johnnyrocket - MyTwoCents
Daily sports briefs | Lionel Messi's 700th career goal, Manchester United on the rise and another twitter spat involving controversial tennis ace Nick Kyrgios.
MESSI SEALS 700TH GOAL ... WITH CHEEKY PANEKA
Nerves? None for Lionel Messi as he nailed his 700th career goal with a cheeky paneka penalty in Barca's 2-2 draw with Atletico Madrid. Messi joined the exclusive 700 club (630 goals for Barca, 70 for Argentina in 862 games) putting him in 7th place in the all-time list. Gerd Muller (735 goals/793 games) is ahead of him in 6th with Cristiano Ronaldo (725/1002) in 5th, Ferenc Puskas (746/754) in 4th, Pele (767/831) in third, Romario (772/994) in second and Czech Josef Bican with 805 goals in 530 games as the all-time leading goal-scorer. Bet you didn't know that ...
MYTWOCENTS VERDICT: Either Messi or Ronaldo will end up as the all-time top goal-scorers with Messi as slight favourite due to his edge in age 33 vs 35. That said Ronaldo has extreme fitness levels that could see him playing through to at least 40 years old. CR7 could easily score the remaining 81 goals required to take top spot within the next two seasons.
RED DEVILS ON THE UP
Manchester United fans should start getting excited again as the Red Devils extended their unbeaten run to 15 games with a classy 3-0 away win over Brighton on Tuesday night. It was not just the result, but the manner in which they completely tore Brighton apart that was encouraging. United have uncovered a future legend in 18-year-old Mason Greenwood; Bruno Fernandes has been key in unlocking his team's creative instincts while Paul Pogba's return has added an extra level of quality.
MYTWOCENTS VERDICT: The team finally looks more settled and is certainly on the rise after the damage caused by Jose Mourinho. United's outstanding third goal showed how much they have grown as team this season. They could probably do with one more out-and-out striker and another central defender but are very slowly closing the gap on the top two in Man City and Liverpool. Next season should see a close battle for third between themselves and Chelsea.
BECKER AND KYRGIOS IN TWITTER SPAT
Tennis legend Boris Becker and "legend-in-his-own-mind" Nick Kyrgios engaged in a twitter row on Monday. Becker took exception to Kyrgios calling out fellow German Alexander Zverev for his lack of social distancing during Covid-19.
"Don't like no #rats ! Anybody telling off fellow sportsman/woman is no friend of mine! Look yourself in the mirror and think you're better than us...@NickKyrgios," Becker tweeted.
Kyrgios returned with a volley of his own by calling Becker a doughnut and insulting his intelligence.
"@TheBorisBecker is a bigger doughnut than I thought. Can hit a volley, obviously not the sharpest tool in the shed though."
MYTWOCENTS VERDICT: Fresh from calling Novak Djokovic a "bone head", Kyrgios is again on the rampage with an opinion on just about everything. Becker edges this one by wisely telling Kyrgios to take a good look in the mirror before dishing out bombs.