The World Football Thread

[ScouseFox]

bloody love the englund

[spacemunky]

1 hour ago, Walkers said:

I wish supporting a country was down to choice. If it was I can't think of many countries that would be below England on my wish list. Nothing to do with the management or squad but the sheer negativity amongst fans is unbearable, justified criticism or not. Somebody on twitter reassured all it was only a friendly just after we took the lead, ended the night with absolutely nothing good to say

To make you feel better....

 

I'm watching the friendly between us(Canada) and Curacao in Montreal. It's 1-1 with about 5 minutes to play. Curacao is a small island in the Caribbean with a population of 158K(about 40K less than my average sized city). 

 

We are supposed to co-host the 2026 WC, which would give us automatic entry. I think we should be the first country ever to decline that.

 

edit: We just missed a penalty.

 

edit #2: We scored to make it 2-1.

 

Still, we suck 

[Stinkenzo]

11 minutes ago, spacemunky said:

We are supposed to co-host the 2026 WC, which would give us automatic entry. I think we should be the first country ever to decline that.

 

 

 

 

I would still rather support Canada though.

 

And probably Curacao

[spacemunky]

2 minutes ago, Walkers said:

 

 

I would still rather support Canada though.

 

And probably Curacao

I do feel your pain. 

 

Every WC and Euro I fly my St George's Cross on my car. Get the shirt on, have high hopes and it's always the same result.

 

I also support Ireland(via my grandfather) and that's actually more fun. Never have any expectations and often exceed them. Plus the Irish always look like their having fun, unlike......

[spacemunky]

Didn't realize...

 

Fifa rankings:

 

70. Curacao

 

109. Canada

 

What a huge win! We are legend! 

[m4DD0gg]

Watched second half of England match. Same old clueless crap.

 

We are going to get battered next summer on and off the pitch.

[boots60]

9 hours ago, boots60 said:

The video refs will cause no end of grief in the future. First important decision & they fecked up.

 

9 hours ago, yorkie1999 said:

Which one was that

Penalty - Probably not

Sending off - Very unlucky to go

 

Forget "The letter of the law" if that was a sending off I fear for the future. Football will become a non contact sport. A referee can sometimes get it wrong, no excuse for 2 officials watching on a screen. 

 

 

 

[MC Prussian]

This is the moment where Dele Alli trips over his own two feet.

 

Varane even makes every attempt at avoiding contact!

Edited 14 June 2017 by MC Prussian

[Captain...]

Watched the match last night Had the match on last night I did see some positives, the first goal was well worked and we had some other chances, but we are still a team with no identity I think that Southgate is at least trying something and a friendly against good opposition is a good time to try out a back 3, but I don't understand why play Trippier and AOC when they are not going to be first choice, if you are playing a back 3 set up to make it work. You don't get any useful information out of a friendly if you make too many changes.

 

One other problem we have is we don't have any players that take the game by the scruff of the neck, they can all pass, shoot, tackle, run around but when you need someone to step up and dictate a game, like Pogba did, we don't have anyone, the reason is that in every top premier league club the go to guy when the chips are down are foreign. Chelsea look to Hazard, Liverpool look to Coutinho, Arsenal look to Ozil and Sanchez, Man City look to Silva, De Bruyne, Aguero, United look to Zlatan. The exception is Spurs who look to Alli but when a game is going away from you he rarely turns it round, he is more likely to punch someone or dive than really take control of a game like Gerrard, Lampard, Beckham could and force a result. Alli is great when you are on top but has Spurs flaky mentality. When Spurs needed something in the second leg against Ghent what did Alli do? Get himself sent off.

 

Don't  get me wrong I think Alli is a great player but he has a way to go before he can be the guy that we look to make something happen.

[Captain...]

23 minutes ago, MC Prussian said:

This is the moment where Dele Alli trips over his own two feet.

 

Varane even makes every attempt at avoiding contact!

I didn't think it was as clear cut as the commentators were making out, every time I saw it I was unsure, but the commentators were praising the ref and the technology  like it was obvious. I didn't see much contact, but he could have clipped his ankle causing hi to trip over his own feet.

 

Either way a red was not deserved, he didn't stick a leg out or make any noticeable action towards Alli, Alli cut across him and "got clipped" penalty was probably right, but not a red.

[Col city fan]

5 minutes ago, Captain... said:

I didn't think it was as clear cut as the commentators were making out, every time I saw it I was unsure, but the commentators were praising the ref and the technology  like it was obvious. I didn't see much contact, but he could have clipped his ankle causing hi to trip over his own feet.

