Soccer thread 08/09 (will have spoilers!)

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 4:56 pm

Inger-land!, Inger-land!, Inger-land!
Inger-land!, Inger-land!, Inger-land!
Inger-land!, Inger-land!, Inger-land!
Inger-land!
INGER LAND!!!!!!!!!!!

What a job by Walcott. England just absolutely thumped the Croats. What a boost in confidence for the whole team:) This is how we need to play from here on out, the passing, the finishing, it was all there. Rooney played some special balls, especially in the second half. Can't wait to hear all the headlines coming out of the UK tomorrow!

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:00 pm

macsomjrr wrote:Can't wait to hear all the headlines coming out of the UK tomorrow!

It'll be something along the lines of "England to win 2010 World Cup," "Walcott better than Ronaldo," and "We knew Fabio was the one for us."

In other news, Damiano Tommasi, yes THAT Tommasi who used to play for Roma has signed for....wait for it.....QPR. lol

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:00 pm

...oh and forgot to mention how satisfying it was to see the punk rocker Bilic in stunned silence on the sidelines. Beautiful.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:01 pm

Before Euro everyone said that Croatia's geriatric defense would be their undoing. It seemed that reports of their demise were premature...but only slightly. They looked ancient out there.

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:03 pm

Macca00 wrote:
macsomjrr wrote:Can't wait to hear all the headlines coming out of the UK tomorrow!
It'll be something along the lines of "England to win 2010 World Cup," "Walcott better than Ronaldo," and "We knew Fabio was the one for us."

LOL. How about "Croatia not a lot for Walcott!"

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:03 pm

Macca00 wrote:
macsomjrr wrote:Can't wait to hear all the headlines coming out of the UK tomorrow!
It'll be something along the lines of "England to win 2010 World Cup," "Walcott better than Ronaldo," and "We knew Fabio was the one for us."

Yeah, all of the sudden he remembered how to coach eh?

MACTEPsporta · Post by **MACTEPsporta** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 5:08 pm

RobVarak wrote: Not a good day for any of my Slavic bretheren.

Ukraine, Poland and Russia all won. So, I guess it's the western slavs that Macca jinxed. Serbia lost, Rob. Life is still good.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 6:28 pm

Yeah but it was the French who beat the Serbs, so probably bittersweet.

Macca00 · Post by **Macca00** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 7:36 pm

10spro wrote: Yeah, all of the sudden he remembered how to coach eh?

Don't worry James, next game they draw he'll back to being 'clueless'.

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 8:00 pm

Nice to see the scots get a solid result over Iceland. I'm pulling for them to make it into the WC but it doesn't appear likely after that loss to Macedonia of all teams. Very winable group though for them.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Wed Sep 10, 2008 11:19 pm

It's one result. And the main scoring came from a guy that the english press have been asking Capello to get some time in. Well not only Walcott but most of the young like Agbanlahor, Walcott, Young etc.

If Croatia is going to be this bad, I see no problem in England's bid to make it to the WC.

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 12:13 am

wco81 wrote:Yeah but it was the French who beat the Serbs, so probably bittersweet.

I don't really mind the French. They play good football for the most part, and I'd pretty much root for anyone against the Serbs. But who wouldn't?

The US game at Toyota Park was a blast. It wasn't a dazzling performance by any stretch, but Trinidad were totally left in the starting blocks. They were somewhat more game in the second half, but it was still no match. Still the crowd was good and it was nice to have a chance to see a WC qualifier here in my backyard.

The great Rob-Zeppo summit took place as well, which was very cool. I've got some pics that I'll post when I get a chance, right after I figure out how to edit out the horrible stuff...like me and Zeppo

macsomjrr · Post by **macsomjrr** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 1:22 am

RobVarak wrote:
wco81 wrote:Yeah but it was the French who beat the Serbs, so probably bittersweet.
I don't really mind the French. They play good football for the most part, and I'd pretty much root for anyone against the Serbs. But who wouldn't?

The US game at Toyota Park was a blast. It wasn't a dazzling performance by any stretch, but Trinidad were totally left in the starting blocks. They were somewhat more game in the second half, but it was still no match. Still the crowd was good and it was nice to have a chance to see a WC qualifier here in my backyard.

The great Rob-Zeppo summit took place as well, which was very cool. I've got some pics that I'll post when I get a chance, right after I figure out how to edit out the horrible stuff...like me and Zeppo

That'd be awesome Rob! I for one would love to see some of those pics. I'm jealous you had the chance to go watch a qualifier, its always fun to be in teh crowd for an event like that...

...so long as you're winning I suppose:)

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Thu Sep 11, 2008 6:01 am

Macca00 wrote:
macsomjrr wrote:Can't wait to hear all the headlines coming out of the UK tomorrow!
It'll be something along the lines of "England to win 2010 World Cup," "Walcott better than Ronaldo," and "We knew Fabio was the one for us."

In other news, Damiano Tommasi, yes THAT Tommasi who used to play for Roma has signed for....wait for it.....QPR. lol

Well, they'd never been beaten there in a WC qualifier, and I'm not sure the defence was that old...after all, City castoff Corluka was in there.

You also aren't doing too badly if you go away to a country placed 5th in the current FIFA rankings and completely outplay them on the way to a 4-1 victory....which could have been more had Fat Frank's goal not been disallowed for a pathetic Croat dive, or Croatia's goal been correctly disallowed for a foot up as Terry went to head the ball clear.

