Euro 2012 Qualifying

[The Iceman of the North]

Hm, Albania and Montenegro each topping their groups. Although I can't see Albania remaining in the top too long, Montenegro have a good chance of at least reaching the play-offs.

[Fireball07]

I am not happy at all. Basically, we were outclassed by Russia. Two of their goals were deflections, but they were so much better than us that they still deserved, it, and I think Robbie Keane dived for our penalty, and he did a couple of times, which is a bit scummy and I don't want to see it.

Some players aren't good enough for Ireland- St. Ledger and Green particularly, Keane was awful for most of the game, Lawrence added nothing after dislocating his finger, McGeady needs to use his brain more and Doyle ran himself into the ground.

Shane Long and a good fightback are two positives, but we were utterly outplayed, I haven't seen any team dominate us with such skill in years....Russia are a very good team.

Pogrebnyak's miss was laughable too...should have stuck that away no bother.

Frustrating match, I'm quite annoyed.

[Padraig]

Yes, Russia are very inconsistent but they are not the team you want to give an early goal to. They played with a ton of confidence after that and should have scored several more. At least they are capable of losing points too, so we still have a chance. The game against Slovakia is now huge though.

A few very interesting results. Serbia 1 Estonia 3? What happened there. Another very inconsistent team but normally they qualify at least. Italy could only draw in N Ireland, so congrats to the North.

As mentioned, Germany had a fine win over the dangerous Turks. While Portugal have finally found form and beat Denmark 3-1.

[The Inquisitor]

Boy... but we are good...

:smug:

[Jon AS]

Boy... but we are good...

Beating Lithuania made you finally realise that?

[mormont]

Beating Lithuania made you finally realise that?

Having now seen Lithuania, the Czechs and Scotland play, let's face it - Spain don't need to be good to win this group at a canter. There are no teams in the group that look remotely capable of even taking a point off them. (Although the ultra-defensive tactics deployed by Scotland last night may have been a rehearsal for Tuesday.)

[Padraig]

Boy... but we are good...

:smug:

Sounds like it was a tough enough game for Spain. Lithuania had it at 1-1...for like 2 minutes. Although, must be tiring for Spain knowing that they are going to have 8 very similar games. Constant possession v mass defence.

Montenegro have done really well to top England's group. 3 1-0 wins, including an away with in Bulgaria and a home with against the Swiss. Impressive. Next game is in England...

France at home to Romania tonight. Interesting to see can they win again after a good game against Bosnia in their last match.

[baxus]

Serbia 1 Estonia 3? What happened there. Another very inconsistent team but normally they qualify at least.

change of coach happened and the one who's in charge now was in charge of crvena zvezda and some romanian club (i don't know which, sorry) for the past year or so, so his credentials are questionable (even though he took our youth national team to european finals a couple of years ago)

as far as qualifying to euros, we usually fail in doing that.

under various names, we failed to qualify for both austria&switzerland in '08 and portugal '04. then we were under sanctions and couldn't even try for england '96 and were thrown out of the competition in sweden '92 due to those same sanctions

the one and only european football championship i remember my national team attending is netherlands&belgium in 2000 and even then we were humiliated by dutch team (6-1) after losing 3-2 advantage in under a minute in a match against spain

all in all, we don't do that well in euros

another thing is that our national football asociation is filled with footballing dinosaurs who fancy themselves experts and unfortunately those dinosaurs make all the important decisions.

and, considering that our national teams in basketball and volleyball have reached world cup semifinals (volleyball team is playing their semifinal match today), our water polo team has won the bronze in european championships and gold in world league and world cup (not world championship, mind you) and men's tennis team is playing davis cup finals in december, football is rapidly falling on people's list of favourite sports.

c'mon, even our swimmers brought home medals from big competitions and footballers have everything they want and still fail on regular basis

[Horza]

Feel sorry for you guys, you've got the players to do this thing. Maybe you should try and steer an asteroid onto the Serbian FA?

[Renasko]

Some players aren't good enough for Ireland

Yeah, this is an old argument. Trappatoni just doesn't want us to play. He doesn't respect the players we have. Similar to Levein with Scotland. They have players like Kenny Miller sitting on the bench, who is a very useful player to have up front. And there's players like Maloney, who would be fabulous playing behind him. Charlie Adam, Fletcher and Brown can do the business in midfield. At Celtic we have a great young winger, James Forrest, who'd I expect to make the transfer to the senior squad in the next twelve months. So, the resource pool isn't bad for them.

Isn't for us, either. We have the likes of James McCarthy at Wigan who looks decent, etc. Ball playing midfielders are a must have. I've no idea where Green turned up from, but he's not talented enough. Plain and simple. This is a side that had the likes of Roy Keane in midfield not long ago.

[Padraig]

under various names, we failed to qualify for both austria&switzerland in '08 and portugal '04. then we were under sanctions and couldn't even try for england '96 and were thrown out of the competition in sweden '92 due to those same sanctions

That's true. You have a better recent record qualifying for the WC. And the Estonian result must rank as your worst in a long time. There is still time to turn it around though.

[Black Wizard]

another thing is that our national football asociation is filled with footballing dinosaurs who fancy themselves experts and unfortunately those dinosaurs make all the important decisions.

Sounds just like the Scottish Football Association.

