Team against Wales on 6 February : Rune Almenning Jarstein - Rosenborg Håkon Opdal - Brann Martin Andresen - Vålerenga John Anders Bjørkøy - Fredrikstad Daniel Braaten - Bolton John Carew - Aston Villa Christian Grindheim - Heerenveen Erik Hagen - Zenit St.Petersburg Brede Hangeland - Fulham Kristofer Hæstad - Vålerenga Jon Inge Høiland - Stabæk Pa-Modou Kah - Roda Frode Kippe - Lillestrøm Erik Nevland - Fulham Morten Gamst Pedersen - Blackburn John Arne Riise - Liverpool Jarl-André Storbæk - Vålerenga Fredrik Strømstad - Start Upcoming friendlies : 26 March away against Montenegro 20 August home against Rep of Ireland Coach Hareide mentioned today on tv today a match against USA . Could be in late May ?
I kinda hope we don't play USA after that last embarrassment. Either send the real team or don't schedule the match. Of the three that are scheduled... we should be able to win all of them.
WALES - NORGE 3-0 (1-0) Bane: The Racecourse Ground, Wrexham Tilskuere: 7553 Dommer: David McKeon, Irland Gule kort: Ingen Mål: 1-0 Carl Fletcher (15.min), 2-0 Jason Koumas (62.min.), 3-0 Jason Koumas (89. min) Norge (4-3-3): Håkon Opdal (Rune Almenning Jarstein 46. min.) - Jarl André Storbæk, Pa-Modou Kah, Brede Hangeland (Frode Kippe 61 min.), John Arne Riise - Fredrik Strømstad (Kristoffer Hæstad 46. min.), Martin Andresen, Erik Nevland (John Anders Bjørkøy 77. min.)- Daniel Braaten, John Carew (Christian Grindheim 46. min), Morten Gamst Perdersen.
Well that sucks, though I would agree that friendlies mean nothing. It's a shame you won't be playing the Euro, you guys have been out of the big events for quite a while now, hope you make it to Africa.
So do i but let be hounest aouer national team is no were near that of Holland and i also think Scotland has an edge against us, so the best we can hope for is a playoff place and then it will be down to the lucky of the draw,
Well the disgusting politics of football has cut another spot of the Euro QF (no matter that all 4 semi-finalists were from Europe) so yah, it's tough to qualify. Yes Holland is better than you but Scotland, that's selling yourself short. Scotland is a side to respect but I think Norway underperformed by not qualifying before Turkey or Greece. You can lock on to a play-off spot atleast.
Are you kidding me? Europe had too many spots and still does - they need to lose a couple more. Africa will prove it deserves AT LEAST 6 spots if not more in 2010. And it's not hard to have the most semifinalists when nearly half of the teams in the competition are from Europe (and the competition itself is in Europe). If there were 14 African teams in the next World Cup (and only 5 European teams) then it wouldn't be too surprising to see an all-African semifinal in 2010. This was essentially the setup that it was in 2006 (except in Europe's favor)... Also don't fear Scotland. The Scots got a couple of lucky results in 2008 qualifying by beating France, but then showed their true colors by losing to Georgia! Let's not forget they were in our group for 2006 qualifying and we finished a good 5 points ahead of them. This group is between us and Holland, and we can beat the Dutch if we're on our game! We can qualify!
Europe need to have all spots except 2 (Brazil, Argentina) and we can maybe have some jokers just for fun, like some from Africa or something
Serioudly UEFA is a lot harder to qualifie from then any oter area. Not only do we have many of the absolut top teams in the world but there us also a lot of decent teams that can easly have good WC if they make it there. Austria Switzerland Poland Portugal Italy France Greece Czech Republic Germany Croatia Russia Spain Sweden Romania Netherlands Turkey This are the teams that particepate in EC 2008 thats 16 teams and then Denmark, England, Ukrain, Scotland and Norway is not there. So personaly i think UEFA has about 24 teams that can do well in a WC Not saying that all of them woude be likely semifinalists or that UEFA shud have 24 spots just showing how competative the region is. Unlike many oters were any half way decent team can walk in to the WC without any serious oposison. CONCACAF 3.5 spots with the best team been USA, Mexico, Costa Rica, Honduras, and Panama. I mean non of these teams woude be top seedes in UEFA AFC 4.5 spots best teams Australia, Korean Rep, Saudi Arabi, Japan and Iran CAF 6 spots but many good to decent teams oso a realtively competative region CONNMEBOL 4.5 spots with relatively good teams so a fairly competative region.
