World Cup 2010 Qualification - Europe

[Sofista]

Montenegro 0 - Italy 2

Montenegro put a valiant effort in, and also has players of talent, but an inability to finalize doomed their game.

I'm waiting for Trap and the boys in green!

 

[Formaldehyde]

Well at least American fans are guaranteed to see their national team in every World Cup.

Finally. It used to be so humiliating to never see the US get out of the American qualifiers...

And why do the Japanese chant the theme song to Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid the entire game?

 

[Thedrin]

I haven't seen such a terrible football match in ages. Ireland are really bad. McGeady, Hunt and McShane wouldn't make any other self respecting football team.

Didn't see the Cyprus or Georgia games then? I watched the Cyprus game through my fingers. They dominated Ireland in that game after the early goal. The Georgia game was only less painful to watch because they didn't try to control the game. Unfortunately our lack of a midfield meant we couldn't take advantage of that.

I don't know why people keep banging on about McGeady having improved significantly, but I think it's harsh to single him out. But an alternative to McShane must be considered. He seems incapable of not passing back when he recieves the ball in an offensive poisition and provided no support for McGeady, who was isolated for much of the game and could only seem to get involved by coming into the center.

Trap's tactics may have been working when Stephen Reid was available but it's not now. He keeps going on about finding the players to fit the system, but it's clear those players aren't available to him. If he can't be a more pragmatic then I do hope he leaves at the end of the campaign. We need someone who can make use of what resources he does have available.

 

[Pangur Bán]

@ Shekwan, those guys are all good players. Quit your whining until you get a team as bad as Scotland.

Congrats btw to Northern Ireland and to Artur Boruc, who effectively scored two goals for N. Ireland. What a stinker he had. It was embarrassing!

 

[dutchfire]

Own goal - Ireland 1 1 Bulgaria

And Italy are still only 1 up.

It's matches like those that you want to win when you're in a group with Italy. I guess Ireland will have to aim for the play-offs now.

Group 1 is interesting, Portugal could be knocked out.

 

[TheLastOne36]

Oh wow, Am i ever disapointed.

*crys*

I wouldn't be suprised if some of our starting eleven took some bribes to lose the match.

Own goal from Zewalkow, horsehockey save from boruc, then dudka passes the ball back to boruc, and boruc just let's the ball go into the net......

I think they were bribed....

 

[holy king]

Israel 1- Greece 1.

Boring game

did benayoun play?

 

[holy king]

Oh wow, Am i ever disapointed.

*crys*

I wouldn't be suprised if some of our starting eleven took some bribes to lose the match.

Own goal from Zewalkow, horsehockey save from boruc, then dudka passes the ball back to boruc, and boruc just let's the ball go into the net......

I think they were bribed....

no chance the polish national team is actually quite bad, right?

 

[TheLastOne36]

no chance the polish national team is actually quite bad, right?

We are not that bad, we just have a horrible coach who picks our horrible older players while players like Janczyk, and others still haven't even got their caps for the national team yet.

We should scrap the world cup and start focusing on a strict Euro2012 team with all players 27 and younger excluding goalkeepers and players like Jelen and Brozek.

 

[Pangur Bán]

We are not that bad, we just have a horrible coach who picks our horrible older players while players like Janczyk, and others still haven't even got their caps for the national team yet.

We should scrap the world cup and start focusing on a strict Euro2012 team with all players 27 and younger excluding goalkeepers and players like Jelen and Brozek.

Well, Northern Ireland are pretty formidable at home when they want to be. In the last few years they've beaten Spain, Sweden and England (among others). If Boruc had had a normal day you'd have won.

 

[Kyriakos]

did benayoun play?

I think so.

 

[kronic]

We are not that bad, we just have a horrible coach who picks our horrible older players while players like Janczyk, and others still haven't even got their caps for the national team yet.

Is it still Beenhakker? I recall you praising him not too long ago.

 

[raketooy]

I bet Netherlands is in the cup.

 

[Kyriakos]

TheLastOne, you should post the new standings

 

[TheLastOne36]

Well, Northern Ireland are pretty formidable at home when they want to be. In the last few years they've beaten Spain, Sweden and England (among others). If Boruc had had a normal day you'd have won.

Yes but Northern Irelad was complete rubbish, off form, and overall, horrible this game, and we still lost. Really reflects our team at the moment.

I lost faith in our national team. i seriously doubt that we can qualify, and even if we do, what use would it be? We are still going to lose again like last time to some random team like Ecuador or Austria or Korea. Countries of Poland's size in Europe shouldn't lose to those kind of teams.

Really, i hope we don't qualify, we lose our next match to San Marino 3-0 and get Beenhakker sacked and bring Smuda to the national team and rebuild the team with exclusive youth players plus Brozek, Jelen and Boruc for Euro 2012.

TheLastOne, you should post the new standings

I'm to depressed to at the moment. I haven't even looked at the standings since Poland has lost. I'll do it sometime soon i assure you.

 

[Verbose]

Group 1 is interesting, Portugal could be knocked out.

Things are looking pretty promising for Denmark. Portugal is digging itself into a hole by racking up tied games. Sweden is lagging behind Denmark with only one victory and three tied games. Since two of these came against Portugal, they can't quite be regarded as "failures" from a Swedish pov (though they are from a Portugese one). Still, Sweden probably only gets out of this ahead if it can win both games against Denmark, which is not impossible but still a pretty tall order. I guess the Portugese road to comeback by now involves slapping all opponents silly in the remaninder of the qualifier. Don't quite know yet what to make of the Hungarians, but it seems the Portugese would need some help from them, knocking off points from the final Danish, or Swedish, tally. Shame about the lacklustre football so far though.

 

[Grisu]

Well i only saw the end of the first half, and then parts of the second. Greece was not very good, and missed some chances in the end, but Israel lost one good chance as well earlier in the game.

in any case, thanks both of you

At least we're back in the game now...a "murks" victory against Moldova this time, athough at times it looked as if Moldova is actually about to tie :/ Well, at least it wasn't antother Luxembourg

 

[dutchfire]

I bet Netherlands is in the cup.

I thought I had been drinking too much, since I couldn't remember this post, then I noticed it's almost April 1st.

 

[dutchfire]

Things are looking pretty promising for Denmark. Portugal is digging itself into a hole by racking up tied games. Sweden is lagging behind Denmark with only one victory and three tied games. Since two of these came against Portugal, they can't quite be regarded as "failures" from a Swedish pov (though they are from a Portugese one). Still, Sweden probably only gets out of this ahead if it can win both games against Denmark, which is not impossible but still a pretty tall order. I guess the Portugese road to comeback by now involves slapping all opponents silly in the remaninder of the qualifier. Don't quite know yet what to make of the Hungarians, but it seems the Portugese would need some help from them, knocking off points from the final Danish, or Swedish, tally. Shame about the lacklustre football so far though.

If Denmark wins against Albania (they should), they're 7 points ahead of Portugal with 5 matches to go, they should be able to bring that home.

 

[warpus]

Beenhakker is great.. get rid of Boruc, though.