The Megathread for Football/Soccer

Long time no post in this thread!

What are everyones thoughts on tonights friendlies? (I don't think there are any qualifier's tonight but i may be wrong)

Two matches interest me, firstly the "friendly between England and Germany" of course (which we will suck in, it will be an incredibly young inexperience squad as Rooney, Ferdinand, Gerrard, Lampard, Heskey are all out injured and no Owen still!!)

The other game is Scotland vs Maradona's Argentina, that will go one of two ways, either Maradona will prove he is not a bad manager by Argentina thrashing the Scots, or he will prove how bad a manager he is when Scotland beat them! Considering how average Scotland have been so far this autumn i think he will get away with it tonight but it won't be convincing.
 
Germany 1-2 England :D, and apart from the cock up that led to the German goal (Terry's fault which he admitted) i think thats a win deserved, the Germans were poor, especially in the first half, the second half each side was equal, so all in all a good night for England (i never thought i would say that just under a year ago)

And makes up for them beating us last August.

Northern Ireland lost to Hungary 0-2, Wales beat Denmark away 1-0 (good result for them and Scotland are currently only losing by 1-0 to Argentina.

Not a bad night at all for the home nations :)
 
Greece 1-1 Italy. Not too eventful a match, not despicable either. At least Toni scored for us, which is a little miracle as things had turned.

Curio: Lippi has overtaken Pozzo's string of positive results on the Azzurri bench, with 31 matches.

Unrelated gossip: it would appear that Mrs Beckham might after all move herself to follow her husband at least part of his stint, provided her meager requests are granted:

Spoiler :
A private helicopter at her disposal 24/7;
a 100mq wide pool with thermal area and hydromassage;
a macrobiotic chef;
personal fitness center with beauty salon and hairdresser annexed;
Carolina Kostner, European single figure skating champion in 2007 and 2008, to teach skating to her offspring.


Kostner already declined.
 
Australia stole a victory against Bahrain, 1-0. Outplayed all match, but in injury time Bresciano scored for us. :dance:

Would take a miracle not to qualify now.
 
Poland 3 - 2 Ireland! WOOT!!!

Now lets see how we were lucky enough to win when i check the replay tomorow.
 
^well it does show how much we've improved! We played very well throughout the game, our young sub screwed up and got a penalty for ireland making it 2-1. It should've been 3-1 at the end imo.
 
so like England's win it doesn't mean anything.

It always means something when we beat Germany. :)

Though only for irrational national pride. :)
 
I was talking more about its influence on our chances of winning the World Cup.

Out of interest how are TSG 1899 Hoffenheim doing so well in the Bundesliga? I assumed they would end up being like Hull who are admittedly still 6th, but Hoffenheim are actually still top. Is there a reason why they have been so successful so quickly (I'm assuming there has been a lot of investment)? As they weren't even playing in the second league in 2006.
 
wiki said:
Around 1990, alumnus Dietmar Hopp returned to the club of his youth, not as a player or manager, but as financial backer. Hopp was the co-founder of software firm SAP and he put some of his money into the club.

Where it says "some of his money", it means boatloads of money
 
Read a little more and it does seem a little more like Randy Lerner at Villa rather than another Chelsea as they don't seem to have signed any big name players.
 
Hopp brought some talents from abroad, but quite a lot of first team members were bought on the cheap from Bundesliga teams. Hoffenheim clearly has better scouts than most.
Key to the success is not so much the total amount of investments into the squad, but that the trainer was able to build a team from scratch, according to his wishes.

Other factors:
- The second league is pretty strong in Germany, so the leap to the first division is not that hard.
- Bayern and Bremen both had a mixed season thus far, leaving the top of the table free for the taking.
- Hoffenheim has yet to play many of the league's stronger teams.
 
Folks, this week brings about friendly matches that would belong to the World Cup, starting today with Brazil-Italy in England and going on tomorrow with France-Argentina and Spain-England.
These are the sort of friendlies teams love to win. Any thoughts?
 
Portugal - Finland will be played tomorrow, I have no idea how the game is going to end. Portugal haven't been good in the WC qualifications, and they have a bad habit of not playing well in friendly matches(Portugal 1-4 Finland a couple of years ago for example). A victory would really boost our confidence and make us more sure that we shall beat Wales in March.
 
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