Copa América Centenario 2016

[Cripps]

His ankle is swollen up

[Zedie]

His ankle is swollen up

It looks terrible

https://twitter.com/Alexis_Sanchez/stat ... wsrc%5Etfw

[Dejan]

teared ankle

out for the season

[GoonerAlexandre]

It's Sanchez, he'll be back in training tomorrow, seeing his track record

[Pudpop]

He'll be back in September imo

[Angelito]

Aguero and Masch follow Messi into retirement.

Those useless wanks - Di Maria and Higuain - to retire as well alongside Banega and Biglia.

Holy Molly!

What a bunch of pussies. Messi started it all, spineless. Lost respect for him.

While I can understand the sentiment, I think it's not as clear cut as it seems. Just need a bit of back-story to understand the situation. When Messi first made played for Argentina, nobody knew how to spell his name and he was called a Spanish-Argentine player. There's an article on the Telegraph.

Since then, every time Argentina has failed - it's been because Messi was the, "outsider." He's never been loved at Argentina as much as he's cherished at Barcelona.

He could have easily chose to play for Spain and walked past everyone with multiple World Cups, but he remained loyal to the country of his birth. Barcelona provided him all the love and care. Even there, he was the, "outsider," but he was too good for anyone to question him.

I am disappointed that Messi has retired from international football. But I don't blame him for the decision.

[Cripps]

4 finals for Argentina, choked in all. He's taken his ball and he's gone home. Nothing more to it.

People can use Higuain missing chances in finals as an excuse all they want, fact is Messi hasn't turned up. Higuain isn't the self proclaimed best player in the world. Messi is and he hasn't produced when his country needed him the most.

Watched all four finals and he's hardly had a kick in any of them.

Actually think now that he's "gone" Argentina can rise again and become a team instead of a bunch of individuals playing a game of football.

[Zedie]

4 finals for Argentina, choked in all. He's taken his ball and he's gone home. Nothing more to it.

People can use Higuain missing chances in finals as an excuse all they want, fact is Messi hasn't turned up. Higuain isn't the self proclaimed best player in the world. Messi is and he hasn't produced when his country needed him the most.

Watched all four finals and he's hardly had a kick in any of them.

Actually think now that he's "gone" Argentina can rise again and become a team instead of a bunch of individuals playing a game of football.

While harsh, you may have a point. Messi is a huge player just as Ronaldo is and their respective teams look to them for everything.

I'm almost certain that in Portugal and Argentina, you'll find more pictures of the respective national hero across the country coming up to international tournaments, than pictures of the whole squad. Almost as if the others don't exist.

I feel that this almost let's the rest of the Nt off the hook as regardless how they play, it's always about Ronaldo or Messi.

Taking either of them out of their Nt will 100% force the rest to actually try to perform because there's no more Messi or Ronaldo to pass to just because they're Messi or Ronaldo.

Maybe it is time for both of them to step down and have the others carry the team on their shoulders for a change.

[Sims]

Messi should've played for Spain

[Va-Va-Voom]

4 finals for Argentina, choked in all. He's taken his ball and he's gone home. Nothing more to it.

People can use Higuain missing chances in finals as an excuse all they want, fact is Messi hasn't turned up. Higuain isn't the self proclaimed best player in the world. Messi is and he hasn't produced when his country needed him the most.

Watched all four finals and he's hardly had a kick in any of them.

Actually think now that he's "gone" Argentina can rise again and become a team instead of a bunch of individuals playing a game of football.

'Tis true.

[dolan]

Messi should've played for Spain

You want to make it even easier for Messi by putting him in another team that's almost identical to Barcelona?

I'm not even sure anymore if Messi would be able to produce such high feats at a different club. Barcelona is tailor-made for him. And when you see his Argentina performances, you realize how dependent he is on having a great and familiar team around you.

[Sims]

Well if he wanted to win an international trophy yeah

Tbh I think his performances were pretty good from what I saw. Him and CR7 can only do so much with such inbalance around them

[dolan]

Well if he wanted to win an international trophy yeah

Tbh I think his performances were pretty good from what I saw. Him and CR7 can only do so much with such inbalance around them

He had a chance in 2014. But he didn't turn up, like he didn't turn up for the entire tournament, yet he was blatanly awarded player of the tournament.

[Cripps]

Well if he wanted to win an international trophy yeah

Tbh I think his performances were pretty good from what I saw. Him and CR7 can only do so much with such inbalance around them

Portugal are f***ing shite other than Ronaldo. Argentina have quality players as well as Messi.

[Sims]

Portugal have a decent team but have always been vastly mismanaged in the same way Argentina have

Rubén Lopes should be starting, decent fullbacks, experienced defence, good midfielders and their wingers aren't too bad

Argentina have a wank keeper, full backs aren't great, shaky CBs, an okay midfield then all of a sudden about 15 quality strikers