Official Football Thread

Natalie said:
None of the teams so far are vastly superior to the others, and while Germany has home advantage and Brazil have Marta, teams like Japan, France, and Sweden have come out strong.
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We shall see after the quarters if France has still come out strong. :D

I'm backing England to beat them.
 
The Flash said:
Anyone watching Copa America ? Huge disappointment for me in terms of good displays of football.
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I was hoping Argentina would finally get their act together, but despite the star-studded team they are still underperforming...perhaps it's just too much pressure and too many high expectations.
 
Penalties, eh! Put an England shirt on anyone and - viola, they fail to win a penalty shoot-out!
 
Haven't really been following the tournament (watched a bit of Norway's games, and it is getting obvious that we are no longer a top nation in women's football), but I noticed that England lost on penalties, yes.

The captain missing the last and decisive penalty. Have we seen that before from an Englishman?

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Yes, we have!
 
Whether you care about women's soccer or not (I don't) and whether you like or hate the USA (I'm a proud citizen), can we all agree that a tying goal in the 122d minute of a knockout round in the World Cup is pretty effing dramatic?  I wonder whether this is getting much (if any) coverage in other countries.  In the US, as you might imagine, it's a pretty big deal. 
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Whether you care about women's soccer or not (I don't) and whether you like or hate the USA (I'm a proud citizen), can we all agree that a tying goal in the 122d minute of a knockout round in the World Cup is pretty effing dramatic?  I wonder whether this is getting much (if any) coverage in other countries.  In the US, as you might imagine, it's a pretty big deal. 
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Remember Euro 2008 quarter final match between Croatia and Turkey. 120' Ivan Klasnic, 120+2' Semih Sentürk  :bigsmile: We (Turkey) were amazing there. Switzerland, 0-1 to 2-1 with the last minute goal. Czech Republic, 0-2 to 3-2 with two extra time goals. Croatia, like I said.

And yes, it's an amazing feeling  :D
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Whether you care about women's soccer or not (I don't) and whether you like or hate the USA (I'm a proud citizen), can we all agree that a tying goal in the 122d minute of a knockout round in the World Cup is pretty effing dramatic?  I wonder whether this is getting much (if any) coverage in other countries.  In the US, as you might imagine, it's a pretty big deal. 
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I watched from Brazil's equalizer until the game was over. Rarely is it more proper that a team scores at the very end and win the penalty shootout than in this case.

1. The penalty that gave Brazil 1-1 was OK, but it was never a red card. It was a fair attempt to win the ball, and the keeper was so close that it was by no means a clear goal scoring opportunity denied.
2. The penalty should never have been retaken.
3. The Brazilian player who crossed the ball in to Marta for the 2-1 goal was offside, so that goal should never have happened.

Add to that the laughable theatrics by the Brazilian team, especially the maneuvre by #13 Erika when she first lay down for two minutes, was stretchered off, only to JUMP off the stretcher and run back once she was at the middle of the pitch. Disgraceful.

In addition, the Brazilian goalkeeper left the line too early on every single penalty kick in the shootout. Had she saved any more, they would all have to be retaken. Didn't she learn from the first one? Jesus wept.

And Hope Solo did the only penalty save that was done in keeping with the rules. That save won them a spot in the semi-final. So deserved. (Besides, she is the prettiest football keeper I've seen  :))
 
I 100% agree with Eddies Wingman on this last match. Add to the fact that the US were playing with 10 women for most of the game, and STILL managed to take it to overtime and finally penalties. Dismal referreeing in my opinion, and pretty lame theatrics by the Brazilians who were too focused on keeping their 'lead' and not on playing the game.

As for Germany being defeated by Japan, that was another dramatic and brilliant game featuring some of the best tactics and coaching I have seen in a while. Japan really knew how to get into the Germans heads. Hopefully with lesser pressure and lower expectations, this tactic might not prove to be quite as fruitful against the Swedes (yeah ok I'm biased). It's tough to call right now but I think it might be USA vs Sweden in the final (and what a rematch that would be!).

I also wanted to comment on the U17 world cup which is now over with Mexico crowned champions. This is exciting to see because Mexico's senior team has been improving and will now hopefully get some talented young blood in...so in the near future Mexico might be a big force to reckon with in men's football.
 
