Hello folks,

So far we have 7 players qualified for the next round:

ARGENTINA: Alfredo DiStefano + Diego Maradona

FRANCE: Michel Platini + Zinedine Zidane

UNITED KINGDOM: George Best

GERMANY: Franz Beckenbauer + Oliver Kahn

Our next stop is ITALY. Here are the nominees for BEST ITALIAN FOOTBALLER OF ALL TIMES. (vote on the pool on the left side of this post)

Alessandro Del Piero

 

Dino Zoff

 

 

Fabio Cannavaro

 

 

Franco Baresi

 

 

Gianfranco Zola

 

 

Gianni Rivera

 

 

Giuseppe Meazza

 

 

Luigi Riva

 

 

Paolo Maldini

 

 

Valentino Mazzola

 

 

 

* IF YOU'RE NOT ITALIAN OR IF YOU SIMPLY DON'T KNOW SOME OF THE NOMINEES ABOVE JUST SEARCH FOR INFO ABOUT THEM ON THE INTERNET AND YOU WILL BE ABLE TO JUDGE BETTER... IT'S FUN TO KNOW ABOUT THIS SH*T TOO

 

You can vote on the POLL WIDGET on top left side of this post. And don't forget to leave your comments if you want to enter the draw for a REPLICA RETRO FOOTBALL STRIP!

 

 

 

CONTEST RULES:

"I separated the best players (the ones that people most argue about) into countries or categories. Some countries like Brazil, Argentina, Italy, Germany, England ... will be a category on their own and some countries with less entries will form a group category. You will have 2 week to submit your votes for each category and after that the 2 top voted players will move to a next round. In the end of the whole process we will be able to find out who are the top 10 best players of all times. And if you also decide to leave a comment on the my blog posts revealing your opinion about the players in that category your name will be on a raffle for a chance to win a Retro Football Strip Replica... It will be a prize from me for your participation."

I decided to watch Roma vs. Real Madrid simply because both teams have a style of football that pleases me a lot. Even though Madrid played without Robinho I would have the chance to see Robben, Sergio Ramos, Casillas. Raul, Van Nilsterooy and Julio Baptista and on the other side I really like the way Roma plays. Mancini, Totti, Pizzaro, Juan... I knew this would be a great game.
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The first half was not as good as it could be but Robben was the differential. At the 8th minute he started the play that ended with Raul putting the ball inside Doni's net. Real was up by 1 and looked pretty comfortable in the game.

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The problem is that "Los Merengues" miss Robinho very much. Mainly because he is the one able to cause defenses to collapse simply by moving without the ball. And when he has it he is able to take defenders easily and create spaces for Raul and Van Nilsterooy. Without him Real Madrid was not able to transform its first half superiority into goals.

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So that at the minute 24th Pizarro scored Roma's equalizer confirming that if don't score when you have the chance you end up boosting your opponent's morale.

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Pizarro celebrating his goal .

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And then came the second half. Roma came back a different team. Still the same players but with a different spirit. At minute 12 Mancini did what he does best. Coming on the left side in an individual play he shoots and puts the home team on the lead..

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After the goal, Roma became a little bit more cautious and Real Madrid still wasn't able to be really dangerous. Even though the (fanatical) "Diario Marca" states that the result was unfair I honestly didn't think so.

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In football you got to transform superiority into opportunities and those into goals. Real Madrid didn't but Roma did.

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