09/10 Football Thread

[Black Philip]

Does anyone else just have no confidence in Verbeek whatsoever? And why did we insisted on getting a Dutch manager?

 

[pennywisealfie]

I think Verbeek has been great. I don't see what other people say about him. Have we even lost under him, as a nation that only just made its 3rd ever world cup, thats pretty damn good. We beat the Netherlands, we easily disposed of Ireland, beat Japan. These are tough nations. The Criticism about his tactics are stupid. They are working. I am the biggest fan of beautiful football this side of Craig Foster, however, Australia isn't Barcelona or Holland 1974. We are Australia, whos best players are playing for lowly english sides or turkish or Swiss sides. Verbeek is doing great with what hes got.

 

[ningnangnong]

Am i the only one who thinks that Brett Holman is an utterly shit footballer?

 

[Black Philip]

I think Verbeek has been great. I don't see what other people say about him. Have we even lost under him, as a nation that only just made its 3rd ever world cup, thats pretty damn good. We beat the Netherlands, we easily disposed of Ireland, beat Japan. These are tough nations. The Criticism about his tactics are stupid. They are working. I am the biggest fan of beautiful football this side of Craig Foster, however, Australia isn't Barcelona or Holland 1974. We are Australia, whos best players are playing for lowly english sides or turkish or Swiss sides. Verbeek is doing great with what hes got.

We have lost under Pim and we've played some pretty crap football under him too. We do have the quality when at full strength to play fluently and with structure, Pim often seems to lack the ability to get us playing like that though. And in regards to getting us to only our 3rd world cup, look at our current crop of players and consider that we are now qualifying through Asia. It's no big shock that we were able to qualify again.

What he has done so far has worked but that doesn't necessarily mean he's a good manager. IMO he's gonna get found out big time at the world cup against the bigger teams geared up for the tournament.

And yes ning, Holman is a **** donkey.

 

[pennywisealfie]

yep, thats pims biggest flaw...Holman. He is useless.

 

[Black Philip]

So Argentina qualified after winning 1-0 against Uruguay.

I reckon Argentina could make a go of the world cup if they had a decent manager. They have some incredible players, if they had a manager with a clue they could be brilliant.

 

[Fozz]

That's disappointing. I was hoping they would miss out and Maradona effigies would be burnt en masse. Meanwhile he goes on a massive coke binge, declares himself the messiah and jumps off the tallest building in Argentina while declaring he would rise from the dead.

 

[Black Philip]

Yeah that sounds like something Maradona would do

 

[pennywisealfie]

Maradona. The man can do anything.

 

[ningnangnong]

Maradona. The man can do anything.

Except manage.

 

[Black Philip]

Especially cheat, eat and snort cocaine :P

 

[Scumbag]

So Argentina qualified after winning 1-0 against Uruguay.

I reckon Argentina could make a go of the world cup if they had a decent manager. They have some incredible players, if they had a manager with a clue they could be brilliant.

Damn! They just scrape in after being very average in their confederation. I would have loved to see them miss out. I've never liked the Argies.

As for surprise packets, how well are Chile going? Seriously, where did they come from? Who have they got in their ranks?

I like watching their highlights.

 

[Scumbag]

Also, is it just me, or is anyone else fed up with the yanks pretty much always qualifying for World Cups and then doing absolutely nothing?

They earn qualification through one of the more easy groups with only Mexico being a decent challenge. Surely their qualification should be made a little more difficult, because they are dead set the biggest World Cup duds ever.

Get them to actually earn and justify a position in the World Cup for once. Play a fourth placed South American team or something. Anything.

Biggest bunch of nuffies ever, despite their recent Confed cup campaign. Even then they got lucky to get into the final four, but then pulled off a couple of good counter-attack game plans in the finals matches.

 

[ronnyd]

The idea of the a world cup is to have teams from all over the globe, if you were just gonna have the best teams it would be south america vs europe.

USA would have qualified just as easily through asia as we did.

 

[pennywisealfie]

Big call saying USA are nuffies. made the 2nd round in 94 beating equal tournament favourites, Colombia along the way. made it to the quarter finals of the 2002 world cup and were the only team Italy didnt beat at the 2006 world cup.

 

[The Brizz]

Would have made the Semi-finals in 2002 aswell if it wasn't for Oliver Kahn. They completely outplayed Germany but lost due to some crazy goalkeeping.

 

[Black Philip]

Well it's Friday and I have decided to make 'Scottys Friday Football Focus' a weekly occurance (until my work blocks bhq again). So here goes..

Over the last week many international matches have taken place for World Cup qualification and in our case, Asia Cup qualification. Newly qualified nations for the 2010 world cup are Ivory Cost, Germany, Denmark, Serbia, Italy, Chilie, Mexico, USA, Switzerland, Slovakia, Argentina and Honduras. At this point Portugal are looking alright for a playoff spot as well (even without Ronaldo) so I think the World Cup will have all the superstars there.

Torres and Gerrard have both apparently picked up knocks on international duty and are still a doubt this weekend vs Sunderland. Benitez is thought to be quite cranky with Stevie G for remaining on international duty despte aggrivating a persistant groin injury.
Liverpool will be seeing this game as one they need to win considering the somewhat shaky start they have had to the season. Sunderland however are looking at this as an opportunity to snatch a point or possibly even a win given our form recently. Hopefully we will see a good match. I think Liverpool will snatch it, even if they are without their big 2 players. However I am not ruling us out just yet, a point or an upset is not out of the question by any means IMO.

Robinho is apparently keen on a move to Barcelona in January. Several rumors hitting papers suggest Barca will offer Henry, Toure or Abidal in a swap move.
Man City have once again been linked with Cesc Fabregas, papers keep mentioning Barcelona and Real Madrid in regards to Fabregas' future also.

Tottenham have also been the subject of a few rumors this week. They have been linked with Adriano who most people thought vanished off the face of the Earth after his plummet in form and subsequent exit from Inter. Adriano is apparently looking for a way back into Europe in hopes of securing a spot in Brazils world cup squad. Spurs have also been linked to a swap deal with Milan, exchanging Roman Pavlyuchenko for Klaas Jan Huntelaar. Both players have been disappointing since leaving the leagues in the native countries.
I've heard Woodgate is close to a return for Tottenham also which will be a massive boost to their defence (which quite frankly I think has underachieved so far this season.)

I think that's most of BHQ's supported teams covered in terms of news/rumors this week. Hope you enjoyed it icon_thumbs_u

 

[Scumbag]

What about me? Or am I required to hit up the club's newsletter? [icon_wink

Awesome wrap-up as always Scotty. Very impressive. Appreciate your work and effort.