I deserved what I got yesterday betting on a greek side.
On to today
Real Madrid -2 +109 vs Dinamo Zagreb
Over total goals in all 8 games 22.5 -104 (basically say I think there will be 23 or more goals scored in the 8 games today)
Record
36-28-6
+5.85
I promise normal service for this website will resume tomorrow…
It’s a sad day when a legend decides to call it a day. I loved the Ronaldo comment about the body no longer being able to do what the mind wants him to do.
I wrote this back in March 2009 and figured it still holds true today.
On the heels of Ronaldo’s two goal performance this week against Brazilian minnows Ponte Preta I wanted to take some time and briefly reflect on the many ups and downs of Ronaldo’s career.
In many respects it would be hard to feel sorry for a man who has made millions of dollars, is known all over the world and holds the World Cup record for most goals ever but in Ronaldo’s case I actually do feel for the man. Just by watching his body language over the years it just seems like he lost his love for football along time ago. While many of us going through high school, chasing girls and playing sport for the sheer love of it, here you have a reserved kid already being ear marked as the next and maybe ever greatest Brazilian player ever produced.
Ronaldo was bought over to be little more than a tourist in the 1994 World Cup but eyes were already focusing in on him as it would clear the then 17 year was going to be the one Brazil would turn to four years later at the 1998 World Cup. In between 1994 and 1998 Ronaldo had already made three big money moves. First to PSV where he was able to horn his skills without the intense spotlight of Italian and Spanish football glaring on him. Former PSV and then Barcelona coach Sir Bobby Robson came calling and bought Ronaldo to Barcelona where he was an unstoppable force scoring 34 goals in 37 games, helping Barcelona along the way to the UEFA Cup. Finally in 1997 he moved to Inter Milan leading up to the 1998 World Cup.
No one truly knows what happen the night before the 1998 World Cup final but his seizure and Brazil eventual 3-0 defeat to France soured many a opinion for many a year when it came to Ronaldo. By this time it must of been obvious to Ronaldo that whatever he does he’d always be in the shadow of most noticeably Pele. Imagine living your life and no matter the accomplishments you achieve people are always going to compare it against only the greatest (arguable) football player who has ever lived? Nothing Ronaldo could do during this time could stand on it’s own. Everything he did people either compared it to Pele or said with his talent Ronaldo could still do so much more.
Another thing also occurred after the 1998 World Cup, years of punishment by defenders who were forced to foul Ronaldo caught up to him as he spent most of the time between 1999 and 2002 injured. Ronaldo moment in the sun obviously came at the 2002 World Cup, one that Brazil struggled to even qualify for while he was injured. Despite arriving at the tournament very much a question mark, he left a month later a World Champion something that no historian could take away from him.
The summer of 2002 was pretty much the zenith of Ronaldo’s career. Despite playing for storied clubs like Real Madrid and A.C Milan afterwards, his greatest statement was made at the World Cup of 2002. No one could deny his talent or place in the football history capped off with scoring two goals against Germany in finals. People may knock his passion and dedication to the game and continually ask what if but if they stopped asking what if and looked at what he did accompish surely one would marvel at everything Ronaldo has done in his playing career.
I remember a couple of months ago when Portugal smoked Spain 4-0 thinking Portugal just defeated the World Champions….that makes us the World Champions. Then that theory got ruined as Argentina had already defeated Spain beforehand. So that makes Argentina world champions. It also makes Spain the Buster Douglas of Champions. Now I know Argentina lost to Japan 1-0 but they were playing with B lebel players plus I refuse to recognize Japan as world champion.
That makes tonight the night where Ronaldo will lead Portugal to greatness against Lionel Messi and Argentina. We will see how great Messi is tonight with Xavi and Iniesta feeding him steaks.
Basically what I am saying is when Portugal wins today I expect all of you to consider them the rightful World Champions
When I was researching this I wondered who is the European Champion where Spain held on to it’s title for two years until losing to Switzerland in the World Cup. Switzerland then lost to England in a friendly which makes England the European Champions. Congrats England.
[picappgallerysingle id="9564745"]
No has ever asked me and no one ever will but if someone did ask me to pick three people in the world of soccer I can choose to have dinner with my first and only choice would be Jose Mourinho. It just makes me laugh how he plays around with people in the press.
I just love these two quotes he gave yesterday.
“I am very happy and feel very proud for Inter Milan’s success in the FIFA Club World Cup. It was a great pleasure to train them, just as it is to coach Real Madrid. I thought Rafa Benitez would thank me for practically winning the title for him, but… Inter Milan fans would tell you how they really feel about it.”
You knew right or wrong he was going to take some of the limelight away from Rafa winning the Club World Cup. To be fair Rafa with his dumb comments to the press took the limelight away all by himself.
On a scale of one to ten, I would have to give myself an 11. 2010 has been the perfect year for me, the best year of my career. I won every title I played for last season and I have lost none of my chances to win more titles at Real Madrid this time.
Be Champions…
Out of the blue a twitter user by the name of @FootiePhantom was nice enough to link my EPL Gossip posts onto the EPLtalk.com website he provides content too. For example http://www.epltalk.com/premier-league-links-of-the-day-december-20-2010-27843
As this is the holiday season I figured it would be nice to give a big thank you and hopefully some google love by telling people to check out his new site Philadelphiaunion.us that he is getting off the ground. Best of luck with the site.
