ADG®

Expect nothing. Appreciate everything | The Secret of the Big is the Small | PM | Investor | Semi-Retired Dancer | Views = Mine & 🔁 not an Endorsement

[ADG® @AlexanderDGreat]

If you understood the power of your thoughts you would never think a negative thought again #LiveRight

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

When I heard about Senator Graham’s death last night, the first thing I thought about was not all the things he said and did in service of Donald Trump. I thought of the time before Donald Trump when he was a brother to Senator John McCain.

A time when senators from different parties could fight about politics and still be friends. A time when a conservative Republican from South Carolina could say of my father: “If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, you’ve got a problem. He’s the nicest person I’ve ever met in politics. As good a man as God ever created.”

That is the Senator Graham I will remember today. Not because I have forgotten what came after. Because in that memory there is hope. Hope for a country where brothers can fight like hell over policy and still share a meal, and a laugh, and the loss of the people they love.

I will choose to remember the time before Trump. Because I believe in an America after Trump.

[III @Cerebrone]

I think it’s impossible to be better than Lionel Messi at football, all things considered.

At best, you can dream of being his equal. For that, you’d have to be Pelé or Maradona. Literal gods of the sport.

I don’t think there’s a level higher than his best. It’s vacuum after.

[Ted Lasso @TedLasso]

I like my football like I like my barbecue, Messi.

[ADG® @AlexanderDGreat]

@obadafidii When Messi retires from this team, so will I. They played a truly terrible game. I thought Cabo Verde and Egypt were poor, but this was on a whole different level of bad.

[ADG® @AlexanderDGreat]

Argentina has played absolute rubbish today and, honestly, without Messi, has been this way since Jordan.

[Appie Culé @appiecule]

I’m going to take my time with this one. If you’re busy, bookmark it and come back later.

Do you know the biggest problem with Cristiano Ronaldo? It isn’t that he never won the World Cup. It’s that he spent years telling everyone what separates legends, only to change the standards once he couldn’t reach them himself.

After winning Euro 2016, Ronaldo made it clear that winning a major international trophy was what completed a player’s legacy. At the time, Messi had just lost another international final and was going through the toughest period of his career. Those comments only added to the narrative that Messi could never be the greatest because he hadn’t won with Argentina. For years, that became the standard. Messi was called a bottler, while Ronaldo was praised as the player who had proved himself internationally.

Nobody wanted to hear about context. Nobody cared that Messi had dragged Argentina to a World Cup final in 2014 with a squad many considered weaker than the Portugal teams Ronaldo has had over the last decade. The only thing that mattered was that Ronaldo had won a major trophy with his country, and Messi hadn’t.

Then Messi won the Copa América. Suddenly, the goalposts moved. We were told one Euro was worth more than multiple Copa América titles because South America supposedly wasn’t competitive enough. That became the new excuse.

Then Messi won the World Cup. The excuses changed again. It was “fixed.” It was “scripted.” Then came, “A career can’t be defined by seven games.” Funny how nobody was saying that before the tournament, when many believed it would finally be Ronaldo’s chance to win it.

Now Portugal have been eliminated from the World Cup, and Ronaldo posts about Euro 2016 again. That’s what I find ironic. When international trophies favored Ronaldo, they were the ultimate measure of greatness. When Messi caught up, people started ranking competitions differently. When Messi surpassed him by winning the biggest trophy in football, suddenly the World Cup wasn’t supposed to define a career anymore.

That’s the contradiction.

The difference between Messi and Ronaldo was never just about goals, assists, or trophies. It’s about consistency. Messi never needed to diminish Ronaldo’s achievements to elevate his own, nor did he ask football to change its standards because they no longer favored him. He simply kept playing until he won everything there was to win.

League titles. Champions Leagues. Ballons d’Or. Golden Boots. Copa América. Finalissima. World Cup. Every major trophy that was ever used against him eventually became part of his legacy.

Cristiano Ronaldo will always be one of the greatest footballers to ever play the game. But this is exactly why I believe Messi is the greatest. He didn’t ask football to rewrite the standards.

He met every single one of them.

[Ahmed Khalifa @_A_khalifa]

BE LIKE MESSI..
Don’t Say Shit and Win Everything!

[JA @DamnItWasFun]

Messi has surpassed Maradona by every single metric goals, assists, club trophies, individual accolades, and delivering a World Cup alongside Copas Maradona never won. Claiming otherwise is brainless. There is no 40% poll you liar. You manufactured that out of your ass to cope.

To say Messi had everything on a platter just proves you don't watch football with your actual eyes. Someone who carries broken teams on his back, scores the most solo goals in the history of the sport and creates everything out of absolutely nothing does not have a platter.

You have no point on his temporary international retirement. He came back, took total accountability and then anchored the team to win three consecutive international trophies. Whatever happened before is meaningless.

Your point about him never being signed for a transfer fee is a stupid argument that exposes your ignorance. Messi stayed loyal through thick and thin, making his team succeed from the ground up. He didn't need to jump from club to club like Ronaldo, desperately hunting for whatever pre packaged, elite team had already been winning their respective leagues for multiple years just so he could start padding his stats. Ronaldo took the easy way out by moving to ready made champions and claiming it was a "challenge"🤣. He fooled the football world.

Messi is quite literally a better goalscorer than Ronaldo. He has a vastly superior goals per game ratio, way less penalty goals, and he achieves this while simultaneously being the greatest dribbler and playmaker on earth. Ronaldo is a penalty box poacher who relies entirely on service. MESSI IS THE SERVICE, the dictator of the tempo, and the finisher all in one.

Negreira case or trying to link it to Messi's talent is just dumb. Referees didn't dribble past players for him. Off pitch noise takes absolutely nothing away from raw, on pitch footballing ability. That’s the ultimate distinction here Messi fans just need to talk about the actual 90 minutes of greatness on the pitch, while you lot have to look for every conspiracy under the sun to cope.

You can live in your delusional fantasy bubble and pretend no amount of Ballon d'Ors or World Cups will change your mind, but your refusal to accept the truth doesn't change objective reality. You have to actively lie to yourself every single day just to keep your narrative alive. Keep your blinders on if it helps you sleep at night but the entire world already sees the gap. Ronaldo is not half the player Messi is. Messi is the GOAT and it's not even close.

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

He walks.
He watches you.
He doesn't speak.
He is two seconds ahead.
His every move causes panic.

He is the greatest player of all time.

This is what it's like to play against Lionel Messi.

📝 @stujames75, @MarkCarey93, @charlotteharpur and @Dan_Sheldon_

🔗 https://t.co/UX5J4Kfdzu

[JA @DamnItWasFun]

Notice how he framed his entire argument.

He talks about the leagues Ronaldo played in, but conveniently leaves out context whenever it doesn't support his conclusion. He calls La Liga "widely regarded as corrupt" without providing a single piece of evidence. Yet the league he holds up as the gold standard—the Premier League—is the only one of the major leagues where clubs have actually faced major corruption and financial rule charges. Notice how that standard only appears when it helps his narrative.

Notice what else he leaves out. He praises Ronaldo for winning Serie A with Juventus but never mentions that Juventus had already won the league seven consecutive times before Ronaldo arrived. That context suddenly disappears because it weakens the point he's trying to make.

Then he claims Messi "failed woefully" at PSG. Again, notice the selective storytelling. He doesn't mention that PSG failed to win Ligue 1 the season before Messi arrived, then won it in each of Messi's first two seasons. He doesn't mention that while Messi's goals dropped, he remained one of Europe's best chance creators, consistently produced elite performances, and finished among the highest-rated players in the league. Those facts are ignored because they don't fit the narrative.

This is how Ronaldo fans engineer these narratives. Leave out context. Ignore inconvenient facts. Redefine success and failure depending on who the player is. Repeat it often enough and hope people never check.

This is also why Messi's GOAT case is fundamentally different. Messi fans don't need to diminish Ronaldo to make Messi's case. They can simply list Messi's achievements and let them speak for themselves. Ronaldo fans, on the other hand, constantly find themselves downplaying Messi because Ronaldo's case so often depends on reducing what Messi has accomplished.

That's why Messi is regarded by so many as the greatest footballer of all time. His legacy stands on its own. It doesn't require rewriting someone else's.

Notice the pattern. That's what this does: it skews the narrative by replacing context with selective storytelling. And that's also why Ronaldo cannot be the greatest of all time. Football is a team sport. You cannot be the GOAT of a team sport through an argument rooted in individualism and the idea that one player is somehow bigger than the game itself.

[ADG® @AlexanderDGreat]

@deejaytims22 Might be true, but Morocco remains the most compact team in this tournament, and they also know how to dig in. Ask the Netherlands and Brazil. If there are only two teams I can bank on to beat France, they would be Spain and Morocco.

I think Morocco are still widely underrated

[ADG® @AlexanderDGreat]

Argentina vs Morroco WC final

[ADG® @AlexanderDGreat]

@deejaytims22 Not possible?

[ADG® @AlexanderDGreat]

I have this uneasy feeling that 🇲🇦 will defeat 🇫🇷. I want 🇫🇷 to meet 🇪🇸 in the semis. For football neutrals, that would be a game to watch.

I also think 🇦🇷 will meet 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿. I don't see 🇳🇴 beating 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿, as 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 is way more pragmatic than 🇧🇷.

Whatever happens, this is one for the ages!

[OptaJoe @OptaJoe]

3 - France are looking to become the third team to reach the semi-final in three consecutive editions of the #FIFAWorldCup.

According to the Opta predictor, they have a 72% chance of progressing against Morocco.

Foregone?

[Joe Pompliano @JoePompliano]

A professional sports gambler used analytics to turn a $700,000 loan into more than $300 million.

This is the wild story 👇👇👇

[Dani Lerer @danilerer]

Messi: El último genio de un fútbol que ya no existe
Por Dani Lerer

Durante años, Argentina se dedicó a juzgar a Lionel Messi. Le pedimos que fuera Maradona, que gritara más, que mostrara otra personalidad y que cargara sobre sus hombros las frustraciones de un país entero. Nunca entendimos que estábamos viendo algo mucho más excepcional: el final de una era.

Messi es el último gran genio nacido en un fútbol que todavía pertenecía a la cancha y no a los algoritmos. El último ídolo que se construyó a través del talento y la constancia, antes de que las redes sociales convirtieran cada partido en un juicio permanente y cada gesto en una batalla cultural.

Debutó cuando Twitter todavía no dominaba nuestras vidas, cuando Instagram ni siquiera existía y cuando un mal partido no se transformaba instantáneamente en millones de memes. Creció en una época en la que las leyendas todavía tenían tiempo para equivocarse.

Hoy, las nuevas estrellas viven bajo una presión distinta. Son futbolistas, pero también marcas, influencers y productores de contenido. Cada palabra es analizada, cada reacción se convierte en tendencia y cada derrota es amplificada por una maquinaria digital que no conoce la paciencia.

Messi atravesó esa transformación sin cambiar su esencia. Mientras el fútbol se volvía cada vez más ruidoso, él siguió siendo el mismo. Nunca necesitó escándalos, frases grandilocuentes ni personajes construidos. Se limitó a hacer algo que parece simple, pero que se volvió extraordinario: jugar al fútbol.

Y quizás por eso muchos tardaron tanto en comprenderlo.

Porque Argentina siempre tuvo una fascinación por los héroes imperfectos, por las personalidades explosivas, por las historias épicas llenas de excesos. Messi era otra cosa. Su liderazgo era silencioso. Su respuesta a las críticas nunca fue una conferencia de prensa. Siempre fue una asistencia, un gol o una nueva copa.

Durante años le exigimos que fuera alguien distinto. El tiempo terminó haciendo lo suyo. No fue Messi quien cambió para satisfacer a los argentinos. Fuimos los argentinos quienes, finalmente, aprendimos a entender a Messi.

Y quizás ahí resida su grandeza más profunda.

Porque cuando se retire no solamente se irá el mejor futbolista de todos los tiempos. También se retirará el último gran ídolo de una época en la que las leyendas todavía se construían con paciencia, lejos del vértigo permanente y de la dictadura del instante.

Después de Messi vendrán otros cracks. Habrá jugadores más virales, más mediáticos y más comerciales.

Pero tal vez nunca volvamos a ver a alguien que, durante más de veinte años, haya dejado que hablara únicamente la pelota.

Porque Lionel Messi no es solamente un fenómeno irrepetible.

Es el último genio de un fútbol que ya no existe.

[Aproko Doctor Global @aproko_doctor]

The difference between the two is that only one delivers when it matters.

[vanemrys @vanemrys15]

The assist Messi gave to Romero is exactly what Ronaldo fans expect from Bruno.

The goal Messi scored is exactly what Ronaldo fans expect from Ronaldo.

That's the difference between Messi and Ronaldo. Messi creates chances and still scores. He does the job of both a midfielder and a striker. That's why you'll never hear a sports journalist say he should be substituted for Lautaro Martínez when Argentina need a goal.

Don't you ever compare Messi with any player on earth.

[Tom Brady @TomBrady]

Yeah so that might top 28-3 🤯

[Aproko Doctor Global @aproko_doctor]

Greatest player of all time: Lionel Messi.