The Good, Bad, and the Ugly
The Good...
Manchester United's fighting spirit whenever they are down
Rooney's mesmerizing run in the middle of the park, easily getting past defenders
The look on Wenger's face when Arsenal are getting beaten
Watching Barcelona play when Ronaldinho and Messi are in full flow
Players who are fiercely loyal and committed to their clubs
The Bad...
Ruud taking free-kicks and wasting good opportunities
The new owners of Manchester United, the Glazers
Chelsea trying to outmuscle every other team in the transfer market
Greedy bastards like Obi Mikel, Cudicini
Florentino Perez and his ridiculously sucking policies
The Ugly...
Players (Pires comes to my mind, immediately) diving inside the penalty box
4-5-1 formation of certain teams
The spitters and the racists
posted by Lucas @ 4:47 AM
10 Comments:
Pires is increasingly becoming a pero\ipheral figure in the all time list of great divers. I'll pick Reyes, Xabi Alonso, Cristiano Ronaldo as my top three.
I vehemently disagree with the "Ronaldo is a diver" tag...he is not physically tough and his leg movements are so quick that he gets fouled a lot...i guess referees waving away fouls on him just relects poorly on him. Having said that, he has to get tougher physically if he wants to succeed in the EPL. Otherwise, ManUtd should sell him to some club in Spain for $20 million.
Dude, come on now. Ronaldo is the clear winner here.And sorry no one is gonna subscribe to ur " leg movements are so quick that he gets fouled a lot." theory.He s a great diver.Also, i am glad that he has been reprimanded for his finger on the lip act.He did it at highbury too.Suits him just right.As far as i am concerned he is highly over rated and is a waste.No consistency.How far are step overs gonna take u.
And wat abt Rooney?Didnt u see the match last time at OT agnst Arsenal?He went down like a house on fire(geez!I am watching too much of sidhu nowadays).
Manchester United's fighting spirit whenever they are down.Spoken like a true red devil.Where was the fighting spirit when they were playing Villareal and benfica and manc city?
And how can u miss out on Neville s wild celebrations in the bad category.
I have already said that Ronaldo is a bit overrated but he does consistently for Portugal and is their top scorer after after Pauletta in the WC qualifiers. That does indicate he has quality. Having watched all ManUtd matches, I can only say that he is not strong physically and that's his undoing in EPL. Can't remember an occasion when he was yellow-carded for diving.
The CL matches were the low point this season for ManUtd but they have come back strong, in spite of all the injuries. Compare this with Arsenal...they have struggled in most matches when injuries have taken a toll, even when they have regular midfielders available.
As for Neville, perhaps his celebrations were a bit over the top, but it only shows his fierce commitment and loyalty to the club (chk out "the good") he has been with all these years. After all the harassment by the Kop section of the crowd (also, remember Rooney was hit with a cellphone last season?), my support is fully there with him for his behavior. It's a joke that the FA has charged him.
So a "step-over pauper" does so well for his national team. Then why do I see posts of urs consistently making a hash of Robinho when he does even better for Brazil? U have to accept that ur fanatism for United is going overboard.
And if U back Neville for his fierce commitment u have no right to comment on Gunners and call them "rogues" when they showed more fierce commitment of a different kind onfield at OT in 2003 for what everyone believes was another feigning act by another united player supposed to be a deadly finisher called van Nistelrooy. And I have seen a couple of times Ruud being yellow carded for diving. Even though I like the Dutch, exceptions are always there. And the reason as stated above.
And even when Arsenal went down sorrily to a 2-0 defeat at OT in 2004, Rooney admitted he dived to earn the decisive penalty.So United and United's fans, U have no rights to pick the divers' 11.
And coming to United's poor showing in CFL, Rooney was suspended. They are very much overdependent on Rooney. Now that he has been drafted into holding positions,the only position where he is yet to be tried is goalkeeping. Arsenal might get along without Henry but United will never be able to keep pace with the top 4 in EPL without Rooney.
And lastly, Good, Bad, Ugly are purely relative
And I also guess Rooney being hit had more to do with an Everton fan than the United - Liverpool rivalry.Tweaking the events to suit them is like bread n butter for the press.
When I'm sane enough to call Reyes a diver, when Both Cristiano and Reyes are frailly built, when I can call a apade a spade, why can't u?
'cos there is a difference between being fouled and diving...few commentators too support Ron on this...fragile, yes, but no diver...btw, i have not seen much of Reyes these days (is he playing at all?)...so, i can't comment on that.
'Few commentators' support Ron. you are absolutely right. Well, Reyes is serving another one of his red cards after Ron's turn ended.
Cristiano overdoes whatever he does, Step over or falling to the ground. And as a teenager he might have been awesome to watch for ur 'few commentators' and you too, I believe, but he has not developed tremondously since then. He is doing the same stuff without much success. He is no Luis Figo who was terrific in seeing a pass, an area in which Reyes and most Arsenal youngsters score.Neither is Cristiano like his predecessor No. 7, which I see as the main reason behind the consistent Ruud not scoring as much as he used to. Scolari is a master at taking people to task. Maybe he can harvest his skills properly while representing Portugal. But Fergie, no way. And he needs to improve not alone physically, but in other aspects also like shooting accuracy and passing/crossing (Cross...Wasn't he bought as a replecement for Beckham?). Reyes is pathetic,agreed, but Cristiano does not deserve too much focus either.
Once again, let me state that if not for Rooney, United would have been struggling like Arsenal are. Cristiano represents very much the club as a whole. Inconsistent. They need to buy one or even two rock solid CDM and wait for a season to see if the sporadic Cristiano delivers consistently. Else offload him to probably Spain, where he will not feel alone when it comes to going to the ground.
About Pires. Next only to the Chelski Lampard and the erstwhile Scholes, he has been consistently scoring 15 + goals per season and also creating chances. He also won European Player of the year in 2002, I believe. And no, not all of his goals are/were penalties. Henry is taking the penalties nowadays. Whatever you may have to say, he is a world cup and Euro winner. He is most wanted in several good Spanish clubs (suits him) and in Italy inspite of his age. Few wingers command this much respect at this age. He is good at either foot and opportunistic when it comes to pouncing on balls inside the box. He has almost all the traits of Ruud van Nistelrooy along with creativity. Even ur favourites Barcelona wanted him till Giuly emerged in CFL 2003-04. And I'm sure Fergie must've burnt with envy when Pires was going unstoppable during Arsenal's prime.
Ur claims of Pires being a diver are not being refuted. But he has lot more on the positive to offset this bad quality.
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