Official Football Thread

Eddies Wingman said:
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/
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That they are clamping down on diving is great, as it spoils the game a lot, as well as simply going down too easily which really gets on my nerves. But I agree with you, the lack of consistency in punishments for similar offences has always been a major fault of governing bodies in football.
 
So, the Netherlands won again. Again?    Yes.    Again.

In fact we won all qualification matches!
B)

The Scots had enough chances to score but they failed. It was a very open match, none of the countries were in control. Great atmosphere, very attractive to watch!

In the end, new revelation (watch out for this young man!) Eljero Elia scored.
 
Forostar said:
Come on Norway! You do your job, we try to do ours. :)

England - Croatia could be cool...!
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We did ours, but only tonight. Had we beaten Iceland either home or away instead of these bloody draws, we could actually have been following the last few matches in October with some excitement. Now we are almost guaranteed to be the weakest #2 of them all ... crap. Well, at least had a good night out with a friend before the match, downed a few pints and talked loads of, uh , well, crap  :D
 
national acrobat said:
So did we .... with more goals.
B)
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We haven't as yet won all our qualification matches - the Dutch did, but England should beat Belarus at Wembley but I fear two points may be dropped on our trip to the Ukraine. But 8 wins out of 8 is bloody good by anyone's standards.

@Foro: Come on, England only conceded 5 in 8 games - not too bad considering. ;)
 
Hehe indeed! :)

And check this out: Don't mess with Beenhakker!

‘Fired’ Coach Leo Beenhakker Slams Polish FA

The Dutch coach has hit out at his former employers...

Experienced Dutch manager Leo Beenhakker was seemingly sacked as Poland's national team coach after their 3-0 World Cup qualifying defeat against Slovenia on Wednesday, and he is evidently unhappy with the situation.

"I have seen some crazy stuff during my long career, but the Polish FA have outdone everything I have seen so far. We never stood a chance against Slovenia and deserved the loss," Beenhakker told Dutch football magazine Voetbal International.

"However, things went crazy after the final whistle. I was giving an interview to a TV station and Grzegorz Lato, president of the Polish FA, announced my departure to another TV station three meters to the right. He did not even speak to me before his announcement.

"He came up to me a couple of hours later and he had clearly had too much alcohol. He apologised for what he had said on TV and invited me the next morning for a meeting in his office to discuss what will happen next.

"Apparently, he does not even have the ability to fire me without speaking to the rest of the board of the Polish FA. It now turns out that I am not sacked after all.

"Nevertheless, I am not coming back for the final two matches. I feel sorry for the players, as they are all fantastic people, but the people surrounding the national team are a bunch of amateurs."
 
Albie said:
We haven't as yet won all our qualification matches - the Dutch did, but England should beat Belarus at Wembley but I fear two points may be dropped on our trip to the Ukraine. But 8 wins out of 8 is bloody good by anyone's standards.

@Foro: Come on, England only conceded 5 in 8 games - not too bad considering. ;)
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Furthermore, Holland were in a group with only one potent striker - Gudjohnsen. FYROM are good at defending, but they suck in attack.We've got Carew up front, who is very good at getting to opportunities but even better at wasting them (how on Earth did he score 14 for Villa last season?)  No wonder Holland have conceded few goals  :S

@Forostar; Seems like there's going to be a nice soap opera going on in Poland now  :D
 
England still has to play two games, so for good comparing, let's wait til they're finished.

Indeed a soap opera EW! :)
 
Forostar said:
England still has to play two games, so for good comparing, let's wait til they're finished.
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Yes, but 8 wins out of 8 more than favourably compare with the Spanish and the Dutch. ;)
 
Btw, Albie, guess you're pleased to see Southend be the first team to hold Leeds to a draw this season?  B) Your fifth draw in seven games, what's going on?
 
Erm, Southend was on the back of one straight win, so I would have thought they had form going into this game. ;)

Joking aside, I was quite pleased that they took something from the game (and Southend had a penalty saved). And yes they have drawn a lot of games this season - this last fact has not gone unnoticed.
 
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