Channel4s-JonSnow Posted October 8, 2016 Share Posted October 8, 2016 I'm calling conspiracy. There is no logical reason Rooney should be playing in that side. No reason he should be in midfield. He's worse in every position than every other player in the squad.. yet there he still is. And his chums in the studio are struggling to turn a blind eye to it. Its quite frankly bizarre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 I can imagine Mourinho praying for Rooney to pick up an injury in the international games. He's become an anchor for his managers and teams, and not in the reassuring, stabilizing way, rather in the slowing you down and may drown you way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 15 hours ago, BigFatCoward said: do all fans hate international break weekends? or is just england fans because we are complete and under dogshit? this is fucking just as awful as it ever was. It's definitely not just England. It's the same for Serbia, at least. I remember when I was a kid and a teenager, I couldn't wait for international breaks and absolutely loved watching my national team play. In the meantime, they've gone to shit in every possible way and now I can't even be bothered to watch them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon AS Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 Germany is quite fun to watch and rather successful, whereas watching my club team has been thoroughly depressing for several years now while Bayern's dominance has gotten worse, so I quite enjoy international breaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nas! Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 Really such a beautiful sight watching Gareth Bale pick up the ball and then accelerate to warp speed all the time with it at his feet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefCurry Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 On 08.10.2016 at 8:45 PM, MercurialCannibal said: I hate international breaks. My first weekend off and no soccer to binge on. Sad!!!!! i do understand you... stupid international matches.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StefCurry Posted October 9, 2016 Share Posted October 9, 2016 20 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said: I can imagine Mourinho praying for Rooney to pick up an injury in the international games. He's become an anchor for his managers and teams, and not in the reassuring, stabilizing way, rather in the slowing you down and may drown you way. He has have bad games almost in every season in his career, but this year is really awful for Wayne. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 I had to watch NFL "football" today. FIFA/UEFA have a lot to answer for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 Yesterday, I got to watch Iceland. Granted, they don't play beatuiful football. But watching a team working together so that the sum is a lot greater than the sum of the parts .. that part I really like. Also, Iceland is almost Norway. I'm allowed to like them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Tadić seems to be on fire for the national team. In the 3 qualifying matches so far (Ireland, Moldova and Austria) Serbia scored 8 goals - Tadić scored 3 and assisted 5. It might be time to get him on my fantasy team. EDIT: Just saw on Twitter that Tadic scored 4 and assisted 6 out of Serbia's last 10 goals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 9 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said: I had to watch NFL "football" today. FIFA/UEFA have a lot to answer for. I cannot watch it for more than 5 minutes, as I found out again this weekend. Rugby is fantastic, but this. I am convinced that if rugby had been properly introduced in the US it would have become the main sport over AF. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Consigliere Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 16 hours ago, StefCurry said: but this year is really awful for Wayne. Last season as well. In the past couple of years he does manage a decent performance now and again but Rooney's "good games" are becoming fewer and farther between. Mostly his performances range from anonymous to liability. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horus Ex Machina Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Nothing makes me happier than to finally see Iheanacho and Iwobi starting on the pitch together. Defending could use work but, with Rohr's aggressive tactical setup, they seem to be the engine that finally resurrects Nigeria's stagnant attack. And they're both only 20. They can do this together for a long time. Hopefully Success will be back against Algeria. If they can put them away at home, they'll be in really good shape to escape a group that I didn't think they'd have a chance in just a half year ago... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 7 hours ago, Calibandar said: I cannot watch it for more than 5 minutes, as I found out again this weekend. Rugby is fantastic, but this. I am convinced that if rugby had been properly introduced in the US it would have become the main sport over AF. They did. Rugby football was introduced to America and was subsequently bastardized into gridiron football. It's essentially the same game but with a totally different ethos: gridiron is a long series of very short, carefully orchestrated set plays. Rugby and football are flow games, which is the complete opposite. Even basketball is less of a flow game than it should be -- each possession feels like a one-off orchestrated set play with the defenders retreating deep to a pre-set formation and the attackers moving into a pre-set attack pattern. Baseball is like this too: a series of one-off duels between pitcher and batter, with relatively little flow or connectivity. I doubt American audiences would appreciate total football. I don't know why American sports are so averse to flow and instead rely on staccato set plays. This evolution occurred long before TV commercials and cheerleaders. It's like some micro-managing coaches changed the nature of the games to suit their ability to control every aspect of the game instead of trusting players to just play it. It's noticeable that coaching is more of a profession in the US, with very few former players among the top coaches. The sports here became too tactical and too coached, and player roles are too specific. