Melphis Amekia Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 I can hardly believe my eyes... Norway are up 2-0 against Croatia. Look for them to lose their bottle and let in two soft goals presently. You can hardly believe your eyes what I find really easy to believe. It is showing how Kovač isn't really fit to manage the side(some high scoring wins were really lucky, and I said after those matches) and I am almost hoping against him managing to scrounge up the no. 2 group spot for Croatia to go on to the Euro because this is just not working and if he fails he might get fired and hopefully replaced with someone more competent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 I'm with lacuna here. Sure, Croatia may be mismanaged, but the talent in that side, compared to the dearth of talent in this Norwegian side... I really wasn't expecting us to look competent. Keep this up, and I might get excited about Norway again. Yeah, yeah, famous last words etc.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Melphis Amekia Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 I'm with lacuna here. Sure, Croatia may be mismanaged, but the talent in that side, compared to the dearth of talent in this Norwegian side... I really wasn't expecting us to look competent. Keep this up, and I might get excited about Norway again. Yeah, yeah, famous last words etc.. Yeah, we have a ton of talent. It's worth nothing if the manager is shit. Believe me, I watched all Croatia's games under Kovač. The only match the side looked good was, surprisingly, Italy away. All the other times it looked maybe slightly better than today or vs Azerbaijan, the only difference in those games were was that the side somehow managed to score goals. The game today would have looked the same as those before if Mandzukic scored at least one of those sitters at the start of the second half. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas! Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 Agreed. Given the talent in the Croatia side, I'd say the manager needs to take the blame. They looked limp and unfocused to me. On a related note: on paper, this Belgium side should be much, much better than they are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas! Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 I suppose the fact that they are playing 4 excellent centre backs across their back 4 suggests that they would benefit from some natural fullbacks, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted September 6, 2015 Share Posted September 6, 2015 My goodness, Netherlands. What is going on with you?We're disgustingly bad. There seems to be a mentality that they are a good team.Even after a whole series of defeats against mediocre teams.It started with a surprise defeat against the Czech rep in October 2014. In that game it was 1-1 and then Newcastle full back Janmaat just about scored an own goal in extra time to ensure a loss. He was dropped since. From that followed only lacklustre games, such as a hopeless and well deserved loss against Iceland, barely getting a draw at home against Turkey in a match they should have lost, barely beating Latvia.Then this weekend was the big one. Direct qualification was still possible despite the worst qualifying series for Holland in many years. We've not missed a European Cup since I started watching back in 88. First up a home game against Iceland. After 20 minutes Arjen Robben is injured again and goes off, out for 4 weeks. Then the moron Martins Indi picks up another red card and all of a sudden you're in incredible trouble again, having to play 60 minutes with 10 men. And even then the game could still have been a draw except for Vd Wiel, the horrible fullback who replaced Janmaat, who plays in the second team at PSG for good reason. He gives up a ridiculous penalty, completely uncalled for, and the country cannot believe it. Iceland beats Holland again, in Amsterdam.And then today, the horror show in Turkey. We're still 3rd, so the one thing they cannot do is actually lose to a mediocre Turkish team. And what happens? Completely outplayed, super deserved 3-0 win for Turkey. Holland was so bad, so unbelievably shit, they didn't even deserve to shine the shoes of the Turkish players at half-time. Which given their behaviour on the pitch I fully expected them to do. Bad mentality, no willpower, every struggle for possession won by Turkey, no depth in the game, just tiki taka at a slow pace, this is the Dutch team of 2015, game in game out. Small players both physically and mentally. No aggression, a lot of fear, consistently inferior to other human beings on a pitch. That's Holland, apparently. Everybody beats them. A thoroughly humbled group of guys who don't seem to realize how poor they are at an individual level, and that lack of awareness results in not putting enough effort in to work as a team. Thus, teams like Iceland, Czech rep and Turkey are better teams than 2015 Holland.Robben is the only great player on that team and he plays far too few games to be of impact. Depay was woeful in both games. Van Persie presents zero danger, he's a bit like Torres in that you can leave him unmarked and he still wont score. Sneijder tries hard but hasn't been in top form since WC 2010 and is clearly well past his best at age 32. What remains outside of those names are hopeless minions, a bad goalkeeper in Cillisen and the worst defense in the historyof European football. You can never win a game if you start every single qualifying game with childish personal mistakes that put you back two