Football (Soccer) Thread

[Zoupa]

The whole "I love Mason Greenwood, he's a great guy" thing.

[Syt]

Oof Italy. At least Germany has the dignity of qualifying (and then bowing out early more often than not). I made my peace with our team having had its magical years 2006 - 2014.

Speaking of big teams not qualifying. German sports TV DSF in 200s had the slogan "Mittendrin statt nur dabei" (right in the middle instead of being just there). For the 2002 World Cup they had this ad: "Mittendrin statt nicht dabei" (right in the middle instead of not there).





(Small print says 'Holland - Vizeweltmeister 1974, 1978', to really rub it in.)

I don't think we'd do this with Italy or even England ... our "big" rivalry remains with the Dutch. Less vitriolic than it used to be, thankfully.

[Norgy]

Spurs hired De Zerbi. I'll be switching allegiances, I can't support this guy.

There is room in the Languish Forest camp. 

Of course, it means you will have to live with our big lump of a reserve striker Lucca, who's better on Instagram than with his feet. I think the only way he can monetise those feet is on OnlyFans.
He was selected by Gattuso for one of the Norway matches.

Which may be why Italy fails again. Bosnia-Hercegovina is of the tradition of Yugoslavian teams, good on the ball, skillful. Now with some tactical skill too.

[Norgy]

I don't think we'd do this with Italy or even England ... our "big" rivalry remains with the Dutch. Less vitriolic than it used to be, thankfully.

It comes back to the 1974 World Cup, does it not? Both teams were sure they were the best with Beckenbauer and Cruyff on each side. It was West Germany's to win, and the Netherlands' to lose. The German players said the Dutch were arrogant in their playstyle. This was the era of "total football", no-one really knew where 14 Cruyff played on the field. West Germany was known for "machine football", as in that their players never gave up.

The spitting incident of Italy 1990 springs to mind, with Rijkaard just losing the plot completely against Rudi Völler. I am fairly certain Völler was a complete asshole.

Neighbours are neighbours, you'll always want to outdo them. National pride is a strange thing. Speaking of which, it has been some time since Norway played Sweden or Denmark.

Norway did, however, play the Netherlands in a friendly. That did not end well.

[Syt]

There's also the whole WW2 thing. I had a Dutch coworker, and she said her dad (who was a kid during WW2) didn't talk to her for years after she married a German.

[HVC]

I approve of the hatred of the dutch. As martha would say, it's a good thing. 

[Syt]

The spitting incident of Italy 1990 springs to mind, with Rijkaard just losing the plot completely against Rudi Völler. I am fairly certain Völler was a complete asshole.

I think that was the last really bad incident (Rijkaard was nicknamed the llama afterwards in Germany). It's been more of ribbing each other since the 2000s-ish.

[Syt]

Was just checking, Italy has really gone downhill since their last World Cup win (much like Germany ... )

[Norgy]

Mate, the Axis was defeated, deal with it. 

Italian football does not produce amazing revenue compared to the EPL. That means less put into youth development.
It did not suffer so much from the dominance of a few clubs before, but after the 1980s and 1990s when the Serie A was almost alone in dominating Europe, other countries changed their approach.

Developing players.

Italy now has fewer wealthy owners, as it is a constant case of recession.

Italian players never used to play abroad in Europe. Now half of the Azzuri play in England. I think in Germany's case, it is more of a blip than a constant.
You have very good players.

I think part of my diagnosis is based on watching FC Midtjylland when it comes to Denmark. There was hardly a Dane in the side.
I see kids running around with Haaland shirts from Manchester City's vast apparatus of marketing, which leads me to think that football players nowadays are mostly nomads. Wages, club first and nation second.

[Duque de Bragança]

I approve of the hatred of the dutch. As martha would say, it's a good thing. 

Also, no Toronto apocalypse as in Selecção vs Azzurri.

Sweden really gamed the system with their League of Nations performance;
2 points in the WC qualifiers, so 16 less than Italy.

[Valmy]

Mate, the Axis was defeated, deal with it. 

Italian football does not produce amazing revenue compared to the EPL. That means less put into youth development.
It did not suffer so much from the dominance of a few clubs before, but after the 1980s and 1990s when the Serie A was almost alone in dominating Europe, other countries changed their approach.

