The 2013-2014 Football Thread

[Happybunny]

Interested to hear opinions on the Jack Wilshire comments on England eligibility?

Speaking as an American, I'm fine with any citizen of this country playing for us - regardless of whether they were born here, play here or live here. But we are largely a nation of immigrants. Obviously the culture is different in much of Europe. But pretty much every top international team has at least one or two members with recent immigrant ancestry.

I will put my 2 cents in here. I do know that this incident is about the UK, but it does have implications for all countries and all sports.

I think there is a very big difference between children of immigrants born and breed, playing for their new homeland. To persons who by residency alone can claim citizenship, I do think that this is a very backdoor way of selecting talent. If this becomes the norm I do think that it could be misused, countries going to the third world to look for talent, then grant them immigration rights.


I am old enough to remember the Zola Budd controversy.



I do realise because of wide spread immigration we cannot go back to how it was. But I do think that the people selected to play for a country at international level, should have more than just 5 years residency.

 

[Fizzoid]

Just read this on the BBC's gossip page

QPR boss Harry Redknapp has revealed that he used his pet dogs to cajole midfielder Amdy Faye into joining Portsmouth from Auxerre in 2003.

I haven't read the actual Daily Mail article it linked to, but presumably it goes into how Harry's dogs were actually bankrolling Portsmouth...

 

[oscillatewildly]

...

I am old enough to remember the Zola Budd controversy.

I do realise because of wide spread immigration we cannot go back to how it was. But I do think that the people selected to play for a country at international level, should have more than just 5 years residency.

Grandad,

Five years is a long time in sport. Given the player meets the qualifying period, the focus has to be the reason; some have a genuine desire to play for a country that's taken them in, but as you mention, plenty of room for shenanigans.

---

Januzaj:

It will be interesting to see how he copes with being a marked man. I like the way he glides and how he trys to take the player on rather than heading back to the halfway line. He's also not bad at striking the ball - decent goal v Bolton Wanderers in the Manchester Senior Cup. Doubt he'll play for England.

Cheers,
OW

 

[Happybunny]

Grandad,

Five years is a long time in sport. Given the player meets the qualifying period, the focus has to be the reason; some have a genuine desire to play for a country that's taken them in, but as you mention, plenty of room for shenanigans.

---

Januzaj:

It will be interesting to see how he copes with being a marked man. I like the way he glides and how he trys to take the player on rather than heading back to the halfway line. He's also not bad at striking the ball - decent goal v Bolton Wanderers in the Manchester Senior Cup. Doubt he'll play for England.

Cheers,
OW

It was for that reason that I was not 100% against it.

 

[swiftaw]

Meanwhile, in south Wales, Cardiff City's Head of Recruitment Iain Moody has had his chair kicked. His bizarre replacement is a 23-year old kid with no prior football experience, who will now have responsibility for overseeing Cardiff's January transfer dealings. He's also - by a quite remarkable coincidence - bezzie mates with owner Vincent Tan's son.

You couldn't make it up.

Turns out that the kid's previous job was as a painter, painting the Cardiff City stadium. I know it's the Daily Mail, but there is a story saying that the club asked Mackay to resign: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/fo...2/Malky-Mackay-asked-resign-Cardiff-City.html

Isn't this starting to feel like the Venky's situation all over again?

 

[Happybunny]

Uefa explores internationals shake-up with Nations League plan

Uefa is considering a radical overhaul of international football that would see national teams playing a new Nations League competition.

The idea, floated at executive committee meetings that preceded aUefa meeting in Dubrovnik last month, would see Uefa using existing dates for friendlies in the international calendar to launch a new league involving all 54 member nations.

Uefa sources have told the Guardian that the idea was one of several floated at the meeting as part of a discussion about how to improve the attractiveness of international football from 2018 onwards. The Uefa executive committee will now examine the idea in more detail before deciding whether to adopt it.

The new concept, first revealed by Norwegian paper Dagbladet, would see all Uefa's members divided into a series of perhaps nine divisions based on their recent results, with promotion and relegation following each round of matches.


http://www.theguardian.com/football/2013/oct/10/uefa-internationals-nations-league-friendlies

http://www.nu.nl/sport/3599328/uefa-overweegt-oefeninterlands-af-schaffen.html

I have since a good few years thought that the idea of friendly matches was redundant. Maybe this is the way forward

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Exciting half-time news as England take on Montenegro - we're having sticky toffee pudding.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Meanwhile, a foreigner has just scored for England. I can't imagine Jack Wilshere is too impressed with that.

 

[twietee]

Glad Belgium made it. Would really like to see them more often. Young and hungry.

Meanwhile, Germany - Ireland was boring as hell.

 

[Happybunny]

Well tonight we not only qualified for Brazil but we did in style.

