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waauw wrote:The football world will be on its head if Italy and Australia don't make it, after team USA already failed.
betiko wrote:waauw wrote:The football world will be on its head if Italy and Australia don't make it, after team USA already failed.
hummm... I guess this is a little banter for our australian and american friends?
Well actually it was quite surprising that the USA didn't even make it to the playoffs, behind panama and Honduras.
Australia wouldn't be that much of a surprise...
The big surprise would obviously happen if Italy doesn't manage to overcome the 1-0 loss in Sweden. I heard they only missed 1 world cup, back in 1954! A time where they probably had better things to do after Mussolini.
betiko wrote:if you look at the world ranking:
http://www.fifa.com/fifa-world-ranking/ ... sociations
here are the teams ranked in the 32 first places that are not in the world cup (yet?)
9. chile
10. peru (still in the race)
14. wales
15. Italy (still in the race)
19. Denmark (still in the race)
20. Netherlands
23. Northern Ireland
24. Slovakia
25. Sweden (still in the race)
26. Ireland (still in the race)
27. USA
29. Scotland
30. Ukraine
mrswdk wrote:Think for any of those European sides still in the play-offs it'd be pretty depressing to miss out when Iceland and Serbia have managed to qualify.
I'd have quite liked England to miss out. They've been fricking dog shit for years now and as long as they keep qualifying for the big tournaments, they're going to keep acting as if things are fine. Unless at some point they fail in really humiliating fashion they're just going to keep on acting as if everything's fine.
mrswdk wrote:lol, have things really gotten so bad for Italy that they're now ranked below Wales?
mrswdk wrote:My point was merely that teams such as Italy, Sweden and RoI are significantly stronger than Iceland and it would suck for any of them to see themselves miss out when Iceland didn't.
Chinese grassroots football has been largely neglected and suffered from match fixing in recent years, so it's somewhat unsurprising that China still doesn't field a particularly good national team (as opposed to sports such as badminton, diving, ping pong etc. which are funded heavily and China therefore dominates). Give it time though - the govt. has stated it wants to become a football power and (along with the big club teams) is pouring money into Chinese football academies. It won't happen overnight but China will become a regular sight at world cups.
mrswdk wrote:Also, lol at Sepp Blatter getting roped into the current sex abuse scandals:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hope-solo- ... oping-her/
waauw wrote:mrswdk wrote:lol, have things really gotten so bad for Italy that they're now ranked below Wales?
Yeah but Wales only holds that rank because of their great performance during Euro 2016 where they basically humiliated my country. Just as Chile still holds its rank purely because it won the Copa America. Italy actually had a decent qualifying performance. They were just unfortunate to be seeded against Spain.
waauw wrote:mrswdk wrote:lol, have things really gotten so bad for Italy that they're now ranked below Wales?
Yeah but Wales only holds that rank because of their great performance during Euro 2016 where they basically humiliated my country. Just as Chile still holds its rank purely because it won the Copa America. Italy actually had a decent qualifying performance. They were just unfortunate to be seeded against Spain.
betiko wrote:Those are 2 european soccer nations that need to be in a world cup...
waauw wrote:betiko wrote:Those are 2 european soccer nations that need to be in a world cup...
Never took you for a blasphemer Betty, but this is plain heretical.
betiko wrote:waauw wrote:mrswdk wrote:lol, have things really gotten so bad for Italy that they're now ranked below Wales?
Yeah but Wales only holds that rank because of their great performance during Euro 2016 where they basically humiliated my country. Just as Chile still holds its rank purely because it won the Copa America. Italy actually had a decent qualifying performance. They were just unfortunate to be seeded against Spain.
Regarding Belgium... now that you got rid of Wilmots... and now that DeBruyne is such crack... like seriously... maybe the best all rounded player in the world right now. Manchester city is walking on water thanks to him, let s see if he doesn t finish too tired for this summer and the WC
betiko wrote:waauw wrote:betiko wrote:Those are 2 european soccer nations that need to be in a world cup...
Never took you for a blasphemer Betty, but this is plain heretical.
Shit these yanks....
Anyways... after 30 minutes still 0-0 italy isn t equalizing!
waauw wrote:betiko wrote:waauw wrote:mrswdk wrote:lol, have things really gotten so bad for Italy that they're now ranked below Wales?
Yeah but Wales only holds that rank because of their great performance during Euro 2016 where they basically humiliated my country. Just as Chile still holds its rank purely because it won the Copa America. Italy actually had a decent qualifying performance. They were just unfortunate to be seeded against Spain.
Regarding Belgium... now that you got rid of Wilmots... and now that DeBruyne is such crack... like seriously... maybe the best all rounded player in the world right now. Manchester city is walking on water thanks to him, let s see if he doesn t finish too tired for this summer and the WC
To be honest Eden Hazard and Lukaku perform better in the national squad than De Bruyne does. I think Guardiola simply had the brilliance to make De Bruyne so usefull, not that he isn't world class.
Personally I think there are only three great candidates for this summer and that's Spain, Germany and Brazil.
betiko wrote:I'd add France and Belgium to those 3.
I'm pretty sure italy will make it... if they don't take one. If sweden scores they NEED 3 goals...
waauw wrote:betiko wrote:I'd add France and Belgium to those 3.
I'm pretty sure italy will make it... if they don't take one. If sweden scores they NEED 3 goals...
France: Along with Spain probably the best squad, but too many narrow victories during qualifyers. I find les bleux extremely inconsistent. *purely based on results as I haven't actually watched the games.
Belgium: The manager, Martinez, knows his tactics but he is obviously better at setting up offensive lines than he is at defensive lines. And our games against Greece have shown how much of a difficult time the red devils have if Eden Hazard is absent.
Both are strong and could go far, but I think both still have big weaknesses that need fixing before the WC.
betiko wrote:I don't really see why you see them as inconsistent.... here are our results since the euro 2016 final (a competition that we should've won...). Obviously there are some bad results
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