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Post by Pitchstalker on Dec 29, 2004 11:01:21 GMT -6
OK..just for fun.
You live in "Fantasy" Neighborhood and are about to play "backyard" soccer. You're one of the captains and will alternate picking from the following player pool.
You get the first pick. Who would be your first pick from this short list and why. Assume all players are in their prime.
Pele Ronaldo Zinedine Zidane Diego Maradona Luis Figo Oliver Kahn Gabriel Batistuta Johan Cruyff Bobby Charlton Franz Beckenbauer
Feel free to pick someone not listed.
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Post by msc18 on Dec 29, 2004 11:05:13 GMT -6
well if it's a bit of a street game I'll pick Falcao...Brasilian futsal player...herald as the greatest dribbler ever...incredible footskills...would make everyone out there look second rate
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Post by ronaldo11 on Dec 29, 2004 11:33:09 GMT -6
I would pick myself obviously. Thanks for putting me in that list. Anything that would be created, I would finish off. The best thing about backyard, street, park soccer is that no one man marks. I would definitely be the leading scorer in that. I definitely would not pick Batistuta because he would hit the ball so hard, you'd have to run so far down the road to get it back. Also, if it takes a deflection, every single window in the area will need insurance. Oh yeah, just so that you hear it from me first. I could be moving back to Milan next summer. Italian legend Arrigo Sacchi was come in as technical director at Real Madrid, and he wants to bring Gilardino into the team next season. So I could be on my way out in the summer. Another thing is that Real Madrid have to get rid of a non-EU player if they want to bring in Robinho as well. Just to make matters even worse, Michael Owen took my place in the team for the last game. Stupid english bloke.
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Post by rocksccrstar on Dec 29, 2004 11:56:32 GMT -6
You know just to be difficult, I'd ask for Mia Hamm, but since I have to pick from the list, Ronaldo.
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Post by hdkjga on Dec 29, 2004 12:26:36 GMT -6
I would take Ronaldinho. Each of these players were great in their prime, but the competition now a days is much tougher. Noone controls today's game better than he does right now, and soccer is more advanced now than it has ever been.
Disclaimer: noone in their time dominated the game more than Pele, therefore in my mind he is the greatest player to ever live.
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Post by coachray40 on Dec 29, 2004 12:35:42 GMT -6
Im gonna add some names:
Mario Kempes Osvaldo Ardiles Paul Gascoigne(pre-drunken idiot era) Carlos Alberto Giorgio Chinaglia Lev Yashin Dennis Tueart Gordon Banks George Best Rodney Marsh Dennis Bergkamp--I still believe he has the best touch in the world
My short list would be(assuming everyone would want Pele): Bergkamp, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Batistuta, Carlos Alberto, and Yashin
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xpress23
All-District
ALL ABOARD
Posts: 101
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Post by xpress23 on Dec 29, 2004 12:43:43 GMT -6
i would have to agree with wlfrocksccstar. i would pick mia hamm and several other attractive players
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Post by lhssoccerfan on Dec 29, 2004 13:49:14 GMT -6
I would pick myself obviously. Thanks for putting me in that list. Anything that would be created, I would finish off. The best thing about backyard, street, park soccer is that no one man marks. I was wondering how you would feel about including Gheorghe Hagi, the best Romanian soccer player of his generation, and known as the Maradona of the Carpathians. He also played for Real Madrid... I had the wonderful pleasure of meeting and working with, although not in regards to football, Ionat Popescu, a much older past member of the Romanian World Cup team, who eventually got involved in a coaching capacity with the Canadian team...He would be about my age now...mid 50's...He is back in Bucharest now. We used to e-mail each other occassionally, but I haven't heard from him in several years...Great guy... Oops...forgot Thierry Henry...anybody heard of him...lol
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Post by IAMNUMBER14 on Dec 29, 2004 14:20:42 GMT -6
What do yall think about Thiery Henry??
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Post by coachray40 on Dec 29, 2004 14:51:12 GMT -6
Henry Sucks!!
LOL--just kidding. Henry is the best soccer player in the world right now in my opinion. He has the greatest understanding of pace and angles of penetration of any player, has world class speed and acceleration, is the best finisher in the world, and is one of the best free kick takers around.
I would definitely let him start for St Amant!
As for Gheorge Hagi--that dude was the bomb! Like you LHS, I am an old guy who got to see great players back in the day(by the way to all the younger types in here--the great players back in the "old days" could play and dominate now if they were in their prime), and Hagi was an excellent player with unbelievable skill. If we are going to add him to the list, then how about Hristo Stoichkov? No, not in his MLS days, but back with the Bulgarian national Team in 1992, and also with Real Madrid? the mad Bulgarian was the FIFA world player of the year in 1990(?).
