World Football Thread V

[Dauphin]

Further to the sissy group comment, it allows the USA to have a world ranking that is ridiculously high.

US are better than Spain, Portugal, England and Italy, Germany? No. They are good, but they would struggle to compete.

[Dauphin]

I hope when the World Cup draw is made (December?) that the USA draw Iran again.

[Joe Kick Ass]

Yeah yeah, England are rubbish etc...

This guy is great though:

Mourinho to Cruyff:
'Since 1996 Cruyff has been playing golf and criticising. Since 1996 he manipulated and used the power that was given to him for being a fantastic footballer. He cannot teach me to win Cups and Super Cups because I've already won them. He cannot teach me to win the Uefa Cup because I also have it. He cannot teach me to be European champion because I was it already. And I don't want him to teach me how to take a 4-0 defeat in a Champions League final (Cruyff's Barcelona lost 4-0 to Milan in 1994) because I don't want to learn that. Let him come to English football where he can learn that he is in the 21st century.'

On the topic of World Cup qualification...

[Zopperoni]

Mourinho never ceases to be an amazing arsehole, does he?

[reds4ever]

If you ask Mourinhos opinion on any subject he somehow manages to talk about himself while giving it?????????

[Kropotkin]

At least Mourinho can do something more than just talk about himself. The football world is swarming with huge egos that have never really proven anything. Lothar Matthäus springs to mind...

[Maquiladora]

Id react the same way if some loser tried to tell me how to do my job, no matter who it was.

Cruyff is still crying over Barcelona (and Rijkaard) losing last season.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Pfff, you get to qualify in some sissy group.
You wouldn't if you had to to do it in Europe. Also, you're a tad bigger than us too if you hadn't noticed.

I didn't realize qualifying in a 'sissy group' means anything in the World Cup Finals.

And who cares about size of a country? We probably have less total soccer players than your country does.

[Footie Mad]

I think the whole American continent should play qualifiers together in two or three groups using a seeding system so Brazil and Argentina don't end up in the same group. Possibly add the winner of Australias region as a group team, essentially giving Australia a fair chance to prove themselves.

This would stop USA and Mexico from always having as good as certain places at the World Cup.

[Imran Siddiqui]

What, you don't think Brazil and Argentina have good as certain places in the World Cup? And until, oh.. 1998, the US hasn't had a basically automatic place in the World Cup. They didn't have to qualify in 1994. And 1990 was the first time the US qualified since the 70s, IIRC.

And Australia is joining the AFC.

[Footie Mad]

Yes they do, but it is because they are almost always among the absolute best teams in the world. The south american qualifiers are much tougher than the central and north american ones. That's why I think they should have joint qualification, both Mexico and USA would have a good chance there since they are quality sides.

How it used to be twenty years ago does not matter much now I think, the way it is now is that USA and Mexico can do whatever they want and always qualify. Not because they are among the top five sides in the world but because they have such weak competetion.

Of course it is nice and important with all parts of the world having representation in the World Cup but honestly how much of a chance of qualifying again and again would for example Costa Rica and Jamaica have if they had to meet the south american countries? And yes I know Costa Rica beat Sweden 2-1 in Italy 1990.

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think one of the problems would be trying to organize such a thing, and also CONMEBOL seems not to want to get involved in CONCACAF. CONMEBOL is a well established organization, almost as good as UEFA. CONCACAF... not so much.

The other issue is the number of squads. CONCACAF has a lot (I believe around 33)... that is due to the vast number of countries in Central America. CONMEBOL would rather not join together with that many countries. They like running their smaller group.

[Footie Mad]

Yes that is the everlasting problem of football really, i'm not that fond of FIFA either for various reasons. Basically I think it's a penis measuring club for old men, they worry to much about their prestige and personal gain. No doubt the same is true for other similar organizations.

I did not know there were 33 countries, must be lots of small ones then. Make the lowest ranked ones play for places in the true qualifiers, so we won't be bothered by their rubbish teams.

[Kropotkin]

Saw a documentary a while back about the match between Bhutan and Montserrat (4-0) in 2002. That was a real clash between titans!

[Zopperoni]

Liechtenstein played Luxemburg last month.