Official Football Thread

New FIFA worldranking / 2 July:

1. Spanje (4)            1.557 pnt
2. Italië (3)              1.404  "
3. Duitsland (5)         1.364  "
4. Brazilië (2)            1.344  "
5. NEDERLAND (10)    1.299  "
6. Argentinië  (1)       1.298  "
7. Kroatië (15)          1.282  "
8. Tsjechië (6)          1.146  "
9. Portugal (11)        1.104  "
10. Frankrijk (7)        1.053  "
11. Rusland (24)        1.023  "
12. Roemenië (12)     1.021  "
13. Kameroen (13)     1.011  "
14. Turkije (20)         1.010  "
15. Engeland (9)        1.003  "
18. Griekenland ( 8 )     911  "
 
OK, I can work out all but two of these teams above. So to find out the rest I had to go to FIFA's site myself to find that Tsjechië are the Czechs and Frankrijk is France. ;)

Not overly surprised at these and it just shows how England's failure to qualify for Euro 2008 is now realised in the rankings. I think this is their lowest position since pre-Euro 96.
Correction: They were 17th in Jan 2001 - possibly due to their not-so-good Euro 2000 effort and poor start to the 2002 World Cup qualification. Sven took over around that time and our fortunes changed for the better - until now.
 
I'm surprised Croatia went up that far in FIFA rankings.  If you check the FIFA source, they were the biggest movers.  This is Spain's highest ranking since at least 1993. 

To wrap up Euro 2008...  The way Spain played, they clearly fought more and played a better game than others.  Croatia performed better than I expected pre-tournament.  If anyone recalls, I thought Germany and Poland would go through.  They've managed to adjust to a new game after Eduardo got injured.
 
Very interesting new rankings. Can't say I'm surprised, although how the Czechs managed to move up I don't know (I hadn't realized they played well enough to merit that). Oh, and Italy shouldn't be so high up, they played a ghastly tournament.
 
Well, the ranking is based on results so it's no use talking about who should be high up. The only problem with the ranking is that it favors the decent teams from Asia, Africa and Central America; the good teams there have quite crappy opposition and will win all the time, while a (better) European side will play qualifiers against good teams all the time. Or am I totally wrong here, does a win against a team ranked #10 give more points than a win against a team ranked #100? If it is so, disregard my point.

Still, Italy are the reigning World Champions and they did well in the qualifiers. The ranking is based on results over several years, so of course Italy belongs in top 3.
 
Eddies Wingman said:
does a win against a team ranked #10 give more points than a win against a team ranked #100?
Click to expand...
To put it simply, yes.

It not only depends on the opposition, but in what situation (i.e., points for a friendly win is not worth as much as points against the same team in a competitive match). It's all weighted accordingly.
 
There is something else that has weighting - the strength of the confederation.

Details here.

Still, some people choose not to accept them as a guide to how good a team actually is.
 
Sneijder's goal versus France elected best of Euro 2008
 
VIENNA (SW) - The goal scored by Real Madrid midfielder Wesley Sneijder during the clash of the Netherlands with France in the group phase, has been elected best of 2008.

In an official UEFA poll, the goal received forty percent of the votes. The Dutch were already leading 3-1 in injury time when Sneijder sent a well aimed shot over the head of goalkeeper Coupet, after which the ball hit the lower side of the crossbar to disappear into the net.

photo.php


Second on the list is Nihat Kahveçi's second goal versus the Czech Republic. This goal took the Turks to the quarter finals and earned the player nineteen percent of the votes.

Andrei Arshavin's goal against Sweden, in Russia's final group game, received twelve percent of the total vote.
 
Van Persie's goal against the French and Schweinsteiger's effort against the Portuguese were the best two - in my opinion. :D
 
Forostar said:
Second on the list is Nihat Kahveçi's second goal versus the Czech Republic. This goal took the Turks to the quarter finals and earned the player nineteen percent of the votes.

Andrei Arshavin's goal against Sweden, in Russia's final group game, received twelve percent of the total vote.
Click to expand...

That Wesley Sneijder goal is deserving of a #1 spot.  The way he raised his leg and curved it to redirect the ball on first touch was brilliant.

