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**Dunny** · March 8, 2012, 06:17 AM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5q-FLfsuoA

**Jangle** · March 8, 2012, 10:47 AM

I'm just thankful to witness this Barca team and Messi in my lifetime.

**Dunny** · March 8, 2012, 11:03 AM

Originally posted by Jangle View Post

I'm just thankful to witness this Barca team and Messi in my lifetime.

The youth is just awesome, i just hope he is able to do something special in the next world cup.

**myYout** · March 8, 2012, 12:49 PM

Dats right, he need to!!

**Paul Marin** · March 8, 2012, 06:13 PM

Exactly - if he can't bring Argentina to WCup glory in Brazil...well...he won't be considered "great" in the same way as Maradona or Pele...which would be unfair, but that's the way it is.

**Muadib** · March 9, 2012, 07:13 PM

yuh know bout a team called Spain ???

**Paul Marin** · March 10, 2012, 02:32 AM

Originally posted by Muadib View Post

yuh know bout a team called Spain ???

This is what will make 2014 interesting - no European country has won the WC in South America and until Spain won in SA, outside of Europe!!! This will be Spain's test, but Argentina and Brazil will both be tough.

**Dunny** · March 10, 2012, 07:23 AM

Originally posted by Paul Marin View Post

This is what will make 2014 interesting - no European country has won the WC in South America and until Spain won in SA, outside of Europe!!! This will be Spain's test, but Argentina and Brazil will both be tough.

Keep an eye on Germany, they are my tip to win the European Championship and they will be there when the top prizes are handed out at the 2014 World Cup.

**Jangle** · March 13, 2012, 01:25 PM

Messi's the modest hero of our truly golden age

PUBLISHED: 19:05 EST, 10 March 2012 | UPDATED: 19:05 EST, 10 March 2012
As the finest golfer of his era and the founding father of the US Masters, Bobby Jones had seen everything that his sport had to offer. Then, in 1965, Jack Nicklaus won Augusta’s green jacket by finishing nine shots ahead of Gary Player and Arnold Palmer. And Jones was stunned.
‘Mr Player and Mr Palmer played exceptionally well,’ he said. A pause: ‘But Mr Nicklaus was playing a game with which I am not familiar.’
The phrase ran through the mind the other evening, when Lionel Messi was scoring his opening goal in the Nou Camp. There was an urgent scuffle by the halfway line to defeat Bayer Leverkusen’s offside trap. There was a cursory prod with the sole of a boot to secure the ball. There was a bewildering calculation, involving the pace of the run, the position of the goalkeeper and the angle of the target.

Masterful: Lionel Messi delicately chips the advancing Bernd Leno to score the first of his five goals against Bayer Leverkusen

And then, the coup de grace: a lazy sweep of the left foot, lifting the ball a yard or so above the keeper’s grasp and conjuring it, first bounce, into the distant corner of the net. It was the kind of sublime manoeuvre which might have appealed to an imaginative child, one who did not know that such feats are practically impossible.
Messi smiled, the faintly flickering smile of a bewildered man: ‘Did I really do that? I suppose I must have done.’ It was a modest reaction. There was no flamboyant gesture, no kissing of the badge, none of the tediously choreographed routines favoured by lesser men, lesser players. Instead, he crossed himself instinctively, then trotted back for the restart. After which, he scored four more goals.
And as he went about his devastating work, that image of the wide-eyed child remained in the mind. For if he plays into his dotage, Messi will always be the kid playing football in the street. His mother is calling, his tea is ruined, his homework is neglected. But on he plays because he is entranced by the game, beguiled by its challenges, enthralled by its possibilities. We know, beyond a doubt, that there is nothing in the wide world he would rather be doing.

Born to play: Messi collects another match ball for his extensive collection

More from Patrick Collins...

His manager knows it, too. Pep Guardiola rarely substitutes him, rarely neglects to select him, because he knows how much it means. It isn’t a matter of pride or ego or a trivial desire to demonstrate that the Nou Camp is his stage. It is the sheer, uncomplicated joy of performing at a level that nobody before him has ever managed to attain.
Clearly, there are powerful cases to be made for gods such as Pele, Maradona and Best. But at a time when footballers are bigger, stronger and faster than ever before, the game is dominated by one who stands five-and-a-half feet tall and weighs less than 10-and-a-half stones. It is Messi’s genius which raises him above the muscular mob, just as it enables him to disrupt the most sophisticated containment strategies that coaches and computers can devise.
It helps, of course, that he is playing in what is almost certainly the finest club side that the sport has known. If Barcelona represent the best that football has to offer, then Messi is the ultimate expression of their philosophy. And all his achievements have been marked by an air of intelligent modesty, a genuine reticence, an awareness that the game is there to be enjoyed rather than exploited. When footballers at large are charged with being arrogant, vulgar and acquisitive, then Messi must be the first witness for the defence.
And we should appreciate our sporting fortune. We used to stare back down the decades for our heroes, to the likes of Don Bradman, Mark Spitz, the young Muhammad Ali, Lester Piggott and Vivian Richards. These days, we simply glance over our shoulders to take in Shane Warne, Steve Redgrave and Seve Ballesteros.
Then when we look around us, we see that the single sport of tennis has currently produced three talents in Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, each of whom will bear comparison with any of history’s champions. And in our glittering summer of sport, when the world comes clamouring to London, Usain Bolt will assume his place at the peak of Olympus. It is a prospect to savour.
So we live in a golden age, an age in which famous deeds are done. And some of those deeds are being performed by a young man, small in stature and with the shy smile of a gifted child. A man in awe of his own ability, playing a beautiful game. With which we are becoming happily familiar.
Sorry, Glen, but you’ve given the game away

When Luis Suarez, of Liverpool, issued a public apology for failing to shake the hand of Patrice Evra, of Manchester United, a few cynical souls suspected that he didn’t believe a word of it. Those suspicions appear to have been well founded.

