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2009-10 Football Thread

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Jaffa Cake said:
Well done that Jozy - good to see he'll be returning to Englandshire with a winning (and goalscoring) mentality.
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I thought he was one of our best players on the day, and I'm expecting good things from the boy in the future.

Jaffa Cake said:
Incidentally, I treated myself earlier - our local sports emporium had a variety of foreign club shirts for sale cheap, and lo and behold they just so happened to have a Crew away shirt in my size! I couldn't resist... ;)
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Really? That's amazing - I'm actually shocked an MLS shirt would make it over that side of the pond. Awesome! Nice to know our colors are traveling the world a little.

Mitthrawnuruodo said:
Yeah, I'm eagerly expecting a lengthy ban for that one: Not only did he dive, but he actually tore the shirt of and put his spikes into the poor Slovenian's ankle. Should probably have been a yellow card and free kick the other way, and Shrek managed to whine himself into a penalty.
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I have to admit that, being of half Slovenian heritage (and I like the shirt design too), I was hoping for a bit of an upset and am proud that my distant cousins managed to score. For shame Rooney! Looks like the Slovenians are too "honest" to dive. :D
 
Rather pleasingly, this evening England's Ladies have made their way into the European Championship Final after an extra-time victory over the Netherlands. Hurrah!

Unfortunately, our progress seems to be attracting pretty scant coverage in the media here. :eek:
 
Jaffa Cake said:
Rather pleasingly, this evening Engand's Ladies have made their way into the European Chamoionship Final after an extra-time victory over the Netherlands. Hurrah!

Unfortunately, our progress seems to be attracting pretty scant coverage in the media here. :eek:
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Just saw the highlights on TV. It's like football in slow motion.
 
More World Cup qualifying action action tomorrow...but I do miss the league matches.

Somehow, Columbus' star midfielder ended up in this weird advert for the Volkswagen Junior Masters Soccer Tournament. :eek:

I guess what the sponsors want, the sponsors get. You'd have to pay me a tidy sum to do that on camera.
 
Oh no. Oh no oh no ohno. Scotland beat Macedonia 2-0. Which should be a good thing, but the problem is they played really well in the second half and it's now giving us hope. :rolleyes:We might qualify for the World Cup after all, it comes down to tonight as weirdly our group plays our final games tonight.

Netherlands 21 pionts
Scotland 10 points
Macedonia 7 points
Norway 7 points

So all we have to do is ermm... take points from The Netherlands tonight at Hampden. Not easy, however they've got an unfortunate habbit of loosing their last game once they've already qualified (last 3 major tournaments) but even if they put out a team of reserves tonight that's a group of hopefulls trying to impress the coach to get on the world cup squad! Gulp!

So if we beat Netherlands (oh I crack myself up sometimes!) we'll get 2nd spot and pretty much guaranteed a place in the play offs (rank 6-8).

If we draw against Netherlands, we'll get 2nd spot BUT! There are only 13 European teams going to South Africa, so thats the 9 group winners and 4 teams from 2nd place. So the worst 2nd place team doesn't get a play-off place, and to confuse it further Scotland's group has less teams that the others so results against the bottom of the table team don't count. So a draw will give us 2nd spot but it will be touch and go as we'd be rank 7-9 of the second place teams. We'd have to wait until all the other games finish in October, if we qualify it would probably be at the expense or Northern Ireland or the Repulic of Ireland.

If Netherlands beat us.... well here's the science bit. If Norway beat Macedonia then Norway will be 2nd on goal difference. They will probably be ranked 8 or 9th of second place teams so still might not qualify. If Macedonia beat Norway they will be 2nd on goal difference but will probably be ranked 9th place of second place teams so won't qualify. Best result for Scotland is for those two to draw, then Scotland would be 2nd but again probably ranked 9th and won't qualify.

The Wikipedia page explains it quite well:confused:


And if you missed James McFadden's goal on Saturday, have a look at this::)
 
Well, that's clear as mud. :D

Scotland have a big job ahead in beating the Netherlands, the worst part will be having to wait and see if second place turns out to be good enough...

France v Serbia looks like it will also be a tasty match. England v Croatia is pay-per-view over here for some reason, 25 bucks, I'll just read the recap thank you very much. USA v Trinidad & Tobago will be my main event, should be three points for us and we go top of our group if we win.

EDIT: bumping into another futbol fan here is uncommon, but I had a funny run-in at the grocery store with a Chelsea fan. A gruff, middle-aged man with lots of tattoos and an extremely powerful Australian accent, I turned a corner and saw the back of his J. Cole shirt. I asked if he was watching any matches today, and he mumblingly replied he was golfing instead. He sounded bored...
 
Good luck for tonight, Fuzzy - with the Dutch already qualified I can say that without any divided loyalties (I've Dutch family ;)).

We're on holiday at the moment in Berwick, so we're surrounded by Scots. We'll see what mood they're in in the morning...
 