I'm very happy for the US woman's team, of the few times I root for the US, hehe. But I am even more happy that Mexico won the U-17 World Cup!!!! 2-0 against Uruguay at home in El Estadio Azteca!!!! This is our second win after Peru 2005 joining Brazil (3), Nigeria (3) and Ghana (2) as the only teams since the tournament started in 1985 with more than one Cup. That's right, Mexico has become a power in the U-17 category :D. Hopefully it is contagious to later National Teams.

Our performance in Copa America is pathetic and I doubt we'll make it past the group round, but with a Gold Cup and World Cup months apart... Yay!
 
Congrats to Mexico's U-17.  Here in L.A., that may have been a bigger deal than the U.S. women.  (Mexico's national team is far more popular in Los Angeles than the U.S. team, due to the enormous and rabid Mexican fan base here.) 
 
Cornfed Hick said:
Congrats to Mexico's U-17.  Here in L.A., that may have been a bigger deal than the U.S. women.  (Mexico's national team is far more popular in Los Angeles than the U.S. team, due to the enormous and rabid Mexican fan base here.) 
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I have the impression that Mexican footy fans are a little bit more passionate than their US counterparts  :innocent:
 
Japan showed a lot of heart, and the Americans -- it has to be said -- simply choked.  They couldn't close out leads in regulation or extra time, and then embarrassed themselves in the PK shootout.  On the bright side, I can now forget about women's soccer for another four years. 
 
Champions League qualifiers round 3: Rosenborg BK - Viktoria Plzen 0-1.

If Rosenborg are the flagship of Norwegian club football, the fleet has run aground. If they are the locomotive of Norwegian football, the train is on a side track.
 
Galatasaray beat Liverpool 3-0 in a friendly match tonight. Liverpool wasn't complete team but anyway, Galatasaray has been showing us the signs of coming back a lot stronger. (GS also played a match against complete team Internazionale, the result was 0-0 but GS played a lot better) Galatasaray suffered the worst season of its history, finished the league 8th and is not in the European cups for the first time in years. Fatih Terim is back on the seat again, let's see how it will turn out to be. Fenerbahçe, Beşiktaş and Trabzonspor are under investigation with rigged game assertions and the future of the league is still unknown.
 
Hajduk Split lost 1-0 against Stoke City @ Stoke. Stoke is worthless but Hajduk is even more. Hajduk still has a chance beating them here, but they haven't shown anything good in first match, to support that statement.

On the other hand, RNK Split drawed 0-0 with Fulham, being a far superior team in the match. It's a club that went from 4th league to third place in 1st league, straight in 4 years! IMHO, we have bigger chance with RNK Split drawing 1-1 or 2-2 with Fulham in England and staying in competition, than Hajduk winning Stoke here.

P.S. RNK - Workers' football club  :rocker:
 
World Cup 2014 qualification groups, European zone (7 September 2012 - 15 October 2013).

Group A
1 Croatia
2 Serbia
3 Belgium
4 Scotland
5 FYR Macedonia
6 Wales

Group B
1 Italy
2 Denmark
3 Czech Republic
4 Bulgaria
5 Armenia
6 Malta

Group C
1 Germany
2 Sweden
3 Republic of Ireland
4 Austria
5 Faroe Islands
6 Kazakhstan

Group D
1 Netherlands
2 Turkey
3 Hungary
4 Romania
5 Estonia
6 Andorra

Group E
1 Norway
2 Slovenia
3 Switzerland
4 Albania
5 Cyprus
6 Iceland

Group F
1 Portugal
2 Russia
3 Israel
4 Northern Ireland
5 Azerbaijan
6 Luxembourg

Group G
1 Greece
2 Slovakia
3 Bosnia-Herzegovina
4 Lithuania
5 Latvia
6 Liechtenstein

Group H
1 England
2 Montenegro
3 Ukraine
4 Poland
5 Moldova
6 San Marino

Group I
1 Spain
2 France
3 Belarus
4 Georgia
5 Finland

Norway have their "own" group. They were drawn in advance, meaning that they couldn't meet the other strongest teams (on paper): Croatia, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Greece, England and Spain.
Is that the first time, Wingman? Expected or not, this looks like a bigger chance to qualify, compared with previous recent World Cups(?)

The other groups don't look that interesting other than that France is together with Spain and Croatia is together with Serbia (I wonder if that happened before).
 
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