Zatman Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 21 hours ago, NoelVilla said: Not bothered to watch any qualifiers for a tournament that I am going to try to avoid. Read France beat Sweden with an offside goal. Still buying referees the french if Sweden goalkeeper wasnt so shit they would have got a result Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelVilla Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 6 minutes ago, Zatman said: if Sweden goalkeeper wasnt so shit they would have got a result I have no clue about that. I even had to check who our goalie is nowadays. It wasn't Isaksson, cause he was shit too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zatman Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 only 2 years ago Holland reached the last 4 of World Cup what a decline Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikeyp102 Posted November 13, 2016 Share Posted November 13, 2016 53 minutes ago, Zatman said: only 2 years ago Holland reached the last 4 of World Cup what a decline Not to diminish their achievement but it was an odd World Cup, and they weren't a good side really. They kept majority of men behind the ball, and just had robben and van persie on fire... They could easily have lost to Spain (if David Silva had scored when he should've Spain would've won easily). The decline is shocking though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted November 14, 2016 Share Posted November 14, 2016 They just have a poor generation of players between 25-30. At last world cup that was likes of Snjeider, RVP, Robben, De Jong etc. Eventually they'll be back though...their football infastructure is sound. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted November 14, 2016 Author Share Posted November 14, 2016 since the world cup they seem to have had youngsters who have shown potential at an early age, got their move and then gone quiet, depay, kishna, strootman (injury) van ginkel, van der wiel, afellay, de vrij. hoedt they do of course now seem to have another crop coming through with tete, bazoer, reidewald, willems, el ghazi, hendrix, st juste, van de beek, diks (FM scouting done for you ) but slovakia finished above them in the U21s qualifiers they seem to have a problem finding players who carry on developing after the big move and actually go on to fulfill their potential, pretty much like england then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Klinsmann trying to do the impossible: Failing to qualify for the WC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted November 16, 2016 Moderator Share Posted November 16, 2016 18 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said: Klinsmann trying to do the impossible: Failing to qualify for the WC. It's not a great start but in their defence they've so far played Mexico and Costa Rica. A last 16 and a quarter finalist from the previous world cup and the toughest teams they'll face. Obviously they would have wanted to do better than they have, and they've now used up their safety net, but you'd think they'll have enough to blitz what's left and probably end up in the 3rd qualification slot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Just now, BOF said: It's not a great start but in their defence they've so far played Mexico and Costa Rica. A last 16 and a quarter finalist from the previous world cup and the toughest teams they'll face. Obviously they would have wanted to do better than they have, and they've now used up their safety net, but you'd think they'll have enough to blitz what's left and probably end up in the 3rd qualification slot. They'll definitely qualify. But he's taking the US backwards, that's for sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 the aussies, drew with thailand, think fortunately for them they've got big games at home most of them have only just started but at the moment - australia would have a playoff vs uzbekistan cameroon, tunisia, algeria, south africa, senegal, ghana would all be out, dr congo, egypt and burkina faso would be through USA out, panama through argentina and colombia out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 Think Argentina are in a playoff spot. I imagine they would play someone crap like New Zealand Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted November 16, 2016 Moderator Share Posted November 16, 2016 7 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said: They'll definitely qualify. But he's taking the US backwards, that's for sure. Yep that's true too. At this stage of the US's development they should be taking points off their local peers. Certainly Costa Rica if not Mexico. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kurtsimonw Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 The American guys I know said he's played 5 different systems to start the last 5 games and changed it half way through in some of them. We thought RDM was bad. Imagine being in a job 5 years and still not knowing your best team or system! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted November 16, 2016 Moderator Share Posted November 16, 2016 26 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said: Think Argentina are in a playoff spot. I imagine they would play someone crap like New Zealand They will play 1st place in the Oceania qualifiers which, as you say, in all likelyhood is going to be New Zealand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 1 hour ago, BOF said: It's not a great start but in their defence they've so far played Mexico and Costa Rica. A last 16 and a quarter finalist from the previous world cup and the toughest teams they'll face. Obviously they would have wanted to do better than they have, and they've now used up their safety net, but you'd think they'll have enough to blitz what's left and probably end up in the 3rd qualification slot. They're already playing catch up though....it's not impossible they'll end up in a play off place, Mexico did last time after all. They still willl have Mexico away who'll probably beat them again and Costa Rica at home so possible 1 point from a 4 game batch so big pressure on them to win the others as you need 15 or so points for direct qualification. Panama shouldn't be underestimated...were very lucky not to qualfiy last time and already started with 4 points from 2 games, got a 0-0 with Mexico last night. Just makes me smile that people were seriously saying Klinsmann should be England manager in the summer...the bloke is an average coach with similar flaws to any English candidate. I do feel somewhere along the line a major nation is going to miss out on qualification in one of the confederations...too many of them in danger for them all to make it I think. It's feasible for a start you could have a play off like USA V Japan or South Korea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 35 minutes ago, BOF said: They will play 1st place in the Oceania qualifiers which, as you say, in all likelyhood is going to be New Zealand. Bascially a bye...last time out New Zealand played a Mexico team on its knees....and lost 10-2 on aggregate I think. They should just merge the rest of Oceania with Asia....Aussies already made the move and have benefited massively. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted November 16, 2016 Moderator Share Posted November 16, 2016 4 minutes ago, VillaChris said: I do feel somewhere along the line a major nation is going to miss out on qualification in one of the confederations...too many of them in danger for them all to make it I think. The Dutch missed out last time around so it's already happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted November 16, 2016 Author Share Posted November 16, 2016 11 minutes ago, VillaChris said: Bascially a bye...last time out New Zealand played a Mexico team on its knees....and lost 10-2 on aggregate I think. They should just merge the rest of Oceania with Asia....Aussies already made the move and have benefited massively. probably part of blatters one nation one vote game, im sure these guys have all sorts of promises made to them and i know a couple of the tiny ocean nations have had money given to them for infrastructure, if they merged it would have to be with an oceania pre qualifier which new zealand would win before going on to play 6 games in asia only to not qualify, not sure what the money is like but id guess they'd be better off just losing the 1 game half the world away Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted November 16, 2016 Share Posted November 16, 2016 2 hours ago, villa4europe said: probably part of blatters one nation one vote game, im sure these guys have all sorts of promises made to them and i know a couple of the tiny ocean nations have had money given to them for infrastructure, if they merged it would have to be with an oceania pre qualifier which new zealand would win before going on to play 6 games in asia only to not qualify, not sure what the money is like but id guess they'd be better off just losing the 1 game half the world away Australia actually wanted to play in world cups and they quickly realised playing some pub islands before facing an Argentina or Uruguay in a play off wasn't the best preparation. I think it's worked out quite well for them....they are a regular at world cups now. New Zealand would find it harder as they don't have the same depth of players but again playing likes of Japan, Iran and South Korea on a regular basis would improve them long term imo. They do premlinary groups in Asia so you could just get the likes of Tahiti and Papua New Guinea to join that although as you say cost could be an issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BOF Posted November 16, 2016 Moderator Share Posted November 16, 2016 Australia's situation makes a mockery of the whole geographical argument. There's no reason other than preferential treatment that they should be allowed to leave the OFC and join the AFC. They're neighbours (#every body needs good neiiiiiighbours# ...) with NZ. Australia were getting dicked out of a WC place because they had to play the CONMEBOL loser as a member of OFC. After some very convenient jiggery pokery, voila, they're in with the Asians and qualifying. $$$ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts