All the talk surrounding this weekend's Clasico has centered, as it usually does, around Lionel Messi.
Thie difference this year is the talk has centered around whether Messi will play. Messi sustained a knee injury earlier this season, and has been out since September. The date aimed for as Messi's return has been Saturdays match against Real Madrid.
All eyes will be on Spain as the world’s biggest club football match is played on Saturday. The first El Clasico of the season will be held at the Santiago Bernabeu as Real Madrid hosts Barcelona.
What makes a rivalry? Does it have to be fueled by hate, or could a rivalry just be the acts of greatness shown by the two involved, where each pushes the other to reach heights they may have never achieved without that competitive adversary? In the NBA, Magic Johnson had Larry Bird; in the NFL, Peyton Manning has Tom Brady; tennis has Rafael Nadal vs Roger Federer. Right now in the world of soccer Lionel Messi has Cristiano Ronaldo.
Messi is back in training for Barcelona, and to commemorate that event, he's bought himself a new car. Or, at least, we've never seen it before. And, obviously, we have no idea why he bought it. When you have as much money as Messi does, you don't really need to rationalize any of your purchases. You can just make them.
Regardless of his motives in buying it, Messi showed up to training in a sweet blue Audi R8. If you don't think his Audi R8 is cool that's probably because you don't have one and are jealous.
Was there a more entertaining footballer to watch than Ronaldinho? Sure you could say Messi or Ronaldo, or plenty of other players. But honestly, are they really more exotic or creative on the pitch than Ronaldinho? Do they have that unmistaken flair? I don't think so. Obviously those two players are in a class of their own, and do things on the pitch that no one else can (I have to say this so people don't think I'm taking a knock at Leo or CR7. You know how the internet is). But looking at Dinho, he did it all, and this video shows that. He had speed, strength and finesse.
Injured shoulder? Psh. This Sergio Ramos bicycle kick shows that the Madrid captain care more about scoring epic golazo's then some ailing shoulding. Ramos had already missed six games due to the injury and has played in a handful of matches (Atlético, Celta, Sevilla and Champions League games against PSG) thanks to taking cortisone shots before matches. That only makes this goal more badass considering Ramos the fact that it sounds like Ramos should is about to fall off.
The 15/16 iteration of Barcelona could go down as the best attacking side of all time; the 14/15 version arguably already has. This is because the front three of Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez, and Neymar Jr. has been nothing short of unstoppable when they have all shared the pitch. While the three are known to get along quite well, we are going to pit them against one another. Specifically we are going to look at Messi vs. Neymar.
Lionel Messi hasn't played for Barcelona since September 26th. But in that time, Barcelona has rallied off a 7-1-1 record in all competitions, and it's thanks to the performances from Neymar and Luis Suarez. This past weekend illustrated just that, and it wasn't hard to see after watching Neymar's ridiculous goal to give Barcelona a 1-0 lead vs Villarreal. The comparisons of Neymar and Ronaldinho have long been going on in the soccer community, but this goal really showed that Neymar could be as special as the former Barcelona #10.
Neymar scored two goals during Barcelona’s 3-0 victory over Villareal Sunday. He also changed the lives of anyone watching who hadn’t understood what it means to watch a truly great Brazilian goal; his second goal on the day was absurd, absolutely absurd, the kind of thing that makes people tell themselves, “OK, I need to get whatever channel shows Barcelona matches so I can watch as much of this as possible.”
He was the man of the match when Real Madrid claimed “La Decima” over arch-rivals Atletico Madrid. With him, Los Merengues won two Copa del Rey titles, one Supercopa de Espana, the 2011-12 La Liga title, and the 2014 UEFA Super Cup. Yet, Argentine international Angel Di Maria said he was forced out of Madrid in order to cover costs.