SEE YOU! A brand spanking new modern fitba thread 2021/22

Bradley was a bum. Well, ok, he was a decent defender... but he was basically a bum.

 

Actually, though I'm not sure of his actual height, Zlatan is probably the tallest GREAT player I can think of, in an attacking sense (Crouch was very good but not great), he was also an anomaly in that he has crazy skills and agility which you don't often see in big men, as X said they'd usually be clumsy.

 

Bout to watch a clip on Gheorghe Hagi. Supposedly he was like Maradona-lite.

 

Irish, just seen Origi's goal tonight. Beautiful stuff, that guy is such a weird player, does nothing for ages then pulls a great goal or game out of his arse

 

Great player.

 

These MLS crowds are better than I thought they would be. Shit, there's more people here than at the Italian games.

 

Wtf??

I didn't even realise humans could get that tall unless they were in the Guiness Book of World Records.

 

I have been to a couple of MLS games when I go to Colorado and yeah the atmosphere is actually pretty good. From what I understand Seattle is the best place to go for a game, they really get into it.

 

Most talented big man in history imo was Hakeem Olajuwon. YouTube him if you haven't seen him. He was fucking amazing. Second best player of the 90s behind only Michael Jordan.

 

Seattle fans in general are very passionate about sports.

When they actually had an NBA team, it was the loudest arena in basketball history.

 

Not to stereotype, but given that Asians are short and very quick and coordinated, I'm surprised that Korea hasn't produced some like top 5-10 guy in the world.

 

Forget about Korea for a second, think about Mexico. Population well over a 100 million people. Football has always been the most popular sport yet not one real "superstar" from Mexico and their national team has never been past the 1/4 finals of a World Cup in history.

 

Maybe Mexico's current most popular athlete should give the football players the special beef he eats... it might help them.

 

But yeah, it is weird that football is so popular in Mexico, yet they've never produced a true icon.

Chavez is by far the most iconic athlete Mexico has ever had.

 

I'm sure they've already tried it but for whatever reason it hasn't helped.

 

To go into stereotypes, it seems to me that Korean players all seem to be workhorses with technical skill that have endless energy and if you tell them to do a job, they'll do it and give everything in doing so, Japanese players seem much the same but perhaps with more flair. Park Ji-Sun was maybe Man Utd's most underrated player in their great mid-to-late 2000's team. Ronaldo, Rooney and Tevez got all the plaudits as they were the ones scoring the goals but Park Ji-Sun was the one who did all the dirty work by breaking up opposition attacks and setting up counter-attacks, and he would run more than anyone all game, he had an insane battery. At international level, Japan with their work ethic and technical ability can compete with a lot of teams but against the top nations just don't have the physicality and size to see it through. A good example would be when they played Belgium at the last World Cup, they were all over them for 65 minutes and went 2-0 up but ran themselves into the ground and ended up losing 3-2.

 

Speaking of Mexican footballers... Hugo Sanchez. I'm guess he's the best they've ever produced?

 

If South Korea were a boxer you'd not look forward to facing them even if you are much better. The kind of guy that makes a lot of mistakes and isn't technically the best but never stands still and keeps throwing punches. You have to earn it.

 

Having started to follow tennis and now football, it's very apparent to me that of the two, the old timers in football would do a lot better today than the old timers in tennis.

A Pele or Di Stefano would still be great today. Seems like the tennis greats from the 50s-60s would really struggle today.

 

Apparently Bum-Kun is considered the GOAT Asian footballer:

He looked spectacular. Surprised there hasn't been another like him:

 

Good analogy, totally agree. I've always enjoyed how Pirlo rates Park as his most nightmarish opponent:

Remembering how Park Ji-sung reduced Pirlo to sour grapes in 2010 - Planet Football

 

Oleg Blokhin - damn, this fucker was super talented. Won the Ballon d'Or in 1975.

 

Ironically enough, you actually did just PERFECTLY describe South Korea's GOAT boxer, Jung-Koo Chang.

 

Interesting rule about the Bundesliga only allowing two foreign players. Obviously having a limit of just two wouldn't be accepted today but i wish there were was a limit.

 

Wow, you learn something new every day. I'd never actually heard of the guy before but can't argue with that considering his achievements, especially as he was essentially the first to do it. Some of those goals were great, loved the chip.

 

The North Korean side which reached the World Cup quarter-finals in '66 probably had some class players, they were good enough to beat Italy and if it wasn't for Eusebio they would have beaten Portugal and made the semi-finals. Unfortunately we'll never really know as that was one of the very rare occasions they were allowed to leave the country.

 

True. It’s just the culture we live in. People just want simple things to keep their attention.

A fútbol match is simply too tactical and too tedious in the eyes of USA fans. And yes boxing too, it seems.

 

I liked Zlatan but found him a bit overrated. At least in the big games(Champions League) he never delivered.

That said, his dribbling and passing are elite level. Special talent over all.

 

66 WC stinks of MI6 meddling.

 

I think he's rated correctly in that he's not mentioned among the all time greats. Talent wise he's right up there with them. He's done some amazing things and his longevity is highly impressive.

When all is said and done it's about accomplishments hence why he's not considered among the elite of history.