Netherlands 8 Hungary 1

This was like the old days of Dutch football of the 1970's a 9 man attack, with the underlying idea, if we have the ball you can't score. For long periods the only player in the Dutch half was the Dutch goalkeeper. Some times he got so bored he was half way up the pitch a la Pete Schrijvers.
RvP scored a hat trick and is now top scorer for the national team.

The press conference has been strange, the press really do hate Louis van Gaal with a white hot zeal, but the results are so good they have to play nice. There is a sea of very strained smiling faces in the press room, with a major whiff of hypocrisy.

 

[Happybunny]

Glad Belgium made it. Would really like to see them more often. Young and hungry.

Without a doubt Belgium are going to be a difficult team to beat, a lot of talent coming together at the right time.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Without a doubt Belgium are going to be a difficult team to beat, a lot of talent coming together at the right time.

Belgium could be a dark horse at the WC. They have enough quality to cause even the best teams major problems. I would not be shocked to see them in the quarter finals or semifinals, depending on what the draws look like (and assuming they avoid injury woes).

 

[SactoGuy18]

Speaking of which, who IS the favorite team to win the World Cup in 2014? I think right now everyone's favorite is still Spain....

 

[pachyderm]

Belgium could be a dark horse at the WC. They have enough quality to cause even the best teams major problems. I would not be shocked to see them in the quarter finals or semifinals, depending on what the draws look like (and assuming they avoid injury woes).

100% agreed. Or the US...

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Speaking of which, who IS the favorite team to win the World Cup in 2014? I think right now everyone's favorite is still Spain....

Argentina have been mentioned often as perhaps the strongest contender. Spain are still more or less the best team in the world at the moment. You can never count out Germany, either. I'd say at least one of those three will be in the final.

Brazil are going to be difficult to call I think. They are, after all, Brazil...always contenders, but less well known as a squad to Europeans. And this time they are hosts, which adds a new factor into the equation. They don't have to qualify, so we won't see them playing in competitive matches until the World Cup itself - this could hurt them.

100% agreed. Or the US...

The quarterfinals are definitely a realistic goal for us. A semifinal appearance would not be impossible if we play our best and get a favorable draw. We should have been able to beat Ghana last time in the round of 16.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

I confidently predict that, assuming we qualify, England won't be winning it.

 

[Happybunny]

Neither will the Netherlands, we are always the bridesmaid.

 

[Jaffa Cake]

Neither will the Netherlands, we are always the bridesmaid.

At least you get to wear a nice dress.

At this wedding we're the old aunt who likes to remind people she was a bit of a looker back in the Sixties, but has really, really let herself go over the years.

 

[Happybunny]

Every 2 years half of the Netherlands gets to look like this for a few weeks.

On a more serious note Belgium are a counter attack team. They really only shine when the other team makes all the play, and they can sit back and hit them on the break. But they are very difficult to beat, as they have a great defense.

 

[SactoGuy18]

I'm not buying the Argentine team given Lionel Messi's somewhat mixed performance in the World Cup. Great club player, but great national team player, I have my doubts.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I'm not buying the Argentine team given Lionel Messi's somewhat mixed performance in the World Cup. Great club player, but great national team player, I have my doubts.

Popular wisdom says that Messi underperforms for Argentina, but his stats on Argentina duty are still very good. Moreover, a quick glance at their Wikipedia page confirms that the Argentina national team's roster is world class. I might hesitate to call them favorites myself, but are they capable of winning the World Cup? Absolutely. They have to be in the top 3-5 contenders at minimum.

 

[SactoGuy18]

Speaking of which, those who have access to ESPN in the USA have got to see the Seattle Sounders FC vs. Portland Timbers MLS game at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland, OR (it's going on as I type this). Gawd, the atmosphere of the game is probably the closest thing I've seen to a Bundesliga game in the USA--banners everywhere (including the really big ones common in Germany), a completely full stadium, and the entire crowd chanting.

 

[twietee]

Sure the Latin Americans will have some advantage because of the climate?

Happybunny, Germany was 2010 a fine team, but the excelled as counter attackers. I hope Belgium can play this role now (still need luck though).

 

[pachyderm]

Speaking of which, those who have access to ESPN in the USA have got to see the Seattle Sounders FC vs. Portland Timbers MLS game at Jeld-Wen Field in Portland, OR (it's going on as I type this). Gawd, the atmosphere of the game is probably the closest thing I've seen to a Bundesliga game in the USA--banners everywhere (including the really big ones common in Germany), a completely full stadium, and the entire crowd chanting.

one of my footy mates is from there. he has said as much. IMHO, prolly the best place to watch football in the States.

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Yes, yes, they are passionate about their football up in the Pacific Northwest. They are also the most sanctimonious, holier-than-thou football fans in the US - constantly looking down their noses at "small market", "Johnny-come-lately" teams like Columbus. Always preaching about their superior tradition.

I'll admit it, I'm jealous. Not of their beards, microbrew fetishism, rain and arrogance. But it would be nice to fill our stadium for every match.