For football/soccer fans, predictions for the World Cup

[BlackMason]

Roberto Carlos? ROBERTO CARLOS? The guy who used to have the longest run up in free kicking history? Who was known for simply smacking the ball as hard as he could? The man who they nicknamed "The Rocket"? You use him to justify less powerful and more skillful free kicks? More with less? Really?

You can be skillful and have power. Roberto Carlos was one of those guys, but you using him as an example of someone like you suggest in your analogy? Did you ever watch him take a free kick?

I see how my reference to Roberto is a bit of a foot in mouth incident. He does use a lot of power. However I was referencing his ability to make the ball curve ridiculously. This is what I haven't seen Cristiano do. Cristiano dips the ball. In his free kicks the ball often bounces just before the keeper. This is due to that dip I'm referring to.

Again, when was the last time Messi scored from 40 yards out? Never. At least Beckham, Ronaldo and Carlos could. You say you prefer a curved trajectory because it's more deceiving? How on Earth do you ever work out Messi's free kicks as being more deceiving than Ronaldo's? Ronaldo's are the ultimate deceiving free kick. He hits it in such a way that the flight of the ball can change drastically. Many goalkeepers would attest to that fact. Anyone who has ever played with today's balls knows that smashing a ball in a certain way can have pretty hilarious variances in the ball flight.

Ronaldo's trajectory abilities seem to be almost exclusively of the vertical type.

I'll redirect you to that article I quoted earlier. Ronaldo is just as likely as Messi to get you a win in big games.

I look at it like this. Why do people say Muhammad Ali was the best/greatest of all time?
1: Because he told everyone so
2: He was one of the most well rounded boxers ever to live. He could do everything. Everything.

Now, for me, Messi is kinda like Mike Tyson (stay with me here). He's incredibly efficient at what he does. If not the best in that particular aspect. Mike Tyson in that he gets KO's. Messi in that he's the best dribbler and finisher out there. However, Mike Tyson (unless you listen to imbeciles) doesn't go down as 'the best'. He goes down as one of the best maybe, but when people talk about who is the best? It's the guy who can do it all. Ali with great chin, stamina, skill, power, speed, intelligence. Ronaldo with his skill, long shots, heading, finishing, passing. Both of these guys are more well rounded, more complete in what they do.

For this reason, theoretical or whatever it may be (I think when you're talking about who is 'the best' it can only ever be theoretical), I'd say Ronaldo is the better player. The thing is, you try and look at it in terms of something else, like say, record. Then Muhammad Ali would never have gone down as the greatest. Does he have the best boxing record ever? No. Does Ronaldo have the best record in terms of titles, and scoring? Ofcourse not. My point is, I'd rather judge it on the aspects I'm describing, than the aspects you're describing.



Yeah... long post... I know.

Actually I'm a bit of a boxing fan. I hate Ali because I think he is an example of a villain that succeeded and the world seems oblivious to that. I watched a documentary on the thriller in Manila. It changed my view of Ali.

When it comes to this type of discussion, who the greatest are, I think accolades are a very important factor. They are all the necessary qualities of sport condensed into one shiny belt, cup or statue. I guess I'm an imbecile because I think Tyson is the goat. Not many people were able to unify the IBF, WBA and WBC titles. He did this at the age of 21! Tyson dominated. Just look at Busta Douglas fight, the McNeeley fight and even the Lou Savarese. These are just a few I'm picking off the top of my head.

More to the point: Messi has 4 Ballon d'Ors that were achieved in legendary succession. Jordan's double three-peat championship rings are an ode by themselves to just how completely unquestionable his status as goat is.

We have different criteria for how we determine the best players. I think we should just leave it at that.