OT: Alphonso Davies (and other European football talk)

[Bangers]

For any of the (European) football fans out there (or those who just loosely follow his career because he's an Edmonton boy).

Alphonso Davies has been absolutely killing it this year. Still only 19, Bayern moved him to left back and he's been arguably one of the best left backs in the world this season - he's been so good that he pushed David Alaba, who was widely regarded as the best left back in the world prior to this season, into the middle.

His team won the Bundesliga (which, to be honest, is a given because it's Bayern), but in Champion's League this season, Davies pretty much singlehandedly knocked out Chelsea (to the point other players were referring to him as a cheat code), and he put on a show last night in beating Barcelona.

This set up is filthy.

Click to read more...

 

[Bryanbryoil]

Barca got smoked. Davies is regarded as a high end young player, pretty amazing seeing how few come from North America.

 

[93LEAFS]

Kid is truly special. Glad we already capped him for the national team. Best Canadian talent since Hargreaves and has the potential to surpass him significantly.

 

[Bangers]

Barca got smoked. Davies is regarded as a high end young player, pretty amazing seeing how few come from North America.

Jonathan David looks like he'll be a good one as well. Pretty great to think Canada could have two international superstars on our squad during the 2026 World Cup. Our previous number of international class players at an international men's tournament is ... 0.

 

[Zaddy]

I watched that goal and instantly turned it off (I'm a Barca fan )

Nice play though. I read Davies players tribune article the other week, seems like a nice kid.

Pretty crazy that he was born in a refugee camp in Ghana, came to Canada and now is a professional footballer at one of the best clubs in the world at 19 years old.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Kid is truly special. Glad we already capped him for the national team. Best Canadian talent since Hargreaves and has the potential to surpass him significantly.

Potential? Already far better than Hargreaves ever was. Not a dipshit either.

lol at Messi getting beat by a German club again..that never gets old.

Mess run down;

20 mins pathetic finish. Never gonna beat Neuer like that.

60mins not much better

84mins Shambolic play by Messi. Gets stripped clean, Is seen walking to the beach instead of own goal, Bayern punishes again.

The lol in this match is Bayern scored 1 of Barca goals and a player on loan from Barca slammed 2 home against his side.

I wouldn't want to be seen if I was a Barcelona player right about now. This was worse than the Brazil performance. Bayern looked very shaky on the day, and defensively pretty bad, but Barca said hold my beer. This is the worst performance by a club you'll ever see. If I was a fan of Barca I wouldn't be..

Arturo Vidal pregame statements. oh my lord, what a maroon. Don't show your face ever again.

lets just say Vidal isn't Mark Messier. Greaser hair though..what a poser clown.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I watched that goal and instantly turned it off (I'm a Barca fan )

Nice play though. I read Davies players tribune article the other week, seems like a nice kid.

Pretty crazy that he was born in a refugee camp in Ghana, came to Canada and now is a professional footballer at one of the best clubs in the world at 19 years old.

Tampa and Barca. Sorry, but you really pick em. You seem drawn to stars instead of actual teams.

This was men against boys. An absolute spanking. Barca talking, Bayern, the club from the "weak" Bundesliga playing.

 

[CantHaveTkachev]

pretty crazy one of Edmonton's best athletes ever (well, raised here...played his minor soccer here) is a soccer player

 

[Zaddy]

Tampa and Barca. Sorry, but you really pick em. You seem drawn to stars instead of actual teams.

This was men against boys. An absolute spanking. Barca talking, Bayern, the club from the "weak" Bundesliga playing.

I've been a Barca supporter since 1997. Those were some dark days for the club. Ronaldo left for Inter, Louis van Gaal was hired as manager and got in conflict with the teams biggest star Rivaldo which had the Brasilian leave on free transfer a year before his contract was up, that's how bad it was. It wasn't after him and the sporting director Gaspart left at the end of 2003 and were replaced with Rikjaard and Laporta, respectively, that the team started to have some success again. I could write you a short novel about the history but I'll spare you the details. Suffice to say my fandom has nothing to do with Messi

I'm not a Tampa fan, never have been.

I'm drawn to young talent, not established stars. I started following the Oilers in earnest once they drafted Magnus Pääjärvi in 2009. Not too many stars on the Oilers back then.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I've been a Barca supporter since 1997. Those were some dark days for the club. Ronaldo left for Inter, Louis van Gaal was hired as manager and got in conflict with the teams biggest star Rivaldo which had the Brasilian leave on free transfer a year before his contract was up, that's how bad it was. It wasn't after him and the sporting director Gaspart left at the end of 2003 and were replaced with Rikjaard and Laporta, respectively, that the team started to have some success again.

I'm not a Tampa fan, never have been.

