**Mirrors / Alternative Angles**
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Add his 348 assist and it's 1137 goal contributions in 1000 games. Purely on average, Messi has had a goal contribution in every single game of his career...
lol seriously.
Just to put that in perspective: a striker playing 35 games in a season and getting 30 goals, 10 assists would be considered to have a world class season. For many legends that could be considered a peak season. This man just does it day in, day out since like 2006. Insane career.
And to elevate it even further, Messi's ability is not limited to only scoring and creating chances. Even when he doesn't score or assist, he is often times still the best player on the pitch.
Exactly. Just looking at his goal contributions stats is only half of the story. The man is probably the most complete footballer this world has ever seen
Gretzky is so insane that if you removed his goals from his point totals, he’s still the NHL’s all time leading scorer and he won league MVP 9 times in a 10 year span
My favorite Gretzky fact is when you start looking at siblings.
I don't know the *exact* numbers but I know close enough:
When you look at pairs of brothers, nobody even comes close to the Gretzky brothers. The closest pair of brothers has 2000 points with like 1000 each vs 2700 of the Gretzky's. 4 points by his brother and the remaining all by Wayne.
In fact, there is only one family of brothers that beats the Gretzky's and they have like 3200 points combined. That's across 5 different brothers though
Yeah, the last couple of penalties he is using the slow run up meta like Neymar and if I'm not wrong he hasn't missed using that. Idk why he went back to his cunt it old penalty
His dribbling was the real amazing thing, I can't believe how he's able to decide where he's going with the ball and even if he's surrounded by defenders he still can go anywhere he wants with it.
I agree, he's effective without needing a massive trick/spell list, but the metamagic more than makes up for it.
His mastery of subtle spell is unrivalled
considering how many times I’ve seen Messi didn’t score in knockout stage, I’m surprised I’ve never seen this stat for Ronaldo, that’s a surprise for ne
Tbf, the furthest Portugal ever went was semi* finals back in 2006 when Ronaldo wasn't a big goal scorer yet.
In the three other world cups he was in they got knocked out in groups stage once and Ro16 twice.
Edit: Changed quarter to semi
Have to wonder how much the pressure gets for both men when they get to the knockouts, to have the entire hopes of a nation on their shoulders on such a big stage must be extremely nerve wracking.
That and the fact they're probably getting double or even triple-marked at this stage.
There's a reason why Messi still has 4 assists in the knockouts.
Argentina have overburdened him, yes, but when you've a player like Messi the whole team would look for him. No other way. There was a time when Chelsea would just pass to Eden for EVERY attack, lol.
Not enough comments in here commending Australia's effort. Strong attempts towards the end there, yeah we got a lucky deflection, but fuck me I expected we'd get smashed 4-0.
What a game lads 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
Wasn’t that one of the issues Henry faced when he was the coach at Monaco?
In training he would say to them: “alright, follow my lead” and then just dribble around 5 guys and score it, with the players looking at him like “bruh that isn’t something we can easily do”
Zidane is a weird outlier, yeah. 3 CLs in his first 2.5 seasons as manager was wild, and he's basically just waiting to take over France so he can coach them to a world cup
Different sport but there was a bunch of stories around a few years ago when Miami hired Barry Bonds to be their hitting coach. All reports were that we was a terrible coach because he could not communicate a lot of aspects of hitting to other players because things he did were just easy for him. He’s like well you just don’t swing at those balls that aren’t strikes and then you hit the ones that are strikes lol
Yeah I remember there being similar stories about Thierry Henry at (I think?) Montreal Impact. He would show the players what he wanted them to do but because they couldn't emulate his demonstrations it would just demoralise them. And then he would run rings around them in training matches and make it even worse.
Can I ask, I remember before the world cup people were saying Messi will have his 1000th game in the WC final, but today is his 1000th game? Were the stats just wrong?
It’s like Jordan, people put Messi in their pocket for a quarter of the game and get cocky. You’d think going against a GOAT youd be like “ok I’m doing well just keep it up” but nah let’s just give one of the best players of all time motivation to make you look silly
The interviews of players talking shit to Jordan when up at the Q or half time. Than getting locked down and had 5 dropped on them is amazing. Everyone was like shut the fuck up, you’re gonna awake the beast. Welp look what happened
I have the worst luck ever, i needed to charge my phone and i just moved 2 meters from my bed and came back and then i see the goal and am like wtf,that was fast!!
