This week's noteworthy performances do not include Ever Banega, who is out for the season after breaking his tibia and fibula by running himself over with his own car.
Lionel Messi. You might not have heard of this lad, but he's got a bit of promise, underlined by a trifling four out of Barcelona's five against Valencia at the weekend. Special mention too for Pablo Piatti, whose early goal for Los Che seemed to anger La Pulga Atomica and spur him to these heights.
Denis Stracqualursi. Relatively unheralded on signing for Everton, it has taken a while for the ex-Gimnasia and Tigre striker to settle in England and his opportunity to start games has come about by injuries, transfers and, consequently, necessity. But he's making the most of his opportunity and helped send Everton through to a cup quarter-final a week after bagging one in a league win over Chelsea.
Ezequiel Lavezzi/Edinson Cavani. A joint nomination for the Napoli tyros. Brilliant against Fiorentina last Friday night and equally good against Chelsea in midweek. Six goals between them too, shared equally, and a general air of brilliance that surprised only people who hadn't been paying attention. And Ray Wilkins.
Marcelo Toscana. Bagged the solitary goal for Vitoria Guimaraes to inflict Benfica's first defeat of the season and open up the Portuguese championship once again.
Matias Fernández. The Chilean was fantastic as Sporting CP overcame Legia Warszawa in the Europa League. They were in the box seat after a 2-2 draw in Poland, but toughed it out at the Alvalade, Fernandez driving them forward from midfield and chiming in with a late winner.
And the winner is... Ezequinson Lavani. Or Ediqiuel Cavezzi. Whichever. Individually they were both quite fabulous, but together they formed a dynamic thrust - ooerr missus - that was simply unmatched. Fiorentina and Chelsea couldn't live with it. On this week's form, we doubt anyone else could either.
Showing posts with label Lionel Messi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lionel Messi. Show all posts
Friday, 24 February 2012
Friday, 23 December 2011
Ex-Pat of the Week #5
Domestic cups and the final round of games before the winter break (for all bar one notable exception) took the headlines this week, and a certain jamboree in Japan also falls within the remit for this edition of ex-pat of the week. The nominations:
Bruno Cazarine. Erstwhile CONMEBalls favourite Cazarine is in Australia at the moment, plying his trade with Sydney FC. They had their big derby with Newcastle Jets at the weekend and won to go third, Cazarine bagging the equaliser after the Jets had gone one up.
Crístian Rodríguez. The Uruguayan fell out with Vitor Pereira a couple of weeks ago, seemingly ending his Porto career, but he's back in the fold now and came off the bench at the weekend to nab a late goal to send Porto towards their third win on the spin.
Jonas. Last seasons top scorer in the Brasilieirao, he's now providing the perfect foil for the prolific Roberto Soldado at Valencia. The two combined for Soldado to get Valencia's first against big-spending Málaga to consolidate 'best-of-the-rest' (i.e. third place) in Spain.
Ricky Alvarez. By his own admission, it's taken him time to settle at Internazionale, but he's finally looking the part as Inter overcome their early-season woes. He capped his recent run of form with the fourth as Inter beat Lecce 4-1 to go 5th in Serie A.
Edinson Cavani. Napoli are still up there despite a little wobble these last few weeks. They bounced back from a dispiriting loss to Roma by walloping Genoa 6-1 with Cavani bagging two early on as the wounded Neapolitans responded brilliantly.
Lionel Messi. At his sublime best as Barcelona won yet another trophy, this time the Club World Cup in Yokohama. The chip for the first goal, the pass for the third... all brilliant, all the time.
Esteban Alvarado. OK, so he's not technically South American, but AZ's Costa Rican goalkeeper deserves recognition on these pages for lumping seven bells out of a pitch invader, as highlighted by our cousins at Euroballs. Unfortunately, the incident led to Esteban's dismissal, the abandonment of the game and a massive mess for the KNVB to sort out. While we're here on Costa Rica, wasn't Bryan Ruiz's goal last weekend fabulous? Let me answer that for you: yes it was.
And the winner is...
Lionel Messi. We couldn't not award him the gong this week - he was just too good to ignore. So were his team as they blasted Santos apart with something to spare.
We take a break now as most of football shuts down for the winter. We'll be back in January, but in the meantime, keep them peeled and let us know if you see anything worthy of nomination by hitting us up on our Twitter feed.
Bruno Cazarine. Erstwhile CONMEBalls favourite Cazarine is in Australia at the moment, plying his trade with Sydney FC. They had their big derby with Newcastle Jets at the weekend and won to go third, Cazarine bagging the equaliser after the Jets had gone one up.
Crístian Rodríguez. The Uruguayan fell out with Vitor Pereira a couple of weeks ago, seemingly ending his Porto career, but he's back in the fold now and came off the bench at the weekend to nab a late goal to send Porto towards their third win on the spin.
Jonas. Last seasons top scorer in the Brasilieirao, he's now providing the perfect foil for the prolific Roberto Soldado at Valencia. The two combined for Soldado to get Valencia's first against big-spending Málaga to consolidate 'best-of-the-rest' (i.e. third place) in Spain.