 

Either way a red was not deserved, he didn't stick a leg out or make any noticeable action towards Alli, Alli cut across him and "got clipped" penalty was probably right, but not a red.

i couldnt believe it was a red card. and still cant now tbh.

It was a good job for us that it was. I think we'd have lost by three clear goals last night if it stayed 11 v 11

[Captain...]

24 minutes ago, Col city fan said:

i couldnt believe it was a red card. and still cant now tbh.

It was a good job for us that it was. I think we'd have lost by three clear goals last night if it stayed 11 v 11

I don't agree, I think we knew what we were doing against 11 men, as soon as we went to 10 v 11 and the players were expected to adapt to a new environment they all looked clueless, couldn't work out whether to attack and take advantage of the extra man or keep our shape or start pressing they all just went into their shells hoping someone else would take responsibility.

 

If I was Southgate I would have asked the ref to withdraw the red card, they wanted to try out the formation in a normal game 11 vs 11  see how the back 3 held up against a very talented attack. We learned nothing after the red card other than we are unable to adapt to different scenarios.

Edited 14 June 2017 by Captain...

[Col city fan]

34 minutes ago, Captain... said:

I don't agree, I think we knew what we were doing against 11 men, as soon as we went to 10 v 11 and the players were expected to adapt to a new environment they all looked clueless, couldn't work out whether to attack and take advantage of the extra man or keep our shape or start pressing they all just went into their shells hoping someone else would take responsibility.

 

If I was Southgate I would have asked the ref to withdraw the red card, they wanted to try out the formation in a normal game 11 vs 11  see how the back 3 held up against a very talented attack. We learned nothing after the red card other than we are unable to adapt to different scenarios.

That's what i thought would be written tbh.

Again, I dont agree. The French finished the first half flying. They then fell asleep (for the penno) and then couldn't score again until later in the game, probably due to just being down on numbers.

I maintain, a complete French side in that second half (if the penno hadnt led to a red) would have mullered us by more goals imo. They were head and shoulders better than us.

I do agree though that Southgate didnt change anything and he should have.

Edited 14 June 2017 by Col city fan

[Captain...]

1 minute ago, Col city fan said:

That's what i thought would be written tbh.

Again, I dont agree. The French finished the first half flying. They then fell asleep (for the penno) and then couldn't score again until later in the game, probably due to just being down on numbers.

I maintain, a complete French side in that second half (if the penno hadnt led to a red) would have mullered us by more goals imo. They were head and shoulders better than us.

I wouldn't say head and shoulders better, maybe just head. Their goals in the first half were both fortunate in that they came from mistakes and then good saves going straight to a French player. The had the beating of us in the midfield, Pogba was class and Kante was Kante, up  against AOC and Dier who were both poor, despite that we had some good breaks and created a few chances the goal, Sterling should have scored, and he could have a penalty.

 

Whilst France didn't create much, aside from the goals, in the first half, second half we got the pen they got a red and we turned into headless chickens out there, no idea how to handle having an extra man and I don't remember us having a chance of note. The  terribleness of the second half has over shadowed what was a reasonable first half performance.

 

The other thing that happened was Giroud went off and instead of big strong centre forward to deal with our defence had players running at them from deep, which they just couldn't deal with.

[purpleronnie]

England remain a team unable to adapt, the players are unintelligent footballers, which is one of the reasons they never do well.

 

We looked like we had 10 men not France.

 

 

 

 

[Dan LCFC]

16 hours ago, Walkers said:

I wish supporting a country was down to choice. If it was I can't think of many countries that would be below England on my wish list. Nothing to do with the management or squad but the sheer negativity amongst fans is unbearable, justified criticism or not. Somebody on twitter reassured us all it was only a friendly just after we took the lead, ended the night with absolutely nothing good to say

The negativity of fans is natural when the team keeps failing and there is never any proper desire to put that right.

[Mike Oxlong]

Argentine football player gives opponent the needle

• 3 hours ago
•  
• From the section Latin America & Caribbean

•  
• Share

Image copyrightAFP Image captionColombian striker Juan Otero (second from the left) was Allende's main target

An Argentine football player has caused outrage after admitting that he used a needle to hurt his rivals during a cup match on Sunday.

Federico Allende, a defender for lower-division club Sport Pacifico, bragged in a radio interview about using the needle several times against strikers from top-division club Estudiantes.

