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Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be stopped

Listen, nobody is really debating anymore whether Cristiano Ronaldo is the best player in the world or not. This year, Ronaldo has lapped the field with his amazing goal-scoring exploits and passing brilliance. As great a year as he is having, Saturday’s performance against Aston Villa in Manchester United’s 4-0 win provided a new high-water mark for the Portuguese star.

Ronaldo set up THREE goals, including a no-look back-heel pass, and scored a mind-blowing back-heel goal that has to be seen to be believed. If you have already seen the highlights, I’m sure you won’t mind seeing them again. If you haven’t seen the highlights, prepare to be wowed:

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw6bFdTkjbg&hl=en]

Comments

  1. nathan3e- as an inter supporter your opinion is null…

    ben- just as THE Nick’s opinion is Italian biased, your opinion is clearly EPL biased… as someone who watches both leagues i can clearly say that neither are stronger then the other…. altho i would take the bottom 4 of Serie A over the bottom 4 EPL any day…. just my opinion… just to point out Fiorentina is above Milan this season, so i wouldnt list Milan in the top 4 (altho id say they can consistantly play with anyone as well)…

    even tho i stated nathan3e’s opinion is Null, he’s right… Serie A is in a decline the past couple seasons… with Juve just getting back up to steam, AC having a poor season, and Inter stumbling slightly towards the end of the season its no wonder the performances of recent…

    Inter has never truely had quality performances in CL, its no surprise they flopped… Roma can be outclassed any day, but can also outclass anyone any day… just depends on which team shows up… Milan’s having a crap year, similar to Liverpool who is struggling against everton to keep the 4th spot…

    it amazes me when people say others are wrong about which league is better, b/c quite frankly neither is superior by leaps n’ bounds (quite frankly changes from year to year slightly)… Yes EPL had 3 teams in the final 4 last CL, but failed to win it… whats going to happen this year??

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  2. Yeah, Italian football is crap…let me see…

    reigning World Champions? Italy

    reigning Champions League holders? Milan

    reigning World Club Cup Champs? Milan

    The last two FIFA World Players of the year…2006 – an Italian, 2007 – features in Serie A.

    And this is after Serie A was weakened due to calciopoli and is still clawing itself back….wait till Juve is back to full strength….

    Things may be different…Milan are in decline, Juve are still not back to top strength, Inter is playing like crap.

    But friendly or not, Italy made Portugal look silly. You talk about Spain v Italy? If you saw that match, Spain did not make Italy look bad. Villa had an amazing goal. Italy were unlucky a few times, had a few calls go against them in other times….good game…

    But watching Italy v Portugal, when BOTH SIDES were experimenting….Italy showed their class.

    You guys can spout your utter crap all you want, but the facts support my argument.

    Also….who’s the current highly paid manager of England? Why couldn’t they find a manager from the EPL? And they don’t even have the best Italian manager out there….

    I feel bad for you boys living out there in your little world supported by the bias of FSC and Setanta….

    Expand your minds, experience some other types of football, and you’ll see what I mean….

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  3. i was able to see the game on fox sports and man u is the best team in the epl. ronaldo was absolutely amazing in that game, especially his goal.

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  4. I guess my simple mind just can’t wrap itself around claiming Serie A as the best when they just proved their incompetency in the last round of the Champions League. In the weeks of buildup, all anyone ever heard was how impossible it is to beat an Italian team in Italy. Unless I have been reading the wrong scores, I believe things went a little bit differently than expected.

    As a soccer player and lover with a very good understanding of the game, I have a serious problem with your superior attitude. It very accurately stands as a microcosm for the Italian soccer public in general, convinced of being the best even when their teams fail and stadiums continue to rot, half empty and full of controversy week in and week out.

    Sorry about the long post, I just hate hearing people attack others for a supposed lack of football knowledge when they are so clearly showing their own ignorance.

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  5. I dont think I could duplicate Ronaldos output on FIFA. People who dont like his smug attitude are the people whos team got torched by him…Ronaldo plays with as much heart than anyone in the game and i love his cocky attitude….yeah I have a major man crush on him! WHAT OF IT!?

