Tim Cahill has made the Socceroos despite his only recent playing time being a sub in the EFL Championship. He has a chance to become only the 4th player ever to score a goal in 4 World Cups.
Also sometimes truth is stranger than fiction with a few petrol stations being re-branded before the Cup.
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First of all...no. I'm not watching Manchester United on purpose and secondly, hes the best you've got.
And I think you're underrating his passing somewhat.
Hes not in the upper echelons of CMs in the world or anything, but you could do worse.
We csn do much worse
Jake livermore is on the standby list
But basically i agree on him being meat and potatoes, if you rated all his skills they would all be like a 6.5 out of 10, hes a great squad player and seems like a good guy in the room, i imagine hes vice captain too, but he just doesn't fit with the team
I would have rather had big jonj in there beside dier, pinging balls up to the front
The way the team is constructed, the worry is who is going to be attacking, since neither dier or henderson really get forward well, so if we have 5 at the back it leaves the front 3 isolated, whereas if there was a cm who could attack a bit its more balanced
I don’t disagree.
Late subs w/Shelvey or Wilshere, when the front 6 need to activate... should’ve brought one of those two, and left one of the defenders behind.
Maybe Loftus-Cheek, is just that player. I’d like to see what Southgate has in him.
Mesut Özil has retired from the German national team. There has been a lot of controversy over the past weeks because ahead of the WC, Özil visited Turkish president Erdogan, took photos with him and expressed his support. Lots of fans wanted him to retire or be kicked off the team. Now he retired, but not without throwing a fit before that.
He shouldnt even have made the German team this year, he was basically a Legacy pick and it blew up in their faces.
I get that he trying the 'respect the office' tactic, but nobody who wants to keep their hands clean should be seen with Erdogan, thats just bad news.
Anyways, it always felt to me that after the 2014 World Cup he really phoned it in.
agreed. I still don't understand why they didn't throw him out back then, it just caused a lot of unnecessary drama and it's not like they would have done any worse without him.
agreed. I still don't understand why they didn't throw him out back then, it just caused a lot of unnecessary drama and it's not like they would have done any worse without him.
They played their best game without him!
Yeah Ozil is a strange cat, I dont really get what hes up to with this, it just really doesnt make a lot of sense.
I understand that he has Turkish heritage but Erdogan is a lunatic, and why do that right before the World Cup?
And you're right, why didnt they throw him out? Its not like they couldnt replace him.
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Mesut Özil has retired from the German national team. There has been a lot of controversy over the past weeks because ahead of the WC, Özil visited Turkish president Erdogan, took photos with him and expressed his support. Lots of fans wanted him to retire or be kicked off the team. Now he retired, but not without throwing a fit before that.
Wow, what an odd situation. I understand where Ozil is coming from, I don’t think he was endorsing Erdogan but understands that if he wants anything to do with turkey in the future it would be smart to stay neutral so he took the pic. I do believe he’s being picked apart by German media and him being a proud Turk probably doesn’t sit well with many right wing Germans.
Last edited by Beninho; 07-22-2018 at 12:51 PM.
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Wow, what an odd situation. I understand where Ozil is coming from, I don’t think he was endorsing Erdogan but understands that if he wants anything to do with turkey in the future it would be smart to stay neutral so he took the pic. I do believe he’s being picked apart by German media and him being a proud Turk probably doesn’t sit well with many right wing Germans.
I dont think that really has much to do with it at all, the fact of the matter is that most 'Proud Turks' hate Erdogan as much if not more than anyone else.
And Germans are pretty okay with you honouring your heritage, for understandable reasons they're not all that uptight about that kind of thing anymore.
If anything, I'd think Germans would be upset because Ozil is using his status as a German player to benefit a crazy dictator.
At the end of the day, Ozil just tossed Low a life preserver because he no longer has to choose to drop him, he simply isnt available for selection and its no big loss, Germany will be fine without him.
The real question is: What does Ozil get out of all of this? Was it just an idiotic mistake or did he get some benefit out of it?
Further....racism? I dont buy that. If anything, as I stated before, I think the 'outrage' has less to do with being of and honouring his Turkish heritage and more to do with the fact that Erdogan is a genuine lunatic and nobody of right mind should want to be associated with him.
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I dont think that really has much to do with it at all, the fact of the matter is that most 'Proud Turks' hate Erdogan as much if not more than anyone else.
And Germans are pretty okay with you honouring your heritage, for understandable reasons they're not all that uptight about that kind of thing anymore.
If anything, I'd think Germans would be upset because Ozil is using his status as a German player to benefit a crazy dictator.
At the end of the day, Ozil just tossed Low a life preserver because he no longer has to choose to drop him, he simply isnt available for selection and its no big loss, Germany will be fine without him.
The real question is: What does Ozil get out of all of this? Was it just an idiotic mistake or did he get some benefit out of it?
Further....racism? I dont buy that. If anything, as I stated before, I think the 'outrage' has less to do with being of and honouring his Turkish heritage and more to do with the fact that Erdogan is a genuine lunatic and nobody of right mind should want to be associated with him.
