The difference in their skill level is:
Ronaldo was an insane physical specimen that was not only super fast but could practically jump over the net (@DavetheWave ellbow dunker). As he aged, he lost his insane jumping ability and plus speed.
Messi’s strengths are his enate ability to always make the right pass, be in the right place and take the right shot. That will not decline as significantly with age… I think his best comparison was Brazil’s Ronaldinho back in the day… but better.
So older Messi is better than older Ronaldo.
Also… I would’ve disappeared to the Saudi League as well for the amount of money they were paying him. A single year was generational wealth.
I think you might have them reversed in your head. Ronaldo’s 6’2”. Messi’s 5’7”.
I’ve personally always thought the comparison between the two was lopsided in Messi’s favor. That’s not a knock on Ronaldo, but while he has an elite elite set of finishing skills, Messi has always been the superior all around player.
Just look at their career assists. Ronaldo is maybe the best finisher of all time and obviously made others around him better by forcing other teams to game plan and shift things around him, freeing up others. But Messi has always been a much better facilitator than Ronaldo, been more important in the build up of attacks and maintaining possession, in running the game overall.
So while I hate to agree with it, I do think Dave’s labeling Messi as Jordan and Ronaldo as Kobe makes some sense, although you could probably have Messi be Jordan, Lebron, or Magic. Yeah there are individuals who argued for stretches that Kobe was better than them or equal to them, but when you look at their all around games, I don’t actually think it’s particularly close.
But that’s just my opinion.
I mainly know Ronaldo from this crazy statue
So Poch has tipped his hand. In The Athletic, he says that he’s going to sit the yellows, and pay attention to load management – which is a really clever way to say that he’s going to rotate heavily without actually saying that it’s a rotation. Continues to respect the “second team” by refusing to admit that they’re the “second team,” instead framing it in terms of encouraging all out play by the others - to field players ready to “eat the grass at Sofi Field.”
A difficult needle to thread, and one that he nailed perfectly.
Which also means that my lineup above is almost certainly wrong. He’ll probably keep a few “first choice” players on for continuity, but I expect heavy rotation – more like lambeth and someone else’s projection above.
He will get every outfield player that doesn’t have minutes yet, minutes tonight. I think the only SOL player will be the third team goalkeeper, Chris Brady. I assumed this as soon as they won the group. High probability this will be the approach as this seems to be most coaches approach in previous WCs in this situation.
Poch is maximum-Poch’ing with that one. Just needs a lemon reference to top it off.
Nailed it.
Roldan’s a bit banged up. I expect to see Arfsten and Zendejas come in for the entire 2nd half. Possibly Wright too.
McKenzie not good on both Turkey goals. Lost in the sauce on the first one and then surrendering acres of space from the 6 to the penalty spot on the 2nd goal in order to mark…no one?
Defense looks rough without Richards and Ream.
https://x.com/tombogert/status/2070377108158001405?s=46&t=wAzMZR-0PRGT1LpN6U5x0g
I endorse this take (and Poch’s take). Meaningless game is meaningless, almost all the reserves got to run around a bunch, Pulisic gets 30 mins under his belt, and now we are set up for the knockouts with everyone available.
You might wonder why so many beautiful women were suddenly hanging around you.
Think the Messi-MJ analogy starts to fail when you consider that MJ was also probably the best defender in the NBA.
US will lose to Bosnia until further notice… just can’t beat Euro teams.
Unfortunate draw for the 32 - Bosnia is clinical when they have chances - something the US gives up usually 3 times a game… USA allowed 3 shots on goal and Turkey scored on all of them.
Only way to overcome is to outscore Bosnia - USA had 18 shots to 9 for Turkey - I thought Pulisic for sure scored on that lefty banger. Would have changed the style last 20 minutes up 3-2 instead of tied and chasing a goal.
Bosnia scored 13 goals in their last 6 Qualifying matches for the World Cup and have scored 5 goals in 3 matches here.
Edit
Winless vs Euro teams last 5 years 0-9-2 but but but … the last win vs a Euro was in Dec of 2021 vs Bosnia in California…. Checking notes… this game is vs Bosnia in California
I’m sorry but how can you look at the respective results of the past few weeks and assume we will lose to Bosnia. Bosnia rode their luck to draw Canada, and were nervy against Qatar. I’m not sure you can take much from our game last night when we made 9 changes, and the entire spine of our team- Balogun, Adams, Richards, Ream, Freese were all rested. Will we win? Who knows. But it would be a huge failure if we do, and we couldn’t have asked for a much better draw in the R32
Oh our back line was terrible last night and we didn’t have our starters in there - wish they would have played some against the most skilled other team in our group to ramp up for the better teams… not saying we shouldn’t win on paper… just gotta be more clinical on our finishing like vs Paraguay. We can do it!!!
I mean realistically Bosnia is about as good of a matchup as we could hope for. Have to play someone. Would certainly rather play them than Ecuador or Sweden. Home field advantage might make Mexico the favorites but at a neutral site they’d be underdogs against Ecuador
I mean, if someone doesn’t think Bosnia isn’t a favorable draw, what qualifying 3rd place team would they rather play?
Can’t play Paraguay. Scotland probably won’t make it. Groups G, H, I or K maybe if they get someone in?
I probably would rather not play Korea, Equador, Sweden, Algeria/Austria or Croatia. Or Belgium. Or probably Congo.
Maybe Senegal/Iraq or Cape Verde? An Iran game would have all sorts of unpredictable distractions.
I certainly wouldn’t trade being in our Group and its knockout stage bracket path with Mexico’s or Canada’s.
That’s the point of knockouts - every game is hard.