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  6. THE Nick –

    Clearly, if any of us simple folk had any sense we would simply capitulate and bow to your supreme intellect and unmatched tactical knowledge. I would consider it but I am currently too busy laughing at your comments. I particularly enjoyed your apropo of nothing rap/classical analogy. I had previously been unaware that the RZA was simply putting beats behind nursery rhymes all these years.

    As an Inter supporter married to an Italian citizen, I really have to wonder if you have been in Italy recently. I would actually love to support your Serie A Is The Best claim, but it is almost touchingly naive to pretend that Serie A remains the best league in the world right now. As my wife prepares to vote again after yet another Italian government collapse, the camorra lets the garbage pile up in Naples, and Juve v Parma is called off because of yet another fan death, it is clear that Italy is a complete mess right now. Serie A has been a complete mess for some time now. There is absolutely no chance that Italy will put four teams into the final eight of the Champions League next year, as the EPL has done this year. Udinese might sneak in as the fourth team and they are on 50 points. 50! Anyone believe that they would make it to the group stage?

    In this case, the truth hurts. My beloved club is top of Serie A and they haven’t played well in two months.

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  7. As far as the top teams, Premier League has Serie A beat.

    ENG:Man Utd, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool

    ITA:Inter, Roma, Juve, Milan

    As for the UEFA Cup/just below the top four sides it’s about even.

    ENG: Tottenham, Aston Villa, Everton, Man City

    ITA: Fiorentina, Sampdoria, Lazio, Udinese

    At the bottom of the table, I give to edge to the Premiership

    ENG: Fulham, Bolton, Derby, Sunderland

    ITA: Reggina, Empoli, Livorno, Cagliari

    From top to bottom, the Premier League is more difficult than Serie A. This is regardless of playing style and tactics, which somebody summed up earlier with the fact that Figo, a player highly similar, if not a class below Ronaldo is still performing quite well in the twilight of his career.

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  8. What are we basing the Serie A is the best league in the world thing on? AC Milan winning the Champions League last year? How many have the English teams won? How many have the Spanish teams won? I get it Serie A is the best because you are Italian. Great logic. Let’s see what Italy does in the Euro this year pal. Your old man midfielder holds that team together. Not sure what you’re watching. Serie A is the best though you’re right. Say something when he wins the Champions League. Which Manchester will win it this year despite not being as strong as who Lazio? lol. COME ON!!!!

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  9. How many Italian teams are left in the Champions League Nicola “The Nick”? Your Italian bias amuses me. How many English teams are still in Champions League buddy? The numbers don’t lie. By the way, don’t overestimate pre-Euro friendlies. They are what they are. If you do then just admit that Italy is second rate to Spain being that they just lost to Spain. Portugal has not been using their full squad in these friendlies. They have been trying new players so they can fill out their roster. What better position to put them in then to have them play against the World Champions? I’ll tell you one thing. Cristiano is the best on the planet right now. He would play just as well in Serie A. An older Figo was whipping up on your boys last year. Let’s not overestimate the slow paced Serie A. Figo wouldn’t succeed in the MLS. Just ask Ruud Gullit.

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  10. I will openly admit that La Liga has the Premiership beat in terms of quality of play. But the Serie A is all smoke and mirrors.

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  11. Well, despite this supieriority you Italophiles claim, they can’t seem to get it done in the Champions League against English clubs. Need I bring up ManU 7-1 Roma? Not to mention a sorry Liverpool side with an even sorrier defense shutting down Inter.

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  12. I like how The Nick bring up a international friendly between italy and portugal to showcase how average ronaldo is. Nice sound logic, never mind what he has done the whole year.

