Call him the Lebron or Kobe of soccer. Even on an off night,  they are guaranteed to perform. Messi is a world class footballer who seem to have alot to offer in his bag of tricks. Messi's brilliance against arsenal's weak defense was impeccable.  While watching the quarter final between arsenal and Barcelona, at some point it felt as if i was watching or playing a soccer video game.  For those who are familiar with winning eleven or pro evolution you would easily relate with me on this one.

A true power forward is what Messi is.World class goal scorers are opportunist who are always are the place at the right time. The best and only possible way to contain a player of messi's caliber is not to let him have the ball. in other words, double teaming him and this is going to cause lapses in other areas of your defence.

Can Nigeria contain Messi? This is an ambivalent question, Yes and No are the answers for me. Apparently the Nigerian squad from Holland 2005 and Beijing 2008 Olympics have tried to contain Messi twice but both attempts were relatively unsuccessful. Mind you, there was a vast improvement in the defence  of '08 sqaud than that of '05.  Some of you may argue in favour of the Nigerian squad that we would be successful against Messi but please bear in mind, Messi  brilliancy is  just going to get better. He is only 23 years of age now and already won european and world footballer awards. From another perspective, all the pieces and parts that make up Barcelona team is different (in that they are mostly top quality players) from that of the Argentine team so can that influence Messi performance at the world cup?

Lars Largerback knows all about  world class players like Ronaldo of brazil and Messi who do not necessarily need to have a huge possession of the ball before they are the impact player of the game.

My argument:  Can Nigeria contain Messi? what's your opinion?

i don't think so o
that guy no get mercy o!
messi no get mercy @ goal o.

The guy is a kill joy and merciless.

no be okonkwo hold am for olympics he's magnifique for Barcelona, not so Argentina.

We go try

na yam?