Official Football Thread

Zare said:
Croatia - Kazakhstan, 3:0

I haven't watched England vs Andorra, but it's expected for a major football team to win against amateur teams with at least 3-4 goals. Curious that both England and Andorra were in Croatia's group in EURO2008 qualifiers. We smashed in 15 goals in two matches against Andorra back then.
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Zare said:
Well Albie, then England is not currently on the level of world-class top notch football team. Reason is not important, but it's not because they lack great players. Lousy coaching, media pressures, internal team problems, who knows? Looks like England hasn't solved the problem they had in last qualifiers. IMHO, i don't think that England got out because they lost two times to Croatia. They didn't qualify because they lost or drawed several matches they were expected to win with a great probablity as group favourites.

The game shouldn't be rough and unattractive, coming from a nature of both teams that isn't highly defensive. Pitch condition is also a variable. Croatian League teams are infamous for deliberate worsening of pitch conditions when they see it as an advantage. I was always curious if (and when) national team decides to use such lousy tactic. But, seeing in what kind of conditions we played in Skopje against Macedonia last year, the pitch needs to be a barren swamp for FIFA/UEFA to transfer the match elsewhere.
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England is not currently on the level of world-class top notch football team!
They lack great players!
Looks like England hasn't solved the problem they had in last qualifiers!
Not rough!
Unattractive!

Can someone carry me away? I can't stop laughing!

Croatia - England: 1 - 4!
 
My oh my. I would wish I had watched this game - but because the people at the cable TV company had messed up, I didn't have access to the channel where it was shown. Instead I watched parts of Iceland vs Scotland and parts of Macedonia vs Holland. Both quite tiresome affairs (I skipped the final bit of the matches and watched House instead), with outcomes pretty much as expected. (Outcomes of footy matches, not outcome of the House episode). Holland and Scotland won, and the first week of World Cup qualifiers is over.

Group 9 has started with two unexpected results, and two more expected ones. In total I'd say Holland have done what's expected, result-wise - although their play was crap compared to Euro '08. The way I see it, Norway have given away 2 points and Scotland have given away 3, giving Norway a slight advantage in the race for second. If we assume Norway and Scotland split the points equally (like we did last time we were in the same group, before the 2006 World Cup) the defeat in Skopje could very well cost the Scots the 2nd place. But of course, there will be more unexpected results. Only 4 out of 20 games are finished.
 
We'll see how good Norway will play in Skopje.

The Macedonians had a very strong defence and made it very difficult for us. They had some holy fire burning in them and were accompanied by a mighty roaring audience. Especially the 2nd half was very exciting.

In a way we were lucky because Macedonia scored 1-0 and the goal didn't count! I have absolutely no clue why. So the whole match could have gone different.

In the previous WC qualification Holland and Macedonia were also in the same group: 0-0 and 2-2.

Other notable results:

Finland - Germany: 3-3
Turkey - Belgium: 1-1 (after years of problems, the Belgians seem to work on a comeback)
Switzerland - Luxembourg: 1-2
Portugal - Denmark: 2-3 (Denmark was 2-1 behind, but scored twice in extra time!!)
 
Yeah, those results are quite surprising, but that's what makes football exciting. As for the disallowed 1-0 goal, it was offside. Not by a very big margin, but I think it was correct.

Two goals in extra time. Ouch, reminds me of how Spain turned everything around in extra time against Yugoslavia in Euro 2000. Norway and Slovenia were playing 0-0 and Yugoslavia were up 3-2 against Spain. At that time, Norway and Yugoslavia were through. Then Spain scored twice.  :mad: I think I've said more on this earlier in this very thread.
 
England is not currently on the level of world-class top notch football team!
They lack great players!
Looks like England hasn't solved the problem they had in last qualifiers!
Not rough!
Unattractive!

Can someone carry me away? I can't stop laughing!
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Hehe, i laughed too, mate. We got our asses kicked  :D

On the sidenote, that red card was absurd. It did change the course of the game. Even if we were losing 0-1, England was not dominant. On the other hand, referee canceled legit England goal (lampard), and permitted the action for our goal again by mistake (Srna's right leg high up in the sky in Terry's head-level).

Also, you can't dismiss rather poor performance of England against Andora, one performance i based my opinion off. Nevertheless, Capello showed he's world-class. They completely blocked our midfield. They weren't dangerous in first half (if you seen the goal, you should see that it came from our mistake). He based his game on obsruction of ours. When the moment came (red card) they attacked and sunk us.
 
Every so often, England seem to pull it out of the bag and wallop some good teams. Take the 4-1 drubbing of Holland in Euro 96 or the 5-1 humiliation of the Germans (in Munich) in qualifying for Japan/Korea 2002. This is Capello's moment.

Still, mustn't get carried away, still a long way to go - but 6 points from 6 and both games away from home is a damn good start.

@Zare: From a Croatian's view point, were you guys possibly a little too complacent?
 