Allende said that players had to be clever in order to win.

Pacifico's president Hector Moncada vowed to expel the player.

"We are devastated. This incident has tarnished the team's good work. I will expel him from the club," Mr Moncada told Clarín newspaper.

Pacifico won the match 3-2, knocking Estudiantes out of the competition in a major upset.

The players were received like heroes in the small western town of General Alvear when they returned from Buenos Aires, where the match was played.

'He must hate me'

But the good atmosphere soon turned into bad news.

Allende gave Cordoba's Vorterix Radio an interview on Tuesday in which he said "you need to play dirty" to beat big clubs like Estudiantes de La Plata.

"I kept piercing the Estudiantes strikers with a needle," said the Pacifico defender.

"We know that top division players don't like contact, they don't like if we waste time or if we play dirty. So that was the way to do it. Football is like that. Football is for the clever," Allende said.

South American football expert Tim Vickery told the BBC that Allende had hidden two needles in his shin guards. One broke but, when the referee was at the other end of the field, Allende used the other to poke Colombian striker Juan Otero several times.

Otero complained to the referee during the match but to no avail.

Tim Vickery says there is "a beautiful romanticism" about South American football but there is also another side where you do what you can get away with.

Allende said on the radio: "I completely nullified Otero. He must hate me."

After hearing the interview, Otero described Allende as "a nasty man". 

 

 

 

 

What a  pr1ck    

 

 

Edited 15 June 2017 by Mike Oxlong

[StanSP]

is it me or is that Veron 2nd in from the right?!

[KingsX]

Laudatory article about Bruce Arena’s impact on the USMNT.   Some striking parallels with the Shakey situation, both starting in extremis with conservative returns to basics, causing some feeling that the football was too negative and lacked ambition.  Not easy to make a case against either man’s early results though !

 

When Bruce Arena took over the U.S. men's national team in late November, he inherited a squad in disarray. The Americans found themselves in last place of the final round of CONCACAF World Cup qualifying, mired in mediocrity and trending downward as previous manager Jurgen Klinsmann's motivational ploys and tactics lost effectiveness.

 

Arena, who coached the United States from 1998 to 2006, got the job because of his familiarity with the program and its players as well as his presumed ability to get the red, white and blue to Russia in 2018. He was the choice by necessity and by default, the best man to get the job done, but also the only one who could.

 

As a result, while his hiring was applauded as the right decision, it wasn't exactly met with overjoyed enthusiasm. The return of Arena signified a return to the past, an admission that before the Americans could move forward, they needed to go back. Arena wasn't a forward-thinking coach; he was a pragmatic one. He probably could lead the team to the World Cup but would do so by going back to the basics, leaning on athleticism and effort rather than technical ability and tactical nuance.

 

Now that Arena's side has returned eight points from four World Cup qualifiers, including an impressive draw at Mexico's soccer fortress, Estadio Azteca, on Sunday, it's time to consider that he has exceeded expectations. Not only has the coach gotten the tactics right and brought the fight back to the U.S., but he's building a blueprint for a team that could find success in 2018 and beyond.

 

the rest:

http://www.espnfc.us/team/united-states/660/blog/post/3143093/arena-has-exceeded-expectations-since-replacing-klinsmann-as-us-manager

[Darkon84]

1 hour ago, StanSP said:

is it me or is that Veron 2nd in from the right?!

Yep, still turns out for Estudiantes at 42!  

[spacemunky]

Great to have Jozy and Bradley back from intl duty.

 

Should lay a thumping on DC tonight. 

[Jattdogg]

9 minutes ago, spacemunky said:

Great to have Jozy and Bradley back from intl duty.

 

Should lay a thumping on DC tonight. 

Balls deep

[Voll Blau]

Suggestions China U20s could play in the German 4th tier. Clubs, understandably, kicking off about it.

 

Surprise surprise, UEFA have ruled RB Leipzig and Salzburg can both play in the CL too. 

[jammie82uk]

I just don't get it how on earth does this deserve a 8 game ban

[Darkon84]

23 hours ago, Voll Blau said:

Suggestions China U20s could play in the German 4th tier. Clubs, understandably, kicking off about it.

 

Surprise surprise, UEFA have ruled RB Leipzig and Salzburg can both play in the CL too. 

 

From the articles I've read, they're all in favour and the decision was unanimous? The games against them don't count towards the league anyway. They're effectively just a friendly team to play on the park when you're bored.