The Official 16/17 Various National Soccer Team News Thread

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Locke

Italy had 2 chances to beat Sweden and didnt score a single goal. Sounds to me like some mediocre teams have been omitted.

Not disagreeing there, you'll see I didn't list any of the European teams. Take Sweden for example, the beat Italy, France, and the Dutch to be here, they earned it.

The fact that you could have a group that has Sweden, Netherlands, & France in the same group, or Italy & Spain in the same group, while a group only has Serbia, Ireland, Wales, Austria etc in it is a different argument that speaks to the stupidity of the FIFA rankings (Romania was POT A and ranked 8th in the world, Wales too FFS) but we will save that for another day.

Just feel like upsets in other (non-UEFA) qualifying brackets have made this a less than impressive tournament.

I stand by the statement that the European championship is usually harder to win than the World Cup.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Lets not kid ourselves, outside probably Girly we'd all be cool with UEFA and CONMEBOL putting on a joint tournament and render the World Cup irrelevant. Would be an amazing tournament with all killer, no filler. Still cannot imagine how unwatchable the 48 team tournament will be until the round of 16.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Lets not kid ourselves, outside probably Girly we'd all be cool with UEFA and CONMEBOL putting on a joint tournament and render the World Cup irrelevant. Would be an amazing tournament with all killer, no filler. Still cannot imagine how unwatchable the 48 team tournament will be until the round of 16.

Just the same as the expansion of the Euro Cup. Its not making the Tournament better, just more profitable. Theres going to be lots of teams that are out of their league just parking the Bus and praying.

So Mourinho will never be out of a job.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by CroFlames

Wow do you also secretly have an Axis powers shrine in your basement? Obviously a joke.

Why would I have that?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

Lets not kid ourselves, outside probably Girly we'd all be cool with UEFA and CONMEBOL putting on a joint tournament and render the World Cup irrelevant. Would be an amazing tournament with all killer, no filler. Still cannot imagine how unwatchable the 48 team tournament will be until the round of 16.

You want to see interesting teams you never see. There is a pleasant surprise every WC. Costa Rica were a shootout away from the semis. I think only 5 euro teams made the 16s. One of them was Greece!

[Strange Brew]

Stayed away from the internet and came home to watch the Danes demolish the Irish. The aquavit is flowing here!!

The Danes finished very strong beating Poland 4 to zero a few weeks ago. Here's hoping Eriksen pushes the Danes to a strong World Cup showing.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

You want to see interesting teams you never see. There is a pleasant surprise every WC. Costa Rica were a shootout away from the semis. I think only 5 euro teams made the 16s. One of them was Greece!

No, I pretty much just wanna see the best tournament possible. A 48 team tournament is just going to be ridiculously ugly, especially if they follow through and put penalties into the group stage matches. The biggest takeaway from such a tournament might be new ways to park the bus. 24 team tournament, let's say 14 Euro teams, 6 COMNEBOL teams and 4 wildcards who qualify through a side tournament. But as Matt points out, this upcoming World Cup is already loaded with mediocrity, expanding said mediocrity is terrible for fans and I'm not at all convinced it'll be more profitable for FIFA. Just think 2026 in North America...where can you have Saudi Arabia play Burkina Faso and it draw more than 4,000 fans? I don't think this isn't going to be the financial windfall FIFA thinks it'll be. They'll make more money, sure, but not as much as they're hoping to.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

Stayed away from the internet and came home to watch the Danes demolish the Irish. The aquavit is flowing here!!

The Danes finished very strong beating Poland 4 to zero a few weeks ago. Here's hoping Eriksen pushes the Danes to a strong World Cup showing.

Some Dane...it's akvavit.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Some Dane...it's akvavit.

Didn't realize I was communicating with an informed audience.

Should have just left it at snaps. In any case,this personally imported bottle is gone.

