Popular Post VillaChris Posted October 13, 2014 Author Popular Post Share Posted October 13, 2014 Oh oh Trs-t won't like a "foreigner" being in charge rather than some Icelandic pub league native. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Milfner Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 My favourite Iceland related stat. Their population is smaller than that of Birkenhead. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRS-T Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 8-0 and 9 points after 3 games. Unbelievable. Deserved win from a team with real talent and a coach with incredible tactical know how. Who's the manager? Lars Lagerback, former Sweden manager. The team looks like a machine today. So what is Heimir Hallgrímsson's role? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted October 13, 2014 Author Share Posted October 13, 2014 From memory Lagerback was joint manager of Sweden for a few years before going solo. Given Iceland's results before he came in I'd safely say he's the brains behind the operation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bose Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 8-0 and 9 points after 3 games. Unbelievable. Deserved win from a team with real talent and a coach with incredible tactical know how. Who's the manager? Lars Lagerback, former Sweden manager. The team looks like a machine today. So what is Heimir Hallgrímsson's role? They are actually joint coaches now. Lagerback was the main coach in the world cup qualifiers and Heimir was made joint coach before the Euro qualifiers as Lagerback will retire after the Euro's. Heimir will then be the main coach after the Euro's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaajax Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 You a bit worried for the future Ajax? Robben, Snejider, RVP, Huntelaar, Vlaar and De Jong all between 29-31 now so all will retire around the same time, that's a huge amount of quality all in one go and you're losing games currently with them in the team. Actually shows LVG did an exceptional job at the WC as Holland aren't really the third best team in world football. Robben and Sneijder worry me the most. Love him or hate him, Robben is an absolutely world class player, he could walk into any team and we would be very lucky to ever replace him. I won't say we could never fill his boots, I mean, he filled Overmars'. Sneijder is a very good, solid player, one of Ajax's best products. RVP... an odd one. He's our top goalscorer yet when it comes to the big occasions he just doesn't produce, he might only have one great game per tournament. In qualification he's usually excellent but when it comes to the meaningful games... Huntelaar can be replaced for the National team, which it really pains me to say. He was excellent for Ajax, you couldn't stop him scoring but he just never got the chance for the national team that I feel he deserved. De Jong is another good, solid player but he's replaceable with the talent coming through I think. I don't think I really need to explain Vlaar when I say he is as important to Holland as he is to Villa. But in general am I worried? I was thinking about this after the World Cup, thinking that another generation of brilliant Dutch players have missed their chance at the World Cup and it seems to me there is a kind of pattern, not an exact one but Holland seem to get better towards the end of each decade. 1970/72 - Young, extremely talented players, couldn't qualify for anything. 1974/78 - Best teams in the World 1980/86 - The wilderness years 1988 - Gullit, Van Basten, Rijkaard - European Championship Winners 1990/92 - Wasted talent 1994 - A new era and a decent World Cup 1996 - A blip 1998/2000 - Back amongst the best 2002 - Ireland 2004/06 - The beginning of another new era, Van Der Vaart, Sneijder, Robben, RVP 2008 - Brilliant Oranje, but ended with personal tragedy for one player. 2010 - Finalists again. 2012 - The less said the better. 2014 - The nearly men, again. 2016/20 - It's not an exact pattern but the way things have been going since the 1970s, you could be forgiven for being optimistic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted October 13, 2014 Author Share Posted October 13, 2014 Yeah you were amazing during the group stages of euro 2008 but bottled it v Russia, 2nd and 3rd place in the last two world cups brilliant achievements aswell. Could be a while before we see those heights again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bose Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Sneijder has been a shadow of himself for about two years now. Just doesn't seem the same player that he was and it's not like he's that old (30). Or am I just being crazy here? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avfc96 Posted October 13, 2014 Share Posted October 13, 2014 Sneijder has been a shadow of himself for about two years now. Just doesn't seem the same player that he was and it's not like he's that old (30). Or am I just being crazy here? He is definitely nowhere near as good as he was when he was a main part of the Inter side that did the treble with Mourinho in 2010. He has dropped off considerably since then, wasn't so long ago that rumours were flying around that Manchester United were willing to pay big money for him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted October 14, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted October 14, 2014 The Norwegian Chap who made his debut for the full national team last night was born in 1998 I'm old. