I first claimed that Maicon was the best right back in the world. You asked for evidence and I didn't provide random articles, I provided sources that specifically mentioned offers made by clubs for the two players in question and quoted Maicon's agent. You provided a source from a blog by a guy named sniper or something that quotes another article. The funny part is that you rejected the monetary value placed on a player as an objective indicator of a player's worth. You also conveniently failed to mention that, according to the source you're using as evidence, Lahm was either their second or third choice and Maicon was #1. You also seem to reject the order of preferences as another objective indicator of a player's worth. You're just being unreasonable and letting your bias towards German players and your emotions get the best of you. Here's a soccer community discussion on who the best right back in the world is as well: http://forums.goal.com/showthread.php?t=10848 The majority believes that Maicon is the #1 right back in the world. Most clubs looking for a right back seem to have Maicon as their #1 choice as well. We can ask the question here for those interested: Who is the better right back? Maicon or Lahm I think your unnecessarily aggressive posts are symptomatic and indicative of a much larger anger management problem. If you have health insurance, most major plans cover mental health issues. Although you probably just act like this on the internet and your demeanor is probably meek in person.
A curious fact is that the only team that didnt lose a game this world cup was New Zealand, :grin: A lot of people before the world cup, had this team as the worse of the World Cup, but ended being the only team that didnt lose, thats shocking!
I'm annoyed with myself for not having posted in this thread during the World Cup. I forgot my password and just didn't bother to retrieve it. Anyway, after a few days of depression I am quite proud of the achievement. I wish we had seen the good football we played during the friendlies before the World Cup. We were looking good, but hey... I guess the coach felt that a more pragmatic strategy was needed and he was very very very close to succeeding. Fantastic. I would like to think that some of Spain's success was due to the Cruyff philosophy and who knows... maybe van Gaal's vision seeped through to Germany. I hate the Octopus.
It did! And I believe even Beckenbauer said so. An Ace sighting...wow. Haven't seen you post in a long time. Good thing to have you back!
Well, looks like a lot of the players from the Dutch team will be leaving. vd Wiel the right back, Stekelenburg, Huntelaar (though not due to his performance in the World Cup), Kuijt (maybe). Have also read that Mourinho is willing to sell Kaka and will keep vd Vaart instead. I was very impressed by Muller. Can't believe the way he has progressed with Bayern. I wonder what his limit is. Very interested. Overall I became quite a big Bayern Munich fan in Europe, undoubtedly due to the Dutch influence in the team and the board keeping faith in v Gaal. Giving him the last chance to perform certainly paid off. I thought he was a goner. Also, Lahm is definitely in the same league as Maicon. Perhaps Maicon is better overall, hard one to call. Comparing their values as players simply through supposed "offers" is ridiculous! Remember, Sneijder was bought for a pittance from Madrid last year (£13m) and would you call him a lesser footballer than say David Bentley (£15m)? Anyway, no point discussing that further... ATW, what do you think about v Bommel now? Getting a bit older, 33. Think he can do it for 1 or 2 more seasons? Looks like vd Wiel might be going to Bayern now in a deal involving Braafheid, wonder how it will pan out. But that's another attacking fullback joining the German defence... certainly looks like the team will be good to watch once more in the coming season. With my mum living in Berlin now I visit often, so annoying that Hertha got relegated from the Bundesliga!
Some of the best goals and saves in the World Cup 2010 <object width="480" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rpQCgC0b_xQ&hl=zh_CN&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rpQCgC0b_xQ&hl=zh_CN&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="385"></embed></object>
Exactly. But it's like with Kwame's takes on basketball (and pretty much anything else)...they are so stupid that it is really not worth discussing them further. You are right. I like van Bommel...I think he can do at least another year at the current level. He is a smart guy, so that helps. I would have greatly preferred Coentrao over van der Wiel, not that I know much about van der Wiel. I know I was never impressed with Braafheid (or Pranjic, for that matter). I'll be happy to let both of them go if van der Wiel is better. Let me know if you make it to Munich, we could watch a game together.
