(UEFA) Football Thread - Football not Soccer

[HappyDayRiot]

Roger Wilco wrote:

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You people fromt the big football nations have no idea what it's like to live in a country that's really shit at this game. It's funny when France loses against Belarus, but it's just business as usual for Austria. The Austrian national football team hasn't played a game without conceding a goal since three managers ago. I'm not complaining though, it's always entertaining, like a circus clown.

Pffft Austria are giants compared to my country. We've only beaten 6 teams in competitive matches since Toshack took charge what feels like forever ago. And only one of them was against a higher-ranked team (Slovakia). And in the home leg of that leg they smashed us 5-1! Supporting Wales hasn't been fun for a very long time indeed.

At least you qualified for Euro 2008

[Roger Wilco]

HappyDayRiot wrote:

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Pffft Austria are giants compared to my country. We've only beaten 6 teams in competitive matches since Toshack took charge what feels like forever ago. And only one of them was against a higher-ranked team (Slovakia). And in the home leg of that leg they smashed us 5-1! Supporting Wales hasn't been fun for a very long time indeed.

At least you qualified for Euro 2008

Hehe, ok, you win.

[Count Zero]

Hey, Austria won 2:0!

[Iasius]

Count Zero wrote:

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Hey, Austria won 2:0!

And the streak ends.

[Roger Wilco]

They are still shit though, Germany is going to have a lot of fun with these idiots.

[Shaytan]

Bosnia 0 - France 2
It's like breaking a bad voodoo spell.

[Iasius]

Scotland 2:1 Liechtenstein FT

Apparently 7 minutes into injury time they scored the winner.



I guess that makes Norway's win vs Portugal the biggest surprise today.

Portugal now with 1 pts after 2 games.

[Jax]

ENG march on but am not going to be decieved that formation is too easy to bypass in our middle and the bigger teams will punish us no doubt.

My Ratings
Hart (6) - Poor night of kicking and dropped catches, looked nervy and was maybe a little too easily beaten for the goal.

Johnson (7) - Much better game and got forward well setting up the 1st goal. Still not without his doubts at the back but still a good peformance overall.

Jagielka (7) - Not much to say other than solid, which is what you want from a defender.

Lescott (7) - Virtually the same as Jagks, a big surprise not only to be picked but also to put in a solid shift.

A.Cole (6.5) - Didn't get forward as well and looked a little off the pace at times though his knee was strapped so maybe not 100% fit, Still never really troubled.

Johnson (8) - Man of match, came on and the Swiss couldn't handled him. Took his goal so well and must start ahead of Walcott for the near future.

Barry (6) - Went around his game with little fuss but still slow to close down the space and along with Stevie should of never allowed the swiss scorer to even shoot.

Gerrard (6.5) - To deep, not his best position for ENG and Capello needs to give more freedom to one of the central midfielders. However decent link up play with Rooney once again but would be better if they did it further upfield.

Milner (6.5) - Put in a hard shift though needs to play in centre for me in a 5 midfield, not comfortable on the wing IMO. Stupid foul to get booked rules him out of next game must learn from it.

Rooney (7) - Scored his first ENG goal for a year and played well in the first half. However 2nd half he was never in the game and still dropping FAR too deep even for a deep lying forward role.

Defoe (6) - Average peformance with no real link up play and missed 2 very decent chances putting them over the bar.

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Walcott (N/A) - Was involved in the first goal but then injured again However Ref to blame some what as he was targeted by the Swiss for a good kicking with 4 fouls on him in the opening 11 minutes.

SWP (5) - Didn't need to come on and my god miss hit the most simple pass to deny Bent a sure fire goal.

Bent (6) - Took his goal well though was very lucky to be onside when Swiss defender decided at the last second to play him on. Spent rest of game actually being offside and his goal does nothing for me to say he can play at this level.

Capello got a little lucky IMO and when we were 2-0 he should of gone 5 in the middle to shut up shot and not wait for 2-1. Also bringing SWP on when your 2-1 up and soaking up tons of pressure was a massive gamble, can't get away with that at a big tourney...

Still making weird subs just like in the WC needs to learn.

[Starkers]

Hurray we're back in qualification stages and back to being unbeatable! Give it one more win and the papers will be saying we're a shoe in for the Euros in 2012

[Jax]

I have to admit I feel a little more happy with the future once again with new players settling well into the senior side and the U21's Q/F for the playoffs again on course for there 3rd U21 major final in a row. I am expecting to see more youngsters push for a place over the next 2/3 years with the likes of...

Joe Lewis (Needs to join a PL club good young keeper)

Phil Jones
Micah Richards
Ciarin Clark
Chris Smalling
Kieran Gibbs

Tom Cleverly
Jack Wilshire
Dan Golsing
Michael Johnson
Marc Albrighton

We need to produce more strikers for the future but its not looking too bad especially when grouped with the current younger players already in the set up (people 25 or under)...

Joe Hart
Ben Foster (ok 27 but keepers can play till near 40)
Gary Cahill
Leighton Baines
Theo Walcott
Aaron Lennon
James Milner
Adam Johnson
Tom Huddlestone
Ashley Young
Wayne Rooney
Gabby Agbonlahor

[HappyDayRiot]

I would be encouraged by the number of players in the team last night who weren't from the usual Top 4. About bloody time.

[Starkers]

Yeah but we've been here before. If Capello drops Lampard, Terry etc when fit I'll think things have changed, but at the moment the only reason the team wasn't full of top 4 players was because they weren't fit/available!

[Jax]

I don't think Lamps will get back into the starting 11 but for the moment he should be in the 23 man squads. Terry/Rio/Jagks/Cahill/Dawson are our main 5 for now until Phil Jones gets drafted in so its going to be a tight race come EURO 2012. Personally I don't think Rio will make it due to age/Injuries.

[Jax]

Sepp Blatter has a new stupid fucking idea...

Sepp Blatter could scrap extra time in a huge World Cup shake-up though has hinted he may just restore the Golden Goal.

I have no problem with Golden Goal being back, infact I still like my idea of the 1st period being Silver and the 2nd being Golden because you must make Extra time different from the standard 90...

However scrapping Extra time from all World Cup matches would be just insane, theres a certain high pressure to Extra time that makes for good viewing/tension so just restore Golden Goal rather then remove ET. Why the fuck they took Golden or Silver goal out in the first place was daft though am sure it had something to do with TV networks wanting more air time for more £££ $$$ . Loads of sport have some sort of OT/ET system so we should keep ours.

I have no problem with this in the FA cup early round replays for example or for 2 leg affairs in CL cause you play so much football (180 mins) in those cases that ET does seem out of place especially where the stupid fucking AWAY GOAL give in europe basically gives one team 30 min more than the other to get one based on he luck of who plays at home 2nd sort that out first Blatter and co.

[Roger Wilco]

Just ignore it. Blatter spouts out these stupidities on a regular basis to distract from the rampant corruption of the FIFA. As usual nothing will come of this.