I think racism has a lot to do with it, he took a picture with him but he did not endorse him in any way. German media ripped him apart and he’s been getting racist slurs thrown at him left and right. He’s being used as a scapegoat for Germany's failure in the World Cup when many others did not show up. Ozil has to stay neutral because he obviously would like to visit Turkey again and has family there. He’s not going to deny the Turkish PM a picture and risk being barred from Turkey or having family imprisoned, just look at Enes Kanter. Ozil is a World Cup winner and is being made out to be some fascist Turk by German media. Racism in Germany is growing, their far right is growing as well. This is 100% racism.
I don’t know where your Ozil hate comes from, he’s a world class baller who struggles with consistency on an arsenal team that seems to always be inconsistent. Germany is a worse team without him. If you are gonna blame anyone blame Low. Ozil is a 5 time German player of the year, give your head a shake. Your insults towards him are ridiculous. Not take him to the World Cup? Ya that would’ve been smart, right up there with not taking Sane
Last edited by Beninho; 07-22-2018 at 07:03 PM.
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I think racism has a lot to do with it, he took a picture with him but he did not endorse him in any way. German media ripped him apart and he’s been getting racist slurs thrown at him left and right. He’s being used as a scapegoat for Germany's failure in the World Cup when many others did not show up. Ozil has to stay neutral because he obviously would like to visit Turkey again and has family there. He’s not going to deny the Turkish PM a picture and risk being barred from Turkey or having family imprisoned, just look at Enes Kanter. Ozil is a World Cup winner and is being made out to be some fascist Turk by German media. Racism in Germany is growing, their far right is growing as well. This is 100% racism.
I don’t know where your Ozil hate comes from, he’s a world class baller who struggles with consistency on an arsenal team that seems to always be inconsistent. Germany is a worse team without him. If you are gonna blame anyone blame Low. Ozil is a 5 time German player of the year, give your head a shake. Your insults towards him are ridiculous. Not take him to the World Cup? Ya that would’ve been smart, right up there with not taking Sane
100% correct.
I'm completely on Ozil's side here and the treatment he has received over the photo is so overblown for what it was.
We just had a world cup where Putin handed out the winning medals, yet Ozil is the only player on the planet getting vilified for taking a pic with a dictator??
Complete double standards and very unfair to him.
His play the past year has been far under what it should be, but this Turkey thing is another matter altogether and completely unfair. Good on him for sticking up for himself.
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I'm not. You're 100 percent correct that he's been treated unfairly and sadly he's been the subject of despicable racism. But in all honesty, Özil and his camp have made a number of mistakes as well and there's certainly blame on both sides.
First of all, Beninho is 100 percent correct when it comes to racism in Germany. The thing there (and generally in Europe right now) is that the past few years have sadly seen a clear rise in right-wing politics and racism. Mass immigration has given far-right politicians a spark and through social media etc. they've sadly gained a lot of steam. I think all of that is relevant when it comes to Özil too, because those players with foreign roots have always been, to a degree, a subject of racist tendencies. I feel that has gotten a lot worse over the past few years, although in the eyes of the racists it does seem very important where the roots are. Özil is right when he says that guys like Gomez, Podolski and Klose were treated differently. Those come from Christian European countries though, while Özil is a Muslim with Turkish roots.
Guys like Özil and Gündogan have gotten a lot of flack over the past few years, and there's been a lot of stupid discussions whether they are "real" Germans. Completely irrelevant stuff gets blown out of proportion here - a famous example would be whether and how they sing the national anthem before the game. It's completely ridiculous, petty and racist, but sadly that's how it's been for a while. And of course, those things are exacerbated when the team loses. Özil has probably faced the most criticism in that regard because he simply looks lethargic and uninterested on the field all the time. Again, very unfair criticism.
All of that stuff has to be under consideration when it comes to the photographs with Erdogan, who is pretty much seen as the devil in central Europe. Özil and Gündogan meeting him, taking photos with him and posting stuff like "my president!" has obviously caused a ####storm. The racists saw justification for their prejudices that those players aren't even Germans, but Turks at heart, and therefore shouldn't play for the national team. In a more general sense, two German footballers doing that stuff was a slap in the face of Germany. Let's not forget that Erdogan was in the middle of his election campaign and that his rallies were forbidden in Germany. It was, in all honesty, unbelievably stupid of them to do that.
Now the fallout has been terrible because the DFB simply did a horrific job ... they couldn't have messed it up worse on purpose. Löw, Bierhoff and friends simply didn't have the spine to deal with it appropriately, and Grindel is nothing but an incompetent racist #######. They neither managed to protect those two players nor the team as a whole and did absolutely nothing to defuse the situation. Instead they deflected, and now AFTER the disappointing tournament they come out and throw #### everywhere. Grindel absolutely has to be canned for all of this, and in all honesty Bierhoff should be too.
