₦airaland Forum

Canales scored a penalty against Australia yesterday. Spain won 5-1. Canales has scored two goals so far. The star of that team however has been our own Cristian Tello.

Easily Messi, there isn't even a contest. However, this award isn't the main one. It's all about the Ballon d'Or!

Ronaldo scored a lot of goals last season, but I've never personally judged a player soley on goals stats. It's what they can do in big games, the varieties of goals in which they score and what they can do in games when they don't score. I also look at the playmaking abilities of a player and their work rate and if they can single handedly change games or not. For this, Messi is quite a bit ahead, he performed in the final, he performed in more or less every classico and on top of that he made some wonderful assists along with scoring alot of goals. 
Ronaldo on the otherhand scored 25% of his goals when the season was at it's dead end and everything was decided. All the teams Madrid played at this point like Villarreal and Almeria already had their fates decided in the league. Villarreal, for example, couldn't move up nor down the table so I doubt they took the game seriously, whereas Almeria were already relegated, etc. Apart from scoring a header in the CDR final, he was a major disappointment in all the clasicos and did basically nothing. I personally don't think scoring a header alone makes a good performance either. The goal was just as much about Di Marias wonderful cross. Ronaldo also scored more penalties than anyone in the league and also more tap-ins. Goal stats alone don't make a player "inferior" to another. When breaking down everything, there is only 1 winner and that is La pulga.

I can see it going like this:

1. Messi
2. Ronaldo
3. Xavi
but I'd rather it went like this:

1. Messi/Xavi
2. Xavi/Messi
3. Ronaldo.

Mcleo007:
Guess the question should be, who and who will not win the award?

nice

2-0. Keita nicely setup after a great combo by Carmona and Deulofeu.

2-0 it ends.

Adriano's been great so far. He should be our first choice LB since Abidal will mostly play as CB no thanks to Puyi's injury.

Great finish from Villa 1-0

Interesting line up:
---------Valdes
Adri--Sergi--Pique--Abidal
---------Keita
----Xavi-----Iniesta
-------Thiago
Pedro------------Villa

Thiago is playing in the Messi role. I've always thought that's the role that best suits him.

City FTW

The defeat to Chivas is our worst since losing 4-1 to Getafe in the 2007 CDR s/final, I think.
Pep has ruled out signing any defender.

Really smart move.

Johnpaul88:
I think there is an urgent need to sign Cesc in a matter of days.

Arsenal have just been paired with Udinese in the CL play-off round. And recalling that Van persie and Nasir will be unavailable for the 1st leg due to suspension, Wenger will want to use all available players, including Cesc, given the tough nature of the Italian outfit.

By doing this Cesc becomes cup-tied and consequently will not be eligible to parcipate in the CL, should Barca end up signing him.
I think we should rap that damn deal up this week, since a lot of sales have been made.

We'll need to sign him before the 16th of August because he will more than likely play their qualifier if he stays.
£40m might be cheapest price we can get Cesc for unless we wait till he has one more year on his contract(2014) or we sign him when his contract runs out(2015). If he does well this season, his value would go up and judging by his stats, you can be sure he will do well barring any injuries.
I can't endure another summer of daily Cesc rumour. . . I've no fingernails to bite anymore.

Thiago has been called up to the Spanish national team for the next international friendly against Italy. Good one for the young man.
I think the plan is just to make him ineligible to play for Brazil or Italy. I heard Menezes has been trying to convince him to play for Brazil.
Kind of what they did to Bojan so he wouldn't be able to feature for Serbia.

AjanleKoko:
For 40 million pounds? No effing way, JP.
I think, on the issue of Cesc's supposed transfer, I will do a 180 degrees and oppose the deal. It's just a waste of time. We keep offering chump change, and they keep slapping us back. If Cesc wanted to play in Barca, he wouldn't have signed with them and renewed twice

I'm even going to say something unpatriotic now. I hope we get whooped by Madrid in the Supercopa, so the players' eyes can clear a little, and they can focus. It's pretty obvious they are forcing the management to try to sign Cesc.