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  13. Ben- “Would Del Piero or Kaka or Maldini or Inzaghi do as well in the Premiership. I think not. If that’s because of the ‘primitive’ nature of the British game”

    it’s a scientific fact that Del Piero would excel in any league, for he is a god amoungst men… for the your sake in the afterlife, you’d do best to remember that…

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  14. And yes, Del Piero, Inzaghi, Kaka, etc would dominate english football in their prime…

    If Viali, Zola, DiCanio and Ravanelli, DiMatteo all rather average Serie A players went over and were the better players in the league, then their superiors would do even better than they did…

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  15. That’s why a lot of people watch Premiership football, because of it’s simplistic nature. Just like why a lot of people relate to rap, simple nursery rhymes.

    Rap is to premiership as classical is to serie a.

    I don’t expect the simple minded with lack of tactical knowledge of the game to understand….which happens to be the majority, especially in this country where the premier league is given better exposure and there are a lot of newer fans with a lack of understanding and appreciation of this great sport…

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  16. If he can help United win the Champions League this year, he will cement his place with Edwards, Charlton, Best, Cantona, Giggs, Scholes, Beckham, and Keane as United’s all-time legends. Possibly the best of all of them if he keeps it up (at this point his only real competition is Best and Cantona).

    And also: yes, he wouldn’t be as dominant in Serie A. Different leagues and countries have different tactical approaches. Perhaps the English game is not as organized and refined as the Italian game, but I’m not buying into the false argument that the Italian game is automatically better because the defenses are so well organized that games are reduced to 16 out of the 22 men on the pitch at a time are just standing around watching individual battles. The fact alone that diving and referee manipulation in order to unlock defenses is a key part of ‘calcio’ is indicitive of how wrong the Italian game is. The Italian supieriority myth is one of the biggest frauds in football.

    So, no. Cristiano Ronaldo would not do as well in Serie A. Would Del Piero or Kaka or Maldini or Inzaghi do as well in the Premiership. I think not. If that’s because of the ‘primitive’ nature of the British game, so be it. I’d rather watch English football over Italian paint-drying anyday.

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  17. Hands down the greatest player in the game, right now. Which is unfortunate, I’d rather have Messi and Ronaldinho doing their thing.

    But watching C. Ronaldo right now is a must. I just laughed when I watched his first goal Sat. morning. Ridiculous.

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  18. That announcer was the real revelation of the highlights, that was a nice addition to the pantheon of ethnic announcers losing their mind!

    And what is “goal” in Arabic? If he wasn’t saying Allah, he was saying something very close.

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  19. Nick,

    let’s see how Roma handles him in the Champs league. Italian clubs haven’t had much success against the joke of a league so far this year.

    Ives, Ronaldo’s goal was certainly nice, but hardly mind-blowing

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  20. Listen, the guy is a good player, but what did he do when he came up against REAL competition in the Portugal v WORLD CHAMPION Italy game? NOTHING! He was rendered useless on the field.

    If he played in Serie A, he’d be half as effective as he is in that joke of a league in England…

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  21. this guy really is the best. unstoppable. can’t be stopped. maybe my favorite soccer player of all-time, right behind Keira Knightley in Bend It Like Beckham and Sylvester Stallone in that movie with Michael Caine where they beat the Nazis.

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  22. I know everyone is just going to call me a homer on this one, but it is completely correct that he is the best player on earth BY far at this point in time.

    He wasn’t always the best and he won’t always be the best, but anyone who actually follows the sport globally cannot possibly still have an argument against that.

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  23. He’s good. Too bad he’s such a smug a$$hole. He should take a cue from Messi at how to be good and still be down-to-earth.

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  24. Let’s face it, Ronaldo will be hard-pressed to keep up the current scoring pace, but if he does we are talking about a historic run.

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  25. Um Matt, Lyon called and said no, Ronaldo can’t be stopped in Champions League either.

    It will be interesting to see him against Roma though, should be a good heat check.

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  26. I agree he is the best player by far. He was actually the best player last year too, but Kaka managed to score some cluth goals in the Champions League and won the Player of the Year.

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  27. he is ballin’ out of his mind right now! The complete player. Even though I hate to see it, looks like Man U is running away with the title right now.

    p.s. is the announcer screaming “Allah Allah Allahhh” after each goal???!!!!

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