His FK was better than Ronnie's, no doubt. Problem is though, his shots are average in terms of power if not weak. He won't do much from long distance ones unless the GK had a slow reaction, see Casillas in Bernabeu.

Imagine if he had Cristiano's thighs, tho.

Deja Vu wrote:His FK was better than Ronnie's, no doubt. Problem is though, his shots are average in terms of power if not weak. He won't do much from long distance ones unless the GK had a slow reaction, see Casillas in Bernabeu.

Imagine if he had Cristiano's thighs, tho.

What do you consider far?
Also who cares how hard you hit it, if you put it in the top right corner with amazing curve it's unlikely any keeper can stop it.
I prefer technical shots over power shots.

Donuts wrote:

Deja Vu wrote:His FK was better than Ronnie's, no doubt. Problem is though, his shots are average in terms of power if not weak. He won't do much from long distance ones unless the GK had a slow reaction, see Casillas in Bernabeu.

Imagine if he had Cristiano's thighs, tho.

What do you consider far?
Also who cares how hard you hit it, if you put it in the top right corner with amazing curve it's unlikely any keeper can stop it.
I prefer technical shots over power shots.

Powers does matter. Xavi, for instance, is a good free-kicker but he hardly scores them since his shots r weak which gives the GKs time to reach for the far corner. Palop's most recent save of Messi's FK against Sevilla is a good example of it.

Deja Vu wrote:

Donuts wrote:

Deja Vu wrote:His FK was better than Ronnie's, no doubt. Problem is though, his shots are average in terms of power if not weak. He won't do much from long distance ones unless the GK had a slow reaction, see Casillas in Bernabeu.

Imagine if he had Cristiano's thighs, tho.

What do you consider far?
Also who cares how hard you hit it, if you put it in the top right corner with amazing curve it's unlikely any keeper can stop it.
I prefer technical shots over power shots.

Powers does matter. Xavi, for instance, is a good free-kicker but he hardly scores them since his shots r weak which gives the GKs time to reach for the far corner. Palop's most recent save of Messi's FK against Sevilla is a good example of it.

Messi's 4 free kicks thus far were due to amazing curve to throw off the keeper and being on top corner, which is quiet honestly the most effective free kick in my opinion, looking at Ibra's or Ronaldos free kicks rarely do they go in due to too much power then they sky high it.
Of course power counts but clearly most of Messi's kicks arn't all power just technical and that makes it more amazing in my opinion.

Donuts wrote:

Deja Vu wrote:

Donuts wrote:

Deja Vu wrote:His FK was better than Ronnie's, no doubt. Problem is though, his shots are average in terms of power if not weak. He won't do much from long distance ones unless the GK had a slow reaction, see Casillas in Bernabeu.

Imagine if he had Cristiano's thighs, tho.

What do you consider far?
Also who cares how hard you hit it, if you put it in the top right corner with amazing curve it's unlikely any keeper can stop it.
I prefer technical shots over power shots.

Powers does matter. Xavi, for instance, is a good free-kicker but he hardly scores them since his shots r weak which gives the GKs time to reach for the far corner. Palop's most recent save of Messi's FK against Sevilla is a good example of it.

Messi's 4 free kicks thus far were due to amazing curve to throw off the keeper and being on top corner, which is quiet honestly the most effective free kick in my opinion, looking at Ibra's or Ronaldos free kicks rarely do they go in due to too much power then they sky high it.
Of course power counts but clearly most of Messi's kicks arn't all power just technical and that makes it more amazing in my opinion.

True, I'm just saying that if Lionel's shots had more strength in them, it would have been even better, especially from long range in addition to his outstanding ability of curling the ball into the top far corner of the net. Beckham had both strength and the curve and which is why he's being known as the best free-kicker in recent time if not the best of all time.

Deja Vu wrote:

Donuts wrote:

Deja Vu wrote:

Donuts wrote:

Deja Vu wrote:His FK was better than Ronnie's, no doubt. Problem is though, his shots are average in terms of power if not weak. He won't do much from long distance ones unless the GK had a slow reaction, see Casillas in Bernabeu.

Imagine if he had Cristiano's thighs, tho.

What do you consider far?
Also who cares how hard you hit it, if you put it in the top right corner with amazing curve it's unlikely any keeper can stop it.
I prefer technical shots over power shots.

Powers does matter. Xavi, for instance, is a good free-kicker but he hardly scores them since his shots r weak which gives the GKs time to reach for the far corner. Palop's most recent save of Messi's FK against Sevilla is a good example of it.

Messi's 4 free kicks thus far were due to amazing curve to throw off the keeper and being on top corner, which is quiet honestly the most effective free kick in my opinion, looking at Ibra's or Ronaldos free kicks rarely do they go in due to too much power then they sky high it.
Of course power counts but clearly most of Messi's kicks arn't all power just technical and that makes it more amazing in my opinion.