It was Glen Johnson who gave the game away. With his club painfully emerging from the biggest public relations disaster in its history, Johnson came up with a bizarre theory.

Evra, it seems, never really intended to shake hands with Suarez. Instead, he had offered his own hand so stealthily that he knew it would be rejected. He sneers: ‘Evra probably stayed up all night thinking about how to do that.’

Flashpoint: Patrice Evra and Luis Suarez

Now we must assume that Johnson is not spouting this tosh off his own bat, that he must have consulted Suarez before speaking out.

Yet let us consider the terms of the Suarez apology: ‘I’m sorry. I made a mistake and I regret what happened. I should have shaken Patrice Evra’s hand before the game and I want to apologise for my actions.’ The meaning could not be clearer.

Kenny Dalglish, whose woefully inept handling of the affair ensured that his image took an almighty battering, admitted: ‘I was shocked to hear that the player had not shaken hands.’

And that seemed to be that, until Johnson unveiled his incredible theory.

We now await a reaction from Dalglish. Somehow, I doubt that the little ray of sunshine is delighted by recent developments.

Theory: Glen Johnson

Times are hard, especially when your name is Oyston

Bovvered? Karl Oyston

A week ago, my colleague Nick Harris revealed that the Blackpool owner Owen Oyston paid himself £11million while his club were being relegated last season. Some thought this a touch excessive, especially as Karl Oyston, the owner’s son, had famously criticised the insatiable greed of overpaid footballers.

Unkind words like ‘hypocrisy’ and ‘parasite’ were used, and the Blackpool fans were not entirely appeased when Karl explained that his father ‘does not lead an extravagant lifestyle’.

In truth, Oyston Jnr is not one of nature’s diplomats. ‘If I had spent the £11m on players’ wages, nobody would be complaining but that money would be gone to Ferrari dealers and whatever else players spend it on,’ he said. I can think of some players who might find that faintly patronising.

Not that Karl is concerned about what people think. When you are as rich as the Oystons, you can do what you like. As he said: ‘Frankly, after the way he has supported the club all these years, if it was an £11m salary to my father, so what?’

Incidentally, the Blackpool club credit card was reportedly twice declined by a hotel before the game at Peterborough. In the end, payment was guaranteed but you can’t blame the hotel for being cautious. After all, these are hard times. Ask the Oystons.
PS

Mario Balotelli is a bit of a card. Drives into female prisons, races quad bikes in his back garden, has friends who let off fireworks in his bathroom. That sort of thing.

Just last week, he was fined for staying out late at a strip club. But that was last week. Now, he’s a changed man. It seems it’s all down to his manager having faith in him.

‘I can’t let myself do stupid things any more,’ he says. ‘Roberto Mancini has made me grow up.’ I can’t wait for next week.

**Dunny** · March 20, 2012, 06:12 PM

Messi breaks Barca record

Argentina ace now has 234 goals for Catalan club

Last Updated: March 20, 2012 9:50pm

Lionel Messi: Barcelona's history breaker

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Lionel Messi broke Barcelona's 60-year-old goalscoring record after scoring his eighth hat-trick of the season during Tuesday night's Primera Division match with Granada at the Camp Nou.
The 24-year-old three-times World Player of the Year, who now has 54 goals in all competitions this season, broke the mark set by Cesar Rodriguez in the 1940s and 50s in his 314th appearance.
It was thought Rodriguez, who died in 1995 at the age of 74, scored 235 official goals for the Blaugrana but that number has now been revised to 232 following a study by the club and La Vanguardia newspaper.
The Argentine, who is in his eighth season with the club, equalled the mark of 232 official goals when he slotted home Isaac Cuenca's cross in the 17th minute and he secured the record outright in the 68th minute when he nonchalantly lobbed the ball over Granada goalkeeper Julio Cesar.
And Messi bagged his hat-trick and Barcelona's final goal of the night in a 5-3 victory with a cute finish from a tight angle.
Messi needed just under eight seasons to beat Rodriguez's milestone and he has now scored an incredible 48 goals in 40 games for the Catalan giants this season.
He has scored in seven straight games, totaling 17 goals and with 34 league goals this season, he took over the league lead, two ahead of Cristiano Ronaldo.
The win against Granada takes Pep Guardiola's side to within five points of leaders Real Madrid who play away at Villarreal on Wednesday evening

**Dunny** · March 21, 2012, 03:56 AM

314 appearances,234 goals and the guy is only 24 years old. If he spends another 8 years at Barca he will surely past 600 goals at this rate.

**Zeppo** · March 21, 2012, 08:33 AM

Messi defines an era

At the age of only 24, Lionel Messi has broken Cesar Rodriguez's 57-year-old Barcelona career scoring record. Messi's hat trick in Tuesday night's 5-3 win over Granada increased his total to 234, two more than Cesar scored after it was determined by Barcelona and the newspaper La Vanguardia Cesar's career goal total was actually 232, not 235. Messi is also on course to shatter numerous of scoring records this season. "He is defining an era," said Barca keeper Victor Valdez. "He is the best." For more on the Messi scoring records...

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