Official Football Thread

From the new autobiography: The best team ever, according to Johan Cruijff (no Ronaldo, no Messi, no Cruijff).

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My favorite team would be:

Dida
Cafu Costacurta Nesta Maldini
Gattuso Ambrosini Seedorf
Kaka
Inzaghi Shevchenko
 
Not sure what I would do. I hold Cruyff's opinion very high in regard, and certainly would put himself in there. And Maradona of course.

A quote from the biography: "I was not always understood. But yeah, Rembrandt and Van Gogh were also not understood".
 
Guardiola is a laughable pick. I know they had a great relationship and Cruyff was impressed how Pep could see his vision better than anyone else, but as a player alone, he wasn't anywhere near that level. From Barcelona's history alone there are two better central midfielders: Xavi and Iniesta. Keizer > Messi is also a ridiculous assertion.

My all time 11 would be

Yashin
Maldini Beckenbauer Baresi
Cruyff Zidane Di Stéfano Garrincha
Messi Pelé Maradona
 
The Flash said:
Guardiola is a laughable pick. I know they had a great relationship and Cruyff was impressed how Pep could see his vision better than anyone else, but as a player alone, he wasn't anywhere near that level. From Barcelona's history alone there are two better central midfielders:
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Disagree.
The Flash said:
Keizer > Messi is also a ridiculous assertion.
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Also if you look at that position? I wouldn't say that.

Baresi is a great pick. I'd do that as well I guess.
 
Night Prowler said:
@The Flash: Be honest, how many full games have you seen with Yashin, Beckenbauer, Baresi, Cruyff, Garrincha, Pelé and Maradona playing? :p
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In the case of Baresi and Maradona, quite a few, they played in an era where TV broadcasts were widespread everywhere so there are a lot of tape on them. A lot of their games are available online as well.

In the case of the others, World Cup and European Championship matches that were broadcast in football history type programming. There was a channel here that did nothing but show old football matches. Club matches are difficult to obtain obviously.
 
Forostar said:
Disagree.
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On what basis? What argument does he have over Xavi or Iniesta? Pep won 6 La Ligas, one Champions League title (in the old format) and no titles with Spain. Xavi won 8 La Ligas, 4 Champions League titles, a World Cup and two European Championships. Iniesta is identical with Xavi.

Let's remove the team success out of the equation. -Even though Pep had no shortage of playing in teams filled with superstars- These are the lists of individual honours Pep, Xavi and Iniesta have won:

Pep

1 x European Championship Team of the Tournament Selection (2000)

Xavi

1 x European Championship Player of the Tournament (2008)
3 x Ballon d'Or 3rd place (2009, 2010, 2011)
1 x World Cup Dream Team Selection (2010)
2 x European Championship Team of the Tournament Selection (2008, 2012)

Iniesta

1 x European Championship Player of the Tournament (2012)
1 x Ballon d'Or 2nd place (2010)
1 x Ballon d'Or 3rd place (2012)
1 x Ballon d'Or 4th place (2011)
1 x World Cup Dream Team Selection (2010)
2 x European Championship Team of the Tournament Selection (2008, 2012)

Xavi and Iniesta were the leaders of a football system that dominated late 2000s and early 2010s.
 
Good research Flash. I wonder who won the Ballon d'Ors in Guardiola's time. Bigger stars than him probably, but perhaps also bigger than Iniesta and Xavi.
That aside, I guess Cruyff probably focused on personal things he liked about players. Choices, moves, technique, tactical ideas. Perhaps Iniesta and Xavi are indeed nicer players to watch (or better from a certain point of view). Guardiola was gifted but I focused more on other Barca players at the time.

Baresi was fantastic Night Prowler! The man was small but fast and strong in defense. And build up. He was a true leader in the field and he had a great pass as well.
 
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Italy vs Spain has been a pretty physical game so far. Spain have created more chances.

And currently Iceland are 1-2 down at home against Finland ...
 
We have lost 1-0 to Azerbaijan. Shoot me now.

I hate this kind of matches, where the opponents, the ref and the team I support fight a hard contest about being the most shit, and my team wins - so that I can't complain about the ref without coming across as a crybaby.

Azerbaijan were utter shite, they couldn't keep the ball for three moves in a row.
The ref was awful, giving cheap free kicks for the duration of the game. Booked our right back after a blatant dive from the Azerbaijan player. The free kick Azerbaijan scored from was also dubious.

Still ... we were more shit than them both. Azerbaijan parked the bus, and we weren't able to get a single clean finish. We had a lot of chances we could have scored from, but not more than one where we should have scored. We made their goalkeeper look good.

This WC qualification campaign is over before it did begin. The only positive is that Per-Mathias Høgmo is now probably finished as team coach.

Fuck off!
 
So, should I watch Germany vs Czechia or Poland vs Denmark now at 20:45? Admittedly, the first game is in our group, but seeing as we are utter shit and won't qualify anyway, the outcome is rather irrelevant now.

And Poland have nice colours.
 
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