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Post by coachray40 on Dec 29, 2004 14:55:03 GMT -6
Oh--LHS...sorry about the old guy thing--no offense intended. Today is my 41st birthday, so I qualify in the subgeezer category.
Ronaldo--I might take you--but only to have your hot wife on the sidelines! By the way, how does a portly ugly Brazilian with a gap in his teeth land a supermodel? Thank heaven for Ronaldinho, or you would be the ugliest Brazilian on the planet.
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Post by lhssoccerfan on Dec 29, 2004 14:57:37 GMT -6
YOU are the man Coach...How about this one...
I thought I'd relate a story.
Its not mine-its Gary Lineker's, and if you search for it you may find it on the internet elsewhere. In 1987, Lineker did some training with Maradona and other players when there was a Rest of the World XI vs. British XI in an exhibition game.
Lineker watched as Maradona got the ball and kicked it up in the air as far as he could. Then when it came down Maradona caught it perfectly with his left foot. Then he did it again. And again. Lineker said he did this almost 13 or 14 times and each time the ball came down Maradona barely had to move from where he was standing, he had such control of what he was doing.
Lineker said that most professionals would be pleased to do that 3 or 4 times. And by the 4th time they'd be running to reach the ball from where they'd kicked it. Lineker said Michel Platini was there and he was watching what Maradona was doing with his mouth hanging open.
Think about that. So good with a football, even Michel Platini is astonished by it.
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Post by lhssoccerfan on Dec 29, 2004 15:02:30 GMT -6
By the way...Happy Birthday old man...I've stopped counting. Too disgusting I gotta come watch you guys play...Spy stuff ya know... ;D
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Post by lhssoccerfan on Dec 29, 2004 15:12:12 GMT -6
And...for the younger crowd...If you don't know who Platini was...
Michel Platini was beyond comparison as a creative mid-fielder, his record of 68 goals in 147 league games for Juventus is still remarkable. Michel Platini is only the second player, after Johan Cruyff, to win three European Footballer of the Year awards.
In 1987 Platini was appointed the French national coach, which he relinquished after the 1992 European Championship. He was the co-organizer of the 1998 France World Cup.
Platini is recognized as the greatest scorer in the history of the French national team.
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Post by lhssoccerfan on Dec 29, 2004 15:29:29 GMT -6
And thanks to Coach Ray, we got a GK and there may have been others...
"Gordon Banks of England" made 73 appearances for England and kept a clean sheet in 35 of those matches. He is England's second most capped goalkeeper following Shilton, who by the way was Banks' understudy and eventual replacement following the loss of his sight in one eye, and up until he was beaten by a Eusebio penalty he had kept seven clean sheets in a row, another England record.
Jimmy Greaves, England's leading striker at the time, summing up goalkeepers, said, "With Gordon, I used to ask myself, "How can I beat this man?"
Pele said of Banks, "For me, Banks was the best goalkeeper ever and quite possibly the leading defender in any position."
Banks also made what is generally regarded as The Greatest Save Ever!
Kudos to whoever can describe that save...!
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nikademus
Starter
"i know this place around the corner you can buy some skills"
Posts: 75
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Post by nikademus on Dec 29, 2004 16:08:42 GMT -6
And this belongs in this forum why?
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Post by lhssoccerfan on Dec 29, 2004 16:30:44 GMT -6
I give up...why?
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Post by Ghandi on Dec 29, 2004 17:23:44 GMT -6
That is the save when Pele headed the ball from a cross right in the corner and Bank hit the ball off the ground and it went straight up ( was a wonderfull stretch ). The ball was mere inches from the goal line. It went over the bar. I read about it in a couple of books.
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Post by coachray40 on Dec 29, 2004 17:25:13 GMT -6
nik--I like this thread cause its fun, and positive. Nice to have that around the holidays. I do think the young players in the sport today are interested more in the players of the past to find those with real talent and watch them. I got taken offguard the other day at practice when I made an analogy about Johan Cruyff during a coaching point, expecting none of my players to know who he was, and 3 of them were like "Oh coach, that dude was good, we were watching him on this greatest players tape the other day....." Kinda warmed my heart. Why not have this discussion here, with the HS players?
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Post by coachray40 on Dec 29, 2004 17:27:40 GMT -6
Ghandi--serious points to you dude--you are a craftsman. Glad to see a player with dedication to your position through study
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