Just stop watching Belgium, can bear the sight anymore... NEVER EVER have i seen them play a worse game then tonight, not even under Leekens, when we played every game as a bunch of cowards... I guess only now will everybody realize how much we will miss Marc Wilmots
How come Strupar was playing for Derby today, he looked handy anytime I've seen him or is he not good enough for the national team?
Strupar decided to retire from international football after the world cup as did Wilmots, Verheyen and Walem...
Little summary until now: Group 1: Cyprus vs France 1-2 (Okkas 15' - Cisse 39', Wiltord 52') Still on the way: Slovenia vs Malta - currently 2-0 (Debona 37'og, Siljak 59') Group 2: Norway vs Denmark 2-2, see page 1 Still on the way: Bosnia vs Russia - currently 0-3 (Chivu 8', Munteanu 10', Ganea 29') Group 3: Austria vs Moldovia 2-0 (Herzog 4'pk, 30'pk) Still on the way: Netherlands vs Belarussia, currently 2-0 (Davids 35', Kluivert 37') Group 4: Latvia vs Sweden 0-0 Still on the way: San Marino vs Poland, currently 0-1 (Kaczorowski 76') Group 5: Faroe Islands vs Scotland 2-2, see page 1 Lithuania vs Germany 0-2 (Ballack 27', Stankevicius 59'og) Group 6: Armenia vs Ukraine 2-2 (Petrosian 74', Sarkisian 90' pk - Sebrennikov 2', Zubov 33') Still on the way: Greece vs Spain, currently 0-1 (Raul 8') Group 7: Turkey vs Slovakia 3-0 (Akin 14', Arif 45'/65') Tomorrow: Liechtenstein vs Makedonia Group 8: Croatia vs Estonia 0-0 Still on the way: Belgium vs Bulgaria, currently 0-2 (Jankovic 16', S. Petrov 69') Group 9: Finland vs Wales 0-2 (Hartson 30', Davies 72') Still on the way: Azerbijan vs Italy, currently 0-2 (Achmadov 32'og, del Piero 63') Group 10: Russia vs Ireland 4-2 (Kariska 20', Bestshastnykh 25', Kerzhakov 70'/87' - Doherty 69', Morrison 76') Tomorrow: Switzerland vs Georgia
Ah yes, Willi the Wild Fighting Pig. Cheer up, Belgian guy, it could be worse. You could be an Austria fan. Or a Scotland fan.
Wow, have there been shocks today or what? Perhaps national teams should reconsider playing in early September? There seems to be strange results every September. Not least of which is how Scotland avoided defeat today,
Yes, though I'm not anti Mick because of the Keane issue. Holland and Kinsella played their worst ever preformances for Ireland on the same day, Colin Healy would have done, but instead he subs on a centre half for a left winger when we're 3-2 down and looking like scoring. Dsiaster, embarassment, it was absolutley terrible.
Well away to Russia is never an easy game, no matter what the individual quality of the Russian players is...
I would hardly say Wales beating Finland is a major shock. We are undefeated in the last 5 games which includes games against Argentina, Czech Rep as well as Croatia. As well as a victory over World Cup finalists Germany.
Finished Group 1: Slovenia vs Malta 3-0 (Cimirotic 90') Group 2: Bosnia vs Romania 0-3 Group 3: Netherlands vs Belarussia 3-0 (Hasselbank 72') Group 4: San Marino vs Poland 0-2 (Kukielka 88') Group 6: Greece vs Spain 0-2 (Valeron 76') Group 8: Belgium vs Bulgaria 0-2 Group 9: Azerbijan vs Italy 0-2
Group 1 FT Cyprus 1 - 2 France FT Slovenia 3 - 0 Malta Group 2 FT Norway 2 - 2 Denmark FT Bosnia-Herzegovina 0 - 3 Romania Group 3 FT Austria 2 - 0 Moldova FT Holland 3 - 0 Belarus Group 4 FT Latvia 0 - 0 Sweden FT San Marino 0 - 2 Poland Group 5 FT Faroe Islands 2 - 2 Scotland FT Lithuania 0 - 2 Germany Group 6 FT Armenia 2 - 2 Ukraine FT Greece 0 - 2 Spain Group 7 FT Turkey 3 - 0 Slovakia Group 8 FT Croatia 0 - 0 Estonia FT Belgium 0 - 2 Bulgaria Group 9 FT Finland 0 - 2 Wales FT Azerbaijan 0 - 2 Italy Group 10 FT Russia 4 - 2 Ireland
Tomorrow's qualifiers: 8 September Group 7 Liechtenstein ? - ? Rep. of Macedonia Group 10 Switzerland ? - ? Georgia
There could have been a real upset in Saturdays games - Sweden played a dead awful game against Latvia and managed 0-0 only because of a dubious off-side call when Latvia scored in the 80-something minute.