goals. You cannot blame a coach ofr that, it's not coachable. A truly distressing lack of quality and a playing style that is extremely sluggish without depth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 I was recently turned on to an alternative to fantasy football that takes a lot less time. You just predict the outcome of each PL game (nominate a winner or else a draw) and you get points based on the proportion of players who predicted that outcome. So you get less points for predictable outcomes and have an incentive to make some ballsy calls. It takes as little as 30 seconds to make your picks each week, and you can make picks early and then refine them if you want. If people here are interested, we can set up a private league. I only just signed up so I'll have zero points for the first four rounds. Link: http://epltipping.foxsports.com.au Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon AS Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Werder have signed Claudio Pizarro for what feels like the 17th time in his career (the medical is still pending, though). He only scored a single goal last season, and that was in a cup game, but I still like this. At the very least it adds some serious experience to a very young team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 I'm most impressed with Iceland reaching the Euro 2016. Not only have they done that in football, but are currently playing Euros in basketball, and have played in handball European championship a few times. Not bad for a country with population of 320-330k people. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grand Moff Mithrandir Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Yeah Iceland is winning at the moment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mme Erzulie Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Drogba showing the MLS how it's done. Classic Drogba as well - raw, brute force to brush off the defender on the first goal, awareness and guile for a sneaky second, and then doggedness and desire for the third. Damn, I hated him (as a player) while he was playing for Chelsea, but he is a fucking legend (and one of the footballers who do most for their fellow men, by all accounts). Respect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon AS Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Fun game in Glasgow. Scotland have managed to equalise twice now, showing some good old fashioned German efficiency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 It's a cracking tie. Neuer having an off day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas! Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 It has been fun, but strange. I hope Scotland's luck holds up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas! Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Drogba showing the MLS how it's done. Classic Drogba as well - raw, brute force to brush off the defender on the first goal, awareness and guile for a sneaky second, and then doggedness and desire for the third. Damn, I hated him (as a player) while he was playing for Chelsea, but he is a fucking legend (and one of the footballers who do most for their fellow men, by all accounts). Respect. I just want to agree with you before someone says how terrible is MLS, and how their grandmother would have scored all those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Apparently Chris Baird has been sent off for committing two cardable fouls in one move, the ref having played advantage for the first one. Muppet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Within the space of a week, a limp defeat against inferior opposition is followed by a valiant but ultimately fruitless effort against superior opposition. The combined effect is to render all our earlier efforts almost, but agonisingly [i]not quite[/i], pointless. This, my friends, is the epitome of what it's like to support Scotland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 Scotland still have a chance of third place for a play-off. Ireland did well to win against Georgia today but now they have to go away to Germany and Poland, who are still scrapping for 1st/2nd spots. The final spot could go down to the wire. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MercenaryChef Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 I just want to agree with you before someone says how terrible is MLS, and how their grandmother would have scored all those. I encourage all of the euro fans to get fit and get into a starting eleven in mls. A pal at work who was youth pro in El Salvador is also insistent that he could play mls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted September 7, 2015 Share Posted September 7, 2015 I forgot to post this when we discussed Rooney scoring his 49th international goal: on the same day, Robbie Keane scored his 66th and 67th international goals, only one behind Gerd Muller. Keane is older than Rooney so has had more time to amass that total, but he also plays for a much weaker team that rarely qualifies for international tournaments and tends to play very defensively against any quality opposition. I would be the first to point out that Keane mainly scores only against the weakest opponents, reacting quickly to loose balls near goal -- and it's why he is well suited to the error-prone MLS league -- but it's still pretty impressive to reach that number. He has tripled the previous Irish record for international goals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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