Talha Awan

Terrible Escapist | Arsenal🇮🇹 l 90s Cricket l Kubrick | Lynch | Welles l 🦮

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

3 days to the WC, Italy‘s absence continues to hurt. Messi completed his story in the last edition. Sticking with the Oranje party this time around. Just feel like we‘ll see a first time Champion, so why not the Dutch, solid team with loads of history and football culture.

[Andy Bodfish @AndyBodfish]

The 2 coaches in this match were on the pitch as opponents when Mexico beat Belgium in 86

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

@gooner_saad I think R32 would be interesting too. Knockouts always have their own special flavour.

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

South Africa providing the curtain raiser for Cape Verde,Jordan, New Zealand ahead. It was bound to happen with the 48 team WC. Anyway pick and choose watchable games at your own peril. It is what it is #FIFAWorldcup

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

@hmedsaleem @shahashfaq 🤣

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

Opening game is a tradition never to be missed but my word some awful games coming up till Brazil-Morocco #FIFAWorldcup

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

Salma Hayek is not 60!

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

Christian Streich is a welcome addition to the ZDF panel besides the usual duo of Mertesacker and Kramer #ZDF #WM

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

@shahashfaq Qatar-SWI on Primetime Saturday 💀
Luckily Sunday will be super indeed. Good fixtures lined up

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

@Rayleigh693 I do like the chips btw, maximum captain should be cool lol

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

This WC fantasy game would be much more fun if FIFA had a decent app 🤬

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

@Rayleigh693 Solid team and I like CDK in there.

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

@Rayleigh693 Horrible UI, you have to save the team everytime. Just keep making drafts till you make final decision lol

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

@InterIsInMySoul 98 WC, Euro 2000 and 06 WC

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

Tunisia qualify by default every tournament only to play like cowards and don’t do anything substantial: first round exit.

[The European Football Express @TheEuroFE]

Is Group F in the FIFA World Cup the toughest group to call at this years tournament?

[aves @WNBAPILLED]

the best part of sports is millions of people around the world believing that their superstition is the deciding factor in their teams success

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

@Muneeb313_ 💚

[Talha Awan @Eiffel_7]

@Muneeb313_ @RizWanKenobi_ the assist though 🤣

[Ryanair @Ryanair]

no fly list

[Mark O'Haire @MarkOHaire]

Throwback to USA '94...

It was so hot that Steven Staunton had to wear a baseball cap during the national anthem and covered his head in vaseline to avoid getting sunburnt.

[Emzel @Emzyl_]

You have to be clinically insane to even think Ronaldo is anywhere close to this level. Messi can easily be the best player at this world cup whilst still playing in the MLS. If he wasn't bored, he could still play in Europe and win Bdor easily too

[TREQUARTISTA @TatticaPassata]

I genuinely love Del Piero more than most Roma fans do both inside and outside the pitch.

He genuinely seems like the nicest guy ever and was also an unreal player. However, saying he was "miles better" than Totti is such a surface-level way of looking at football.

People bring up Del Piero's ACL injury and rightly so, because he was up there with Zidane and R9 as the very best in the world. They never mention Totti's ACL injuries or the fibula fracture that derailed his career.

Internationally? Totti was consistently preferred to Del Piero by Zoff, Trapattoni and Lippi, 3 managers with deep Juventus ties.

He was Italy's best player at EURO 2000, Italy's best player at the 2002 World Cup, should have been the focal point of EURO 2004 (had he not stupidly gotten himself suspended) and then there's 2006.

Totti breaks his fibula in February 2006.

Lippi publicly backs him to make the World Cup even if he plays on one leg. 4 months later after a miraculous recovery, Totti arrives at the World Cup with screws still in his leg, starts every game ahead of Del Piero and finishes as the tournament's top assister.

The following season, Totti modernizes the false 9 role in a way football hadn't really seen for decades, wins the European Golden Boot and records a Serie A goal tally (26) Del Piero never reached, all while remaining the creative hub of his team rather than playing as a traditional number 9.

From 1998 until Del Piero left Serie A in 2012, Totti consistently matched or surpassed him statistically despite playing much deeper and for a significantly weaker side.

Totti also aged much better with the 2012/13 season being the perfect example. At 36, he produced double figures in both goals and assists while orchestrating entire games and enjoying one of the finest seasons of his career.

A year later, at 37, he still finished as Roma's top scorer for a side that amassed 85 points and came within touching distance of the scudetto.

A type longevity that wasn't the product of adapting into a reduced role but instead came from him remaining as the focal point.

Del Piero wasn't producing anywhere near that level at those later stages and that's despite Totti having accumulated significantly more serious injuries throughout his career.

And then you have the actual profiling of the players.

Del Piero combined elite goalscoring with world class ball striking and set-piece ability from multiple angles, while also being one of the best dribblers of his generation especially pre ACL injury.

But people often reduce football to dribbling and then use the "eye test" as if that's the entire sport (Totti wasn't a poor dribbler by any stretch either btw).

The difference is that Del Piero's superiority in that area is obvious, while Totti's superiority in other areas tends to be overlooked because they're less flashy.

Unlike Del Piero, whose profile was built around scoring, Totti combined elite scoring with elite creation on top of that. He functioned as both the primary scorer and the primary playmaker for his team.

If you prefer Del Piero, fair enough, I don't mind that at all. But do not come here and tell me there's no comparison between the two.

For me, the answer is simple. Totti was the more complete footballer. Del Piero had the higher peak, Totti had the superior longevity, output and profile.

Therefore, if your argument begins and ends with 1997 and trophy counts, then you're not really comparing the players but making casual points.

Juventus and Roma were operating on completely different levels.

Trophies can be debated, completeness as a footballer, cannot.