Zare said:
Hehe, i laughed too, mate. We got our asses kicked  :D

On the sidenote, that red card was absurd.
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If you mean it shouldn't have been a red card, you're joking right? It was such a heavy elbow, it made Joe Cole dance like this.
 
It has to be like this one to be a red:

GrantColebees.gif
 
From a Croatian's view point, were you guys possibly a little too complacent?
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A little? Hehe. Big time. England was too complacent last year, so we won twice. In reality, Capello nullified our whole game. Modric was nowhere. Rakitic was in the middle of nowhere. Our whole game construction got destroyed. England just waited for the right moment to strike back. Yes, that first goal was pretty lucky, but do you remember "the critter"? Luck was ours back then. Sometimes you need to play against luck and against the referee. If we lost 0-2, we could say, right, luck was theirs and referee made a crucial mistake. But 1-4 is complete ownage. Add the fact that our goal shouldn't have been, and that referee cancelled one pretty valid goal for your side. The red card was a mistake. He wanted to compensate afterwards. If he just stood by his one mistake, it would have been 0-5.

If you mean it shouldn't have been a red card, you're joking right? It was such a heavy elbow, it made Joe Cole dance like this.
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You can't be serious. Kovac's position was valid. He didn't direct the elbow. He jumped high with his arms raised. Cole ran into him. Referee wouldn't pull out anything, but then he saw the blood. Cole went on for a couple of meters then dropped to the pitch like shot. Perhaps he got a concussion. Nevertheless, if you run into a player and your head broke, it ain't a red card, it's a misfortune.
 
The group stage of the UEFA Champions League is on, with eight matches tonight. The big surprise was that Cluj, from Romania, were able to beat AS Roma on the Olimpico. Impressive. I guess the PSV fans aren't too pleased with 0-3 against Atletico Madrid, though ...
 
Yes, I'd say that group might be this year's "group of death". Marseille, Atletico Madrid, Liverpool and PSV are all very good teams, and I think it still is completely open even though we got away wins in both opening matches. Maybe with L****pool as slight favourites to win the group.
 
National Acrobat: Congratulations on QPR beating Villa in the Carling Cup! Quite an achievement considering the good form Villa have shown lately. But of course, QPR haven't been too bad themselves, either ...
 
Croatians fined £14,920 for England racism

The Croatian Football Federation have been fined £14,920 for the racist behaviour of some of their supporters in the World Cup qualifier against England earlier this month.

England striker Emile Heskey was subjected to monkey chants from a small section of the crowd at the Maksimir Stadium in Zagreb after being booked during the 4-1 victory for Fabio Capello's side.

The FA had asked Fifa to investigate the incident and the world governing body have today issued the fine.

A statement said: "Racism has no place in football. Fifa is determined to continue broadcasting this message around the globe and deploying all of the means at its disposal to eliminate this form of discrimination."


It is the second time in a matter of months Croatian fans have been found guilty of racist behaviour with Fifa issuing a small fine during Euro 2008 following chants during their quarter-final against Turkey.

FIFA's disciplinary committee have now warned the Croatian Federation further incidents could result in "more severe sanctions".

The statement continued: "The FIFA disciplinary committee has fined the Croatia Football Federation CHF 30,000 (£14,920) for the racist behaviour of some of their supporters at the 10 September 2008 Croatia v England preliminary competition match of the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

"The Croatian Football Federation was found guilty of a violation of article 58, paragraph 2 of the FIFA disciplinary code, and received a warning regarding its future conduct according to article 13.

"Further infringements of article 58 would lead to more severe sanctions by the FIFA disciplinary committee."
 
Hmm, a fine less than £15K? Personally, I don't think it's the Croatian FF's fault - but then again it is their problem - but I do think that it's the fans should be penalised (i.e. play Croatia's next home game without their support, perhaps).
 
Eddies Wingman said:
National Acrobat: Congratulations on QPR beating Villa in the Carling Cup! Quite an achievement considering the good form Villa have shown lately. But of course, QPR haven't been too bad themselves, either ...
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:D << Me today.

I went down there last night, we took about 4,000 fans and it was a great atmosphere. What made the win all the more sweeter is the fact that Villa are my second team and my family is split between Villa and QPR supporters.
Typical press today though giving QPR very little credit, focusing on the fact that Villa rested some of thier first-teamers - in fact Villa made 6 changes from the weekend and QPR 5, including top goal-scorer. Villa still had Carew, Barry and Young playing (among other regulars) and Agbonlahor from the bench.
Anyway, a great win for the Superhoops.
Albie said:
Hmm, a fine less than £15K? Personally, I don't think it's the Croatian FF's fault - but then again it is their problem - but I do think that it's the fans should be penalised (i.e. play Croatia's next home game without their support, perhaps).
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I agree that would be a more fitting penalty.

Although the fine seems ridiculously small, it must be remembered that the Croatian FA are probably far from being the richest in Europe. I heard that Slaven Bilic earns (only ;)) about £50k a year.
 
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