The International Football Thread

[BluesChick 1,260]

Can some one explain the FIFA playoff set up to me? I don't mean the logistics because I get that I mean the reasoning behind setting up Asia to play against S America and Oceania against North/Central America/Caribbean... And why Asia and South America get 5 qualifying teams but Oceania gets none?

It seems to set up a preferential system for European and American teams...or am I dead on?

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[Strike 6,958]

The England National team is funny. Players like Smalling, Cahill, Milner, Welbeck sit on the bench at their clubs but start for country.

[Barbara 15,149]

I don't know if it was commentated by anyone before, but we were lucky with the NTs. Despite yet another break coming in the middle of November, no players will be involved in the European play-offs (I'm not sure if Brazil have any matches scheduled, but they probably do), so it means that most players in the squad will be with us instead of risking injuries in the NT matches - which is always a relief. Also, we can use the extra training before December comes as the winter isn't normally Chelsea's favorite part of the calendar.

Speaking of injuries I breathe relieved knowing none of our players had them when we have a very important match against Schalke coming next week. If anything this international break was a blessing for us as some of our players will come back to the club with renewed confidence (Schürrle, Mata and de Bruyne) for scoring goals in their teams. It must be specially important for de Bruyne - to start working harder in the training sessions and finally be selected, while Schürrle could keep the scoring boots for us. All in all it was a good break - as much as going without club football can be good anyway.

[Kojo 4,676]

2006 and 2010 England had teams of worldbeaters. Terry, Ferdinand, Cole in defense, Lampard, Rooney scoring for fun for their clubs but at the tournament the expectations are so high and the players so tired, they get extremely shy in front of goal. They were so slow due to their fatigue, the whole German team which is not exactly fast looked like motorcycles against them. England usually have the quality but as long as there is a Carling Cup, replay rule in the FA Cup and 20 teams in the league, England will never win a tournament. Also I'd love to see a real world class coach in charge for England. Hodgson, Capello were ok, but they are rather taciticians. England needs a motivator, who unites the team with his spirit and actually instill some belief in them. When Germany exited the 2004 EM in the group stages, the NT was down. Only 2 years later, Jürgen Klinsmann almost won the World Cup (admittedly in the own country) with a side that was good but individually not remotedly close to what England or Italy had in their ranks at that time.

It would be brilliant to have a strong England team again. They deserve it. The premier league has produced some of the best football ever seen and brought the whole sport on a compeltely new level. English players have been a massive part of that. The Golden Generation has been one of the most impressive collection of players ever. Their international medal cabinet does not reflect that, but their club medal cabinet surely does.

Btw couldn't the English and the Welsh FA just merge? The best Welsh clubs play in the EPL anyway and the relationship with Wales has never been as strained as the one with the Scottish (which Scottish player would even get in the England squad?). England + Bale and Ramsey would rock.

England have been failing for a long time, not just 2006 and 2010, England has always been England.

You look at our history for the past 30 years and we've reached the Semi Final about once, and have always been kicked out ridiculously because we aren't up for it, getting knocked out by the likes of Ireland and so on.

I'm not expecting anything different just because Roy has finally managed two good performances in two years.

[Rmpr 8,977]

Can some one explain the FIFA playoff set up to me? I don't mean the logistics because I get that I mean the reasoning behind setting up Asia to play against S America and Oceania against North/Central America/Caribbean... And why Asia and South America get 5 qualifying teams but Oceania gets none?

It seems to set up a preferential system for European and American teams...or am I dead on?

The amount of qualified teams depends on number of countries and total fifa ranking points each continent has... (a bit like UCL)

Europe: 13 places

Africa: 5 places

South America: 5.5 places

Asia: 4.5 places

North/Central America: 3.5 places

Oceania: 0.5 places

Oceania used to have one place in the WCs, but since Australia is so much better than any other team in Oceania, FIFA decided to put Australia in the Asia Qualifiers (adding one more qualifying spot) and taking away Oceania's automatic qualified team.

The play-offs are done by rotation. One time it is North/Central Americas vs South America, another time is Asia vs South America, North/Central America vs Oceania, and so on. And since Europe and Africa already have way too many countries inside their football associations, they have internal play-offs.