You're anti-cesc now Well, I won't blame Cesc for signing an extension to his Arsenal contract. As at when he renewed his contract, there wasn't strong interest from us. He signed an 8 year extension to his contract in 07 and we started showing interest in him in 08, almost 09, winter transfer window. For him there are only two clubs - us and Arsenal - and since there wasn't interest from us then, he could only extend his contract at Arsenal.
It's the same way I won't blame him for leaving us like most fans do. As at the time he left, very few canteranos were being promoted to the first team. There was very little hope for the youth players unlike what we've today. Around that time only Valdes, Oleguer and Iniesta were promoted to the first team. The likes of Gerard Lopez and Luis Garcia had to go make a name for themselves elsewhere before they were bought back by us. Many youth players saw this as the best option. It could be argued that he was one of our brightest prospects then and should have waited for his chance with the first team but so were Gio dos Santos, Cristian Ceballos, Sergio Santamaria, Iago Falque, etc. . . Things could have turned out really bad and there probably wouldn't be a Cesc Fabregas today. An opportunity presented itself and he made the most of it.
My stance on signing him reamains the same. If he comes good, if he doesn't? No biggie.
On the £40m valuation. . . He's worth every penny, IMO. Just try taking a look at his stats for the past 4-5 seasons. . . simply frightening.

Secrets - One Republic

Gabriel Milito released
http://www.fcbarcelona.com/web/english/noticies/futbol/temporada11-12/08/04/n110804118663.html

Thank you for all the years. . . Goodluck

FT: 4-1. . .embarrassing

Hopefully Pep drops these ideas he has about Busi at CB and the "depth" we supposedly have for injuries in our B team in case of injuries to our defence, and so fort and we actually buy a good defender.

We're being routed here. . . 3-1. Chivas are giving us the run around.

gooooooaaal!!!
Villa 1-0. . . Pique assist

vs Chivas Guadalajara:

Pinto; J. Dos Santos, Fontas, Pique, Abidal; Xavi, Keita, Thiago; Cuenca, Villa, Carmona

David Silva is pure class.

Is Abuja Federal High Court has dismissed Davidson Owumi's case challenging his sack as NPL boss. . .
http://africanfootball.mtnfootball.com/live/content.php?Item_ID=48409

Only one match played last weekend:
Dolphins 2 vs Crown FC 0. . . Dolphins top the league, four points ahead of Sunshine Stars who have two games in hand.

Marcelo

Capdevilla
Jose Enrique
Abidal

Silva! Bloody genius
[flash=425,400]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJhJ2YfI_HI[/flash]

Summer Don't Last Forever - Ashley Wilkes

Jeffren off to Sporting Lishon.
€5m fee, €8m buyback option for the first two years and we get 20% of any future sale.

Spain just completed a hatrick of Euro championship. After winning the Euro and Euro U-21 championship, they just added the Euro U-19 championship. Spain's on one heck of a roll. . .  Great performance from our own Gerard Deulofeu. . . Hot prospect for the future.

AjanleKoko:
When you think back, really, you don't really recall Barca ever signing many defenders, or many great defenders playing for Barca.
Great midfielders and strikers yet, but no great defenders. Plus, I think Pep is haunted by the ghost of the Chygrynskiy signing

We had Zambrotta some seasons back. I remember what he did to CR in 08 CL s/final. He marked him useless. I'm sure CR will never forget that day.

usbcable:
Check this out

England------Arsenal
Spain---------Real Madrid
Italy----------AC Milan
Germany----Hamburg

pitching tents in every major football country.

even read today some arab guys are looking into nigerian banking sector for investment purposes.

They also sponsor PSG in France. Those guys are rich enough to sponsor all the teams in Europe without breaking a sweat. They're insanely rich.
Is it bye bye to Bwin or what asper your shirt sponsor? The contract with Bwin is supposed to be till 2013(20m p/a).

Silva tore Inter to shreds yesterday. His pass to Dzeko for the 2nd goal was nothing short of magical.

Pep said he'll bring in canteranos to cover at the back if there's any problem. I don't see us signing any defender.

Oh - Ciara