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Iceland play some nice football as well, Sigurdsson now has 2 wonderful goals this week Interesting the commentator saying that in 2000 they abandoned the British style of football in their youth ranks for a more continental passing game and smaller pitches and it seems to have an effect. Just shows that teams with larger pools nations like England and Ireland could do if they werent stubborn about it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Gylfi Sigurdsson is just utter class, I would have loved for us to sign him the last couple of windows. How he never got a proper run in his favoured position for Spurs is beyond me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted October 14, 2014 VT Supporter Share Posted October 14, 2014 His goal last night was so well taken. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Sneijder has been a shadow of himself for about two years now. Just doesn't seem the same player that he was and it's not like he's that old (30). Or am I just being crazy here? He is definitely nowhere near as good as he was when he was a main part of the Inter side that did the treble with Mourinho in 2010. He has dropped off considerably since then, wasn't so long ago that rumours were flying around that Manchester United were willing to pay big money for him. If he had anything about him then he wouldn't have went to Turkey at 28(?) Won the treble, signed a mammoth 5 year deal with Inter, and has done been coasting since. Some players win the CL, the pinnacle and just sit back. Sadly the case with Sneijder. Keane talks about the 1999 CL win as the end, as so many players just switched off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Sneijder 2010 was a man possessed about how he got treated by Real Madrid, since then his hunger went downhill and seems to be a passenger most games 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bose Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Iceland play some nice football as well, Sigurdsson now has 2 wonderful goals this week Interesting the commentator saying that in 2000 they abandoned the British style of football in their youth ranks for a more continental passing game and smaller pitches and it seems to have an effect. Just shows that teams with larger pools nations like England and Ireland could do if they werent stubborn about it It's mostly to do with the full size indoor football pitches that first came around in 2002. Most teams also have outdoor newest generation astro turf to play on through the winter. Before we had those pitches the football in the winter and until May was played on gravel pitches (!) and indoor football on a hardwood floor. The football association also introduced lots of 5 a side astroturf pitches around schools where kids can play as much as they want. The generation of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Kolbeinn Sigthorsson and co were about 12-13 years old when the football halls came so they got very good use from them to develop. The youth system in Iceland has also been very good. There are many teams in the Reykjavik area and from 6 years old players are divided into teams of A, B, C and D in their club, depending on their ability. This is all the way up to 14 years of age when there are mostly just A and B teams. By using this approach the best players always face the best players in the other teams and also play with the best players. Then if players show improvement they are moved up a group. Everyone gets a chance to play for their club and there have been many cases of players who were maybe in the B or C teams when they were younger (under 12 years) and have then gone on to become very good players (Alfreð Finnbogason the most extreme example). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Rev Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 So what you are saying is that if a football association decides to spend money on the grass roots of a game rather than, say, building a billion pound stadium in Brent then the national team will improve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 going from the qualifiers so far I think its fair to say that only Gibraltar, San Marino and Andorra are considered real poor teams. Teams like Malta, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein have all improved in recent years that they are no longer the easy win they used to be. These teams might never qualify but they will provide the odd banana skin they didnt before. Malta played 60 minutes with 10 men yesterday and IItaly struggled against them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bose Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 So what you are saying is that if a football association decides to spend money on the grass roots of a game rather than, say, building a billion pound stadium in Brent then the national team will improve? Nah it's not just the money, you need a plan and some forward thinking. i think it's much more difficult for a large nation like England compared with Iceland where most of the people live in one area. It's not like the football association here has done everything right. In 2005 they decided to use millions to make better offices and a really great VIP suite for guests in the national stadium instead of getting rid of those god awful running tracks around the pitch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaajax Posted October 14, 2014 Share Posted October 14, 2014 Hiddink 'outdated' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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