Official Football Thread

Holy crap, NA, that's one disturbing picture. But I've actually seen a picture of the same body with another footballer's 'ead and other surroundings. Guess who and where ...
 
FOOTBALL FOOTBALL FOOTBALL!!

C'MON U R'S!!

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I find myself rooting for Chelsea in this Premier League...much to my own surprise.

And as of now, Italy is playing a friendly against Austria which Austria is WINNING by 2:0. Even if Italy come and turn the game around in the second half, this is already legendary.
 
So, with the massive cash injection into Man City, I really think Arsenal and Liverpool should start to be concerned about their sacred place in the "big 4". Man U and Chelsea should be looking over their shoulder, but not just yet - 4 or 5 years down the line and City could be a serious title contender.

But only if they spend wisely and get some more big names other than just Robinho. He may not stay around if City aren't playing Champions League football next season.
 
Agreed Albie, Man City are nowhere near top 4, despite buying Robinho (is he any good anyway other than at stepovers?). Having money doesn't mean you can attract the top players anyway - the world's top players would still rather join Man U or Chelsea. Robinho's agent actually probably got him to join City by saying "Manchester *coughcough* are interested in buying you, what do you think?"
 
Well, well, that was quite a football night!

Most notable results:

Group 1
Albania - Sweden: 0-0

Group 7
Romania - Lithuania: 0-3
Austria - France: 3-1

Group 8
Montenegro - Bulgaria: 2-2
Cyprus - Italy: 1-2 (Italy won in extra time)

Group 9
Macedonia - Scotland: 1-0
Norway - Iceland: 2-2

This is a good result for Holland (also group 9)! The following was less good:

Friendly match: Holland - Australia: 1-2
Because of a stupid blunder in the Dutch defence, the goalkeeper had to take big risk. He got a red card and Australia got a penalty and the equalizer. Later on Holland tried more than Australia but the Aussies scored the winning goal with a well-placed header.

Switching to another continent, today there will be a very important match:

Chile - Brazil

Brazil is doing very bad at the moment and really have to put a lot of effort in actually qualifying for the 2010 World Cup:

1. Paraguay     7-14/14- 6
2. Argentina     7-12/10- 4
3. Uruguay       7-11/16- 6
4. Colombia      7-10/ 4- 3
5. Chile             6-10/ 9- 9
6. Brazil           6- 9/ 8- 4
7. Ecuador       7- 8/10-14
8. Venezuela    7- 7/ 9-11
9. Peru            7- 6/ 4-15
10. Bolivia        7- 4/ 8-20

First 4 teams are directly qualified.
Nr. 5 will play vs nr.4 of Mid- and North-America for one WC ticket.
Nr 6 (Brazil's current position) = nada!
 
Many remarkable results. I'd say Romania vs Lithuania was the most shocking.

I guess everyone in Holland are smiling over the other results in group 9 yesterday. Surprised that Scotland lost, but knowing the Norwegian team I'm not that surprised we only got a draw against Iceland. Our team hasn't played good since the summer of 2007.
What happened yesterday was that Norway dominated the first half, but didn't create many big chances - then we got a penalty after some serious holding inside the box and took the lead. Shortly after, we gave away an easy free kick and were punished for sloppy marking. Then we got a good start to the 2nd half with an Iversen header (with much similarity to his goal against Spain in Euro 2000) and then the entire team stopped playing proper football. The equalizer from Gudjohnsen was a very good free kick - Iceland had one in the post shortly after - and then the rest of the match was all about delaying and poor passing. A really mediocre start to the qualifying campaign, and I'm not convinced the #2 of this group will be one of the four #2s who go through.
 
Eddies Wingman said:
Many remarkable results. I'd say Romania vs Lithuania was the most shocking.
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A new order is rising!

Eddies Wingman said:
I guess everyone in Holland are smiling over the other results in group 9 yesterday.
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A very good result indeed. I see Scotland as a very strong if not the strongest concurrent. On the other hand, maybe I have to change that idea after the next round. It's still early.
 
I watched the match Cyprus - Italy on tv and I can honestly say that Italy really didn't deserve to win: Cyprus was near to score on many occasions and our goalkeeper Gigi Buffon saved us. This Italy is no different from the one seen at last european championship, mister Marcello Lippi shall work hard to change something.  :o
 
Most people in England will be watching that match with dread or disinterest (if at all!). Seriously, England should be beating Andorra by 10 goals. I'm having serious doubts about Capello - why he consistently overlooks Ashley Young is completely beyond me, he would have run riot against the Andorrans yesterday, and why Heskey is chosen above Peter Crouch?
 
Austria beat France 3-1. That is a legendary score, as much as it is surprising. This means that Austria might actually qualify to be in the World Cup 2010, and Austria hasn't been in a world cup since...uh...a very long time. Imma wieda!
 
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.
 
Natalie said:
Austria beat France 3-1. That is a legendary score, as much as it is surprising. This means that Austria might actually qualify to be in the World Cup 2010, and Austria hasn't been in a world cup since...uh...a very long time. Imma wieda!
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One Austrian goal was an auto-goal by the Frenchmen.  Could not find a video online. 

Yay! Go Cro!
 
national acrobat said:
Robinho's agent actually probably got him to join City by saying "Manchester *coughcough* are interested in buying you, what do you think?"
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:D

Yes, I am looking forward to the Croatia game but as for how it will go - well, we shall see.

Zare said:
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.
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Not necessarily - especially away and in the form England have at the moment. Seriously, if you had to put up with the crap that the English tabloids prints, it's no real wonder you don't have the want or need to do better.
 
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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