But finally, despite the DFBs incompetence and all the horrific treatment Özil has had to face, you can't clear Özil of any mistakes either. First of all, and I can't stress this enough, the whole Erdogan meeting was incredibly stupid. I don't know if they were badly advised or felt pressure from Turkey, but in any way, endorsing someone like Erdogan in the final stages of his election campaign can't be defended. Secondly, Özil did nothing to explain himself and defuse the situation. Gündogan did, saying that he had to do it because of his construction projects in Turkey. It wasn't perfect, but it helped. Özil stayed quiet all the time, and it's simply blown up in his face after his pathetic WC displays.
And while it's unfair that he's been made a scapegoat by Grindel and friends, he certainly didn't help his case either. His "explanation" for meeting Erdogan is incredibly weak, and given the timing of the meeting, his claims of it being unpolitical are simply laughable. What personally irks me is that there isn't even a hint of self-reflection there, he doesn't acknowledge any of his own mistakes but simply puts all the blame on the others. And on a much smaller scale, but still: posting all that stuff in English only didn't help him in the face of the public, and doing it all in three seperate posts throughout the day gives the impression of an attention whore. If you want to play the victim, those things don't really help.
I didn't mean to turn this into a lengthy monologue, sorry. But there's simply a lot of factors in all of this and there's blame on many sides. You can't deny that Özil has had to suffer pathetic treatment and racism, and the DFB failed miserably in every way. But Özil has made big mistakes too.
Last edited by devo22; 07-23-2018 at 05:05 AM.
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I think racism has a lot to do with it, he took a picture with him but he did not endorse him in any way. German media ripped him apart and he’s been getting racist slurs thrown at him left and right. He’s being used as a scapegoat for Germany's failure in the World Cup when many others did not show up. Ozil has to stay neutral because he obviously would like to visit Turkey again and has family there. He’s not going to deny the Turkish PM a picture and risk being barred from Turkey or having family imprisoned, just look at Enes Kanter. Ozil is a World Cup winner and is being made out to be some fascist Turk by German media. Racism in Germany is growing, their far right is growing as well. This is 100% racism.
I don’t know where your Ozil hate comes from, he’s a world class baller who struggles with consistency on an arsenal team that seems to always be inconsistent. Germany is a worse team without him. If you are gonna blame anyone blame Low. Ozil is a 5 time German player of the year, give your head a shake. Your insults towards him are ridiculous. Not take him to the World Cup? Ya that would’ve been smart, right up there with not taking Sane
Okay, calm down Beninho. I have nothing against Ozil as a player or a person let alone any hate, hell, he used to be one of my favourite players, but I'm in the same camp as many as lazy players drive me crazy.
But at the same time you cant just chock this all up to 100% racism and Ozil is a Saint.
Theres lots of blame to go around. Racism certainly played its part but Ozil played his as well.
I'd have loved to see Ozil go out the same way as Klose and Schweinsteiger but retiring after a dismal tournament after a dismal season isnt going to be all sunshine and rainbows.
Ozil was and still is a very talented player, but by all indications after this season his give-a-crap meter for both club and country is barely registering.
Further, yeah, dropping Ozil from the team might have been a wise move. Ultimately I likely wouldnt do it because hes an amazing weapon to have on your bench and the whole controversy didnt seem to deter Gundogan nearly as much, albeit he was proactive and didnt just sit there and take it. But current form means a lot in a short tournament and Ozil's wasnt very good.
And comparing Putin to Erdogan? Well....thats not a comparison to be made at all.
Erdogan is campaigning for 're-election' while Putin is not.
Putin is the leader of the Host Nation while Erdogan is not.
Not the same whatsoever.
Excellent rant by Devo, you should rant more often!
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Okay, calm down Beninho. I have nothing against Ozil as a player or a person let alone any hate, hell, he used to be one of my favourite players, but I'm in the same camp as many as lazy players drive me crazy.
But at the same time you cant just chock this all up to 100% racism and Ozil is a Saint.
Theres lots of blame to go around. Racism certainly played its part but Ozil played his as well.
I'd have loved to see Ozil go out the same way as Klose and Schweinsteiger but retiring after a dismal tournament after a dismal season isnt going to be all sunshine and rainbows.
Ozil was and still is a very talented player, but by all indications after this season his give-a-crap meter for both club and country is barely registering.
Further, yeah, dropping Ozil from the team might have been a wise move. Ultimately I likely wouldnt do it because hes an amazing weapon to have on your bench and the whole controversy didnt seem to deter Gundogan nearly as much, albeit he was proactive and didnt just sit there and take it. But current form means a lot in a short tournament and Ozil's wasnt very good.
And comparing Putin to Erdogan? Well....thats not a comparison to be made at all.
Erdogan is campaigning for 're-election' while Putin is not.
Putin is the leader of the Host Nation while Erdogan is not.
Not the same whatsoever.
Excellent rant by Devo, you should rant more often!
I’ve just seen multiple posts by you lamenting a player whose been world class for close to a decade now, you saying they shouldn’t of taken him to the World Cup is absurd. If you thought that you did not make it known before the World Cup.
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