Ricky Alvarez. By his own admission, it's taken him time to settle at Internazionale, but he's finally looking the part as Inter overcome their early-season woes. He capped his recent run of form with the fourth as Inter beat Lecce 4-1 to go 5th in Serie A.
Edinson Cavani. Napoli are still up there despite a little wobble these last few weeks. They bounced back from a dispiriting loss to Roma by walloping Genoa 6-1 with Cavani bagging two early on as the wounded Neapolitans responded brilliantly.
Lionel Messi. At his sublime best as Barcelona won yet another trophy, this time the Club World Cup in Yokohama. The chip for the first goal, the pass for the third... all brilliant, all the time.
Esteban Alvarado. OK, so he's not technically South American, but AZ's Costa Rican goalkeeper deserves recognition on these pages for lumping seven bells out of a pitch invader, as highlighted by our cousins at Euroballs. Unfortunately, the incident led to Esteban's dismissal, the abandonment of the game and a massive mess for the KNVB to sort out. While we're here on Costa Rica, wasn't Bryan Ruiz's goal last weekend fabulous? Let me answer that for you: yes it was.
And the winner is...
Lionel Messi. We couldn't not award him the gong this week - he was just too good to ignore. So were his team as they blasted Santos apart with something to spare.
We take a break now as most of football shuts down for the winter. We'll be back in January, but in the meantime, keep them peeled and let us know if you see anything worthy of nomination by hitting us up on our Twitter feed.
Friday, 16 December 2011
Ex-Pat of the Week #4
This week, our focus on the South Americans around the globe was on the final round of Europa League group games and the World Club jamboree over in Japan. Here are this week's nominations.
Leandro Domingues. The Brazilian played a major role in steering Kashiwa Reysol to the semi-finals of the Club World Cup with the opener in their quarter-final against Monterrey and a penalty in the shoot-out which followed the 1-1 draw with the Mexican side.
Lionel Messi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a bit good and was a game-chamger in El Clásico and his usual excellent self in Barcelona's Club World Cup semi-final against an admittedly limited Al Sadd. The through ball for Seydou Keita's goal was pure sex.
Nelson Valdez. Rubin Kazan needed a point away to PAOK to ensure Europa League qualification and it looked grim after Sergei Ryzhikov was sent off and Vieirinha converted the penalty. But the Paraguayan striker struck early in the second half to ensure the Russian side progressed with a little to spare.
Fernando Canesin. Which club has the only 100% record in the Europa League? Go on, guess. No, wrong. It's Anderlecht. They completed their group with a 5-3 demolition job on second placed Lokomotiv Moskva with Brazilian midfielder Canesin a key element and scorer of the goal that put them in front in the game for the first time, just before half time.
Leonardo (de Vitor Santiago). Red Bull Salzburg had to win to make sure PSG's result against what was always going to be an Athletic reserve side irrelevant. While the cashed-up Frenchies were cruising to a 4-2 win, Leonardo was instrumental in Salzburg's come-from-behind win over Slovan Bratislava to dump the Parisians out. 2-0 down after six minutes, it didn't look good, but with Leonardo's equaliser they overhauled the Slovakians and take their place in the knockout stages. It's the second time now that Leonardo has made the shortlist for our Ex-Pat of the week.
And the winner is...
Leandro Domingues. Wins over Auckland City and Monterrey and no lack of effort in defeat to Santos, Reysol may yet end up third (should do given how bad Al Sadd looked the other day) in the world. That's no mean feat and Domingues is a major part of what they've achieved.
As ever, keep 'em peeled and let us know who you think we should consider for this next week. Leave us a comment or hit us up on that there twitter.
Leandro Domingues. The Brazilian played a major role in steering Kashiwa Reysol to the semi-finals of the Club World Cup with the opener in their quarter-final against Monterrey and a penalty in the shoot-out which followed the 1-1 draw with the Mexican side.
Lionel Messi. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He's a bit good and was a game-chamger in El Clásico and his usual excellent self in Barcelona's Club World Cup semi-final against an admittedly limited Al Sadd. The through ball for Seydou Keita's goal was pure sex.
Nelson Valdez. Rubin Kazan needed a point away to PAOK to ensure Europa League qualification and it looked grim after Sergei Ryzhikov was sent off and Vieirinha converted the penalty. But the Paraguayan striker struck early in the second half to ensure the Russian side progressed with a little to spare.
Fernando Canesin. Which club has the only 100% record in the Europa League? Go on, guess. No, wrong. It's Anderlecht. They completed their group with a 5-3 demolition job on second placed Lokomotiv Moskva with Brazilian midfielder Canesin a key element and scorer of the goal that put them in front in the game for the first time, just before half time.
