2018 World Cup (qualifiers)

[chenGOD]

Forgot to start a thread about this earlier.

Crazy weekend so far.

Absolute horror tackle from Neil Taylor on Seamus Coleman.

The most frustrating team in the world to play against is back (that's right, Greece 2004 has returned).

Netherlands making Bulgaria look good.

The French national team shows Wenger how to use Giroud properly.

 

Ronaldo gets his 70th international goal on a pretty free kick, leaving him 14 away from being tied with Puskas for leading European international goal scorer.

 

 

[dr lopez]

14 is still a lot

[cwmbrancity]

the Eire v Cymru game was 150% pulsating until that tackle, the Barry Horns had everyone bouncing, then horror

 

the hundreds of Inglan fans singing "10 German Bombers" in Germany was the real disgrace of last week, terrestrial coverage alluded to them being "in good spirits"

 

really?

 

2018 could be rascal Putin's wet dream @ this rate

[chenGOD]

14 is still a lot

 

At the rate he's going, he'll have that by the end of the year.

 

 

the Eire v Cymru game was 150% pulsating until that tackle, the Barry Horns had everyone bouncing, then horror

 

Bale was lucky not have gone for his slide into O'Shea as well.

The Irish were doing there bit as well though, I think it was Whelan who threw a vicious fucking elbow.

 

Also, you might as well not even bother with the tournament now.

2-0 over Lithuania?

 

[cwmbrancity]

Bale's looked worse at full speed, studs up yes, booking yes, but anything else is bs particularly the Irish management team pushing the Bale red card case all over the media

 

with Inglan's 3-4-3 you need better mid-fielders, Keane's passing is sweet as fuck, but a De Rossi type who can win the ball back seems away a bit yet

 

another penalty miss taker sorry Southgate said England have won 3 knock-out games in 27 years of tournament football, rubber dinghy rapids is more appropriate for England fans:

 

 

the inevitable propaganda coup is vast for this competition & FIFA insisting on Russia's hosting it is a mistake as bad as Qatar

[chenGOD]

Bale's attempt at the ball looks pretty bad no matter what speed you play it at. It's a pretty shocking attempt. If he'd done that in Spain, the entire opposition would be rolling around on the pitch.

 

i wasn't serious with the Ingerland bit btw. Pleased for Keane, he played well in his first full international (he wasn't half bad against zee Germans either) - he'll never be a Hummels, but he's a solid non-nonsense defender who's not half-bad with the ball at his feet. But fucking Gary Cahill still plays.

 

Midfield is still weak, though Lallana and Dier are decent, and Dier is only 23, so bags of time for him to up his game to the next level.  And we really don't have a quality striker. Kane maybe....maybe. Young Rashford needs to improve his striking, but he's magic running at defenders. Vardy should stick to banging thai ladyboys. The two Dans, fuck knows what's up with them. Fuck it, Defoe is back, maybe we give Lineker a colostomy bag and let him have a swipe.

 

And I'd rather us play a 3-5-2 than 3-4-3. But that's mostly to mask our deficiencies in the middle of the pitch.

[cwmbrancity]

with Inglan footy its an ingrained bias to take the piss out of your team, i'm just surprised certain governing bodies havent sanctioned your fans for the vile abuse hurled around in Germany

 

at least we know we're shit, a few ex-colleagues refuse to see the futile sense in getting hopes up when it comes to the Anglo-Saxons winning any football tournament

 

wasnt Keane a Utd youth? cant see Burnley keeping him for much longer, nearly always finds the right pass & clearly has a brain, £££ will out in the end and he'll be a better Inglan player for it, i'd lob him in the middle of a back three where that position gets more of a distribution role

 

the irony of midfielders eh, after generations of a steady production line of world class combative skilled players in these positions & all the past guff about who was the best between Scholes, Lampard & Gerrard, seems a tad sad that the right balance of those skill-sets has yet to evolve currently

 

3-5-2 was my go-to formation for International Superstar Soccer eons ago if the midfield were shit, just god help you if yer wingbacks got caught upfield, Southgate should be contacted about this vital tactical insight info immediately

[YO303]

we got fucked by brazil and lost to peru, we are still in good shape tho

 

s.america qualifiers are one of the best football competitions ever ... the argentina national team having to take viagra for their game against bolivia because of the altitude, you wont get that shit anywhere else 

[YO303]

happy for iceland

 

i'm praying for ecuador to beat argentina and peru to beat colombia, nothing will give me more pleasure than seeing argentina and colombia out of the world cup, specially since we are already qualified

[dr lopez]

agree

[sine nomine]

happy for iceland

 

i'm praying for ecuador to beat argentina and peru to beat colombia, nothing will give me more pleasure than seeing argentina and colombia out of the world cup, specially since we are already qualified

Hoping for this too, I'm Peruvian so really hopeful but it's going to be a might task!