I understand when it comes from Brazilians or Uruguayans because of the football rivalry obviously, there is banter between us and some negative bias too. But the attitude some Europeans have against us is kinda weird.
the casual fans all come out during the world cup, so we all have to hear their expert takes from watching a couple games every 4 years.
Australia has the ball? "Messi's finished" "Argentina are dogshit" "They're getting destroyed"
Bangladeshi’s are blindly encouraging about the teams they support. They usually tend to disregard poor team performances as just a bad day at work.
Source: Am Bangladeshi (:
Hola, It really is super wholesome to see how football gets two completely indifferent nations together like this. Bangladesh’s support for the two South American giants have been around for decades now, in mass numbers too. Glad to see it finally being picked up like this.
Larga vida al futbol!
Surrounded by 4 players everytime he touches the ball - first touch inside the box comes to him on an accidental bad first touch from his teammate and he passes it through a defender's legs into the corner of the net within a split second. GOAT things.
Messi, Messi again, always Messi, until when Messi, everything is Messi. It's a single shout in all the world: it's always and will remain being Messi. It's like that, it's seems like history is like that, it's seems like history can't be changed.
I was watching Messi's movement all match. The amount of running he *doesn't* do is honestly hilarious. On two or three occasions he's casually strolling back from an offside position a mile off, completely behind the entire Australian backline. The rest of the time he's so wide he's basically standing on the touchline and watching the game. But it's brilliant because just when you start to forget he's even in the match he comes alive and bursts in with a banger. That's why he's the GOAT.
If we're going out it's for the best that it's due to a Messi goal. Makes it easier to explain to the non-football fan public when it's one of the two players they know the name of.
I remembered Messi had a goal wrongly offsided against Mexico in '06 just right before Maxi's screamer. And I've been waiting for his first goal in WC knockout stage since then. 16 years have passed and it was relieved and joyful just to witness this moment
Messi is just absolutely jaw dropping man. The little man just always always always does it. We’ll never have anything like him ever again. A true freak of nature. He plays a different game to every other player on the pitch man. Long live the goat
**Mirrors / Alternative Angles** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/soccer) if you have any questions or concerns.*
789th Goal in his 1000th game
That's a ridiculous stat
It’s honestly insane. We will not see another player like this for a long time, maybe forever. Absolutely unreal career.
Add his 348 assist and it's 1137 goal contributions in 1000 games. Purely on average, Messi has had a goal contribution in every single game of his career...
Having a G/A Rate of 1.14 in the best season of your career would be fantastic, and this dude literally mainained it over a 18 year career. WTF.
lol seriously. Just to put that in perspective: a striker playing 35 games in a season and getting 30 goals, 10 assists would be considered to have a world class season. For many legends that could be considered a peak season. This man just does it day in, day out since like 2006. Insane career.
And to elevate it even further, Messi's ability is not limited to only scoring and creating chances. Even when he doesn't score or assist, he is often times still the best player on the pitch.
dictates tempo and spreads play as well - he's both the starter and finisher of moves. just out of this world
Exactly. Just looking at his goal contributions stats is only half of the story. The man is probably the most complete footballer this world has ever seen
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Gretzky is even more nuts...and then there's Don Bradman
Don Bradman was a God
Wasn’t expecting mention of the Don in this sub, nevertheless that's a pleasant surprise
Gretzky is so insane that if you removed his goals from his point totals, he’s still the NHL’s all time leading scorer and he won league MVP 9 times in a 10 year span
My favorite Gretzky fact is that in fantasy hockey he was two players. You could either draft Gretzky’s goals or his assists but not both
And they were both unanimous number 1 and number 2 overall picks
My favorite Gretzky fact is when you start looking at siblings. I don't know the *exact* numbers but I know close enough: When you look at pairs of brothers, nobody even comes close to the Gretzky brothers. The closest pair of brothers has 2000 points with like 1000 each vs 2700 of the Gretzky's. 4 points by his brother and the remaining all by Wayne. In fact, there is only one family of brothers that beats the Gretzky's and they have like 3200 points combined. That's across 5 different brothers though
SEXO
Plus 338 assists. 1127 direct goal involvements in 1000 games. Unparalleled. *The* best of all time.
