Mexico going thru a doping scandal a few players turned up positive for clenbuterol including starting GK Corona. Although, the meat in country is suspected to be cause... Hey if you guys play Argentina in the world cup, can you just stick a body on Di Maria so he can't run counterattack?
LOL, he's one of the great divers of this generation of football players. It would be comical to see what he would do if he was marked like that. Get ready with your Olympic scorecards.
With the defense Netherlands has at the moment a team like Argentina will wipe the floor with us. Why worry about Di Maria if we can't deal with main threats like Higuain and Messi.
Seems like Wilmots (Belgian manager) already has a squad in mind for Brazil ... he said 90% has been locked ... assuming everyone is in good shape I can guess which those 21 players are ... always interested in an outside opinion though ... who do you think those 2 remaining players will be? Most likely we'll need 2 more field players ... guessing 1 defender and 1 midfielder. Maybe Fereira-Carrasco will be one of the 2 remaining players vying for a spot in the Brazil2014 selection ... still Hazard, Mertens & Chadli usually feature on the left and Bakkali has been cap-tied already (on the right Mertens, Mirallas & KDB might keep Bakkali out too ... although KDB will most likely feature in the middle of the park) ... and of course the Januzaj saga hasn't run its course. Nainggolan has some very stiff competition too ... even Dembele often warms the bench but Nainggolan is a very decent player to add to the squad. Guessing Wilmots will at least take another defender with him ... Cavanda is a young natural RB (+LB) and if he keeps developing at this pace, he'll soon be a better option than Alderweireld (unlike in our NT, A.Madrid is using Toby as a CB although he said that he'd do a fine job as an RB too - position held by Juanfran). Seeing that we need a RB the most ... have you seen better RBs than Cavanda (for the Brazil2014 squad)? FYI this could be the first XI in a 4-2-3-1 (assuming everyone is in good shape): Courtois Alderweireld Kompany Vermaelen Vertonghen Fellaini Witsel De Bruyne Defour Hazard Benteke + squad players: Mignolet - 2nd string GK Casteels - 3th string GK Van Buyten Lombaerts Pocognoli Dembele Mirallas (he's in 1st XI when KDB plays in the middle of the park) Mertens Chadli Lukaku + ??? + ??? Simons is a great guy but he hasn't played 1 minute during the qualifiers (having no offensive side to his game, he's the odd man out). Compared to Januzaj, Batshuayi, Jr. Malanda, Tielemans, Bruno, Praet, Pereira, Charly Jr. Musonda, Lestienne, Bossaerts, etc. these guys seem 1 step closer to the NT: Bakkali, Fereira-Carrasco, Nainggolan & Cavanda.
I haven't watched the Belgium NT team in action since they defeated the Dutch in LvG's first match. Looking at that squad roster, containing some of the hottest talents and household names, Belgium is surely a legit "non-traditional" contender, poised to go deep in the tourney (like Croatia in '90, Turkey/South Korea '02, Uruguay '10). Quarter final is a lock, at least.
I don't disagree with the notion that Simons should probably stay home in favor of a youngster. However there is no chance that Wilmots will not take him if he is fit. Simons has been too loyal a servant and Wilmots too loyal a manager to ditch him now. The only two scenarios in which Simons doesn't go is if he is injured just before the WC or if he himself gives up his place on the squad.
Is this sudden surfacing of talent between the 18-25 age groups just mere luck or thanks to other things? Netherlands looks plain poor in comparison with this.
Success in the past decades might have gradually hindered Holland's youth development (+ resourcing/renewing 'Ollandse School), yet I'm not in a position to make a decent evaluation on this subject. Belgium didn't have an incentive to keep re-using the same/similar success formula ... instead of an alteration, we needed drastic change and looked all over for the best practices. When you blindly accept what the Belgian FA says ... they (and the clubs) played a major role ... yet I haven't read an objective + comprehensive analysis/study on youth development in Belgium. Personally I believe it's a "perfect storm" of coincidences ... part luck & part by design. The Beijing2008 generation could be considered as the first successful "guinea pigs" ... although a lot has changed since, there seems to be a lot of room for improvement. To illustrate: PSV & Anderlecht are counting on very young players to get results ... this might not be the best strategy as one of the conclusions from the Belgian FA was: focus on results hinders the development of young players (this conclusion is also supported in Lukaku's criticism of his first team apps at Anderlecht). PS Hiddink isn't doing much these days ... wouldn't he be interested in starting up a BeNe version of La Masia? There's no club in both our countries that has those kind of funds ... both our FAs pooling together their resources, know-how, youth players, etc. could have a chance ... usually hotbeds improve the flow of ideas and allow for youthful prospects to interact & develop ... should also be to the benefit of our clubs (mainly prevent e.g. EPL clubs poaching U-18s). I'd say establish an academy in e.g. Antwerp specialised in defensive duties and one in e.g. Rotterdam (curriculum focused on offensive duties).
