All things Football (soccer) related

[VPaulus]

ORIGINAL: loki100
At least you weren't wearing strange pink shirts when knocked out .... or have a manager who blames it all on genetics

Yeah. I read his remarks, and I couldn't believe he was being serious... [X(][:D]
Maybe he was then...

[Orm]

ORIGINAL: terje439

ORIGINAL: loki100

ORIGINAL: terje439

Bah, silly Norway [:@]

At least you weren't wearing strange pink shirts when knocked out .... or have a manager who blames it all on genetics

Ah, the silly part was beating Northern Ireland. What was the point in that? Our national team sincerely said that the matches against Azerbadjan were "really hard matches". If matches against Azerbadjan are considered hard, they have no place competing in a championship anyway, so I prefer better teams to go ahead.

But doesn't that team have to deserve the win? Apparently, this time, the better team was Norway.

And, in my humble opinion, winning against Azerbajdzjan isn't all that easy. Beating, for example, San Marino, or Gibraltar, is easy. Doing so against such teams as Azerbajdzjan takes effort and skill.

Norway, hopefully, is on the way up again. I hope that Norway is a serious challenger for the next Euro qualification tournament. [:)] And that Norway always lose against Sweden. [;)]

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: Orm

Your latest table seems better.

The previous table could not be right even though the date was a bit back. Sweden's latest match ( a few days ago) was against a team that didn't count (last placed Luxembourg). So Sweden only had one match left against a team that counted (Playing against Netherlands tomorrow). Therefore Sweden must have had 7 matches played that counted and not 6 as your table showed.

Sweden should have had 7 matches played before the Luxembourg win with 13 points on the table that I said was wrong and since that match doesn't count the stats could not have changed. Sweden should have had the same stats in both tables. And, to me, it looked like there were other errors as well.

warspite1

Well I am not here to defend UEFA's official website and the information they produce. Coming from the source it does, I think it reasonable to assume that they would have got the information correct. But if they haven't then I can only suggest you to take it up with them [;)]

That said, I still think it is correct at the time of publication. At that time (and before the demolition by Holland that massacred their goal difference even more, the bottom team was not Luxembourg, it was Belarus - whom Sweden had played twice. Holland's goal difference was +3 in that table - and is now +11 i.e. after the 8-0.

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: VPaulus

ORIGINAL: loki100
At least you weren't wearing strange pink shirts when knocked out .... or have a manager who blames it all on genetics

Yeah. I read his remarks, and I couldn't believe he was being serious... [X(][:D]
Maybe he was then...

Worryingly he seems to have meant what he said ... on so many levels a truly depressing comment

[warspite1]

ORIGINAL: loki100

ORIGINAL: VPaulus

ORIGINAL: loki100
At least you weren't wearing strange pink shirts when knocked out .... or have a manager who blames it all on genetics

Yeah. I read his remarks, and I couldn't believe he was being serious... [X(][:D]
Maybe he was then...

Worryingly he seems to have meant what he said ... on so many levels a truly depressing comment

warspite1

I'm pretty certain that Graham Taylor said something along those lines - although without mentioning genetics in fairness - when we lost to Norway. He complained that England lost because the Norwegians were bigger... yeah maybe... or maybe because he chose to play three centre backs at left back or some old nonsense.....

[Orm]

Warspite1, I surrender. I have forgotten that we only had a 1-0 win in the first game against Luxembourg. I was stumped by the low goal difference. So that made me look closer at the table and, obviously, I failed to consider that Belarus had the last spot at that point. I thought I saw other errors as well but I didn't examine them.

I am sorry about questioning your informative tables. [:(]

[Orm]

I am not all that happy how the qualifying process are made to the World Cup. And I am not sure I will like the new qualifying system to the next Euros.

[shunwick]

Every Premier League Fan in 90 Seconds...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o00g6UYbN7A

Best wishes,
Steve

[loki100]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

ORIGINAL: loki100

ORIGINAL: VPaulus



Yeah. I read his remarks, and I couldn't believe he was being serious... [X(][:D]
Maybe he was then...

Worryingly he seems to have meant what he said ... on so many levels a truly depressing comment

warspite1

I'm pretty certain that Graham Taylor said something along those lines - although without mentioning genetics in fairness - when we lost to Norway. He complained that England lost because the Norwegians were bigger... yeah maybe... or maybe because he chose to play three centre backs at left back or some old nonsense.....