I'm drawn to young talent, not established stars. I started following the Oilers in earnest once they drafted Magnus Pääjärvi in 2009. Not too many stars on the Oilers back then.

just ribbing you man. you are a top drawer poster for the most part.

But I am the complete opposite in likes. Give me a vet hockey squad any day.

How would a Paajarvi influence you to be an Oilers fan. Sorry, but...

You did talk up Tampa lightning quite a bit back in the day. Not as much as another guy here..

Disclosure. I'm German descent. Messi must hate looking at anything German. Must be in the blood for me to mock his internationals play.

never gets old beating Messi. Worse than Ovechkin moments yesterday.

 

[Bangers]

I've been a Barca supporter since 1997. Those were some dark days for the club. Ronaldo left for Inter, Louis van Gaal was hired as manager and got in conflict with the teams biggest star Rivaldo which had the Brasilian leave on free transfer a year before his contract was up, that's how bad it was. It wasn't after him and the sporting director Gaspart left at the end of 2003 and were replaced with Rikjaard and Laporta, respectively, that the team started to have some success again.

I'm not a Tampa fan, never have been.

I'm drawn to young talent, not established stars. I started following the Oilers in earnest once they drafted Magnus Pääjärvi in 2009. Not too many stars on the Oilers back then.

Barca were a great team, but father time has definitely caught up with them (as has completely missing on most transfers since the Neymar - Dembele - Coutinho debacle).

It was a bit sad to see how much Alba, Pique and Suarez's game has declined I'm less sad to watch Busquets's decline - pretty much always hated him as a player.

Barca are going to have a rough transition - you'll need de Jong, Fati and Puig to develop quickly.

 

[Zaddy]

just ribbing you man. you are a top drawer poster for the most part.

But I am the complete opposite in likes. Give me a vet hockey squad any day.

How would a Paajarvi influence you to be an Oilers fan. Sorry, but...

You did talk up Tampa lightning quite a bit back in the day. Not as much as another guy here..

Disclosure. I'm German descent. Messi must hate looking at anything German. Must be in the blood for me to mock his internationals play.

never gets old beating Messi. Worse than Ovechkin moments yesterday.

I'm Swedish, Pääjärvi was a great young talent for us. He played the WJC as a triple underager, then again in his draft year and was terrific. He was so much fun to watch, it was impossible for me not to be a fan of him. Then he got drafted by the Oilers in 2009, and I already had an interest in the Oilers as they were a classic team and I always liked their logo and colors, plus they drafted Jordan Eberle in 2008 who also had a great WJC in 2009, so there was plenty to be excited about.

I think it's way more fun to follow a struggling team with a young core and see them go from being a really bad team into a winning team than just pick a veteran team that's already successful. What is there to be excited about? You don't get the feeling that you're on a journey with the team. Following a veteran team there is only two options: either they keep winning, which would be expected and nothing to be all that excited about, or they get worse, in which case it sucks

Unfortunately for me, the Oilers has yet to become a successful team since I started following them. All that young talent never materialized into a winning record, so here I am still a fan of a bad hockey team. But luckily we drafted Draisaitl (one of my favorite young talents and someone I've been a fan of since I saw him in - you guessed it - the WJC) and then later on McDavid of course so there are still things to enjoy. Seeing Draisaitl's meteoric rise from a largely unknown German, into a top5 draft pick, into a good NHLer and now into a fullblown superstar has been pretty cool to be honest.

This is honestly the reason I follow sports. I enjoy individual success as much as team success, if not more. If we're talking European football I'm also a huge fan of Kylian Mbappé and have been for a while, even though he plays for PSG. Seeing him win the WC and have a terrific performance was really cool, and I really hope he develops into the superstar I think he can be.

If we're talking Bayern I'm a pretty big fan of Lewandowski too, but if I had to choose any team in Germany it'd be Dortmund, I'm a bit annoyed that Bayern keeps scooping up all their talent no matter how successful Dortmund are. Bundesliga would've been more fun if there were at least two top dogs and not just one. I've always liked Dortmund, they've had a lot of good talent come through the years and obviously won the Champions League in 1997. Also the club where Jürgen Klopp became the coach he is today.

 

[Zaddy]

Barca were a great team, but father time has definitely caught up with them (as has completely missing on most transfers since the Neymar - Dembele - Coutinho debacle).

It was a bit sad to see how much Alba, Pique and Suarez's game has declined I'm less sad to watch Busquets's decline - pretty much always hated him as a player.

Barca are going to have a rough transition - you'll need de Jong, Fati and Puig to develop quickly.

Exactly. They've made a ton of bad transfers over the past decade, starting with Zlatan in 2009 who they had no place for plan for. Seems they just bought him because he was a star signing. Neither Pep Guardiola nor Messi got along with him. And then more bad transfers followed, like wasting an outrageous amount of money (most of which they got for Neymar) on an immature kid in Dembele who is always injured.

