Official Football Thread

The Scotland Norway result was what I half expected (though not the scoreline). As the Scots have both Macedonia and the Dutch as their next two, I almost expect them not to finish second - third at best. The Norwegians have to fancy their chances now - Macedonia and Iceland as their next two.

As for the England game, I personally though the Dutch were a little lucky to get away with just a draw as the two goals they scored were gifted to them and England created some good enough chances to score a few more than they did. But alas, it's balls in the back of the net that count. Aside from those two costly errors, I thought England were quite good last night. James Milner is the find of this season.
 
Why would a team with such a blundering defense (England) deserve to win more than the other?

I thought that the draw was very deserved. Seen the stats? Pretty equal.
All those goals came out of nothing and the rest of the match was pretty boring.
 
I wouldn't say England's goals came out of nothing. And really, two mistakes from two seasoned pros at the start of the season in a friendly does not make them crappy.
 
Well, alright, blundering defense then (edited).

edit:
What I meant with "out of nothing" was that these few moments were entertaining while the rest was a bit of a drag.

Most impressive moment, I thought, was the one minute "silence" for Sir Bobby Robson.
 
By the way, lé Arsenal got an impressive start to their Premiership campaign yesterday. Beating Everton 6-1 at Goodison is nothing short of remarkable. How long will the Toffees need to recover from this blow?

I'm soon going to the pub to watch Man United take on Birmingham - I don't expect anything like what Arsenal did, but anything but a win will be disappointing. Curious about Michael Owen's form, I think he will start today. United's main problem right now is that several defenders have picked up injuries in the last couple of weeks. None serious, but several of them are doubtful. And Edwin van der Sar is out for a few weeks, so Ben Foster needs to improve on what he has shown in pre-season ...
 
Eddies Wingman said:
How long will the Toffees need to recover from this blow?
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A week. ;)

Everton are not as bad a side as this result suggests - and neither are the Arsenal as good as this result suggests.
 
Albie said:
A week. ;)

Everton are not as bad a side as this result suggests - and neither are the Arsenal as good as this result suggests.
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That's a valid point - but the psychological effect of such a defeat should not be underestimated ...

Moderately pleased with United's start to the season. Just a clearance off the goal line away from a draw ... but United dominated enough to win more. Looking forward to Wednesday and an opportunity to improve.
 
So it's time for the Premier League again. Not that anybody wants to hear me rant on about teams, I'll just make a few predictions. As ever, I hope for Arsenal but this season will be hard with some top players moved to Manchester City. I think it'll be between Chelsea and perhaps Manchester City this year, they've invested alot in key players and it seems to be going as planned so far. I don't think ManU will be in great shape this season (well, I hope not), and Liverpool...well, Liverpool is a fine team just hasn't been impressive this past year but who knows?
 
FIFA/Premier League ruled that Chelsea can't sign anyone for two years. Excuse me while I re-stitch my sides up.

Plus QPR have been drawn away at Chelsea in the League Cup; looks like I won't be able to get a ticket again though.
 
Argentina is one step towards not-qualifying for World Cup! They were beaten by Brazil 1-3 yesterday.
 
... and Norway are out of the race for the 2010 World Cup after a dismal 1-1 draw against Iceland yesterday. OK, we might still end up as #2 in group 9 (we have to beat FYROM and Holland must beat Scotland) but 10 points will certainly not help us to avoid being the weakest of the runner-ups. Even with 12 points we would've been dependent on a bit of luck.

The Scots will also have a hard time getting to the play-off, because a draw will see them finish on 11 which also is likely to be too little. Thus they have to beat Holland to have a good chance of reaching the play-off. Where they might get unlucky and face France or the Czech Republic ...
 
If that punishment handed out to Chelsea sticks, it would hit them harder than any financial punishment. This is not good news for Chelsea. They will quite likely appeal and probably get away with something like a lesser ban. Much as I think the guy can be a little irritating, but Gordon Taylor has suggested that a ban on the transfer of all under 18 years olds could solve this - and he has a point.

And on the subject of making a certain team/player an example of by handing out a harsh punishment, I have to applaud UEFA in giving Eduardo a 2 match ban for his blatant dive (which Wenger did not see, apparently). More of this, I say, and it will put an end to this unsporting behaviour.

Good news for the English is that the England women have made the final of the 2009 Euros by beating the Dutch 2-1. Now they face either Germany or Norway. Whoever they face in the final is going to be tough, but England are one of the most improved teams over the last 5 or 6 years and could yet raise more eyebrows.
 
One annoying thing about the aftermath of the Eduardo incident is that in the Europa League play-off match between Athletic Bilbao and Tromsø IL, a Bilbao player had a dive much more blatant than Eduardo's. We are talking about a "Gilardino vs Celtic" kind of dive, which incredibly enough tricked the referee into giving a penalty. I guess the combination of Arsenal being a highly profiled team and Tromsø being a very little profiled team lead to this injustice (because that's what it is - if Eduardo should be banned for two matches, so should the Bilbao player).

The diving GREAT MUSICIAN can be seen here; http://laligaamerica.com/2009/08/21/video-highlights-athletic-bilbao-troms%C3%B8-3-2-20-august-2009/
 
Albie said:
Good news for the English is that the England women have made the final of the 2009 Euros by beating the Dutch 2-1. Now they face either Germany or Norway. Whoever they face in the final is going to be tough, but England are one of the most improved teams over the last 5 or 6 years and could yet raise more eyebrows.
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Well deserved win, Albie (I rather had seen penalties though ;) ).
Still, the Netherlands getting to the semies is an incredibly awesome result, because:

How long -do you think- the "Premier division" of women's football in my country (still non-professional) exists?

1 year! And this was their first major tournament! Speaking about improvement!

So, you've got another thing coming.  :D
 
Funny that the two teams with lesser tradition for women's football faced each other in one semi while two old-timers (Norway and Germany) face each other in the second. This way we were guaranteed to see one fresh team in the final - however I hold the Germans as firm favourites to win both tonight and in the final. They are the best team in Europe, period. Would be great with a Norway vs England final, though  :D Especially since our male team failed miserably on Saturday.
 
Forostar said:
Still, the Netherlands getting to the semies is an incredibly awesome result
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It is indeed - given time I think the women's game could develop into a more major sport than it is now. The English women are actually doing really well on three fronts - Rugby Union, Cricket (current World Champions) and now Football.
 
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