Hopefully my good deed for the day is done.
Been debating trying this for awhile now. Held back because it would be depressing if I saw nothing in my mailbox.
These next 10 days will be pretty boring with the transfer window closed and domestic leagues on break. With that to freshen things up on the site I want to add an ask sinnacle type of mailbag.
Believe me I try very hard not to come off as a know it all. I just want to come off as someone with an opinion, nothing more. So it isn’t to create this elevation that I’m some kind of expert. Just something to create content for the site in the coming weeks.
So this is where I need your help. Ask me a question about the world of football or this site, make a comment, hell draw a picture I don’t care. I can pretty safely say I’ll answer it when I plan on doing this mailbag (plan on doing it Monday or Tuesday, most likely Tuesday) If so please e-mail me at dmmd98@sinnacle.com or use the form in the contact us section of this site.
I’ll keep my fingers cross now and hope tis idea won’t turn into the new coke.
Thanks
Oh Ricardo Quaresma why can’t you put it all together. Everytime I check a Besiktas Europa League score it seems Richardo Quaresma has scored today included. Life in Turkey is turning out nicely so far it appears.
I’ll keep this short as I tend not to involve anything personal on this site. Friday morning I got up and do what I usually do by updating the site then checking my e-mail. When I checked my e-mail got this lovely e-mail.
Dear Sirs,
NetResult Internal Reference: DataCo_NRID 102763
We write on behalf of the Football Data Co Limited which is the appointed licensee of the FA Premier League, the Football League, the Scottish Premier League and the Scottish Football League (“the Leagues”) in respect of the licensing of certain intellectual property rights of the Leagues, including Match Action Photographs and UK Club Crests for use by third parties.
We have noticed that your website http://www.sinnacle.com is displaying Match Action Photographs and Club Crests. In order to display these photographs you must obtain the necessary licence from Football DataCo. The crests can only be used with permission from each individual team. The crests need to be removed until permission is granted.
We wish to make you aware that we have a good faith belief that your present use is an infringement of the Leagues’ legal rights and that all such unauthorised use must cease immediately. Please confirm by return your agreement to this and give your undertaking to cease all such infringements on any and all of your web sites. Pending your response the Leagues’ rights are fully reserved.
Thank you for your cooperation.
So if you noticed previous posts missing pictures that is why as I’ve taken down previous pictures/logos hosted on my site. Now I get the fact that’s it their trademark so by the letter of the law I should remove the pictures which I have. What bugs me is how backwards people are. I’d understand if I was a commercial website making money off the backs of the EPL but I’m clearly not. Nothing I do on this site or the 1000′s of sites like these hurt the EPL/SPL bottom line.
I know that the EPL/SPL doesn’t need me too but I’m promoting them like the thousands of other small websites out there. Again they don’t need me too but I’m still providing them a service by doing my small part in keeping interest in British football. It just seems pitiful to bully the little guy by removing pictures.
Back to my point above, yes by the letter of the law it should be taken down which I have done. I’d be able to understand it more if the EPL/SPL had some sort of service where a blog owner would pay for the rights to use match pictures and team logo’s but one has to go around getting permission to use team logo’s for each club at a heavy cost I’m sure. If I was taking away from such a service I’d understand more taking down those pictures. It’s like youtube videos and how often clips are taken down. If the EPL had a video service like youtube which shown goals/highlights then again I’d understand the right to take those videos down but they don’t and people from all over the world need for run around finding clips that the FA should be bright enough to have such a service in one central location under their own roof.
In the end trying to turn a negative into a positive. You may notice the Michael Ballack picture upon this post which is linked from picapp.com that offers websites access to legal images. So good news to anyone who may of been tired of seeing the same old logos everyday during the EPL Gossip post, more action shots should be on their way as I’m still playing with the look and feel of picapp.com which has been a godsend.
They may be knocked out of the World Cup but throughout the last month kept thinking of the other countries who would love to have some of the German players playing for them. Below is a list of players on Germany’s World Cup team who could of played for another country.
Dennis Aogo – Born in Germany could of played for Nigeria but backed out at the last minute due to being good enough to crack the German National team.
Serdar Tasci – Also born in Germany but could of played for Turkey due to his parents being from there.
Jérôme Boateng – His brother Kevin Prince Boateng may of slipped through there fingers deciding to play for Ghana instead but the new Manchester City defender played a key role in helping Germany advance to the semi finals.
Mesut Özil – His family is 3rd generation German who came over from Turkey but just knowing Ozil has Turkish blood must make Turkish fans rue not seeing Ozil playing for them.
Piotr Trochowski, Lukas Podolski, and Miroslav Klose – I’m not even going to touch on the history between Poland and Germany but knowing all three players were born in Poland must hurt Polish fans. What’s even worse is all the success Podolski and Klose has had scoring goals for Germany when Poland has been missing an elite striker for aslong as I can remember.
Marko Marin – I’m sure Bosnia and Herzegovina wouldn’t mind having Marin suit up for them when they were taking on Portugal to qualify for the World Cup.
Cacau – Every top team needs a converted Brazilian national and Cacau fills that role for Germany.