If Wilmots has Simons in mind ... that would mean one of the players on my (best guess) list would be out ... Mertens? ... in that case Nainggolan would stand less of a chance while Mertens might be competing for one of the remaining 2 slots (the other slot most likely going to a RB). In the case of V.Buyten ... I'd say he still adds to the squad during this campaign (also as far as this is a valid indication, Wilmots was caught hugging big Dan and saying: oh no ... I'll be stuck with you again - in reference to their time together at WC2002) ... still I'd like Kompany to remain fit during Brazil2014 and keep Dan from getting minutes on the pitch (you're never 100% certain that you'll see V.Blunder or Big Dan). Looking towards the future (to replace V.Buyten when he retires) ... Bossaerts and Boyata (to a lesser extent) could be Kompany's understudy at club & NT level. Simons however doesn't seem to add much to the current squad ... he's a great guy (as kids we played together & he hasn't lost his childish sense of humour) but cutting the likes of Bakkali, Fereira-Carrasco or Nainggolan from the Brazil2014 shortlist feels like a bigger loss. If Simons is one of the 23 ... I'm hoping he proposes to join the staff instead. PS Fereira-Carrasco vs Mertens also deserves a closer look at the end of the season. Right now I prefer Fereira-Carrasco over Mertens ... as an impact sub he can cause more trouble than Dries. PPS are there interesting Belgian prospects plying their trade in Holland (or elsewhere)? Especially wing-/fullbacks ... as I'd like to see Kompany & Vertonghen as CBs in the starting XI and on the left a pacy wingback that can overlap with e.g. Hazard ... Alderweireld isn't ideal as a RB too (like Mertens, he deserves time to prove himself). Also back when Vertonghen, Vermaelen & Alderweireld were @ Ajax, can you tell me if they were solely used as CBs?
Half time. Good stuff so far between Portugal and Sweden. Even game all around. Sweden have better chances, but their finishing was poor. I have a feeling Portugal will make them pay.
Beware of Chile too ... The same could be said of BEL - COL ... nah Pekerman came with a decent & well organised squad + as a worthy opponent they deserve respect for a nice win and our congratulations. I agree with the media's desciption of a wasteful Belgium that was made to pay by Colombia's more clinical finishing ... the lack of form of some of our players was showing and I guess Wilmots will choose to put the 'in form' players on the pitch after this winter instead of rewarding players for past contributions when they're not 1 of those 'in form' players at the moment. Also Belgium, with a makeshift defence as a result of injuries to Vincent Kompany, Nicolas Lombaerts and Daniel van Buyten, had little trouble keeping Falcao in check during the first half (Vermaelen slowly is returning to form yet Vertonghen had a bad day) ... Falcao's opening goal changed the game after debutant RB Meunier made a crucial mistake (otherwise he put in a strong performance) ... Falcao highlighted the absence of injured Belgium captain and CB Kompany, as he cut through the offside trap ... still I feel relaxed even if Wilmots experiments further in the Japan friendly ... tactically he risked too much at the start of the 2nd half yet our guys should have reacted sooner when it backfired ... in the next friendly I'd like to see the maturity and organisation return that proved to be a succes in the qualifiers and hopefully Nainggolan gets an opportunity to state his case (Mertens too as he received few minutes recently while hitting his stride at club level).
UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying format leaked? Based on what the Romanian FA made public: 8 groups of 6 teams and one of 5 teams Pot 1: Spain, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, England, Portugal, Greece, Russia, Bosnia-Herzegovina Pot 2: Croatia, Ukraine, Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Czech Republic, Hungary, Republic of Ireland Pot 3: Serbia, Turkey, Slovenia, Israel, Norway, Slovakia, Romania, Austria, Montenegro Pot 4: Armenia, Poland, Scotland, Finland, Latvia, Wales, Bulgaria, Estonia, Belarus Pot 5: Iceland, Northern Ireland, Albania, Lithuania, Moldova, FYR Macedonia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Cyprus Pot 6: Luxembourg, Kazakhstan, Liechtenstein, Faroe Islands, Malta, Andorra, San Marino, Gibraltar For more info: http://www.football-rankings.info/2013/12/uefa-euro-2016-qualifying-format.html
Didn't @DRB300 mention that? Holland & Gibraltar are the only 2 unbeaten teams of 2013. PS they have a wiki ... so seems legit ... they even have participated in the FIFI Wild Cup (screw FIFA WC ... I want that title).
LMAO.....I'm gonna buy an uninhabited island in the Atlantic ocean somewhere , start my own country and then enter FIFA. Face it, thats the only way I'll ever come close to making it as a pro footballer
Can't you move to the Faroe Islands, Lichtenstein, Andorra, or San Marino? I'm sure they would like to have some able bodied Dutch footballers on their teams.
I think I saw somewhere that the Swiss team contains the most players from different descent. Very multi culti. South Korea were among the least.
I would guess that both Japan and South Korea are pretty much single ethnic. US has the most Germans on its team other than the proper Germany team!