World Soccer thread III

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
chivas USA v chicago burn is on espn 2

Yep, and Chivas just went up 2-1

Oh, and Fox Soccer Channel is replaying the Scotland-Moldavia matchup and will have the 10:30 MLS match.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Group 4 POSSIBILITIES, 2nd EDITION

After Irelands tie at home against Israel (2 - 2) we can now reconfigure this matrix. Switzerland took care of business away 3 - 1 against the Faroe Islands. Both matches were played on June 4th

Switzerland (15 points) 9 points available vs. France, Israel, Ireland
France (14 points) 6 points available vs. Ireland, Switzerland
Israel (15 points) 3 points available vs. Switzerland
Ireland (16 points) 6 points available vs. France, Switzerland


IF
Switzerland ties all - 18 points
France - 15 points (3 points available) (D)
Israel - 16 points (0 points available) (D)
Ireland - 17 points (3 points available) (D)

Three ties guarantees Switzerland 2nd place, no matter what France v. Israel does . If France beats Ireland, then Switzerland will be the top seed of group 4 and automatically qualify on goal differential (+9) If Ireland beats France, then Ireland is group winner, and Switzerland takes second place due to goal differential. A tie means Ireland and Switzerland are #2 and #1 respectively.

IF
Switzerland WINS 1, TIES 2 - 20 points

France - 14 points (3 points available) (W)
Israel - 16 points (0 points available) (D)
Ireland - 17 points (3 points available) (D)

If Switzerland beats France and ties the rest, they are guarantted to be group winner by goal differential, no matter what France v Ireland does.

France - 15 points (3 points available) (D)
Israel - 15 points (0 points available) (W)
Ireland - 17 points (3 points available) (D)

If Switzerland beats Israel and ties France and Ireland, then they are guarantteed to be group winner by goal differential, no matter what France v Ireland does.

France - 15 points (3 points available) (D)
Israel - 16 points (0 points available) (D)
Ireland - 16 points (3 points available) (W)

If Switzerland beats Ireland and ties France and Israel, then Israel is eliminated and the winner of France v Ireland take #2 (or in case of a tie, whoever has better goal differential, right now its Ireland)


IF
Switzerland WINS 1, TIES 1, LOSES 1 - 19 points

France - 17 points (3 points available) (L)
Israel - 15 points (0 points available) (W)
Ireland - 17 points (3 points available) (D)

If Switzerland loses to France, beats Israel, and ties Ireland, then Switzerland will be at least second in the group, no matter what France v Ireland do. Whichever team wins will be group winner. The loser will be eliminated. In case of a tie, Switerzland is group winner, and it goes to goal differential between France and Ireland.

France - 15 points (3 points available) (D)
Israel - 18 points (0 points available) (L)
Ireland - 16 points (3 points available) (W)

If Switzerland ties with France, loses to Israel and beats Ireland, then Switzerland will be group winner, no matter what France v. Ireland does (either outright, or through goal differential)

France - 14 points (3 points available) (W)
Israel - 16 points (0 points available) (D)
Ireland - 19 points (3 points available) (L)

If Switzerland beats France, ties Israel, and loses to Ireland, then they will be group winners only if Ireland loses to France. If Ireland and France tie, then Switzerland will take #2 in the group. If France beats Ireland, then Switzerland is #1 on goal differential

France - 17 points (3 points available) (L)
Israel - 16 points (0 points available) (D)
Ireland - 16 points (3 points available) (W)

If Switzerland beats Ireland, ties Israel, and loses to France, then they will also qualify. They will be group winners if France loses or ties to Ireland, and they will take #2 if Ireland wins.

If Switzerland loses two matches, then they will not qualify. If they win two matches, they will win the group. I like our chances, more then I like Frances or Irelands. In other words, beating or tieing France and Ireland, or both will result in us going on to either direct qualification, or to the second elimination round.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

USA 3 - 0 Costa Rica

Kasey Keller played awesome, so did Donovan and Beaseley. Then there was the usual crap with the latino players when they are getting tooled, and in the last 10 minutes realize they cant win so they go for the injury.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Apparently Wolff had a great cross for one of Donovan's goals (Wolff crossed it over, where it hit McBride, the deflected shot bounced right in front of Donovan in front of an open goal). That was surprising.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

yeah it started off a freethrow, the defense was still *****ing about which way it went, the throw in came, went over the defender who was still yapping to the ref, wolff crossed it almost right away, mcbride dove forward and headed it low towards the goal, goalie tips it away, the ball rolls slowly parallel to the goal line, donovan slips in behind his defender and taps it under the diving arm of the goalie who attempted to recover.

[Az]

Generally: Goddamn, what a game it was. I don't think we deserved the draw, but the Irish surely didn't deserve to win, with the moronic decision to replace Robbie Keane.

Lawrence:
If we win all 3 games, we pwn. considering the fact that two of those games are against the faroes, I am not very concerned. The game against you guys away is the one to be concerned about, but considering the fact that the faroes held you to a 1-all tie till the 70th minute, I think there is a lot of place for optimism.

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Lawrence of Arabia
Czech Republic 8 - 1 Andorra

If you had expected anything less than 5-0 you're really naive...

Is this the end of the israeli run?

I wouldn't call a long string of draws a "run" by any stretch of the definition...


The Netherlands win 2-0!! Coach Van Basten has now been undefeated for 10 matches in a row, a new Dutch record

(Of course, now I said that I jinxed it and Finland is gonna kick our arses Wednesday )

[Locutus]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Um... LoA? Legally he can't be transferred to Europe because of his young age. Adu has basically said when he gets to the requisite age, he's gone. Though I think he should balk on the uber-clubs because he'll just be on the bench. Best to pick a decent, but non CL team so he can get some good playing time.

I agree he would be wise not to sign for ManU or Real, but I could see him playing for a club like PSV or Auxerre: clubs capable of CL football but which have training young talents as a focus as well.

[reds4ever]

His best bet IMHO would be to sign for a big club and then be loaned out to the clubs like Locutus mentioned for a couple of seasons

[Maquiladora]

Manure have signed Van Der Sar from Fulham for an undisclosed fee. Hes a good keeper, shame its about 3 seasons too late for Manure. Tim Howard must be kicking himself again for staying.

[Lawrence of Arabia]

If we win all 3 games, we pwn. considering the fact that two of those games are against the faroes, I am not very concerned. The game against you guys away is the one to be concerned about, but considering the fact that the faroes held you to a 1-all tie till the 70th minute, I think there is a lot of place for optimism.

i already included your games against faroes in your total. i assume that you guys would win all games not against the top three. you only have one game vs. the top three left, and thats vs. switzerland.

and lets be accurate here. they didnt 'hold us in a 1-all tie till the 70th" they tied it in the 70th and held us 'at a 1-all tie' for all of three minutes. and the alex frei scores. then he scores again. this guy is unstoppable. he was the scoring champ of the french Ligue A this year.

If you had expected anything less than 5-0 you're really naive...

actually, i expected 5 - 0, not 8 - 1.

[C0ckney]

the ireland game had some quality misses

and another day, another chelsea outrage, tapping up frank arnesen (spurs director of football), wonder what the FA will do about this, probably **** all

[Lawrence of Arabia]

Auxerre (the oakland A's of the Ligue A) won the Coupe de France yesterday 2 - 1 against Sedan (L2) Auxerre has got to be the most well run club in the Ligue A

[Az]

Auxerre coach quits after 44 years!

[Lawrence of Arabia]

he is like the winningest coach in ligue A history i think