Lionel Messi's One-Two Passing

 Lionel Messi is the best dribbler in the world with no doubt. The ball is stuck on his foot, and he can dribble past defenders very easily. However, when there are lots of defenders, even Messi cannot dribble past them. Therefore, Messi uses simple one-two passes to get past defenders. He basically uses a moving wall to pass the ball and get it back immediately. This is really effective, but it requires extremely accurate short passes. In fact, this is a clip that shows how effective one-two passing is.



 If you watch the video you can see that Messi does not dribble at all inside the penalty box. He just uses two players to play the one-two pass and shoots when he sees the gap between the defenders. As you can see, the defenders have no chance at all. It is almost impossible to keep an eye at the player who is moving, when the ball is somewhere else. If Messi decided to dribble past everyone by himself, he would have never scored. The quality of the pass is also amazing. Since the return passes to Messi is so accurate, the defenders cannot do anything about it. If the passes were a little off target, the defenders would kick the ball away.

 If the video above was an example of Messi using his teammates who are standing still, this is a video of Messi and Iniesta actually playing the one-two passes while moving.



 Again, the passes are so accurate, and the defenders cannot do anything about it. It is just amazing how Messi and Iniesta can play the ball like that in such a tight space. Also, the way how Iniesta flicks the ball up to make a perfect scoring chance is just wonderful. As I mentioned in my last article "Xavi Hernandez's First Touch", first touch is very important to get rid of pressure. In this video, Iniesta shows not only accurate passes, but also a great first touch to give him space to shoot.

 Sometimes good dribbling skills can help you past one or two defenders, but one-two passes are the most effective way to get past 'lots' of defenders and actually break down the defence.

Effective Dribbling by Lionel Messi

 Players like Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo tend to use skills to humiliate defenders. If you are a master of skills like these players, there is no worry when you face defenders. However, not all players are talented to use skills during a match against professional defenders. Using skills look fancy, but sometimes players miss the timing to pass or shoot the ball while skilling. Also, good defenders are not humiliated easily by skills. Therefore, most players rather pass the ball to their teammates than attempting to skill defenders. Lionel Messi is different. He developed his own method of humiliating defenders. He just uses body feints to fake the defender and sprint pass them. By adding his phenomenal speed, his dribbling technique is by far the most effective way to destroy the defence. It is impossible to forget the Champions League semi-final when Lionel Messi dribbled past 5 Real Madrid defenders and scored. The technique looks quite simple, but actually your balance should be great, and it takes some time to master the technique because it is not easy to use it during a match. Also, other than dribbling, Messi is smart enough to use his teammates, and he is capable of scoring goals whenever there is an opportunity. Lionel Messi's play does not look fancy or skillful because he only uses the fastest, simplest, and the most effective way to score goals. It looks easy, but as I mentioned above, it is very difficult. This is why Lionel Messi is considered as the best football player in the world.

Cristiano Ronaldo and his Long Shots

 People always compare Cristiano Ronaldo with Lionel Messi, and most people think Lionel Messi is a better player than Ronaldo as Messi can score more goals and he has a better career than Ronaldo. Of course, this is the truth. However, Cristiano Ronaldo likes to take risks while Lionel Messi does not. Lionel Messi likes to play with his teammates trying to get closer to the goal as possible. Cristiano Ronaldo also does that most of the time, but he often tries to take some long shots from far way out. He is using the simplest idea in football. If the ball is in the back of the net, it is a goal, so if you think about it, you do not necessarily need to pass and dribble towards the goal. Just shoot, and this is Cristiano Ronaldo's idea when he takes long shots.

 As you can see, these long shots are 'legendary', just like the title. His technique is fabulous, his shot dips in front of the goal and makes the goalkeeper dumbfounded. People try to imitate his so called knuckle ball technique as it is the most effective free kick/long shot technique known. Obviously he does not score goals like these in every match. He makes mistakes and sometimes the ball just goes wide, and makes his teammates frustrated because sometimes he just shoots when it is the timing to pass the ball. However, it is important that Ronaldo 'tries', since most players do not even try to score long shots. This is the reason why Ronaldo is capable of scoring beautiful goals shown in the video. Most importantly, when these incredible long shots are scored, it makes 'us' enjoy the beauty of football.