World Football Thread XVI - The demise of one Ronaldo and the rise of another

[MikeH]

Originally posted by ískallin
Reading is indeed a good choice, added to the two americans they also have two Icelandic players Ívar Ingimarsson and Björn Bjarnarsson.

Anyways, Iceland is playing Spain on the 28th
Hope we dont get humiliated..

It's Ingimarsson and Brynjar Gunnarsson. But yes, they've both had great seasons.

[Cort Haus]

What I like about Reading is the way they ran Man Utd close over two cup ties with a weakened team but played entertaining football, rather than the negative, clogging game that a lot of smaller clubs adopt in those circumstances.

Coppell's done a good job.

[MikeH]

"Weakened Team" meant bringing in 3 players who went to the world cup.

[ískallin]

ooops Of course its Brynjar Gunnarsson (shows you always to double check when in doubt)

Funny how the Icelandic national team hasn´t used Ívar Ingimarsson (their best central defender by a mile) because of a stupid row with the manager. The defence has improved heaps since they switched managers and he made himself available.

But so poms, do you think you'll take mighty Israel? Some interesting games in the weekend. Israel - England, Spain - Denmark, Czech Republic - Germany and I dont know but Greece - Turkey might be a interesting game for the wrong reasons.

[MikeH]

Oh I think the way we've been playing we can f*ck it up. They have some fairly decent players and it's a tough atmosphere, we should be able to beat them with the quality in the squad despite injuries I have no confidence in this England side though. Great players, no team spirit and I don't think the manager can instill it, he's just not very good.

[CerberusIV]

England will probably get a draw with Israel - Israel played pretty well against the Republic of Ireland in the last World Cup qualifiers and they will be up for it as the home team.

The RoI - Wales match should be pretty good. Croke Park is a great venue, Wales are improving and Ireland aren't so a good few goals are likely.

[Cort Haus]

I'll be surprised if England win, though they might get lucky and grind out a result.

[MikeH]

Funny thing is, if someone like Chelsea or ManU go away to a bottom of the league club and grind out a 0-1 win it's "The sign of a championship winning team is grinding out wins in matches like that". If England grind out a 0-1 away win at a lesser team the media response his a hysterical overreaction about how bad they team was, how terrible the managers selections are and how much the players earn.

Worth thinking about.

[Cort Haus]

Well, that's how England usually get to the last eight of tournaments when they qualify. I can't remember them actually playing well.

Wheras the Ivorians played great football in WC 2006 and got dumped out of the group stages. Naive of them to get drawn in a group like that.

[Fistandantilus]

Originally posted by MikeH
Funny thing is, if someone like Chelsea or ManU go away to a bottom of the league club and grind out a 0-1 win it's "The sign of a championship winning team is grinding out wins in matches like that". If England grind out a 0-1 away win at a lesser team the media response his a hysterical overreaction about how bad they team was, how terrible the managers selections are and how much the players earn.

Worth thinking about.

The difference is ManU and Chelsea usually win something in the end, England don't

[Cort Haus]

Check the ref :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvYI7xRc0NY

He looks a bit too happy.

[Cort Haus]

Rumours in the City that Arsenal FC are about to be taken over. When that happens it'll be the worst day in the history of the club. Disaster .

[ískallin]

I thought that the git that owned Arsenal didnt want to sell no matter the prize? Anyways it seems to be the direction that english football is heading.

It is a **** development, it should be like with Barcelona and Real Madrid, owned by the fans.

[LordShiva]

Kazakhstan 2 - 1 Serbia!!

I liiiiike....

[Colon™]

Me too.