Now, if all of that is fair is very debatable, but that is how it is...

[Spike 12,049]

2006 World Cup

2008 Euros

England should have easily made the semis for both of those tournaments. With the team they had, it should have been a no brainer. They had talent stacked in every position on the field. Maybe lacked a clever playmaker like Deco or Sneijder but that alone shouldn't have held them back too much. Their squad list read out like beautiful song:

Michael Owen

Frank Lampard

John Terry

Ashley Cole

Joe Cole

Steven Gerrard

Jamie Carragher

David Beckham

Rio Ferdinand

Wayne Rooney

Gary Neville

Owen Hargreaves

Michael Carrick

Joe Cole - Michael Owen - David Beckham

Frank Lampard - Michael Carrick

Owen Hargreaves

Ashley Cole - Rio Ferdinand - John Terry - Gary Neville

David James

Look at that team. Great isn't it? Not much flair or panaché but the talent is there.

Look at the team they fielded just recently:

Wayne Rooney - Daniel Sturridge

Danny Welbeck - Steven Gerrard - Michael Carrick - Andros Townsend

Leighton Baines - Phil Jagielka - Gary Cahill - Chris Smalling

Joe Hart

There are three players I'm very fond of in that team. Jagielka, Baines and Carrick. The rest at the moment are 'meh'.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

So I'm trying out something new, but a graphic only analysis on Croatia's goal against Belgium -

[Spike 12,049]

So I'm trying out something new, but a graphic only analysis on Croatia's goal against Belgium -

I think you should invest/pirate a little more sophisticated editing software.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

I think you should invest/pirate a little more sophisticated editing software.

but Bill Gates gave us PowerPoint.

[Milan 17,835]

He's back...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzeez_lQc3I

[Jase 43,479]

I don't know if it was commentated by anyone before, but we were lucky with the NTs. Despite yet another break coming in the middle of November, no players will be involved in the European play-offs (I'm not sure if Brazil have any matches scheduled, but they probably do), so it means that most players in the squad will be with us instead of risking injuries in the NT matches - which is always a relief. Also, we can use the extra training before December comes as the winter isn't normally Chelsea's favorite part of the calendar.

I believe some of the national teams will have friendly matches to play during that international break.

[Weckerz 3,781]

I believe some of the national teams will have friendly matches to play during that international break.

Belgium play Colombia and Japan afaik

[Jase 43,479]

Belgium play Colombia and Japan afaik

Is it gonna be played in Europe?

[hjperdeath 2,226]

Is it gonna be played in Europe?

yup, held in Brussels on the 15th of Novemeber at the Roi Baudouin Stadium.

[Bosnian Blue 2,471]

Still hasn't sunk in. What a feeling, oh my God, there are no words to describe this. Anything comparable to it would be the night of 19 May 2012.

Incredible night, the only thing I regret a bit is not being able to celebrate down in Bosnia with all my mates and our people, but Amels can confirm Vienna wasn't so bad either.

I'll post a few pics of the celebrations as soon as I get some good connection, McDonalds' W-Lan is terrible.

And a big thank you to Ollie who has been there with us the whole time. Also thanks to BluesMaster and all the other on here who've shown their support.

[hjperdeath 2,226]

So if you want to check out half of my case study on Belgium, you can have a look here. Mostly will be completed by tomorrow .Ignore spelling and grammatical errors. Not checked them.

http://scoutaficionado.tumblr.com/post/64229093971/case-study-marc-wilmots-and-les-diables-rouges

[nachikethas 1,149]

U-17 world cup is going on now in UAE.

man these kids look like 22years old. Brazil vs Slovenia now, there is one guy called mosquito in brazil team(scored a brace)!!

quality of football is really good which actually excites me because india are the leading candidate for 2017 u-17 world cup.

They will decide in December this year. If we get that it would be biggest gift indian football is gona get. We also need to shape up a good team before that.

this could be the only ever chance to play in big competition like this because of automatic selection of the host nation.

[CHOULO19 24,332]

Our NT actually scored a very smart FK goal on Tuesday. I was shocked!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lg59TI11IoI

From 1:02.