's there to dislike about him?

He made some nasty comments about the Milan support. He called them things along the lines of 'glory hunters', 'plastic' and 'spoiled'. So he was heavily booed during his last game at Giuseppe Meazza.

[capriccioso 2,545]

He made some nasty comments about the Milan support. He called them things along the lines of 'glory hunters', 'plastic' and 'spoiled'. So he was heavily booed during his last game at Giuseppe Meazza.

Perhaps he is telling the truth. They certainly were spoilt seeing guys like Maldini strut their stuff for a quarter century.

[capriccioso 2,545]

And re: Messi doping:

http://ibnlive.in.com/news/messi-neymar-included-in-fifa-antidoping-trials/203309-5-21.html

If they're copying the UCI's methods, as a cycling fan, I can tell you that the biopassport is not reliable and can be cheated on easily.

[Spike 12,049]

And re: Messi doping:

http://ibnlive.in.co...03309-5-21.html

If they're copying the UCI's methods, as a cycling fan, I can tell you that the biopassport is not reliable and can be cheated on easily.

It's not really doping with Messi as he needed Performance enhancing drugs to be a fully functional adult, it was used as medicine not to improve his footballing. A lot of cyclists take performance enhancing drugs to be better cyclists but Messi was perscribed them aid his puberty developement.

It's not as if he still takes them. It would be a completely different thing if he still took them.

[capriccioso 2,545]

It's not really doping with Messi as he needed Performance enhancing drugs to be a fully functional adult, it was used as medicine not to improve his footballing. A lot of cyclists take performance enhancing drugs to be better cyclists but Messi was perscribed them aid his puberty developement.

It's not as if he still takes them. It would be a completely different thing if he still took them.

I wasn't talking about the hormones, I was talking about allegations of him/Barcelona still doping. They could get away with it through blood transfusions, which the biopassport cannot pick up. Doping in football and cycling is much more geared towards improving recovery rather than improving physical ability. So if Barcelona were doping they could spend a lot more training time on technique as they wouldn't have to worry about getting players fit for the next game.

Here's a brief article on the biopassport:

Several of the UCI’s biological passport experts have voiced concerns that riders may be continuing to dope in races such as the Tour de France, albeit at a smaller scale than in the past. The bio-passport was heralded as a major breakthrough when it was launched by the UCI, but as Floyd Landis recently highlighted, it is possible for athletes to circumvent the controls by using micro-doses of substances such as EPO.

“I’m afraid things are as bad as they’ve ever been,” said Michael Ashenden, an Australian anti-doping expert, to Bloomberg. “I’m not saying they’re using the same degree of doping. What I see is the incidence of riders trying to dope and avoid detection isn’t very different to how it has been throughout history.”

Landis recently confessed to taking banned substances for most of his professional career, including 2006, the year he won the Tour de France. He was subsequently disqualified after he tested positive for large levels of testosterone. Subsequent examinations showed that he was using synthetic testosterone, thus invalidating his claims that his natural levels were high.

The former US Postal Service team rider implicated various team-mates, including Lance Armstrong. In a recent interview, he then outlined how some riders are managing to side-step the biological passport. According to Landis, blood transfusions are used to make the most gains, with micro-doses of EPO being used to mask the tell-tale drop in reticulocytes (new red blood cells) which then occurs.

It was thought that EPO would be traceable for several days, but Landis said that the window of detection drops to six to eight hours if the drug is injected into a vein rather than into muscle, as had previously been the preferred method.

BMC Racing rider Thomas Frei recently made similar suggestions, and said that once a rider drinks a litre of water, then the hormone cannot be traced the next day. He failed a test for EPO but said that he had not consumed the required amount of liquid.

“You can escape,” confirmed French bio-passport expert Michel Audran. “Cheats adapt quickly to doping detection methods.”

The UCI bio-passport system depends on the UCI to make the initial call as to which profiles are suspect. The scientists on the board are then sent an email with details of the abnormal readings. They are not told the identity of the riders in question, and must make a judgement based on those values as to whether or not the levels are suspect.

According to Ashenden, he has seen some profiles which are suggestive that manipulation is taking place, but that the levels involved are not pronounced enough for sanctions to be applied.

Fortunately, Yorck Olaf Schumacher believes that the controls are at least reducing the advantage that unscrupulous riders can gain.

“You will never catch all the cheats for sure but the door is narrowing,” he said. “It’s becoming more and more difficult to squeeze through.”

Robin Parisotto, who is also part of the bio-passport committee, thinks that progress is being made, but that it is important to keep the pressure on, and continue to perfect anti-doping methods.

“I still believe there are pure, clean sporting performances out there but there is still a long way to go,” he said.

The UCI currently only screens for certain blood markers. It plans to introduce steroid profiling next year, and this should succeed in tightening the net a little more.

Read more: http://www.velonation.com/News/ID/4723/Bio-passport-experts-worried-some-riders-are-side-stepping-controls.aspx#ixzz212vziSFU