I don't think that second goal versus the Czechs is great.  It was Petr Cech's mistake, if I'm thinking of the right goal.  In terms of importance to Turkey, the goal was great, but in terms of skill the goal was nothing remarkable.  My own bias is that each goal should be judged individually regardless of how important the goal was to a particular game.
I found this interesting article that compares recent Euros and recent top notch teams at Euros.  While I agree with the articles summary of the French of 2000 being the best team this century, I disagree with his statements of Spain in this Euro.  I believe they showed that they are a good team and would have played well regardless of whom they faced.  Also, like the author I wish next Euro the possibility of a rematch in semi-finals is ended, as much as I enjoyed Russia vs Spain Part II.  Maybe someone else would be interested.

Euro 2008 - Good, But Not Great
Daniel Ruiz believes that, while Euro 2008 served up no small measure of entertainment, to label it as the best European Championships ever is short-sighted...

The common consensus seems to be that Euro 2008 has been a great tournament, possibly the best European Championship ever. I recall the same hyperbole being applied to Euro 2000, and though neither set of critics were right the ones from eight years ago were closer to the mark.

Euro 2008 still fell some way short of arguably the greatest European Championships of them all, Euro ’84, when Michel Platini’s nine goals in five games helped the hosts France lift the trophy and made him arguably the only serious challenger the young Diego Maradona ever had as the world’s number one player.

Euro 2000, though, was an outstanding tournament whose most memorable games, Spain – Yugoslavia, Slovenia – Yugoslavia, and the semi-finals, France v Portugal and the co-hosts Holland v Italy, were as good, if not better than any of the admittedly numerous fine matches Euro 2008 served up.

Year 2000

Where Euro 2000 had the edge was that its leading teams arrived in Holland and Belgium with better squads than those that graced this summer’s competition. All four of the semi-finalists eight years ago, Holland, Italy, France and Portugal were vastly superior sides to the four sides which made up this year’s final quartet, and also far stronger than their Dutch, Italian, Portuguese and French successors that arrived in Switzerland and Austria this summer harbouring serious designs on the Henri Delaunay trophy. 

In that halcyon summer of 2000, France’s Zinedine Zidane and Portugal’s Luis Figo, the latter about to complete his sensational and controversial move from Barcelona to Real Madrid later that summer, were at the height of their powers, assisted by the likes of Didier Deschamps and Rui Costa, while Denis Bergkamp spearheaded Dutch hopes and for Italy, Alessandro Del Piero and a young Francesco Totti competed for the Azurri’s fabled number ten shirt. 

In the first of Euro 2000’s sensational semi finals, the Dutch, then coached by a pre-Barcelona Frank Rijkaard and World Cup semi-finalists two years earlier, could forever consider themselves unlucky to have come up against an Italian side who despite having Gianluca Zambrotta sent off in the first half, still managed to put together one of the most heroic defensive performances ever seen in the game’s history, Maldini, Cannavarro and Toldo in goal putting in stunning performances, and aided by the Dutch missing three penalties, the Azurri won on spot kicks to progress through to the final. 

There they would face and ultimately fall against a Zinedine Zidane inspired French team who in the other semi final had put out Portugal in a fiery encounter decided by Zidane’s golden goal penalty in extra time. 

In 2000, Zidane was arguably at the height of his powers for the world champions, and Roger Lemerre’s side were superior to the Aime Jacquet team that lifted the World Cup on home soil two years earlier, effectively without a convincing striker. This was indisputably the last great international side the world has seen.

Since their decline after their doomed defence of their world title in Japan and Korea six years ago, the world has waited to see a new power emerge. Despite Brazil and Italy winning the last two World Cups, neither side convinced in lifting the trophy in the manner which one would expect world champions to.

New Era?

Now Spain, in winning Euro 2008, have won their first trophy in 44 long years, and thus shed their ‘nearly men’ tag - now assumed by England – but how good are they? Can they kick on, as Match of the Day pundit and reluctant want to be manager Alan Shearer suggested and pose a serious threat in South Africa in two years time.