Then they basically repeated the mistake they did with Zlatan when they signed Coutinho. Great player, but what's the point in signing him if you're gonna play him out of position? Griezmann is also playing out of position, being forced to the wing instead of his usual role as a secondary striker. And then moving the promising young central midfielder Arthur for a 30-year old Pjanic. Also refusing to sack Valverde in time. The list can be made long. This team is going to suffer big time once Messi slows down.

 

[Oilhawks]

Bayern having a romp thru the Champions league has lessened the pain of the NHL bubble playoffs.

What a game (sorry Zaddy), like Drive said, more crazy than the Brazil dismantling.

Lewandowski with an MVP year, Muller et al coming back to life and watching the emergence of Davies with Bayern makes this year as a fan all the better

 

[93LEAFS]

Potential? Already far better than Hargreaves ever was. Not a dipshit either.

lol at Messi getting beat by a German club again..that never gets old.

Mess run down;

20 mins pathetic finish. Never gonna beat Neuer like that.

60mins not much better

84mins Shambolic play by Messi. Gets stripped clean, Is seen walking to the beach instead of own goal, Bayern punishes again.

The lol in this match is Bayern scored 1 of Barca goals and a player on loan from Barca slammed 2 home against his side.

I wouldn't want to be seen if I was a Barcelona player right about now. This was worse than the Brazil performance. Bayern looked very shaky on the day, and defensively pretty bad, but Barca said hold my beer. This is the worst performance by a club you'll ever see. If I was a fan of Barca I wouldn't be..

Arturo Vidal pregame statements. oh my lord, what a maroon. Don't show your face ever again.

lets just say Vidal isn't Mark Messier. Greaser hair though..what a poser clown.

Hargreaves had a great career. 40 something Caps for a strong nation, won two UCL's, etc. Davies form right now may be better than anything Hargreaves reached, but he has a long way to pass his career.

 

[Zaddy]

Lol found a tweet that summarizes the stupidity of Barcelona management (well Bartomeu in particular)

 

[Drivesaitl]

Hargreaves had a great career. 40 something Caps for a strong nation, won two UCL's, etc. Davies form right now may be better than anything Hargreaves reached, but he has a long way to pass his career.

Gee, a 19 yr old hasn't statistically passed Hargreaves career..

I mean what are you even saying with that. leafs fan eh?


I could watch Davies in any 3 games and know he has much more talent than Hargreaves ever had.

 

[93LEAFS]

Gee, a 19 yr old hasn't statistically passed Hargreaves career..

I mean what are you even saying with that. leafs fan eh?


I could watch Davies in any 3 games and know he has much more talent than Hargreaves ever had.

I'm not here to argue my fan allegence. I avoid hockey topics on others board, as I have no interest in arguing or bashing someones team on their board. I'm here to compliment a top Canadian talent from your city. You took exception to my original point. My point was that he has the talent and potential to surpass Hargreaves's career. He clearly has the potential and talent to do it. Let's hope he is able to deliver on it and reach it.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I'm not here to argue my fan allegence. I avoid hockey topics on others board, as I have no interest in arguing or bashing someones team on their board. I'm here to compliment a top Canadian talent from your city. You took exception to my original point. My point was that he has the talent and potential to surpass Hargreaves's career. He clearly has the potential and talent to do it. Let's hope he is able to deliver on it and reach it.

WE have a general learned aversion to leafs fans here. Gonna be hard to get past that..

Your first post is reasonable, not sure why I responded to it. your 2nd point about Davies not having matched Hargreaves career is pretty poorly thought out. Fairly begging for rebuttal.

 

[McTonyBrar]

Guy is a star but I hate how Europe runs Football. Only the rich teams get the good players.... Imagine Davies with a team he carries up to the top. That would be more amazing then being a fullback on a start studded team

 

[McTonyBrar]

He'd be a good leader for my team Arsenal right?

 

[Cloned]

Guy is a star but I hate how Europe runs Football. Only the rich teams get the good players.... Imagine Davies with a team he carries up to the top. That would be more amazing then being a fullback on a start studded team

Bayern isn't even that rich a team relatively speaking. Wait until he gets sold to Real Madrid, one of the BPL sides, or Barca. The hate will be real then...

 

[Cloned]

Also, the CSA has Bayern to thank for his development. I doubt anyone in NA would have tried him at wing back.

 

[ujju2]

Lol found a tweet that summarizes the stupidity of Barcelona management (well Bartomeu in particular)

Another reason to hate Barca

 

[Zaddy]

Another reason to hate Bartomeu

FTFY