True, I'm just saying that if Lionel's shots had more strength in them, it would have been even better, especially from long range in addition to his outstanding ability of curling the ball into the top far corner of the net. Beckham had both strength and the curve and which is why he's being known as the best free-kicker in recent time if not the best of all time.

Well you never know what you will get with Messi all he seems to do is improve, he is getting stronger by the years so maybe in the future he'll have more power behind his shots.

Actually from personal experience its different for every person when hitting a free kick. I have an easy time bending it, for example, but it is harder for me to just hit a knuckle ball, although I can do both.
Obviously I'm not pro, but I think it just depends from person to person.

That freekick under the wall though

All i have to say is it's very impressive what Messi can do when he puts his mind to it. Not many people could just become one of the best in the world at FK's whenever they decided so, but Messi seems to have done it, if he's not the best in the world full-stop.

He's lethal from free-kicks now, it's amazing. The kids an alien, I'm honored to watch him.

Deja Vu wrote:His FK was better than Ronnie's, no doubt. Problem is though, his shots are average in terms of power if not weak. He won't do much from long distance ones unless the GK had a slow reaction, see Casillas in Bernabeu.

Imagine if he had Cristiano's thighs, tho.

It's not weak, He's well capable of shooting it +30 yards as against Paraguay shows:



Casillas had slow reaction because Messi beat the wall, and he saw it too late. Goalkeeper does either two things, predicts the shot and starts the move before he sees the ball, but then his side of the goal becomes more open for a strike. There is no right or wrong, as it is more of a guessing game what you do.

Also power shots without beating the wall are always goalie mistakes as in a sense he's to cover that side, wall the other side. Walls job is to slow the shot so that goalie can reach it, or block it all together.

I don't see why strength of free kicks is a problem. I haven't ever really seen any free kicks from Messi that were blocked because they weren't strong enough, tbh.

8 years ago, little Leo got his first team debut




Notice the player, 2nd from right

This bugged me all day because I couldn't recognise them... Anyway... did some researching and found this:

From Left to Right: Messi, Damia (now at Osasuna), Ruben (GK, now at Rayo), Cristian Hidalgo (now at Alki Larnaka), Carlos Pena (now at Valladolid).

ie. They are all randoms except Ruben who I remember as the guy that hung around and never played.

FCBarça wrote:

Notice the player, 2nd from right

What about him?

Thought it was Alba, certainly looks like younger Alba.

jiopsi wrote:Thought it was Alba, certainly looks like younger Alba.

He would have been 15 lol... Probably in Juvenil B or Cadet A, not first team!

jiopsi wrote:Thought it was Alba, certainly looks like younger Alba.

What I thought as well

Played a MOTM performance according to Goal.com though I thought him and Di Maria didn't get enough of the ball to create danger. Certainly becoming a demanding figure for both club and country.
Looking ahead to Ballon, I think it will be a close call though if players are judged by best individual performance by a player for both club and country then Messi wins it by a mile.

Romero was MoM for me, stopped almost everything and got unlucky with the last one.

But what Messi is doing with Argentina at the moment is marvelous, and it's marvelous to see the affection he gets nowadays in there. With the goal should have had couple assists also, as I don't know how Di Maria and Fernandez missed those sitters.

Hard earned win which was very crucial and will give us confidence, Romero and Messi were fantastic. Chile's Fernández was alsovvery good.

No idea why Campagnaro was playing.

BarcaKizz wrote:This bugged me all day because I couldn't recognise them... Anyway... did some researching and found this:

From Left to Right: Messi, Damia (now at Osasuna), Ruben (GK, now at Rayo), Cristian Hidalgo (now at Alki Larnaka), Carlos Pena (now at Valladolid).

ie. They are all randoms except Ruben who I remember as the guy that hung around and never played.

FCBarça wrote:

Notice the player, 2nd from right

What about him?

Damia was not "random" he debuted for us and played some games with the first team at right back and left back. Not a bad player.

How did you do it to find who the other players were? I always thought it would be very useful to be able to "google" an image or music and find results describing what it is...any IT engineer to make a startup company?

Just drag and drop the image or its url to google image search and you might get lucky

@Free you can do google image searches. If you put an image's url into google, Google will offer you the chance to do an "image search" for it.

@Danyjr Campagnaro is our 2nd LB choice second to Rojo. Definitely our weak link. Even if we played Insua, Ansaldi or Monzon or whoever it would still probably be a weak link.

Considering our current state with defenders I don't actually mind Campagnaro, but he's just too old. I don't want to count on him in Brazil.

danyjr wrote:Considering our current state with defenders I don't actually mind Campagnaro, but he's just too old. I don't want to count on him in Brazil.

Don't think there is anyone else left. Second best left back, I guess you will have to trust him.
Comes back to training soon after a brilliant international performance with Argentina

Grandmother of tiki taka

That's just insane.

thanks billionmillion for sharing ....awesome

btw, in the headline of El mundo deportivo they have written about messi that....7 to equal Pelé, 3 to equal Diego but i think pele scored 77 for brazil and messi still only 31 , right???