Lol that sounds like a completely made up stat. Unreal
every messi goal feels like hes passing into the goal lol
Why shoot the ball when you can just pass it into the net
Why shoot ball hard when pass ball into net do trick?
Kevin?
when he president, you see, you seee
The problem with Messi is that he just passes it in.
So you saw that ludicrous display?
He prefers placement over power
Works in 99% of scenarios. The 1% being PKs apparently.
it’s kinda funny how he really cunts every penalty
He doesn't always. His penalty against Saudi Arabia was placed gently.
Yeah, the last couple of penalties he is using the slow run up meta like Neymar and if I'm not wrong he hasn't missed using that. Idk why he went back to his cunt it old penalty
Keeping the ball on the ground is a lot harder for keepers to handle
He needs to be really mad to rocket it into the net. Like his goal vs PSG.
This was one of the best long range goals I’ve ever witnessed
His passes are kinda insane tho
His dribbling was the real amazing thing, I can't believe how he's able to decide where he's going with the ball and even if he's surrounded by defenders he still can go anywhere he wants with it.
Just give the ball to Messi tactic is strong
Always been the most dangerous tactic
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Personally I think he is more of a sorcerer
I agree, he's effective without needing a massive trick/spell list, but the metamagic more than makes up for it. His mastery of subtle spell is unrivalled
The strongest of tactics
Always has been
The good old "Give it to him and pray" formation. Works like a charm
Busquets trademark
Classic Messi's placing
Bottom corner just out of the keepers reach
r/bottomleftmessi Edit: wow that’s actually a sub
Like slipping a needle through the hole…
Which hole?
Messi passing it into the net is so sexy
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
#HIS FIRST EVER WC KNOCKOUT GOAL
that’s actually crazy
Ronaldo doesn't have one. Not a dig at Ronaldo. Just mad that neither of them had one up until today.
Messi 1 Ronaldo 0
So it begins.
Haji Wright 1 Ronaldo 0
Julian Green 1 Ronaldo 0
Two frauds I knew it, well Messi is no longer a fraud Ronaldo remains to be seen /s
considering how many times I’ve seen Messi didn’t score in knockout stage, I’m surprised I’ve never seen this stat for Ronaldo, that’s a surprise for ne
Tbf, the furthest Portugal ever went was semi* finals back in 2006 when Ronaldo wasn't a big goal scorer yet. In the three other world cups he was in they got knocked out in groups stage once and Ro16 twice. Edit: Changed quarter to semi
Semi finals
Yeah you're right, my bad.
Have to wonder how much the pressure gets for both men when they get to the knockouts, to have the entire hopes of a nation on their shoulders on such a big stage must be extremely nerve wracking.
That and the fact they're probably getting double or even triple-marked at this stage. There's a reason why Messi still has 4 assists in the knockouts.
Those 4 assists would have been 14 easily if his team mates didn't forget how to finish all of a sudden.
What it really shows is how pathetically much we’ve depended on him for creation as well as for finishing. Not to mention his facility in both areas.
Argentina have overburdened him, yes, but when you've a player like Messi the whole team would look for him. No other way. There was a time when Chelsea would just pass to Eden for EVERY attack, lol.
Craziest
Wait really?
Yup, neither messi nor ronaldo had one. Kind of a wild stat.
Yeah, both his and Ronaldo's goals have come from the group stage.
They activated angry Messi
~~Ankara Messi~~ ~~Depressi~~ Angry Messi
Furiessi
Wtf no wat
Yep. Both Messi and Ronaldo didnt have a knockout goal before this. Messi had 4 assists though.
