I've watched that Mario Mandzukic goal a dozen times. Even the missus went "Wow....."
It's those moments when you realise why we love this game.
I've been looking over a Jazz study book recently and it talks about the 99% of 'work' and the 1% of 'magic'.
That goal was the 1% through and through.
While watching the game, maybe 2 minutes before the goal, I thought to myself "Mandzukic has been quiet tonight"
The Championship Chronicles - The Jetstream's review of the 2007/08 season. www.newcastlefootball.net/chronicles
Thanks to Mario Manjerkic for scoring 7 minutes too late and absolutely destroying the hopes & dreams of the nf.net KOTH Punterz Club ops:
Agreed with Plague, I'm assuming he said this - when it comes to GOAT, Ronaldo doesn't tie Zidane's laces.
OK
You mean the same 'Golden generation' that not only failed to get out of the group stage but failed to score a goal in the process when Zidane was out injured.
With Zidane: World Cup win, World Cup final, Euro win, Confed cup win.
Without Zidane: Worst World Cup performance by a holder in history.
Zidane WAS the Golden Generation of French football.
I'm not big on the individual comparisons, because Zidane is the greatest footballer I've ever seen, and I'm happy to have people think the same about Maradona, Messi or Ronaldo.
But I've grown to appreciate Ronaldo the more he changes his game and adapts to his physical skills diminishing with age.
One other thing about Ronaldo, and Zidanes management of him. For years now the Messi/Ronaldo argument has been based around stats, especially goals. I think it's a much bigger deal than people realise to get Ronaldo to sit out an easy La Liga match where he can pad his stats to keep pace with Messi, instead sacrifice himself for the good of the team trying to chase Trophies.
Messi, by virtue of age, will finish with many more goals at every level than Ronaldo, but the trophy cabinets are now largely the same. It's probably closer now than ever about 'who's better' between those two*.
*and yes, whatever your answer is in this debate it's wrong because Iniesta was better than both of them.
cc:MFKS.
Personally I couldn't give a toss about goals and trophies and stats. Watching Messi play puts a huge goofy grin on my face. His vision and fine control leave me awestruck. People can have their opinions and awards can go to whoever, that's all fine. Easy answer for my pick.
Talk to me when Les Murray sings a song about Ronnie or any other fraud tbh:
OK
A casual observation of the NBA and something similar is happening. People are comparing Lebron James to Michael Jordan, and one of the biggest critcisms (sp??) of Lebron is he gets rested far more than Jordan does, thus making Lebron's claim to GOAT invalid. I don't watch it enough to have an opinion on Lebron vs Jordan tbh, but thought it was relevant to what you've just said.
IMO it is also harder to compare guys of different generations, because of how much the players, game, etc evolve. Does it irk anyone else watching pre-90s stuff and seeing the all-too-common backpass, for eg? Kills me every time.
We should all just be really thankful to be in an age where we can watch such amazing talents from our pocket phones IMO.
OK
I am always intrigued by how many people seem to spend way more time on the hypothetical argument rather than just appreciating what's going on in front of them.
NBA at the moment is a perfect example, all you hear about is Lebron v Jordan but the Warriors team is right there in front of us and it's majestic to watch.