Jogi's class? Like eating his own snot? Or sniffing at his hand after touching his butt and armpit? Oh please
Some guys thinking Netherlands is similar to Germany or Sweden because they are a Germanic people... That is hilarious. Ethnically, Holland Football team is black by and large.
I don't mind this group. Obviously, the Saudi group would have been ideal. And the Aussies are in a decent group. But we're not in the Iran group. There's no chance against the Iberian countries. Morocco is an alt-France side. Zero points. Japan's group means a good Polish side. Colombia which will bring their A-side and won't be jet lagged. And Senegal will outrun us and is another alt-France. We may get a point. Our group is the typical middle Euro side first. We do ok against them. Then Mexico. We do better against them than against South American sides. And then the German B or C side after they've already qualified for the knockout round. This is doable assuming we actually prepare correctly for set pieces and defending... If (huge assumption) we prepare properly, for what our side is good at, this group is better suited for us than the Japan or Iran groups imo...
I love the insights you guys are posting but I have a sneaky feeling that Japan will overachieve and we will underperform, in part because our team has no depth and we rely on one or two elite players to do the job for us.
This company rat was silent during the entire Hiddink KFA fiasco and here he is lowering expectations to ward off criticism against STY and KFA. He's giving BS analysis about Sweden being tall as if that's ever a factor. This makes me realize that STY is very happy with the draw. He has all the excuse in the world to lose and not be blamed.
If you were to play Denmark it should be in preparation of facing Germany and not defensive minded Sweden ... actually .. Poland were playing counter attacking football against an attacking minded Denmark both home and away in the qualifiers..
I think the organizers have structured the group stage round into clusters, with the intention of limiting expansive travel (for both supporters and teams). All teams are playing their group-stage fixtures across no more than 2 zonal clusters I believe. For details, check the bid evaluation report (page 7-8; 'hosting concept'). https://www.fifa.com/mm/document/tournament/competition/01/33/74/52/b5ruse.pdf
Good news is Germany has a history of beating the crap out of their team in the first game. Also Mexico this cycle has history of leaking goals against good sides, they're defence isn't good from what I've heard. They lost to Chile in Copa America 7-0 and Germany 4-1 in Confederation Cup. Second game Germany tends to tie or lose, but third game they only beat the team 1-0.
Should be. I heard its down to Moscow (closer distance) or Saint Petersburg (better facilities and weather)
Yeah, Moscow and Saint Petersbug are the top two choices out of the 5 selected locations. Distance is easily a no brainer.
Does anyone know anything about any of these cities we are playing in? I have heard of Rostov and Kazan but only because of the club football teams in those cities.
Yeah I agree. I just read an article saying that STY is leaning towards Saint Petersburg though saying that 20 minutes more of flight isn't a big deal and what matters is the facilities that they can rest and practice at.
The base camps in Moscow isn't bad, but Saint Petersburg is definitely better in terms of infrastructure. Shin Tae-yong is definitely eyeing the Hilton Saint Petersburg ExpoForum/Olimpiyets Stadium and the Belmond Grand Hotel Europe/Training Base FC Zenit.
As an aside, imagine if the natural order of things played out during the Sweden-Italy playoffs? Imagine our group then... *Shudder*
Germany's B and C team are still better than us. They fielded their B and C teams during the Confed Cup and won against the likes of Chile, Mexico, etc. http://www.goal.com/en/news/no-mull...-teams-conquering-/1fotfsbcaq4ci1nl6wfk76qhpa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_FIFA_Confederations_Cup_squads
I am not one to expect us to advance, never have as the only thing important for me is that our players go out and play with confidence and put on a decent display despite an early group stage exit. However, whether we play against Germany's B/C team or not, we won't win them either way, but given the fact that a strong team like Germany is in our group, it's more of a good thing than bad. According to Lee Young-pyo, Germany is our lifeline/hope since they're a very strong side capable of achieving full 9 points in the group, so what this means is that our match against Sweden is a must win, so in that sense, even if we are to draw or lose to Mexico, we still have a chance of advancing as runners-up. Unlike Group H however, he explains that teams like Poland, Senegal, and Colombia are strong, but they are not strong enough of capably producing full 9 points in the group, so it will actually be harder for us to advance since all teams are capable of getting points off of each other, thus making Group H more difficult than ours.