[dr lopez]

oh god. gulati. please quit you piece of shit

[doublename]

back to pretending my family's tenuous links to brazil mean anything

 

edit -  

 

 

But when Gulati was pressed on whether wholesale changes were necessary after this debacle, he shook his head.

“So wholesale changes aren’t needed if the ball that hits off the post [from Clint Dempsey] goes in?” he said. “You don’t make wholesale changes based on the ball being two inches wide or two inches in. We’ll look at everything, obviously, and all our programs, both the national team and all the development stuff. But we’ve got a lot of pieces in place that we think are very good and have been coming along. Tonight obviously wasn’t what we hoped for.”

 

 

 sunil was at my job the other day too. apparently he coached some good regis high school teams in the 80s. 

[dr lopez]

he's mostly interested in keeping his job

[chenGOD]

FLOL though.

[YO303]

how did they fuck it up? trinidad (the worst team in the group) didnt even field their first 11, i just dont get it

 

i feel so sad for pulisic, he is one of the best young players and is going to miss the world cup 

[sine nomine]

Gee the stars aligned for Peru, won't be easy as ppl may think against Nz though. Also the controversy of Falcao influencing the Peru team to play out the last 5mins for a draw - mostly voiced by the Chilean side, (kind of irrelevant for me as I'm just overjoyed with Peru's chance at a wc appearances) coz it meant their demise - not to mention Peru's equalising goal...and Paraguay loosing at home to Venezuela...edge of your seat stuff.

[chenGOD]

Deer: they lost is how. Plus Bruce Arena shouldn't be coaching a junior rec team, never mind the US men's national side.

 

Chile has no one to blame but themselves - they lost what, 7 matches in qualifying?

Argentina just squeaking through with the talent they have on that team tells you how badly they're being managed.

[cwmbrancity]

you'd almost expect Argentina to qualify as a given, plus their female fans usually catch the male gaze of various camera-men, wins all round

 

dont envy certain teams playing next summer or the fans who follow em, even if if Cymru were a whisker away

 

it'll be like a Putin wet dream come true with associated shenanigans, the Inglan team will prob get the full brunt of it, god forbid they draw Russia in the group stages or knock outs, Russian police & firms will target Inglan fans so semi-guaranteed carnage with all the wrong headlines

 

the irony is Inglan are due some tournament success, a core group from Spurs with Kane et al & the likes of Rashford have the ability & Southgate is no Woy of the Wovers

 

but who really gives a flying fk, world cup summers are mint regardless, c'mon Eire

 

[chenGOD]

The Ireland vs Northern Ireland playoff for qualification will be spicy.

[BobDobalina]

Well ain dat a ting.  When I lived in Dublin my office had a series of friendlies with our Belfast office, which were interesting.  The matches would be arranged somewhere around the border, and I remember their office hosting the return leg on a pitch called Rangers Supporter's Stadium or something like that, lol

 

TBH I'll support either side in the main event, NI is a lovely place with lovely people with lovely accents, and plus they're gonna get focked by brexit one way or another so they could use a boost.

 

Your elsewhere point of "fuck nationalism" (to which I wholeheartedly agree) comes full circle here innit.  Still pulling for ROI tho lol.  I just hope more than anything that dickheads dont use it as an excuse to go full dickhead

[cwmbrancity]

the Savage Eye did a brilliant skit on northern Irish accents, this is the only bit available online

 

[chenGOD]

Eh, dickheads gonna dickhead.

 

Also that clip above (the Ireland v Italy one) is why Americans should just fuck off from footy. First he calls the lads from Eire England, then he says "it's a chipper".

[BobDobalina]

Chen wtf, the draw hasn't even happened yet, it's tomorrow -

http://www.bbc.com/sport/northern-ireland/41633678

 

Thanks trumpcare

[chenGOD]

Chen wtf, the draw hasn't even happened yet, it's tomorrow -

http://www.bbc.com/sport/northern-ireland/41633678

 

Thanks trumpcare

 

 

Sorry, I was being a dickhead.

It's ok - it's cool

 

 

 

I meant potential Ireland-Northern Ireland playoff....