Norway - Denmark 2-2 Looking at the matchfacts with Carew scoring in the 93rd minute it seems like Norway equalized with a lucky goal, but it would have been a robbery if Denmark had travelled home with three points in that game. They only had two efforts on goal throughout the match and didn't have much ball possession either. Riise hit the post in addition to his goal and there were at least two incidents where the ref should have given penalty. It was the first good game I have seen of Norway for a long time. Too bad we only got rewarded with one point.
You obviously didn't watch the same game I did. Considering the 2 best players (Izmailov, Sychev) on the squad & the team captain were out, this was a good game by a Russian team that was (finally) well coached & had a good game plan. I'd hold off on that "we're the better side" talk until something changes with the dreadful defending that the Irish exhibited today.... Also... Considering that neither England or Germany could beat the Finns in Helsinki during WC quals, I'd have to say the Wales result was the upset of the day. Quietly Wales has put together an impressive string of results against some very good competition as of late, nice to see. Could it get any worse for Scotland? Didn't the Faroe Islands draw with Scotland in Euro 2K qualifying, too?
Re: Re: EC qualifiers, 1. Matchday [R] Yes, they did (1-1). Would be a wonder if Vogts survives as Scotland coach until the end of the qualifiers though. Questioning McCarthy in Ireland is a little ridiculous. Ireland played a very good WC and now after one loss in the qualifiers you want to sack him? I don't see a slight reason for that. A pity that Cyprus couldn't get a point. The equaliser for France was more than lucky (in its existence, not that it wasn't deserved). In group 2 Romania's clear victory surprised me as Bosnia doesn't have a crap team. Denmark losing points in Norway is a little bit wondering due to their strong WC, but it also was quite clear that Norway can't play such a bad qualifier as for the WC again. In group 4 both results are surprising. Sweden would have been the big favourite even without the good WC, and Poland needed 75 minutes to score a goal against tiny San Marino. Group 6 also delivered a surprise with Armenia recovering from a 0-2 vs Ukraine, though I'd love to see the penalty kick in the 90th. Group 8 had two surprises with Croatians being unable to collect three points vs Estonia at home - at the end this might hurt them even more than Belgium's home loss vs Bulgaria. Group 9 didn't have surprises, but remarkable results. Italy needed an own goal to have a rather narrow 2-0 in small Azerbijan. Finland vs Wales is not totally surprising - though I wouldn't rate this victory too low. Finland got much stronger, but this rather in defending a point against top teams. Wales also was very good when defeating Germany short before the WC. As I said before, one of these countries might annoy Yugoslavia in the fight for the playoff spot.
In 2000 against the Faroes, it was a shock result, where Scotland had the whole game and only lost a late equaliser because of a brief lack of concentration. However, this time round, we were out played by the Faroes! They scored 2 and should have had more. They missed four or five really good chances to seal the game. We salvaged a draw thanks to our best two players (Lambert & Ferguson) but Herr Vogts has some serious problems. He doesn't seem to know player's best positions and left the defence short of numbers, which resulted in the Faroes threating everytime they came forward. Vogts is tactically inept! I mean there must have been a reason why he was working for the Kuwait FA before we got him! Vogts has been in charge for 6 games and has lost 5 and drawn with the Faroes. In contrast the Faroes (who started playing competitive football against Shetland & Orkney Islands in the North of Scotland!) have had Dane Henrik Larsen in charge for just 2 games and have beaten Liechtenstein and now drawn with us. We have seen no improvement in Scotland since Vogts took over and if anything we are worse!
Believe me, in Germany nobody understands the Scottish FA for signing this jerk. His preparation for a game always starts with excusing why they might get a bad result. He's always feeling prosecuted by the media, that's why he's dropping awkward decisions when dealing with them. When a German TV station wanted to ask him questions before the Faroe Islands game, he told them that they've got to ask in English now as he's coach of Scotland - only when Scottish media colleagues kind of told him that he's crazy, he allowed exactly two questions in German. But here Vogts is still standing for a tactical masterpiece of soccer history - bringing a defender for a midfielder 7 minutes before the end of the game vs Bulgaria at the 94 WC quarter finals with a 1-2 score. Soccer-Germany suffered under him from 90 to 98 despite of the EC title in 96; and later on he managed to lead Bayer Leverkusen from a secure spot in the race for the league title to a candidate who had to tremble for the Champions League qualifier. Somehow we all felt that he perfectly fits to Kuwait where finally his words were true that every opponent is strong and can beat them.
It's not one match, we've wanted him sacked for years, he's a useless manager and saturday showed him up for what he was, with a good manager that Russia side would have been blown away, trust me, there was so much wrong with his subs and team selection it's insane.
Sunday's 2 matches going on right now: Switzerland 2-1 Georgia (63rd minute) Liechtenstein 0-0 Macedonia (20th minute)