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baxus Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 1 hour ago, Iskaral Pust said: They did. Rugby football was introduced to America and was subsequently bastardized into gridiron football. It's essentially the same game but with a totally different ethos: gridiron is a long series of very short, carefully orchestrated set plays. Rugby and football are flow games, which is the complete opposite. Even basketball is less of a flow game than it should be -- each possession feels like a one-off orchestrated set play with the defenders retreating deep to a pre-set formation and the attackers moving into a pre-set attack pattern. Baseball is like this too: a series of one-off duels between pitcher and batter, with relatively little flow or connectivity. I doubt American audiences would appreciate total football. I don't know why American sports are so averse to flow and instead rely on staccato set plays. This evolution occurred long before TV commercials and cheerleaders. It's like some micro-managing coaches changed the nature of the games to suit their ability to control every aspect of the game instead of trusting players to just play it. It's noticeable that coaching is more of a profession in the US, with very few former players among the top coaches. The sports here became too tactical and too coached, and player roles are too specific. I disagree on basketball. It's definitely a flowing sport, not a set play sport. At least not in a way American football and baseball are. Let's not even get into that discussion on ice hockey. As for American football, I must go all Euro-commie on this one and admit I find it mind-numbingly boring. I tried watching it NFL games level, European Cup (or whatever it's called) games, CEEFL (Central and Eastern Europe Football League - including teams from Slovenia, Austria, Serbia, Hungary and maybe some other countries in the region) and Serbian league games. I've seen it on TV (NFL obviously) and live (EC, CEEFL, Serbian league). I've had a friend from college playing in our local team that played in CEEFL, an later on reached EC final so I even had that element of being involved on a bit of a personal level. I've tried watching it in every possible way and at every possible level and found it's insanely boring every single time. Baseball is even worse, I haven't been able to manage more than a couple of minutes of those games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rorshach Posted October 10, 2016 Author Share Posted October 10, 2016 I can watch - and have watched - American Football. I find the stop-start nature interesting, and the constant scheming fun to watch. I hate, however, that it comes with the need of endless commercials. Haven't watched rugby, as Norway doesn't play - and doesn't show. Baseball and basketball are utterly boring. Football - as played with your feet - obviously is superior. Amen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Raja Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 4 hours ago, Horus Ex Machina said: Nothing makes me happier than to finally see Iheanacho and Iwobi starting on the pitch together They're great. I'm glad Iwobi chose Nigeria over England. Decent goal for him too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philokles Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 Might be because I was a kid with a slight-build in a school where I was forced to play rugby instead of football, but I quite like that American Football has something more to it than just running at your opponents for 80 minutes. Not anywhere near the level as football, which strikes the right balance between tactics and flow, but perfectly watchable nonetheless. 4 hours ago, Horus Ex Machina said: Nothing makes me happier than to finally see Iheanacho and Iwobi starting on the pitch together. Defending could use work but, with Rohr's aggressive tactical setup, they seem to be the engine that finally resurrects Nigeria's stagnant attack. And they're both only 20. They can do this together for a long time. Hopefully Success will be back against Algeria. If they can put them away at home, they'll be in really good shape to escape a group that I didn't think they'd have a chance in just a half year ago... Cameroon were decent against Algeria defensively, so that group looks a three-horse race. I know Nigeria have struggled in AFCON qualification recently, but putting three of the teams that went to Brazil a couple of years ago in with each other makes the groups a little unbalanced. A and D look particularly soft in contrast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iskaral Pust Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 1 hour ago, baxus said: I disagree on basketball. It's definitely a flowing sport, not a set play sport. At least not in a way American football and baseball are. Let's not even get into that discussion on ice hockey. Hockey is a true flow sport, although the power plays change that a bit. And hockey is only the fourth major sport here. But I stand by basketball: it seems like it should be a flow sport but the tactics make it otherwise. A few teams play a relatively more open, flowing game but most treat every change in possession as a switch from one set play to another. The high scoring % and two-thirds of the court going uncontested make it a series of closely orchestrated duels around the key. That sport needs a Rinus Michels. The most exciting thing about the Golden State Warriors is that they shook up the rigid tactical forms of the sport, but even then it wasn't by much. Just like the west coast offense supposedly changed gridiron football. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
polishgenius Posted October 10, 2016 Share Posted October 10, 2016 16 minutes ago, Horse of Kent said: Might be because I was a kid with a slight-build in a school where I was forced to play rugby instead of football, but I quite like that American Football has something more to it than just running at your opponents for 80 minutes. If this is how you were taught to play rugby, then I'd posit that your coaches weren't fantastic. I mean, it can get a bit grindy but there's a definite tactical shift and flow to it. And frankly (I should watch rugby more) watching a good successful passing move completed is just as satisfying as in football. And moreso (for me) than in American Football because there's more spontaneity in it. I loved playing rugby in school. I should watch it more often. By the way, I hope we're all talking about Union here. Not that pale imitation that calls itself League. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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