I have a lot of time for Bilic as a manager, but he was made to look a little naive with some of his pre-match windups...Capello has won pretty much everything there is to win, so it wasn't likely to bother him overmuch.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 6:13 am

Now heaven knows I'm not usually one to be praising Roy Keane, but his response to FIFA vice-president (God or Sepp 'Captain Corruption' Blatter knows how) Jack Warner, of some banana republic FA over continually calling up players for meaningless games is quite amusing

================================================

Furious Sunderland boss Roy Keane has branded FIFA vice-president Jack Warner ''a clown'' in a war of words over Dwight Yorke.

The FIFA vice-president has caused a stir in the past.

Warner accused Keane earlier this week of ''insensitivity and disrespect'' in a letter leaked to the media after he alleged Yorke had been withdrawn from the Trinidad and Tobago squad for the midweek clash with the United States by his club.

And Keane revealed he had contacted the special advisor to the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation to let him know exactly what he thinks of him.

The Irishman said: ''The man's a clown. He sent me a letter and he was quite happy to give it to the media.

''I spoke to him on Wednesday and I told him what I thought about him and where I think he should go.

''He is writing these letters and it is always under the FIFA heading just to impress everybody.

''If he is vice-president of FIFA, then God help us.

''He has not written me a letter about Kenwyne Jones, who got injured playing in a friendly match. They selected Carlos Edwards last year when he was out with a broken leg.

''Yorkie keeps making these cameo guest appearances for them, so maybe they have got some sort of deal going on themselves, I don't know.

''The man is a clown.''

Yorke, 36, came out of international retirement to make a cameo appearance in the friendly against England in June in which Jones suffered knee ligament damage.

He has since had a re-think, but having been handed another year's contract at the Stadium of Light he had promised the club he would only play for his country if it did not interfere with his domestic commitments.

Yorke captained Trinidad and Tobago in the 1-1 World Cup qualifying draw with Guatemala on Saturday but did not feature in Wednesday's 3-0 defeat in Chicago.

==================================================

It's about time someone called out these bent f**kers. Blatter appoints them because they share his ideals of getting their snouts into the trough, and increasing the world cup to every more ridiculous number by adding to the number of qualifiers -something which his European glove puppet Platini has now signed up to by increasing the Euro to 24 teams in 2012.

Seriously, these people are a stain on international sport, and although I am slightly ashamed to say it, if Sepp Blatter died in a car crash I would not mourn the c**t, in fact I might even essay a little smile...

Rather disgracefully, the FA attempted to butter up Warner for their bid for the 2018 WC by playing a friendly in T&T last year. Maybe Blatter doesn't quite click that the more qualifiers he adds for a tournament, the more games are played, the more stadia are needed, and therefore the fewer countries there are who can actually stage these bloated extravaganzas effectively. As an example, have a look at Portugal, who put on a good Euro 2004 but now find that 4 of the new stadia are rarely used at all, or even Italy, who's 1990 public works for the WC were riddled with corruption, and can be seen as the start point for the whole 1990's 'Tangentopoli' mafia investigations.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 7:24 am

Keane has a point with Jones, not so much with Yorke as the game on Wed. was a qualifier.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 10:34 am

fsquid wrote:Keane has a point with Jones, not so much with Yorke as the game on Wed. was a qualifier.

In which case it's not Warner's place to be writing to Keane at all - he's only a 'special adviser' to the T&T FA, he does not have an official position with them, and this is not a matter for FIFA. He's abusing his position with FIFA to intervene in matters pertaining to his home country.

It's about time the whole issue of these tournament was reviewed - the WC qualification groups for Europe have 9 groups each with 6 or 7 teams in..surely there should some sort of initial seeding tournament for San Marino, Andorra et al...and it's not like this gives their players an intolerable burden of matches, as most of them are part timers.

Feanor · Post by **Feanor** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 12:56 pm

We just need the bigger countries to invade, occupy and absorb the likes of Andorra and Luxembourg and then European World Cup qualifying would work a lot better.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 1:04 pm

I thought UEFA controlled their qualifying process. I'm pretty sure it was CONCACAF themselves that made the changes to our qualifying for 2006.

davet010 · Post by **davet010** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 2:52 pm

I think you're right, but the same principles seem now to apply to UEFA tournaments as FIFA ones...let's cram as many teams/nations in as possible, and f**k to the national domestic leagues which we don't control.

Never happened like that when Lennart Johansson was in charge of UEFA, mainly because he hated Blatter's guts.

Naples39 · Post by **Naples39** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:15 pm

Really nice piece on Charles Renken, another African teen sensation playing for US youth teams. I was just in Zambia last month which made the article extra poignant to read for me personally.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... us&cc=5901

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 3:56 pm

Naples39 wrote:Really nice piece on Charles Renken, another African teen sensation playing for US youth teams. I was just in Zambia last month which made the article extra poignant to read for me personally.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... us&cc=5901

Holy s***! Zambia? Very cool. How was it?

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:05 pm

RobVarak wrote:
Naples39 wrote:Really nice piece on Charles Renken, another African teen sensation playing for US youth teams. I was just in Zambia last month which made the article extra poignant to read for me personally.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... us&cc=5901
Holy s***! Zambia? Very cool. How was it?

hot and dusty would be my guess

RobVarak · Post by **RobVarak** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:10 pm

fsquid wrote:
RobVarak wrote:
Naples39 wrote:Really nice piece on Charles Renken, another African teen sensation playing for US youth teams. I was just in Zambia last month which made the article extra poignant to read for me personally.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/st ... us&cc=5901
Holy s***! Zambia? Very cool. How was it?
hot and dusty would be my guess

You really should get into travel writing.

fsquid · Post by **fsquid** » Fri Sep 12, 2008 4:35 pm

As long as I don't get paid by the word.