[baxus]

Feel sorry for you guys, you've got the players to do this thing. Maybe you should try and steer an asteroid onto the Serbian FA?

if it were possible, i'd get a time machine and go back to the beginning of twentieth century when football was first introduced in serbia and introduce rugby instead.

facilities needed for rugby and football are pretty much the same (same dimension pitch, stadiums can be used for both etc) and rugby is much classier

also, we would know more about rugby (i for one, know only a couple of the most basic rules) and it would be much more popular than it is now (maybe 1% of people know of our rugby competition)

also, from what i've seen of rugby, i have waaaay more respect for rugby players than for football players

as far as players are concerned, it has been shown countless times that individual players, no matter how good they are, don't bring results. a good team made of average players will always perform better than an average team filled with superstars

there is no use of vidic being the captain of man utd, ivanovic being named one of premiership top eleven, subotic playing great for borussia dortmund, lukovic doing the same for zenit when they concede 3 goals to a side like estonia (with all due respect to estonians, you made us look proper fools)

the worst part is that every once in a while our team gets a good run going and we all get our hopes up, only to be slapped in the face by our football "stars" underperformance.

leading up to the world cup this year, i couldn't believe the expectations of our press and people

and we ended up not being able to score against ghana (we had chances to beat them easily), beating germany (we were lucky as never befora, they were playing better with a man down) and wasting tons of chances against australia (that game could have easily gone differently)

That's true. You have a better recent record qualifying for the WC. And the Estonian result must rank as your worst in a long time. There is still time to turn it around though.

i believe it was in our last euro qualifiers that we drew (or even lost) to azerbaijan

i guess that's even worse than estonia match

and for qualifying to the WC in 2006, i'd rather we hadn't.

1:0 loss to netherlands was a high point of that tournament for our team. apart from that, argentinians demolished us 6:0 and ivory coast beat us 3:2 (they got 2 penalties due to our players' handballs in the box)

also, there were rumours of vidic and kezman fighting (not arguing, but fighting) which only ruined the world cup for us even more

Sounds just like the Scottish Football Association.

i'm sorry to hear that

i like it when scotland makes it to big tournaments. you guys make a great atmosphere (bagpipes, kilts, singing and all that) so it's fun watching match previews and fan reports

[The Inquisitor]

So, my dear Scottish friends, pray tell us under which formation are your boys going to play in Hampden park on Tuesday?

A 10-0-0? Or is Levein going to dare it all and play a 8-1-1?

[Padraig]

Didn't take France long to get back to top of their table. Although, unsurprisingly, it took them a long time to break down the Romanians. Interestingly to see Gourcuff back and scoring.

And Croatia maybe back in form. They top their group after a good win in Israel.

the worst part is that every once in a while our team gets a good run going and we all get our hopes up, only to be slapped in the face by our football "stars" underperformance.

Yes, inconsistency is a hard thing to accept. If you have the players, play some great games and then throw it all away...

[Black Wizard]

So, my dear Scottish friends, pray tell us under which formation are your boys going to play in Hampden park on Tuesday?

A 10-0-0? Or is Levein going to dare it all and play a 8-1-1?

Well he said after the match on Friday that he would play a different system on Tuesday, so who knows what madness he could come up with.

It's wierd that in George Burley Scotland had a manager who was too attack minded (always 4-3-3) but in Levein they have a manager who has started out too negative. :rolleyes: He wasn't always like that at Dundee United. Once he made them difficult to beat they became a good attacking team as well but international football is a totally different kettle of fish.

[mormont]

Actually, there have been hints that Levein might actually repeat the 4-6-0.

"If the manager wants us to do it again then it's our job as players to try and implement it," (David) Weir said.

"He's obviously put a lot of thought into it and it was very close to working for us.

"We didn't come to Prague to settle for a 0-0 draw. I don't think you ever go into a game looking for that."

That entire quote makes my blood boil. First, the hint that he might do it again. Then, the ridiculous claim (which Levein has echoed) that the system 'came close to working'. The stats make it clear, the system was nowhere near working. We had eleven saves, we conceded eleven corners, they had twenty (!) shots on target. It was sheer luck we didn't get caned 5-0. Then finally, the claim that 'we didn't come to settle for a 0-0'. You played 4-6-0! How the hell is that not looking for a 0-0? Are you suggesting playing with no strikers was intended to result in an thrilling 4-2 victory?

Oh, dear...

[Renasko]

In a way, the catalyst for this negative brand of football is Jose Mourinho, and to a lesser extent, Walter Smith. They've succeeded in recent times by frustrating their opponents and doing the bare minimum creatively to progress. However, I think Craig Levein has taken this to an even uglier level. Mourinho preferred using Milito up front on his own, at least, and Smith has Miller, who Levein should rightly be using.

One extra striker in midfield or in the full back areas isn't going to help that much defensively, in any case. It makes no sense, because by the time they win the ball, the midfield are going to have no avenue to go down. No one in the next phase of the formation means the team can no longer advance and possession will eventually collapse, and be lost.

Doom-sayers, feast.

[Padraig]

A few interesting games on Tuesday. Italy v Serbia and Netherlands v Sweden (both are currently unbeaten) are probably the pick of them. Italy have started well enough in this group after their disastrous WC but Serbia will want to get their campaign back on track.

Ireland head to Slovakia. Tricky, especially since both lost over the weekend.

England v Montenegro could be interesting enough given how well both have started. Hard to see England not pick up 3 points though. And Scotland v Spain as mentioned. :)

[Renasko]

Man, these games come around quick. I was surprised to find that we're playing tonight. I hope the team aren't as unprepared. :dunno:

So, Slovakia...they're always fun to play. :unsure: They should be beatable.