If you missed Barcelona's 4-0 mauling of VfB Stuttgart, you missed some serious wizadry from Lionel Messi and his teammates, who torched the Germans to earn their place in the UEFA Champions League quarterfinals.
Here are the highlights, including two goals from Messi, who has jumped back in the lead in the race for Best Player in the World honors:
I enjoy the site also, I make about 10 trips a day here.
What does bother me though is that Rooney is having a career year that is unmatched by anyone in the World right now.
I’m not a ManU supporter either.
The teams I support are AS Padova, AC Milan, and the Chicago Fire. If Messi played for any of these teams I would probably be upset at the amount of diving he gets away with. Just as I was with Cuauhtemoc Blanco and his garbage displays.
Many teams play beautiful soccer, Ives, And they do it against competition superior to Stuttgart.
It’s obviously your blog and you are free to post what you like. Wayne Rooney has played some amazing football of late — why no love for him?
Please don’t look at it as a “jab.” You do excellent work; I would not bother to read SBI if I did not think so.
Ives, I would personally like to thank you for showing highlights of Messi and Barcelona. It’s the kind of football that encapsulates the essence of the game sublimely. It’s the kind of cutting edge football that I thnk the game should move towars and I appreciate watching them very much.
Clearly, there are quite a few people here who think otherwise and apparently a number of whiny sore losers too.
Henry narrowly missed that header. Was he too lazy to lift up his hand?
And SBI posted about it avec highlight reel.
Yeah, I do. And I know that Ives is a huge Barca fan.
Messi is a good player but the Barca worship gets to be a bit much. SBI posted a highlight reel after his hat trick last weekend, but I did not see any mention of Gonzalo Higuain’s hat trick (not that I would expect anyone to notice).
Lighting up Stuttgart is not worthy of this kind of attention. Dog bites man is not worthy of a story.
(SBI-BCC, it’s beautiful soccer and if you weren’t a Real Madrid fan you might be able to appreciate it. You try and throw jabs about my “Barca worship” without realizing how silly you sound. Barcelona plays the most attractive soccer in the world so when they put on a show I’ll post video of it because soccer fans will appreciate it. At least soccer fans who aren’t so blinded by their allegience to Barca’s arch-rival that they can’t acknowledge the brilliance.)
While it might be true that it is in vogue to be a Barcelona supporter and quite a few frequent this blog, there are a few of us that go back to the early 1970s when the Dutch revolutionized soccer and a few of them went to play for the Spanish team.
And it all comes down to a style that a large sector of soccer fans in this world have come to appreciate and it is validated by the large number of great WORLD class players that have worn that uniform. Start enumerating the number of Dutch, Germans, Hungarians (Kubala), Brazilians, Argentinians, and Spaniards and you will get the idea.
Is Messi a great player? How can you deny that? Is he the best? Last year he was. We will find out next year.
The question is, would you consider him the best if he played for your favorite team, or what would you give to have someone like him in your colors?
Cheers
or cause the condom broke
League Play: Messi 22 goals
Rooney 25 goals
Champions League: Messi 2 goals
Rooney 5 goals
Yet, Rooney never gets a thread on SBI for mancrushers to rub each other off.
You come to SBI much?
These people believe Messi is the greatest ever and that Barcelona is the greatest team ever.
It’s pitiful.
Messi runs around, tries to create, if he doesn’t create he falls down and dives, if he does create then he gets his own highlight reel on SBI.
THen SBI commenters salivate.
?
This reminds me of a speech my mom gave me when I was young. She said that of all the sperm that my dad let out, I was the best and fastest one. That is why I was special.
Messi also lit up the 3rd place la liga team over the weekend with an amazing hat trick. Truth is, if all you watch is the EPL then its hard to really gage who the best player in the world is.
Henry has 3 goals, Ibrahimovich 12… Berbatov has 10, Owen has 3…
Messi may have better support, but look at the guys goals… he creates chances out of nothing. As far as who carries their team with goal scoring, they’re on par.
ha, awesome! he is reminding me of approval-guy: http://knowyourmeme.com/photos/13388
lol, 7 years indeed! XD
he has absolutely no excuses not to eclipse pele then…with so many years left in his career and all.
Messi hasn’t had to carry his team alone this season. He still has Henry and Ibrahimovich to score goals. Ronney has had to carry his team. Without Rooney (after losing CR7, that traitor), Manchester United would be having a Liverpool kind of season.
Sorry,”in Bild”
Hopefully the language translator program works for those who don’t speak Deutsch.
Hey Ives,
Nice piece on Bild about Ricardo Clark.
Seems like he’s going to be playing against Bayern!!!
http://www.bild.de/BILD/sport/fussball/bundesliga/vereine/frankfurt/2010/03/17/us-boy-clark/eintracht-debuet-gegen-bayern.html
haha, another epl or nothing person. not even close?! well i guess we’ll find out when they meet once and for all. but something tells me that no matter what, certain ppl. will always have rose colored epl glasses on.
They lit up a mid-table German team . . . and this is worthy of a highlight reel?
sure you can be the best player in the world but at the end of the day all you can be is the best you. and i think messi embodies that.
Messi is great but I’d take Rooney if I were starting a squad from scratch.
I was watching this match live in HD with the Surround Sound up. The initial roar of Camp Nou after Messi’s first goal makes one realize why the best want to play their. I got chills, and I hate Barca.
HA, that’s great.
LOL. For that, I give you….
http://i43.tinypic.com/11bngi0.gif
Please, it was Stuttgrat! They currently sit 9th in the Budesliga table and are a shadow of the team they were last year. I think FC DAllas could have held the score down to 4-0. As for Messi, he is certainly talented, but there is no way he desrves world player of the year given the season Wayn Rooney is having. It’s not even close.
The guy is just in the zone right now. Nothing else to say about him. I can’t wait to watch Argentina this summer. I hope Maradona doesn’t screw them up.
NM
And to think, he’s only 7 years old.
the thing that always impresses me the most about messi, and i am very much impressed by very many aspects of his play, is his bravery! the guy just runs through challenges that scare me as a viewer at home, staying on his feet with superhuman toughness, just gliding effortlessly in a happy bubble… in my opinion, he is far-and-away the finest player since maradonna, and he could potentially eclipse maradonna in historical greatness (will need to win a world cup though).
There is one important aspect about Barcelona that does not get mentioned often. The pressure that all the players apply is suffocating. It starts with whoever is playing up front all the way to their back line. It is amazing seeing all the little guys converging to the ball but not in an uncontrolled manner, but rather systematically. And in sharp contrast to the Chelsea – Inter game, you did not see any of the thuggery that took place.
The other thing that often gets overlooked is the players’ ability to resolve most situations regardless of where they are on the field or how tight the space is. There is rarely a boot to nowhere hoping that someone will catch up to it.
Barcelona right now is the true measurement of what a soccer player is and should be. It does not matter how tall, short, fast, or slow they are (because they have them all), but the common denominator is that they all have great skills and soccer IQ (sounds like a cliche), what is expected of each one and belief in the team doctrine.
Cheers
Messi is just a joy to watch, I really hope he has a great WC to raise his status in history. Just a great great player without the unlikeableness of C.Ronaldo.