Jon AS Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 To kick off the new one with something that's not PL related: just caught the U-20 game between Germany and Nigeria. Plenty of fun, some bad refereeing (red for accidentally stepping on someones leg?!) and five goals, the last one a nice solo effort in the last minute to secure victory for Germany. Now Brazil awaits, looks like there'll be two interesting games to watch on saturday now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marcelo Rebelo Firqoralas Posted October 7, 2009 Share Posted October 7, 2009 The referees in the U20 WC have been horrible. In all games that I've seen they've been handing out yellow and red cards like candy on halloween. Nothing spoils a game more than an overzealous ref. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 I don't know if I'm a little behind the curve on this, but US Soccer has launched a website to help promote our world cup bid: http://www.gousabid.com/I should think we have a better shot at 2022 than 2018. I think they might want to bring the world cup back to europe again before taking it to North America. We're aided by the fact that competition in North America isn't that great.Listening to 5live this morning, it sounds like winning the world cup is more about politicking than having the best infrastructure, fans, ect. Perhaps we can get the CONCACAF delegates to support England for 2018 in exchange for support in 2022 ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padraig Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 We're aided by the fact that competition in North America isn't that great.Isn't Mexico bidding as well? To win this thing, the US would need support from the regional federation. So while Mexico may be unlikely to win the WC bid for 2022, they could win support from CONCACAF. I'm not sure who has better ties in that zone. If Mexico wins that, then I can't see the US winning the overall bid.I read something that suggested that the US's greatest challenge will be overcoming Mexico. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 Isn't Mexico bidding as well? To win this thing, the US would need support from the regional federation. So while Mexico may be unlikely to win the WC bid for 2022, they could win support from CONCACAF. I'm not sure who has better ties in that zone. If Mexico wins that, then I can't see the US winning the overall bid.I read something that suggested that the US's greatest challenge will be overcoming Mexico.Mexico isn't bidding. Jack Warner, in between rubbishing the England bid, said that he is primarily committed to bringing it to the USA. Apparently Mexico has withdrawn.Mexico's decision to withdraw from the race for 2018 and 2022 has left the USA as the sole bid from Concacaf and favourites to win one of the tournaments with the other going to Europe. But Warner warned them not to be complacent – and said Chicago's humbling in the contest for the 2016 Olympics had shown the danger of relying on the Barack Obama factor.Warner said: "In my humble opinion I believe the USA were favourites even before Mexico's withdrawal, which was the right thing to do because their economy couldn't carry it. I think though the Barack Obama euphoria has now died down and we saw what happened with Chicago, so I don't think that mystique will have a great role to play. The USA must concentrate on its strengths and how it would stage a great tournament."http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/oc...up-2018-englandI got the impression listening to 5live yesterday (I listen to their daily football highlight podcast) that if 2018 doesn't come to the United States, that the North American delegation, voting as a block, will be in a position to decide where it does go. If this is the case, I'm saying that we need to leverage that to ensure support for bringing 2022 to the United States. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calibandar Posted October 8, 2009 Share Posted October 8, 2009 I think at this point in his career the respect is no longer all that warranted and is rooted mostly in his success in the nienties. He did well for AZ lately (though overall the Eredivisie seems to have gone downhill over the last ten years as well),I disagree Jon.Van Gaal is seen as one of the best managers in the world in many places. What he did with AZ Alkmaar has been a remarkable and a further medal to his career. They're not really a top club, they've always been second tier in Dutch football. Van Gaal welded a team there that beat all the traditional great sides last year to become Champion. In the 2006-2007 season he was also just a hair's breadth away from a championship as well. Also, if you're going to say van Gaal should be doing very well with the players he bought, you can't then also say we shouldn't complain, or he shouldn't, when those players are injured. Fair's fair.In any case it may take him quite a while to get Bayern on the rails. Hopefully he will be given that time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon AS Posted October 8, 2009 Author Share Posted October 8, 2009 Van Gaal is seen as one of the best managers in the world in many places.Like Holland?:PI think that at least in Germany he was pretty much forgotten until this summer. What he did at AZ was quite impressive, though I'm not sure if he didn't benefit from the big three of Dutch football being in decline for some time now (Feyenoord and Ajax more so than PSV, obviously). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DJDonegal Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Uh oh, Fabio.I expect he'll get off with it if he really did try and submit documentation (someone somewhere has messed up big time if it was submitted and is now missing) but if they decide that without documentation he has to be punished, it's career over. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Padraig Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 Mexico isn't bidding. Jack Warner, in between rubbishing the England bid, said that he is primarily committed to bringing it to the USA. Apparently Mexico has withdrawn.Ok. That is a big help. And having Jack Warner's help is probably even bigger. One has to be very powerful to survive this long, given his corruption.I was always surprised that China didn't bid. But perhaps they worry about the strength of their team. England should win the 2018 bid, given what Blatter has said about joint bids. That should mean Spain isn't in with a shout. They did only hold the games in 1982 anyhow.I'm not sure how serious Australia is. I suppose they could challenge the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Wizard Posted October 9, 2009 Share Posted October 9, 2009 As per usual most of the Scotland squad have pulled out of a friendly match. I'm most surprised about Darren Fletcher pulling out because, however rubbish he's been for Scotland, he's turned up for every squad no matter who the opposition are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renasko Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 'Sepp Blatter promises to protect young players.'Err...no. All he is doing is protecting small clubs. The players themselves have no problem, whatsoever, with moving to the likes of Chelsea. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horza Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I'm not sure how serious Australia is. I suppose they could challenge the US.We're pretty fuckin' serious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renasko Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 I think the idea of a World Cup in Australia is a great one. Not to mention that it wasn't that long ago that we had a WC in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman of the North Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Wouldn't a World Cup in North America precede another Asian one so soon after Japan/Korea? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renasko Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Despite Australia being in the same qualifying pool as the Asian nations, it's not an Asian nation, so... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Wizard Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Israel, most of Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan aren't European nations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Iceman of the North Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 For this purpose they are. They do belong to AFC after all, and that's what counts for FIFA. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gladius Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Israel, most of Turkey, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan aren't European nations.If you have such a narrow view of Europe, you should also include Iceland, Russia, Malta and Cyprus in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alcibiades Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 'Sepp Blatter promises to protect young players.'Err...no. All he is doing is protecting small clubs. The players themselves have no problem, whatsoever, with moving to the likes of Chelsea.Yep. These deals never happen unless the club manages to convince the player and parents. I think the players have their own interests at heart more so than small clubs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mormont Posted October 16, 2009 Share Posted October 16, 2009 Yep. These deals never happen unless the club manages to convince the player and parents. I think the players have their own interests at heart more so than small clubs.A simplistic view... in fact, many of these young players are actually being exploited by the clubs. The clubs use high-pressure tactics to get (often uneducated and poor) parents who are not well informed about football or employment law to sign contracts for their kids to move to another country before they are mature enough to cope, often by giving the kids themselves an unrealistic or false impression of their chances of making it. It's disreputable, powerful people exploiting the naive and powerless on the off-chance that they are signing the next Zidane. On this one, Blatter is doing the right thing, no question. Not that there's anything wrong with protecting small clubs, by the way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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