Does not matter what group we get. We will smash our opposition and dominate the hell out of everybody in the group. Everything to get to Russia and stick it to these civilian airplane shooters. These barbarians need to be set straight and what better way to give a signal to Putin and his posse by winning it in their country under their very nose. Remember this Putin?: I do. More to come soon. PS And you could only win in 2008 with the help of a Dutch coach. Doesn't count, sorry.
Thank you for the thread. The picture of the squad in the final...sweet memories. Perhaps not the best looking kits but it is my favourite. The brothers traditions, the cool big ego keeper very good with PK, the 3 flying masters, the hard working sitting 5 plus Erwin standing....
I seriously hope that Russia won't host this. The cops managed to keep the situation ok in Poland/Ukraine in 2012, but Russia is so big and the hooligans are much more numerous, they will make problems for sure.
Russia will host 2018. I'm sure 100% even FBI can prove that Russia won with bribes. It is too late to change the host as we are only 3 years away. I don't know how Russia will handle hooligans and racist but when it is needed, Russia will put down its iron fists as any Communists/Dictatorships country do. It is Qatar 2022 that I hope that it will change the host. Winter WC, workers condition, temperature concern not only for players but also fans, ...oh and the bribes. As Blatter said before, FIFA will not care about politics (eg Ukraine) but they care if the government interfere with the Soccer governing body. Until Blatter stepped down then reform can really takes place. 1988 remains my favourite moment. It is not total football like 74, but still beautiful and effective. Blind should have posted the above picture in the teamroom for the Euro qualification as a motivation.
What a hard group! Netherlands France Sweden Bulgaria Belarus Luxembourg On the contrary this is quite weak: Wales Austria Serbia Republic of Ireland Moldova Georgia
So... France, Sweden, Bulgaria, Belarus and Luxemburg. Looks like we're going to the playoffs, mates.
I even think that Sweden can finish 2nd, they just won the EC-21, they have some good youngsters. Hard group
Remember we had a bit the same group in 2008. We were with Romania, Slovenia, Albania, Belarus and Luxemburg. We finished behind Romania and had a very hard time to beat Luxemburg ( 0-1 1-0). Now we have kinda the same group but with France, so it makes it even harder.
They didn't deserve to win it, to be honest. Yes, they do have some very good youngsters, but I highly doubt that Sweden will manage to flash out a good team in such a short time considering that it would be a baptism of fire for the most youngsters, and the old guys like Zlatan probably won't be there. I'm not saying, of course, that we are allowed to underestimate them. HELL ********ING NO. But they are definitely not the toughest opponents we could have got from pot 3. I would have been much more sacred if we were drawn against Ukraine, Poland or Serbia. France on the other hand - we'll be extremely lucky to get a draw AT HOME against them.
Seriously though. France is a bad match up. Lost to them before the WC and they catch us potentially in our weak phase. The Sweden remark is a good one. They just won the U21, so they could be stronger than we anticipate, if it is not one of those teams that won us back to back U21 championships. Well, we got what we got. It also sucks for Sweden. France are rising again and I am pretty sure will qualify for 2018. it will be between us and Sweden.
Also Bulgaria and Belarus are not to be underestimated: Bulgaria 2-2 Italy (We had injured players but still). Belarus 0-1 Spain (Huge mistake by the belarusian goalkeeper, and Belarus had a wrongly disallowed goal. I watched the game and Belarus put up a huge fight. Speaking of that I am not sure how good this Spain team is but still).
. Yes, I was always teasing my friends between 2008 and 2012 cause I was sure Holland would beat France at any moment. Everything was just better, the NT results, the young teams... Now the difference of level looks big. How many times have young dutch teams been humiliated by french ones ? I remember a U19 game three years ago which ended 6-0 for France, this year the U21 there was a 4-0 in Toulon and another one 4-1 few months before in a friendly. Also remember the 2-0 with the senior team in the friendly before the world cup The difference of level between the french and dutch young players looks big for me at this moment.
Wales and Romania in Pot 1, and France and Italy in pot 2. It makes no earthly sense, and this is the result, a logjam of good teams in Group A, and Spain and Italy matched up in Group G. I guess I shouldn't complain, as Denmark got about the easiest draw imaginable. Poland is probably our biggest threat, even though they are seed #3 and Romania is seed #1. Swedes got screwed.
I am not really sure but just play your best against them and you'll be fine. Don't underestimate any team, even Luxembourg.
I was thinking: One of the reasons we are doing bad at the Euros at the moment (besides an Idiot manager) is that we got complacent due to the fact that in those Euro qualifiers, basically half the team in the competition qualify. We entered this campaign with a "no worry, we'll qualify anyway just like almost everyone else", and because of that, our players and manager subconsciously didn't give a ******** about some opponents and on the competition in general. The exact same thing happened to Germany and Spain, losing to Poland and Slovakia. The difference is that they were in an easier group than ours (maybe it's only me, but ever since the draw was announced in February 2014 I thought we got a very tricky group), so they had little problem recovering from those results. My point is: due to the fact that in the WCQ we know from the start that we can only automatically qualify from position #1 and that position 3 is not even an option (unlike in the Euro qualifiers), we'll probably go into this competition in a much more serious mind set, like we always did before the '16 EQ. So… maybe it won't be THAT bad after all. Does anyone agree with me?