I've stopped watching qualifiers. England will stumble through the qualifiers, they almost always do. I'll start watching when they're stumbling through their World Cup group before getting knocked out by Chile in the second round.

I'm not overly arsed about the qualifiers, but I miss football when they have the internationals so I make do with it I suppose, usually to my dismay/boredom.
I've made a habit for the last few world cups of watching every game.... even then it can be a bit shit. It's often like there is no cohesion in a team and there is little flair and style on offer.
I don't like how the internationals interfere with the domestic league. I think it would be great if instead of the qualifiers, the world cup just had every international team in it & it was absolutely massive! It could go on for ages... and then a winter break could be factored in to the domestic game as well with the weeks that are saved.
Or..... completely separate international football from club football & have dedicated players for each.... which would be tricky.... but then you could have miles more international games & raise the profile of it to enormous merchandising profits.
I'll be on the blower to Sepp tomorrow with my plans.

I agree with you. What I believe, and this applies to the Champions League as well, is that there are too many fixtures that mean very little. Who are top of the qualification groups in Europe? Belgium, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, England and Spain. The only group where there's a surprise is the one where Portugal aren't top, and that's not that much of a surprise because they're one point behind a decent Russian team. It just drags on for months, and everyone can predict what's going to happen. Everyone knows Brazil and Argentina will be there, and probably Chile and Paraguay, and the winner will come from them. It just doesn't get started until the actual tournament for me.

It does have a waft of predictability about it for sure.... and like you say, champions league as well. It's always cool for the odd underdog that slips in here & there though... and always amusing when one of the bigger teams doesn't qualify. (unless it's the team you support, in which case it's really annoying!) Especially in the champions league... it's such a massive money-spinner that it means considerably more for any smaller teams that break through.
There's obviously a lot of talk about how money destroys club football by creating a hierarchy whereby all the best players go to the biggest clubs with all the money to spend and they tend to dominate.... and to a large extent, I think that's true. But can the same be said for international football? Like you say it's the same old teams that tend to dominate it.... and there's no way to just buy & sell players, and money is of little relevance. (to a certain degree.)

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24029055

^ there is a short video of this on the link, which is quite amusing. The physio seems to sense he's going to get battered, and makes a dash for it!

I saw that clip, was classic

Back to the England team though, they're gash aren't they?

I lost total faith in the England set-up when one of the best midfielder players in the world, Paul Scholes, was shunned to the left wing to make space for Gerrard and Lampard - who became ineffective anyway as Beckham bypassed them at every opportunity by punting it up field to Heskey.

Honestly, if the team was built around Scholes in his prime and beyond, England may have won an International cup in the past 10 years or so.

mild_peril wrote:
Fuck, where to start.

Le Tiss constantly being over looked was a criminal offense for me. Lazy? Yep. Stoichkov and Hagi were two strollers but both carried their national teams for a decade.
I once saw Barcelona hold up the taking of a free kick in order for Stoichkov to be subbed on, and the bugger just casually strolled up and put it in the top corner. Fucking genius.

Probably has less to do with his skill and more to do with who he played for at the time.

For as long as I've known, it's all been about 'image' with the F.A.. Just unlucky for Scholes that he wasn't born with flowing blonde locks and the face of a model.

There's absolutely no way England are going to win anything any time soon though, but that's fine by me as I'm used to it, following Newcastle and all

mild_peril wrote:
The reliance on that failed & now aged midfield is ludicrous.
Doing the same thing over & over again that has proven not to work is simply insane!

Space Bandit wrote:
Pretty much textbook definition.

When Bolatelli was reprimanded for showboating in a pre-season friendly I knew the game at the top end had disappeared up it's own arse!

oioioi wrote:
He's an idiot but is quite amusing... still chuckle about the time he chucked some water bombs about at an FA disciplinary hearing!

Space Bandit wrote:
The time he set his house on fire by setting fireworks off in his bathroom.

Reptired wrote:

I knew he was dim but ffs!
'he had to go off last week because he had an allergic reaction to grass'.... are you sure this is the game for you Mario?!
He claimed it was his mate who set the fireworks off in his house setting fire to his bathroom... (strange room to let fireworks off in!)
and he was the face of the firework safety campaign! You literally couldn't make that up!
He's apparently a benevolent soul though.... used to hang around arcades challenging kids to video games and if he lost he'd give them a couple of grand!
He epitomised the shambles that is Man City though, turning it into a sideshow. Good work!

I was introduced to a brand new concept today. Twice actually, one by whatever referee it is that BT have in the commentary box, and one by David Moyes. You can hear Moyes say it after 45 seconds here:

www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24091802

"In real time it was probably the right call, looking at it slowed down then it might have just started outside the box."

I wasn't aware that when you recorded something and slowed down the video that it changes what actually happened, and that what happens in 'real time' is different. But this is almost exactly what the BT pundit said word for word as well. No wonder all those Kennedy tapes were so misleading. In real time, it's quite obvious that he was shot from the book depository store. When you slow the film down then maybe the authorities have made the wrong decision, but I can see why they've given it.

I suppose by saying 'in real time' it's just how it looks to the ref as it happens.
I didn't think it was a penalty to kick off with, and it wasn't a red card either..... and I watched it from about 7 miles away!
It wasn't the first time Ashley Young went looking for a penalty in the game, never mind his career! Trying to make up for being a pretty average player I suspect.
Another fairly dominant display by United, but lacking fluidity, flair & creativity again.

Space Bandit wrote: Having said that, I thought it was a red card. I thought Shearer was talking utter shit on Match of the Day, but we become accustomed to that, don't we?

It was a pretty uninspired performance, but I'm not hugely surprised by that. I was never a fan of Moyes while he was at Everton, I always thought they played pretty rudimentary, if effective, football. Whatever anyone thinks about Ferguson, he always tried to win every game, you could tell he was a gambler by nature. I don't think Moyes will easily take on that mantle.

wake_up_bomb wrote:
I suppose according to the rule of the last man & that it was a red card.... just the actual foul itself didn't warrant it imo.
I don't think it's down to tactics or the manager why United are playing such bland football.... they were the same last season. They're missing something in the centre of the pitch, and down the flanks. Young simply isn't as good as hoped for, Valencia has been found out, and Nani is inconsistent. Hopefully with the signing of Fellani it will let Carrick play further forwards to play some neat attacking passes, & I hope to see more of Zaha on the wing, he looked very good pre-season.

Space Bandit wrote:
We've hardly had an abundance in that area to be fair (or any other area come to think of it..)

But why Carrick has been overlooked for so long is just another mystery, easily one of the most underrated players in the league.

mild_peril wrote:
Aye. Manages to stay relatively injury free too!
Not sure how well he'd pair up with either of the other 2, but he's certainly reliable enough by himself.
I can't think off the top of my head who else I'd like to see play in midfield..... ? There has been an awful lot of guff in that area.... Milner/Barry/Parker etc. Hopefully some of the younger talent will step up to the mark.