Leonardo (de Vitor Santiago). Red Bull Salzburg had to win to make sure PSG's result against what was always going to be an Athletic reserve side irrelevant. While the cashed-up Frenchies were cruising to a 4-2 win, Leonardo was instrumental in Salzburg's come-from-behind win over Slovan Bratislava to dump the Parisians out. 2-0 down after six minutes, it didn't look good, but with Leonardo's equaliser they overhauled the Slovakians and take their place in the knockout stages. It's the second time now that Leonardo has made the shortlist for our Ex-Pat of the week.
And the winner is...
Leandro Domingues. Wins over Auckland City and Monterrey and no lack of effort in defeat to Santos, Reysol may yet end up third (should do given how bad Al Sadd looked the other day) in the world. That's no mean feat and Domingues is a major part of what they've achieved.
As ever, keep 'em peeled and let us know who you think we should consider for this next week. Leave us a comment or hit us up on that there twitter.
Friday, 25 November 2011
Ex-pat of the week #1
Introducing the first of a new series where we run the rule over South American players plying their trade outside of the continent and pick out our performance of the week. This particular correspondent realises that this could end up being a lot of work, so we'll see how long we can keep it going for, but the intention is there, loyal reader. Trust us on that one. Anyway, to business.
This week saw a full round of UEFA Champions League fixtures as well as the regular European leagues while in the USA, the competition reached it's conclusion. Here are the nominees, in no particular order:
Lionel Messi. One gets the feeling that we'll be mentioning this chap quite a bit over the weeks; we've heard he's a bit tidy at this football lark. This week, his audacious penalty effort against AC Milan was chalked off - and he was booked - but he slammed home the retake before teeing up Xavi for the winner with THE most audacious through-ball.
Edinson Cavani. Two goals in the UCL game against big-spending Manchester City sealed the win which put one Neapolitan foot into the knockout stages. He was so good that City were immediately linked with signing the Uruguayan come January.
Marcelo Oliveira. One of a number of unheralded South Americans at APOEL, Oliveira has been at the heart of a very effective defensive unit that's guided the Cypriot club to top spot in their UCL group, capped by this week's backs-to-the-wall effort away to cash-rich Zenit St Petersburg.
Pablo Aimar. 32 years old now, Aimar rolled back the years with possibly his best performance in something like six or seven years as Benfica secured progress to the knockout stages of the UCL with a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford.
Matiás Fernandez. The Chilean midfielder was in sublime form and bagged a couple of goals at Sporting CP saw off União de Leiria to move within a point of Porto and Benfica at the top of the Liga ZON Sagres which is now open wider than the mouth of the Amazon.
Juninho (Vitor Junior). Beckham, Keane and Donovan may have grabbed the headlines on the night, but the Brazilian's tireless efforts in midfield, screening the back four, went a long way to ensuring LA Galaxy were not only easily the best defensive side in MLS this year, but also took home the bacon in the final against the dangerous, counter-attacking Houston Dynamo.
And the winner is....
Pablo Aimar
He was quite magnificent in Manchester on Tuesday. OK, so it's partly because we don't want to end up giving this to Messi every week, but Aimar deserves this one.
Agree? Don't? Comment below or join the debate on our twitter feed.
This week saw a full round of UEFA Champions League fixtures as well as the regular European leagues while in the USA, the competition reached it's conclusion. Here are the nominees, in no particular order:
Lionel Messi. One gets the feeling that we'll be mentioning this chap quite a bit over the weeks; we've heard he's a bit tidy at this football lark. This week, his audacious penalty effort against AC Milan was chalked off - and he was booked - but he slammed home the retake before teeing up Xavi for the winner with THE most audacious through-ball.
Edinson Cavani. Two goals in the UCL game against big-spending Manchester City sealed the win which put one Neapolitan foot into the knockout stages. He was so good that City were immediately linked with signing the Uruguayan come January.
Marcelo Oliveira. One of a number of unheralded South Americans at APOEL, Oliveira has been at the heart of a very effective defensive unit that's guided the Cypriot club to top spot in their UCL group, capped by this week's backs-to-the-wall effort away to cash-rich Zenit St Petersburg.
Pablo Aimar. 32 years old now, Aimar rolled back the years with possibly his best performance in something like six or seven years as Benfica secured progress to the knockout stages of the UCL with a 2-2 draw at Old Trafford.
Matiás Fernandez. The Chilean midfielder was in sublime form and bagged a couple of goals at Sporting CP saw off União de Leiria to move within a point of Porto and Benfica at the top of the Liga ZON Sagres which is now open wider than the mouth of the Amazon.
Juninho (Vitor Junior). Beckham, Keane and Donovan may have grabbed the headlines on the night, but the Brazilian's tireless efforts in midfield, screening the back four, went a long way to ensuring LA Galaxy were not only easily the best defensive side in MLS this year, but also took home the bacon in the final against the dangerous, counter-attacking Houston Dynamo.
And the winner is....
Pablo Aimar
He was quite magnificent in Manchester on Tuesday. OK, so it's partly because we don't want to end up giving this to Messi every week, but Aimar deserves this one.
Agree? Don't? Comment below or join the debate on our twitter feed.
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