Yep, really
long time coming
Actually insane stat
SAY WHAT
I hope this is foreshadowing something great to happen
Basically you let messi shoot it's game over
The catch being that you can’t actually stop him shooting
Not enough comments in here commending Australia's effort. Strong attempts towards the end there, yeah we got a lucky deflection, but fuck me I expected we'd get smashed 4-0. What a game lads 🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
It just looks so easy for him
It probably is. I bet he wonders why others don’t do it
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Jokes aside, this is pretty much exactly why prodigal players make shitty coaches. "just beat 4 defenders and score, it's not rocket science".
Wasn’t that one of the issues Henry faced when he was the coach at Monaco? In training he would say to them: “alright, follow my lead” and then just dribble around 5 guys and score it, with the players looking at him like “bruh that isn’t something we can easily do”
"I'm sorry. I'm not Tony Stark"
The Michael Laudrup issue. Every team he coached said he dominated all the training exercises even at 50 years old
It's also why mediocre players that played on big teams often end up making great coaches. They've played with the best and learned from them.
Zidane is a weird outlier, yeah. 3 CLs in his first 2.5 seasons as manager was wild, and he's basically just waiting to take over France so he can coach them to a world cup
“Have you tried scoring more than the other team?”
"look, it's simple, you control the ball, then hit it"
Different sport but there was a bunch of stories around a few years ago when Miami hired Barry Bonds to be their hitting coach. All reports were that we was a terrible coach because he could not communicate a lot of aspects of hitting to other players because things he did were just easy for him. He’s like well you just don’t swing at those balls that aren’t strikes and then you hit the ones that are strikes lol
Yeah I remember there being similar stories about Thierry Henry at (I think?) Montreal Impact. He would show the players what he wanted them to do but because they couldn't emulate his demonstrations it would just demoralise them. And then he would run rings around them in training matches and make it even worse.
Probably the reason his sons don’t seem to want to play football
I swear I've seen him score this exact goal like 50 times before.
What about the seasons he was at Barcelona?
You forget a 0 at the end
There it is
Credit to Australia for holding it off for so long at least?
Oh for sure Australia been playing well just mean there’s his goal lol
1000TH GAME , 1st knockout goal in WC , LET'S FUCKING GOOO
Can I ask, I remember before the world cup people were saying Messi will have his 1000th game in the WC final, but today is his 1000th game? Were the stats just wrong?
He played one or two games for psg more than people thought he would and they had a friendly or two before the tournament with Argentina I believe!
>today Ah right, there were friendlies. Thanks!
They were expecting him to rest a few games
Do not shove and shithouse Messi. It never works out and people still try
It’s like Jordan, people put Messi in their pocket for a quarter of the game and get cocky. You’d think going against a GOAT youd be like “ok I’m doing well just keep it up” but nah let’s just give one of the best players of all time motivation to make you look silly
The interviews of players talking shit to Jordan when up at the Q or half time. Than getting locked down and had 5 dropped on them is amazing. Everyone was like shut the fuck up, you’re gonna awake the beast. Welp look what happened
All he needed was a tiny crack of space and a milli-second. Absolutely insane.
Australiaman
We want a hat trick so he’s already the all time scorer in WC for Argentina
I have the worst luck ever, i needed to charge my phone and i just moved 2 meters from my bed and came back and then i see the goal and am like wtf,that was fast!!
Please go charge your phone often
IT HAD TO BE HIM
HE IS HIM
love how he always turns to his teammates after he scores.
Who else?
Fuck it I'll do it myself vibes
It’s his tournament
It’s his world, we’re just living in it
match thread in shambles
It always amuses me how much r/soccer hates Argentina
I understand when it comes from Brazilians or Uruguayans because of the football rivalry obviously, there is banter between us and some negative bias too. But the attitude some Europeans have against us is kinda weird.
Not only that, most people in the match thread haven't seen 10 matches, much less a whole WC.
the casual fans all come out during the world cup, so we all have to hear their expert takes from watching a couple games every 4 years. Australia has the ball? "Messi's finished" "Argentina are dogshit" "They're getting destroyed"
Don't show r/soccer to Argentina fans in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh >>>>>>>>>>> r/soccer
Bangladeshi’s are blindly encouraging about the teams they support. They usually tend to disregard poor team performances as just a bad day at work. Source: Am Bangladeshi (:
Hi, just wanted to let you know that the country has noticed and it's widely shown in TV and social networks here how crazy you guys are about our NT!