I think ESPN did a great job with their World Cup coverage for the most part(no coverage of the closing ceremonies-booo!) The on-air personalities from the great Martin Tyler and Ian Darke to the passable Efan Ekoku and the terrible John Harkes. Gullit, Klinsy, Steve Mac were alright and Lalas was his usual douche self. Surprises from the ESPN crew for me were Mike Tirico and Chris Fowler-who were better than expected, Roberto Martinez was great and Sal Masekela and his Umlando reports were even better. All round good job by ESPN, the coverage gets better and better every four years.
I am watching the UNIVISION "live" coverage of the closing ceremonies (before the FINAL), and Pablo Ramírez mentioned that they were the only TV network showing the entire closing ceremony. Is that true? Did ESPN have it?
Does anybody even realize that the Women World Cup just started and USA is rank #1? Ranking Team 1 USA 2 Germany 3 Brazil 4 Sweden 5 Japan 6 Norway 7 Korea DPR 8 France 9 England 10 China PR 11 Denmark 11 Canada 13 Italy 14 Australia 15 Russia 16 Netherlands 17 Finland 18 Iceland 19 Ukraine 20 Spain 21 Korea Republic 22 Mexico
This is bulls*** on the part of the MLS and Garber... I understand why they want Donovan to stay. He's the face of the league. They have no right, however, to hold him back and not give him the opportunity to grow as a player...especially if he actually wants it this time. This could be a ploy to drive up the price a bit on the transfer fee. I think it's stupid for him to continue going on loan spells because it essentially means he gets no break and will get burned out before he turns 30.
He should be playing in Europe somewhere, but he signed a contract and MLS is within their rights to hold him to it.
This sounds more like the logical reason behind this. I do not think the MLS legal peeps would let the guy say these things if it weren't true. If the price is right to tear up the contract, why wouldn't MLS hear offers, though? Is there fear in the MLS peeps that something won't work? < / putting Donovan-hatin' hat back on >
I agree...but they probably shouldn't have said anything publicly at all...unless it's a move to drive the price up.
I haven't read the thread yet. I returned from the honeymoon yesterday evening. Of course I'm disapointed, we were so close. I couldn't watch the game, since my flight was on the day of the finals. I should have arrived about 30 minutes after the games started. I bought a worldradio so that i could listen to the game at the airport just in case they didn't broadcast it at the airport. Unfortunatly my flight had a delay of 2.5 hours, and I missed the entire game. The pilot kept us up to date about the score. He told us that the game was going into overtime, and when he anounced that spain scored a small part of the people in the plain cheered but most were silent (it was from Paris to Antannarivo). I haven't watched the game, my friends told me that Spain deserved to win the game, so that gives me some comfort. I watched the highlights Both teams missed some big chances (Robben). I do not think i'm going to watch the game. Maybe in a couple of years. I think Spain and the Netherlands were the two best teams this tournament (Germany deserved their third place, they really impressed me this tournament, and i'm looking forward to see their young players grow). It could have gone either way. A goal 2 minutes before the end is painfull, on the other hand, we would have lost the penalty serie, and losing again after a penalty series would be even more painfull. To all the Spain fans, congratulations, they deserved it. We will get back in two years. When I have read the entire thread I will probably post some more. But now I want to rest from the flight.
Wow I just saw the kick by De Jong, He is just crazy, I prefer the players De Zeeuw or Schaars, but they are worse in a defending role. Robben is injured again, probably for 2 months. Bayern is angry because they feel the Dutch team rushed Robben, and let him play when he was not Fit. They Blame the Dutch team. Even though I do not like Van Gaal, and think he complains way to much. I do understand Bayern in this case. Robben should not have played if he was not fit enough. Big blow for Bayern. What are your thoughts SJC?
I agree that Bayern have a right to complain, but if I were Robben, I would also have played in the world cup...as long as I could somehow drag myself on the field somehow.