For all their fawning admirers, the jury is out. An iffy defence is their Achilles heel, and the departure of the irascible coach Luis Aragones may also go against them. Former Real Madrid coach Vicente Del Bosque is set to take over, and one of his first moves is likely to be to restore Real Madrid icon Raul - whom Aragones worked so hard to remove against the wishes of the powerful Madrid press - to the fold. Aragones brought unity to a team often riven by regional differences and Madrid and Catalan cliques, and whether Del Bosque, so closely identified with Real Madrid, can keep the players singing from the same hymn sheet must be in doubt.

Another factor which goes against the Spanish is that Euro 2008 was flawed from the beginning because of UEFA’s bizarre meddling with the format that meant that group teams could meet each other again in the semi-finals (something that urgently needs to be addressed).

For all the talk of how good the Russians were, the fact is that Spain defeated them twice and emphatically, proving perhaps that Russia’s 3-0 autumn defeat at Wembley to Steve McClaren’s England in the qualifiers was no freak result. 

In past tournaments, potential European champions would have faced more serious tests than matches against an ageing Sweden team, and defending champions Greece, in sharp decline, and they would have met fresh opponents in the last four. 

It could also be argued that they ‘failed’ their sternest examination which came against a poor Italian side in the last eight. Nervous, with every reason to be given a woeful record against the Italians, Spain could not break down the World Champions who were missing injured skipper Fabio Cannavaro, the suspended Gennaro Gattuso, and their playmaker, the always-elegant Andrea Pirlo. Could they have emerged victorious had they encountered the likes of Holland, Croatia or the Portugal that turned up for its first two group games? It’s doubtful. 

The English press, meanwhile, have lavished praise on both Fernando Torres and Cesc Fabregas, but both Aragones and the Spanish press seem less convinced about the stellar pair. Torres failed to complete any of the four matches in which he started, and Fabregas came off the bench in the matches he was involved with, and though he started the final, he was substituted on the hour mark. 

The Spaniards' narrow win over a woeful German side in the final should have been more emphatic, but Fabregas’ inclination to go down the Liverpool route of playing the long ball to Torres and capitalising on the forward’s phenomenal speed, saw Spain abandon the intricate passing game that had wowed so many neutrals in Austria and Switzerland.

Still Waiting

Europe awaits the emergence of the next great team; a team that like the French at the start of this decade threatens to and then does sweep all before them, taking football to new levels. A team whose memory, like the French alumni of 2000 and the great Platini side of 84, and the Dutch of Gullit, Van Basten and Rijkaard in ’88, burns even stronger with the passing of the years. This Spanish side do not fall into that category and would have been dismantled by any of the great aforementioned sides, as would have the other leading contenders at this year’s competition. 

Looking around, there exists a power vacuum in international football. There seem to be many good sides but none that threaten greatness, and none that seem capable of claiming an era for themselves.

Daniel Ruiz

http://www.goal.com/en-india/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=760678
 
I agree with you GK, his statements about Euro 2000 are merited, but I disagree heavily with his points on Spain this euro. I think they did a great job having to deal as they did with the psychology of losing in quarter finals in big tournaments and losing at penalties. They managed to battle through and played some great football. Although I do agree with him about the semifinals stuff, UEFA should change that so that we don't have a Russia vs. Spain part II thing again.
 
Well EW: a confrontation between our countries. ;)
Intertoto: NAC Breda - Rosenborg (first match 19 July).

Last season, NAC became 3rd in the Dutch competition, an extremely good result for them, but they were unlucky in qualifying for CL and UEFA.
 
Well, I guess this is normally an even call. Rosenborg have been very unstable in the league so far and are in 8th place, but they usually play closer to their best in Europe. I guess they have the advantage of being in season, while NAC are off-season. I guess both teams will win their home match with one or two.

How big is the gap in quality between Ajax/PSV and the rest of the league? I see that PSV has won the league the last few years and Ajax finishing second two years in a row. I mean, is NAC Breda anywhere close to PSV in quality?
 
The gap has become smaller and smaller making it a more interesting competition. Still (esp.) PSV are way better.

NAC had an amazing comeback in the second half of the season: 38 points in 17 matches.
Before the winterstop they were at the 10th place, and as said before, they ended the season at the 3rd place (also won they 7 matches in a row, which was a new club record!). In the play-offs all went downhill though. The match against Rosenborg is their last chance for a European football-ticket.
 
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