Problem is that straChan has been playing a natural left back at right back and not using Celtics right back. In truth we didn't deserve to be in contention at the end,,.. far too many lucky results. My fear is the SFA will use 'being close' as an excuse to avoid the serious reform that Scottish football needs

[warspite1]

And so qualifying is almost over. Assuming Holland find 7-0 impossible [;)] to achieve, France aren't going to go all 'Bulgaria 1993' against Belarus, and Greece don't find a way to not beat Gibraltar, then its only Portugal v Switzerland left of interest. Portugal have to win, the Swiss just need a draw. Best wishes for that one VP [:)]

Assuming the above comes to pass, and by some miracle Bosnia don't snatch the runners up spot in Group H, the play-offs are also decided in terms of who misses out - and that is Slovakia.

For British football, and Scotland and Wales, in particular its the usual coulda, woulda, shoulda....

As things have turned out, a win for Wales and Scotland would have seen them both in the play-offs - and Northern Ireland would have made it too - just.

[VPaulus]

ORIGINAL: warspite1

And so qualifying is almost over. Assuming Holland find 7-0 impossible [;)] to achieve, France aren't going to go all 'Bulgaria 1993' against Belarus, and Greece don't find a way to not beat Gibraltar, then its only Portugal v Switzerland left of interest. Portugal have to win, the Swiss just need a draw. Best wishes for that one VP [:)]

Thanks. [:)]
If they play as well as they have played against Andorra last Saturday (I know, I know, the pitch), a draw is coming.

[Tiger360]

I can bet on it that they won't play as good as they have played against Andorra.

[terje439]

ORIGINAL: Orm

ORIGINAL: terje439

ORIGINAL: loki100




At least you weren't wearing strange pink shirts when knocked out .... or have a manager who blames it all on genetics

Ah, the silly part was beating Northern Ireland. What was the point in that? Our national team sincerely said that the matches against Azerbadjan were "really hard matches". If matches against Azerbadjan are considered hard, they have no place competing in a championship anyway, so I prefer better teams to go ahead.

But doesn't that team have to deserve the win? Apparently, this time, the better team was Norway.

And, in my humble opinion, winning against Azerbajdzjan isn't all that easy. Beating, for example, San Marino, or Gibraltar, is easy. Doing so against such teams as Azerbajdzjan takes effort and skill.

1. Norway, hopefully, is on the way up again.
2. I hope that Norway is a serious challenger for the next Euro qualification tournament. [:)]
3. And that Norway always lose against Sweden. [;)]

1. Well, considering how low we were, it is hard to go lower [:D]
2. Not going to happen. Too many of our "star" players play in lower leagues in various leagues around Europe. Too few top league players overall. And our defensive line makes the Liverpool defense look rock solid.
3. Well, there is a saying in Norway. "It is not about winning, it is about beating the Swedes" [;)]

[Orm]

Since Iceland can do it, then Norway, and Sweden, should be able to do it.

[Tiger360]

ORIGINAL: Orm

Since Iceland can do it, then Norway, and Sweden, should be able to do it.

[&o][&o]

[warspite1]

Holland 1-0 Sweden - the fightback begins [:D]

[warspite1]

So, World Cup qualifying enters its final stages in the coming months.

23 of the 32 qualifiers are known and perhaps the most notable absentees are Cameroon, Chile, Holland, and the United States.

Qualified
Russia, Germany, Brazil, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belgium, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, England, Nigeria, Poland, Egypt, Iceland, Serbia, France, Portugal, Argentina, Uruguay, Colombia and Panama.

Argentina survived a massive scare to qualify out-right, and of the remaining issues to be settled Croatia, Italy, Ivory Coast and Sweden are perhaps the biggest potential casualties.

Europe
Four to qualify out of:
Switzerland, Italy, Denmark, Croatia, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Sweden and Greece.

Africa
Three places up for grabs:
Tunisia or DR Congo
Morocco or Ivory Coast
Senegal, Burkina Faso or Cape Verde

Two play-off games make up the last two
Honduras (Concacaf) vs Australia (Asia)
Peru (South America) vs New Zealand (Oceania)

[shunwick]

Congratulations to Panama but ... what on earth have the USA been up to? Their qualifying campaign has been dreadful. Worrying...

Best wishes,
Steve

[Orm]

Panama got lucky. Sad to see that 'incident' close to the goal line be awarded as a goal.[:(]

[shunwick]

ORIGINAL: Orm

Panama got lucky. Sad to see that 'incident' close to the goal line be awarded as a goal.[:(]

The chap who was trying to head the ball across the line was having his shorts pulled off by the defender. So maybe not a goal but a good shout for a penalty. And things always happen like that in football. We all remember the Hand of God that bore an uncanny resemblance to the hand of Maradonna.

Here's some of the US reaction...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgFh729L2oA

Best wishes,
Steve