Tag Archives: Lionel Messi

“[…] North versus south, developed versus developing, small versus big, rich versus poor, colonists versus colonised. Matches were pregnant with meaning and resonance outside of football. “[…] The World Cup, Olympics and sports in general are proxies for fights over politics, history and geographical hegemony… Caribbean people in the UK …

“[…] Brazil’s substitutions were difficult to understand. Against Croatia’s compact block, surely the penetration of Gabriel Martinelli could have been an option. I also struggled with the question as to the role of Pedro. “[…] Argentina can be best described as pragmatic. In reality, they are a team based on …

“World Cup isn’t relevant anymore,” a 30-year-old sports editor colleague told me a few years ago. “[Uefa] Champions League is the most important event in football; it’s what everybody wants to see—where all the top players are.” That’s Bobby, pronouncing, now that the Qatar 2022 groups have been more or …

You asked for this… So don’t blame us! Burdie and Barney are back with Episode Two, as we speak to HFX Wanderers coach Stephen Hart on his career path in Canada, coaching the Trinidad and Tobago senior team, strained relations with ex-TTFA president David John-Williams, and the Soca Warriors’ recent …

Ex-Trinidad and Tobago National Senior Team head coach Stephen Hart remembers an unusual thing that Argentine genius Lionel Messi did against the Soca Warriors on 4 June 2014 at a friendly in Buenos Aires. Look out for Hart’s full interview with the Burdie and Barney Show from Wednesday 10 February …

“[…] Diego was larger than life and he couldn’t go anywhere and relax. I’m sure it must be like that with Cristiano [Ronaldo] and Messi and Pelé. They have no lives. “You have to see it to believe it… It was unbelievable to think someone has to live like this, …

So, farewell to the G.O.A.T and the Goatee. The Russia 2018 World Cup will make do without football’s MVP trophy-grabbing duopoly of Argentina’s Lionel Messi and Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, after the pair were eliminated on the first day of the Round of 16 today. Messi’s return ticket was booked at …

Somewhere in St Petersburg tonight, a dazed looking Argentine in a number 14 shirt might be heard asking medical staff: Did we win? Did we win? On another electric evening in the Russia 2018 World Cup, La Albiceleste squeezed into the Round of 16 at the death as they narrowly …

Corporal punishment, evidently, is not illegal in Russia. Lionel Messi’s Argentina endured a hell of a caning in Nizhny Nivgorod this evening, as Croatia dismantled the South American hopefuls 3-0 in La Albiceleste’s worst World Cup group stage loss in 60 years. How bad was it? Mr Live Wire thinks …

“If you think of it like tennis, we had one match point today,” said Iran coach Carlos Quieroz, “and we will have another against Portugal [next Monday]…” It is just as well that Quieroz found an analogy for his team’s fate in another sport today, as there was precious little …

If Cristiano Ronaldo’s brilliant hattrick for Portugal yesterday was supposed to serve as a handover to Argentina wizard Lionel Messi, then it was the worst baton exchange since T&T’s disastrous 4×100 relay showing at the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Messi, as most Argentine and Barcelona football fans are aware, can do …

I want Argentina to win the World Cup. But I wanted them to win the last World Cup too and we all saw how that turned out. By all objective criteria, the team has regressed significantly since 2014. What’s more, other perennial favourites have noticeably strengthened within that same period. …