Condolences to the Scots, it sounded like a good contest with some tantalizing opportunities, and Marshall seems to have done well in goal...Norway will be second - with just 10 points though, which means they will likely miss the cut. Is this the end of the line for Burley?

England with a convincing win but another late concession that will leave Capello livid...Croatia did not look like the squad that beat England a couple years ago, to be fair.

I could be jumping the gun here, but it appears that Capello has found a way to get Lampard and Gerrard to play together...? Hmmm....
 
Funny, we just said the same thing, that Capello's not going to be happy we conceded a goal, even though we scored 5. For the simple reason that we quite clearly outplayed Croatia, we let a bit of a sloppy goal in, and he's all about discipline.
 
It's hard to argue with him in the sense that in a match against, say, Brazil or Spain, you won't be scoring 5. So that late concession could be a huge factor.

Still a good match for England, and by now it seems Capello has the total trust of the English. Things have changed a bit since 2006 - France, Italy and Argentina look a bit ragged. Brazil now plays "Dunga Football", a counter-attacking style that is effective but the locals don't like it. Spain is still riding high, and Germany look solid if unspectacular. England look set for a pretty good campaign at the moment - though there is almost a year to go, and LOT can and will happen in that time..

As for USA, I'll comment after tonight's match...
 
Lord Blackadder said:
Norway will be second - with just 10 points though, which means they will likely miss the cut.
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He-he... I think we teoretically can go through...but that would require San Marino to beat Slovenia, or something, and add some...I haven't really bothered finding out the precise sequence of events needed.

I don't think that's very likely... </candidate for understatement of the year>

:D
 
USA 1 - 0 Trinidad & Tobago

A dull match and a very flat performance from USA - I thought Clint Dempsey in particular had a poor game. The defense was inconsistent, Tim Howard was called into action too much. Altidore and Davies look like they continue to develop their strike partnership well, but it took a long-range Ricardo Clark strike to hand us the points.

T&T are not the minnows that Andorra & San Marino are by a long shot, but I expected a more emphatic win. One thing's for sure, if we bring the form we showed tonight to Honduras in the next qualifier we will probably be beaten.

Still, three points and top of the group does nicely...

Mitthrawnuruodo said:
I don't think that's very likely... </candidate for understatement of the year>

:D
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Ha, well, it's out of your hands now anyway, but who knows?

EDIT: Argentina fall 0-1 to Paraguay...shocking happenings in South America. Argentina will be in a dogfight just to get the playoff spot! I would not want to be Diego Maradona just now...not that I expect to hear much sympathy from the resident Brits here...;)
 
Well congratulations Mitthrawnuruodo, you lot came from a long way back to take 2nd place, but I'm not sure if it's enough. Macedonia gave us a late scare, thought they were going to equalise.

As for Scotland, they put on a good show but only we know how to go out of competitions in unusual ways. Not sure if Burley will go, only 12 games in charge and the usual is for two failed campains. Besides, who would replace him? Souness? Hope not.

As for Jaffa's revelation, now we know the secret of his smashing orangey bit.:rolleyes: And while I thank the English for their support (I'm always surprised how much support the Scottish team actually receive from the English) and congratulations on qualifying, I'm sorry but next summer is going to be absolutely unbearable for us, especially the TV commentators (already heard one today England are favourites to win:confused:)
 
Of course we'll win the World Cup - we're the Greatest Team In The World, don't you know. ;) :rolleyes:

The key advantage of playing in a hot country like South Africa is that there's liable to be plenty of sand for us to stick our heads in when considering our chances...
 
Capello is a World Cup quality manager I think...are England a World Cup-winning team? As Capello himself said, England are not the best team out there. I think they could be solid a semifinalist though, and maybe even squeak to the final with a little luck. Spain still looks better, as does Brazil, while Germany and Italy are still real contenders as well. And, despite the turmoil, you can't count out Argentina, as long as they qualify.

I want to see the USA make an impression in the knockout phase of the tournament, and I want to have a better showing than rivals Mexico this time around.
 
Once you've chosen a team you're in it for the long haul...so I'm always going to be for Liverpool when it comes to English football. I picked Liverpool before I knew much at all about football, and in fact the first several matches I watched were all losses. I think the choices are either you stick with a team or become a neutral. Probably my biggest moment was watching Liverpool lose the Champions League final in 2007. A huge emotional roller coaster. It also proves I'm a Johnny-come-lately. :eek:

If I ever make it to the UK I'll definitely have to visit Liverpool, but I'll keep my No. 8 Gerrard shirt at home and play the American...

Anyway, I have to say my real home team is the Columbus Crew - I've been to a bunch of matches, met the players on the street, and so on. It's a small glimpse of what it must be like for European football fans who grow up with a football team, as I did with baseball and NFL football.
 
Did anyone watch the women's European final?

England played well but the German's are a league above the rest of the world so there was only really ever going to be one result.
 
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