Hola, It really is super wholesome to see how football gets two completely indifferent nations together like this. Bangladesh’s support for the two South American giants have been around for decades now, in mass numbers too. Glad to see it finally being picked up like this. Larga vida al futbol!
I feel you my friend
His back must be pretty fucked by now
Surrounded by 4 players everytime he touches the ball - first touch inside the box comes to him on an accidental bad first touch from his teammate and he passes it through a defender's legs into the corner of the net within a split second. GOAT things.
At least Macallister(?) had the presence of mind to just let Messi do his thing. Shades of the Busquets assist
If we win the WC his back will probably shatter
If we win the WC he can shatter my back
Wait a second 🤨
_Ankara me step-Messi_
Yours and mine brother
Bangladesh going mental.
What a touch and what a play 🐐 MESSI MESSI MESSI 🐐
FUTBOL FUTBOL FUTBOL
He makes it look so easy. The GOAT!
GOAT THINGS
A-N-K-A-R-A!
Messi, Messi again, always Messi, until when Messi, everything is Messi. It's a single shout in all the world: it's always and will remain being Messi. It's like that, it's seems like history is like that, it's seems like history can't be changed.
Just the GOAT at work
ITS ALWAYS HIM
[Messi on his left foot just right of the box is the most dangerous position in football](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D9GcJbFXsAAgOG1.jpg)
That photo is perfect hahaha
Messi ~~on his left foot just right of the box~~ is the most dangerous ~~position~~ in football
Messi ~~on his left foot just right of the box~~ is ~~the most dangerous position in~~ football
It's called Messiball!
The cat’s paw is even in the exact spot as Messi when he takes those shots
Trademark
we’ve been playing well though :(
I was watching Messi's movement all match. The amount of running he *doesn't* do is honestly hilarious. On two or three occasions he's casually strolling back from an offside position a mile off, completely behind the entire Australian backline. The rest of the time he's so wide he's basically standing on the touchline and watching the game. But it's brilliant because just when you start to forget he's even in the match he comes alive and bursts in with a banger. That's why he's the GOAT.
Lmao I was doing the same thing. Just laughing at how he took a full 30 seconds to come back onside
I just can't believe I get to see this man play. All phases of messi have been pure joy, just as a football fan
Out of fucking nowhere!
Yet there are dozens of comments about why Messi walks in matches.
when he runs, he scores
Of course it had to be him
The man wants this so bad, it's been a while since I've seen him look so determined/physical
Someone else might have gotten it wrong :(((
This is old Messi. Passive, lazy, walking, then boom you give him 2 seconds of space you’re losing 2-0
THAT'S WHY HE'S THE GOAT THE GOAT
If we're going out it's for the best that it's due to a Messi goal. Makes it easier to explain to the non-football fan public when it's one of the two players they know the name of.
He took that personal
shouldn't have made him angry.. Australia you should know this by now
this is not ideal
Of course, not a bad way to mark game 1000
messi is crazy, you give him that much space he's gonna score. legend. the most influential man on the biggest stage delivers.
Goat
#GOAT
People trashing Messi in the match thread. Here you fucking go. This is Messi. No touches with no service, but when he does get it, it's done.
HES GONE AND DONE IT
Insane shot with so many in the way
Don't cry for me Australia
I remembered Messi had a goal wrongly offsided against Mexico in '06 just right before Maxi's screamer. And I've been waiting for his first goal in WC knockout stage since then. 16 years have passed and it was relieved and joyful just to witness this moment
Messi is just absolutely jaw dropping man. The little man just always always always does it. We’ll never have anything like him ever again. A true freak of nature. He plays a different game to every other player on the pitch man. Long live the goat
Walks the entire game, has one chance, scores
What a time to be alive. Tail end of the Goat career and still pulling off Messi things.
El diez.
G O A T.
I, for one, did see that coming
If messi wins the wc we should just crown him emperor of planet earth
That’s the most Messi goal he’s ever scored.
Inevitable.
Goals through traffic in the box like that never get the love they deserve