Copa America 2019

[Highbury Hillbilly]

Of course there will be 0-0 draws, why would players risk injuries by going for it when 90% of the money they make comes through the 40-50 league games they have to play each year? Some of the national FAs cant even afford to pay the players as it is.

There is no bigger poverty league than international football.

[BS221B]

Dani Alves comfortably the best RB in history.

[Va-Va-Voom]

I'd rather have Lahm.

Also Cafu is the OG.

[Angelito]

Meh.

Who'd have thought that subbing in di Maria would have killed all the momentum, eh? Not Scaloni for sure.

Spectacularly, Argentina looked a lot more like a team. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

No more di Maria and Aguero at international level, please. Please.

The ref was trash and that was a penalty.

[LMAO]

Messi is cursed on the international stage. At least he has a gold medal from the 2008 Olympics.

I know it's special to play for your home country, but with the benefit of hindsight, I wonder if he ever thinks about what if in regards to choosing Argentina over Spain.

[Highbury Hillbilly]

Time for Mess to retire again.

[Losmeister]

Messi is cursed on the international stage. At least he has a gold medal from the 2008 Olympics.

I know it's special to play for your home country, but with the benefit of hindsight, I wonder if he ever thinks about what if in regards to choosing Argentina over Spain.

[Angelito]

Messi is cursed on the international stage. At least he has a gold medal from the 2008 Olympics.

I know it's special to play for your home country, but with the benefit of hindsight, I wonder if he ever thinks about what if in regards to choosing Argentina over Spain.

Messi would probably win 3 WCs in a row if he picked Spain. But he's said it countless times that he is an Argentine. And that was never really an option.

It breaks my heart to see him return sad and broken every time. You can't justify losing 3 finals in a row. Two on penalties and one at ET. That Higuain goal goes in and none of this would have mattered.

Nonetheless, it is what it is. Messi will have a go at it again next year in Argentina. I can't help but hope he wins it. It's become more about him than the country now. How can the greatest player who's ever lived not have a single international title? Unfair.

f**k international football. Please win the UCL, Leo.

Oh wait, Real Madrid are ready now with their newly polished squad and that shaman at the helm.

Oh well.

[Va-Va-Voom]

Unfair?

Fairness has nothing to do with it.

That'd be like saying it's unfair Wenger never won the CL.

He's never won an international tournament because he and his teammates have never been good enough when it mattered most.

[LMAO]

I love how you can pinpoint the moment Coutinho realized

[Highbury Hillbilly]

3-0 to Peru v Chile
Sanchez invisible as per
Chile blew a last minute penalty too

[Angelito]

Unfair?

Fairness has nothing to do with it.

That'd be like saying it's unfair Wenger never won the CL.

He's never won an international tournament because he and his teammates have never been good enough when it mattered most.

Of course, it's unfair in the grand scheme.

It's not like Argentina have lost a final in regulation time. No. Two finals lost on penalties and one at the death of ET. It is unfair for the best ever to have never won an international title when we clearly know, there would be no such argument had he played for Spain because he was eligible.

The Wenger comparison doesn't even make sense.

[Losmeister]

unfair, ...easy vava its a figure of speech

ronaldo gets a euro cup for a group that they won zero games and he didnt play semi or final...

[Losmeister]

please just never vene mention higuain....

[Zenith]

Unfair?

Fairness has nothing to do with it.

That'd be like saying it's unfair Wenger never won the CL.

He's never won an international tournament because he and his teammates have never been good enough when it mattered most.

While Argentina's midfield has been uncharacteristically underwhelming for more than a decade, stronger personalities would have made a world of difference. I mean, Lucas flippin' Biglia accumulating 58 caps of Argentina is a testament to how average their midfielders have been for a long time.

If you then consider the fact that Brazil has had multiple rough patches themselves, the path for a Copa America has been wide open for several times.

If the Argentina squads, during the Messi era, had half the heart, initiative and gut Portugal showed in 2016 he'd have won a Copa America or two. Instead, it's been the perpetual "let's give the ball to Leo and pray for the best'' type of mindset that has cost them dearly.

Let's not forget, safe for his important goal for Wales, Ronaldo had an extremely underwhelming tournament and didn't even feature in the final.

Yet you keep hearing that 'he' has won Portugal the Euros. Whilst his presence and winning mentality worked as an inspiration for the whole group, he wasn't even Portugal's most instrumental performer. Probably not even top 3 when it comes to overall on-field impact.

This yet again shows this idea of players ''single-handedly'' winning their teams major trophies is nothing more than hyperbolic narration used by revisionist columnists.

Can you imagine the Argentina of 2009-19 winning a Copa America final without Messi? It's an idea not even worth entertaining.

Then again, you could argue that, if Messi wasn't there, they'd take on more responsibility themselves instead of passing it on to him time and time again throughout every game.