[Senator Clay Davis]

Rube is the founder of forum.drunkpuck.com, no way was he gonna let you pull a fast one on him.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

No, I pretty much just wanna see the best tournament possible. A 48 team tournament is just going to be ridiculously ugly, especially if they follow through and put penalties into the group stage matches. The biggest takeaway from such a tournament might be new ways to park the bus. 24 team tournament, let's say 14 Euro teams, 6 COMNEBOL teams and 4 wildcards who qualify through a side tournament. But as Matt points out, this upcoming World Cup is already loaded with mediocrity, expanding said mediocrity is terrible for fans and I'm not at all convinced it'll be more profitable for FIFA. Just think 2026 in North America...where can you have Saudi Arabia play Burkina Faso and it draw more than 4,000 fans? I don't think this isn't going to be the financial windfall FIFA thinks it'll be. They'll make more money, sure, but not as much as they're hoping to.

You make it sound like European football is exciting. Saudi Arabia vs Burkina Faso would be a way more fun game.

Look it's a World event involving many nations. It's like saying the 95 girls at Miss Universe are the most beautiful in the world. Of course that not true or else there would be 50 Venezuelans.

[Party Elephant]

Yeah for me half the fun of the world cup is seeing the smaller nations play their hearts out and occasionally take down a giant.

[FireGilbert]

Australia wins! The Socceroos played a record 22 games to qualify.

Go New Zealand tomorrow!

[Senator Clay Davis]

I'm gonna give New Zealand a pass on their plan for 120 minutes of bus parking and hopefully winning a shootout. Because they've had a fun time the last few days:

- Delays their flight to Peru
- Long, detoured trip from the airport to their hotel on the team bus
- There was a fireworks display outside their hotel last night at 3am
- There were apparently fighter jets flying over the hotel for hours

Peruvian fans aren't ####ing around for this one.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I'm gonna give New Zealand a pass on their plan for 120 minutes of bus parking and hopefully winning a shootout. Because they've had a fun time the last few days:

- Delays their flight to Peru
- Long, detoured trip from the airport to their hotel on the team bus
- There was a fireworks display outside their hotel last night at 3am
- There were apparently fighter jets flying over the hotel for hours

Peruvian fans aren't ####ing around for this one.

I was in Lima a year or two ago for work and as luck would have it, stayed at the same hotel as the Chilean squad who was playing Peru the next day. Hardly slept at all. Serenaded by hundreds of Peruvians outside the hotel throughout the night.

[GirlySports]

The Kiwis were in it for awhile, even started the 2nd half brightly but a 2nd Peruvian goal is probably the death blow.

[Party Elephant]

Yep, Peru were the better team today for sure. It was an entertaining game and the AWs pushed back after going down a goal. It's too bad Chris Wood had that hamstring injury, he's a player that really could have changed these two games if he was 100%.

Well done Peru, I imagine it's quite the party over there tonight.

[FireGilbert]

Too bad New Zealand couldn't pull off the huge upset but big props to them for keeping it close.

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

I'm gonna give New Zealand a pass on their plan for 120 minutes of bus parking and hopefully winning a shootout. Because they've had a fun time the last few days:

- Delays their flight to Peru
- Long, detoured trip from the airport to their hotel on the team bus
- There was a fireworks display outside their hotel last night at 3am
- There were apparently fighter jets flying over the hotel for hours

Peruvian fans aren't ####ing around for this one.

Everyone made a big deal about how hard going to Honduras would be however what Australia went through seems incredibly tame compared to what happened to NZ in Peru.

[GirlySports]

World Cup Draw 2018

December 1 at State Kremlin Palace (8am Calgary time)

Hosts and Draw Conductors
Gary Lineker and Maria Komandnaya




Ball Pickers

• Laurent Blanc
• Gordon Banks
• Cafu
• Fabio Cannavaro
• Diego Forlan
• Diego Maradona
• Carles Puyol
• Nikita Simonyan

Pots:


POT 1 Russia, Germany, Brazil, Portugal, Argentina, Belgium, Poland, France
POT 2 Spain, Peru, Switzerland, England, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Croatia
POT 3 Denmark, Iceland, Costa Rica, Sweden, Tunisia, Egypt, Senegal, Iran
POT 4 Serbia, Nigeria, Australia, Japan, Morocco, Panama, Korea, Saudi Arabia

[CroFlames]

Just get to the damn draw already.

Yes, yes, Russians have a rich and long history of culture. Don't care right now.