first 4 tie breakers are: Points obtained in all group matches; Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams; Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
On reflection Marcho you're correct. Possession was 55-45% in our favour and 14 attempts to 11 in our favour. Their keeper also make a couple of brilliant saves. Portugal do have some brilliant looking attacking players though. We just need to beat Spain next and we'll go through.
Yeah, I didn’t necessarily think it’s as bad as some have suggested, sure there was some not so good play but they will learn at this level, just like their best play was when keeping the ball tight and not having that urge to hit diagonal or longer balls which hardly ever paid off but keeping possession did so the coach needs to get on top of that for the Spain game. Portugal nearly always impress me at this level, just look so comfortable playing with each other and all on the same page and on this occasion they had two top notch wingers who caused us all sorts of problems with their movement plus Mora impressed me also, looks a very good little player.
The overwhelming majority of that money goes to the already professional athletes though, hardly any of it goes to the grassroots. You still have to produce high level athletes for that money to be impactful and the athletes are being produced through vastly inferior infrastructure. Take the US for example. They obviously have a much bigger population but look at the infrastructure they have through their universities and high schools; it's genuinely alien when compared to what we have here. You can look at sports like boxing too; there was a time a few years back when the UK had either the most or second most current world champions (can't quite remember) of any country in the world. Obviously that's watered down a bit by the fact every weight class has 4 belts but boxing in this country survives on beans and British politicians have even often suggested kids shouldn't be allowed to compete in it. It gets hardly any money or support from anywhere outside of its small inner circle yet we still manage to have a massive presence in what is a hugely global sport.
Boxing is struggling all across the west because of the dangers of the sport. It’s increasingly being dominated by fighters from poorer countries who want the money.
Boxing participation in Britain has risen in recent years. It's also massively on the rise in Australia and in particular in France who have received a lot of state backed infrastructure in recent years. The country with the best current boxers is still the USA and the country with the best boxing prospects is still the USA. The poorer countries that do well in boxing are mostly countries that have a deep history in the sport. The country that has increased its presence in the sport the most is Japan, and that's very much not a poor nation.
We’re going a bit off track from the U17’s so apologies but won’t the new independent regulator help with a more clear direction of money from the Premier League making its way down to grass roots football? This is something our pathetic and gutless FA should be on top of but sadly clueless! With the amount of money around even what the FA probably already have, there’s no excuse for poor facilities. Even over here where I live in Sweden the facilities are great compared to England.
Most of money is going to end up with the EFL clubs than the literal grassroots. EFL clubs want money to build their own facilities and compete but they not going to building playing fields in residential areas. There is not really the organisational set up to lobby for direct grassroots money and I suspect the FA is probably happy enough with how talent is currently being produced to support big changes that could cause issues at the elite level.
Japan has had a strong boxing culture for a long time to be fair but their fighters are generally in the smallest weight classes that get little attention in the west. Fireburn is right about poorer countries like Ukraine and Kazakhstan becoming increasingly significant. As you say the US still dominates but not as much as it used to. The UK had a golden period not long ago but has dropped off recently in the men’s professional rankings. That said we had a strong showing at the last Olympics and in women’s boxing the Ring P4P no 3 and no7 are British.
Well, that’s better than nothing as even many EFL clubs help with their local community if it helps them develop better players for the area and then ultimately for them. Problem is hopefully the money just doesn’t go into the owners pockets and has to be invested into infrastructure etc. Still we need more money and thought going into grassroots football as it’s inexcusable for facilities in England to be poor compared to so many Countries!
Yeah like Fireburn just said a lot will go to the EFL but I think the idea is also to increase grassroots funding even if only slightly. Honestly though these things need to be demanded from the government. They've gone way, way too long without seriously investing in local communities. I was listening to a podcast recently about how many top footballers come from Paris and the facilities sound next level; on top of that they're all backed and maintained by the state. We don't even get the cheaper stuff over here. I was in Berlin not long ago and couldn't believe how many public, free-to-use outdoor gyms they have there. You hardly ever see those here (at least I haven't). Hopefully this changes in the future but it's unlikely the Premier League alone will ever give enough for us to seriously level up our infrastructure.
But I don't see the significance of this? The Olympics are now mostly a question of money, and it is no coincidence that countries like Hungary, with the same population as Portugal, is doing well, since the state traditionally pours huge amounts of money into professional sports, including some that nobody watches. But other countries have realised that a country's success is not primarily measured by its Olympic medal tally.
Success in sport generally is a question of infrastructure which is paid for with money. The point about Portugal is that more of their best athletes appear to play football than other sports. If rugby didn’t exist and all the rugby players in England had attempted to be footballers instead then I think our national team would be significantly stronger. Ryan Giggs was the son of a rugby player and good enough at rugby to be a professional, for example.
Japan's combat sport culture mostly relates to kickboxing. Their boxing programmes have ramped up massively in recent years and they've never had anything close to the depth of talent they've got now. Their regional scene fights are of such a high quality and they never were, the aspiring Filipino boxers used to often go over there for an easy pay day but get battered nowadays. Kazakhstan have improved to a degree, Uzbekistan have certainly ramped up significantly at amateur level but it hasn't translated to the pro game that well as of yet. Ukraine on the other hand have a really deep boxing history. I wouldn't say they've necessarily risen to dominance, they just had a freak Olympic team that produced two great fighters and one good fighter, all of the same generation. There's no sign that's part of a deeper structural change that is going to result in the country dominating the sport, moreso that Usyk and to a slightly lesser degree Loma are anomalies. The countries that have a big presence at the top of the sport right now are mostly the countries that always have.
Sounds like more awareness and pressure from the public directed at the Government ( maybe a Labour Government with Starmer a football fan better than a Government that doesn’t give a toss ) needs applying. I hardly ever see any articles these days in regard to grassroots sports and how neglected it is but I could be wrong since I don’t reside in England anymore so don’t see everything.
There was one in the Guardian just a few weeks back actually. I know there's a pretty big campaign to save grassroots football going on but their attention is mostly focused on the PL.
Well that’s good for a start but maybe needs more questions directed at MP’s, like during question time etc and see them squirming about wasting billions on doomed projects etc when that money could have been used for grassroots sports and other areas of need.
Manchester United are leading the race to sign 17-year-old Port Vale forward Baylee Dipepa, with the England Under-17 international also wanted by Newcastle, West Ham, RB Leipzig, Borussia Dortmund and Aston Villa. (Mail on Sunday)
nice to see Rigg dropped out the team. they played much better without him... seems the coaches agreed.