The Other Teams Thread - Post WC 2010 Edition Vol. II [R]

No great loss really. The game is better off without people like him.

I expect more people are going to follow his lead in the future. Just go to the world cup once and then retire to concentrate on their club career. That is, unless their club career goes sour. Then they'll try to beg their way back into the national team.

Especially non-Europeans. Those intercontinental trips are after all time and energy-consuming.

My guess is that Africans might go for this more than others. Poorly managed FAs, transport issues, relatively unglamourous CAF circuit, tenuous connection to country (long residence in Europe or indeed being born in Europe), greater emphasis on club career...

If Ghana qualify for '14 he'll be there.

Very probably he will want to be there. But if there is one thing that Ghana is not lacking it's good midfielders. KPB has hardly played a game for Ghana since the World Cup and midfielders like Emmanuel Agyeman Badu, Derek Boateng, Andre Ayew, Kwadwo Asamoah, Anthony Annan, Quincy Owusu Abeyie (plus Michael Essien is still around, if he gets his injury issues dealt with) really make the lack of KPB go unnoticed. Actually since Derek Boateng took over from KPB he has looked even better than his namesake.

Plus the amount of young midfielders with great potential like Christian Atsu (youth player of the year for FC Porto), Emmanuel Frimpong (Arsenal), Mohammed Abu (Manchester City, on loan in Norway), Mohammed Rabiu, Torric Djibril, Mubarak Wakaso and so on vying for a midfield slot...

Midfield is the one place where Ghana really don't have issues. So hopefully if he voices his intent to play in 2014 I hope he gets shown the door.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCrzsukkgvQ"]BHFanaticos Production - YouTube[/ame]


GOOO BOSNIA!! Save them from Germany and piggy next summer!

Argentina....LOL.

LMFAO.....Not even Messi can save them....

Spain England today. Look at the talent in that spanish squad

Suarez 4-0 Chile

He's better playing off a striker than leading the line himself. The presence of Cavani helps a lot compared to what he has as support at Liverpool lol.

In other news, both RVP and VDV have returned to London so they won't make the Germany friendly.

RVP because as promised he only plays 1 friendly and VDV because he has a minor injury. This means no Robben, VDV, RVP, Elia or Afellay available upfront.

That's too bad, I'm sure the fans in Hamburg would have loved to see VdV play in their stadium again.

So Germany and Netherlands without some very important players which means that it won't really show what both teams are capable of. :<

if they don't want to score maybe.

England are really really bad. Spain soo unefective, they only keep the ball, boring match tho.

Last time they didn't play against a proper defence/opponent.

I know, I'm watching the game and the false 9 thing is an interesting concept but I think it can be a mistake if you do already lack in goal scoring threats (that's not a strength of xavi/iniesta) and then add a player upfront who also doesn't have that goal scoring instinct.
I mean everyone is always using Messi as argument for the false 9 but that guy has the goal scoring instinct of a striker and is maybe the best player in history so I'm not sure if Barca/Messi are really such a strong argument.

Finally an england team that didn't look tormented and pulled something off as a team. Well done to them