Developing players.

Italy now has fewer wealthy owners, as it is a constant case of recession.

Italian players never used to play abroad in Europe. Now half of the Azzuri play in England.

Oh. This whole time I figured Zidane's headbutt was responsible.

[Duque de Bragança]

Friendlies for the Selecção were in the middle of the night over so I did not watch them live.

First one vs Mexico, with a B' Selecção ended with a 0-0 (tribute to Simpsons?  ).
I prefer the 2006 WC game I attended in Gelsenkirchen. 

Second was vs the US, with a somewhat more competitive Selecção ending in a 2-0 win for Portugal.
The US squad had already lost their previous friendly game against Belgium by 5-2.

In short, no lessons to learn for the next World Cup, assuming it still takes place.

[Valmy]

Second was vs the US, with a somewhat more competitive Selecção ending in a 2-0 win for Portugal.
The US squad had already lost their previous friendly game against Belgium by 5-2.

So happy. If we were good I don't think I could bare another MAGA Trumpian BS like with the Men's Hockey team. Best just to go 0-3 and ensure Trump and his regime just pretend the whole World Cup isn't happening.

[Duque de Bragança]

Mate, the Axis was defeated, deal with it. 

Italian football does not produce amazing revenue compared to the EPL. That means less put into youth development.
It did not suffer so much from the dominance of a few clubs before, but after the 1980s and 1990s when the Serie A was almost alone in dominating Europe, other countries changed their approach.

Developing players.

Italy now has fewer wealthy owners, as it is a constant case of recession.

Italian players never used to play abroad in Europe. Now half of the Azzuri play in England.

Oh. This whole time I figured Zidane's headbutt was responsible.

Blame Éder, the Portuguese player. 

https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/how-portugal-hero-could-blame-11524435

Long story short, Portugal had the good one, Italy the bad one. 

How a Portugal hero could be to blame for Italy's failure to qualify for the World Cup
The person really responsible for Italy's failure to qualify might just be a man with a huge cult following
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SPORT
Fionn Shiner Assistant Community Manager
12:27, 15 Nov 2017
Updated 12:28, 15 Nov 2017

The last time four-time world champions Italy didn't reach the World Cup finals were way back in 1958, when Elvis Presley was still in the American Army, the Munich Air Disaster devastated the footballing world and Prince was born.

Unsurprisingly, their failure to qualify this year has lead to an outpouring of shock , tears and, of course, mockery online.

Italy came second in their qualifying group and their defeat by Sweden over two legs was a bona-fide upset given Italy's four World-Cups versus Sweden's zero.

To be fair to our Italian friends, they were in Pot 2 for the World Cup qualifiers, so ended up in the same group as the imperious Spain who are beginning to look like the team that swept all aside between 2008 and 2012.

So how did Italy, four-time world champions, Euro 2012 runners up, end up in Pot 2?

The answer is the same man responsible for Portugal's unlikely Euro 2016 win.....Swansea reject Eder , vanquisher of France , winner of finals.

Eder, who has amassed a strange cult-following online after his heroics in Euro 2016, scored the winning goal in a 1-0 victory over Italy for Portugal in a 2015 friendly. The defeat knocked Italy down into Pot 2 to be replaced by, erm, the mighty Romania.


Eder strikes the decisive blow(Image: AFP)
The rest, as they say, is history.

Éder, the man who moved to Portugal when he was two years old, who didn't really grow up with parents as a child, who won Euro 2016 for Portugal can now add to his list of achievements that he was responsible for Italy's failure to qualify which doesn't in any way require a long-winded or complicated explanation.

[Duque de Bragança]

Second was vs the US, with a somewhat more competitive Selecção ending in a 2-0 win for Portugal.
The US squad had already lost their previous friendly game against Belgium by 5-2.

So happy. If we were good I don't think I could bare another MAGA Trumpian BS like with the Men's Hockey team. Best just to go 0-3 and ensure Trump and his regime just pretend the whole World Cup isn't happening.

I'm sure Gianni can ensure a "bigly" tailor-made tournament for his overlord friend Trump, plus "home advantage". 
To be fair, Portugal was not playing with Ronaldo, so 11 real players, not 10.5 players.