Yeah you listed 21 teams... but they have 13-14 spots to fight for. Look at Africa: Cote d'Ivoire Cameroon Ghana Nigeria Tunisia Egypt Angola Senegal South Africa Morocco Guinea Congo DR Togo Mali Zambia Plus there's outsiders who are usually tough like Zimbabwe or Kenya. So you have Europe with 21 teams and 13/14 spots and Africa with ~17 teams and only 5/6 spots. That means, basically, only 1 out of every 3 deserving team in Africa gets to qualify. Whereas in Europe it's 2 out of every 3. That needs to be more balanced. Aka Africa needs more and Europe needs less so that they are both around 1.5/3 (aka Africa should have like 8 and Europe should have like 10).
I am aware of how many teams i listed here is the UEFA qualification G 1 Group 1 Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Hungary, Albania, Malta Strong groupe with 3 contenders who i can see doing really well in a WC. Group 2 Greece, Israel, Switzerland, Moldova, Latvia, Luxembourg Anoter strong groupe with 3 really good contenders, and even Latvia made it to the EC as recent as 2004. But i admit they did not do well and probebly woudent do so in a WC either Group 3 Czech Republic, Poland, NORTHERN IRELAND, Slovakia, Slovenia, San Marino 2 strong teams both particepateing in EC 2008 also got Northern Ireland who came in 3 in the ECQ and was abel to beat both Denmark and Sweden. Group 4 Germany, Russia, Finland, Wales, Azerbaijan, Liechtenstein 2 EC contenders and Finland that did well in the ECQ, and got good results agains both Portugal and Polen. This groupe also got Wales who wile not haveing done great lately have some fairly impressive players in the squad. Group 5 Spain, Turkey, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Armenia, Estonia Again 2 strong teams that particepate in the EC. and Bosnia-Herzegovina they got lots of qualite players but most of them say no to the NT atm due to some corrupsion accusations. If this changes they can put a qualite team on the picth. Group 6 Croatia, England, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Andorra Do i need to comment ? Group 7 France, Romania, Serbia, Lithuania, Austria, Faroe Islands 2 EC teams and Serbia who got real close. Group 8 Italy, Bulgaria, Republic of Ireland, Cyprus, Georgia, Montenegro Did count Ireland but if you look at the players in that team i think they defenatl got some qualite. Group 9 Holland, Scotland, Norway, FYR Macedonia, Iceland Very strong Holland and 2 teams that was close to qualifieing for the EC Scotland from a very hard group with France Italy and the Ukraine. Thats 23 teams in thick black and then i excluded a few teams that i think can do well. and each of these groupes only got 1 spot. With the 8 best second placed teams haveing a playoff for the 4 remaning places. Now there is no way any oter region is this competative. You listed some AFC teams and yes that region is competative and i don`t think they shud have fewer spots. But seriously UEFA region is harder to qualifie from.
That's absolutely ridiculous. You are American right ?. What is the best result by an African team in the entire history of the cup, it's Cameroon reaching a QF if I'm not mistaken. That is the peak of African success in the WC. I wouldn't fear Scotland. I'd be happy to have them in Sweden's QF group. If Sweden wants to be guaranteed to reach their 6th cup in a row, we have to qualify ahead of semi-finalist Portugal and Denmark or we're out while USA, Mexico and minor resorts get to be in the cup.
Well it should be a WC so the world should be represented, the teams that won't have a snowballs chance in hell of even reaching a QF should be there. The only thing that's unfair is that Europe is so awfully harder to QF from than any other division on the planet. Then to cut additional spots from the toughest division, that's just wrong.
Yea I was joking but you have to agree that the EC-tournament has more quality than the WC usually has.
Norway - Uruguay , May 28 ! http://www.fotball.no/t2.aspx?p=58297&cat=51836 Norway`s friendly matches 2008 : 26 March Montenegro - Norway 28 May Norway - Uruguay 20 August Norway - Rep of Ireland 10 September Norway - ? 19 November FIFA friendly match date
Mmm, it depends on your perspective . The overall quality is vastly greater in the Euro. France, Italy, Holland, Romania anyone ?. Since 1990, Brazil has played 4 out of 5 WC finals, won 3 of them. It's difficult to say that the Euro has more quality when the greatest footballing nation of all isn't represented. Overall quality, the Euro is greater but the best of the best ?, WC is the greatest.
Yeah for average lvl EC is better. AS there are no easy games in the EC But wile the WC has some easy teams it also has Argentina and Brasil so wining the WC is still a bigger deal then the EC.
The WC is no doubt the greatest when your talking about winning the Championship, because of teams like Brazil and Argentina making it more difficult to win the WC in compare with the Euro Finals, but it's on the other hand much tougher getting passed the Group stage or reaching the quarter finals at the EC-tournament. I mean, a country like Turkey that has never shown anything at the Euro finals, managed to finish 3rd at the WC-02 finals, only having to beat China, Japan, Senegal (on 'golden goal') and South Korea to secure the Bronze medals. .
Ceres, that was probably the best post I've seen from you. It's pretty much what I already said but you are completly correct. Also, I think Argentina is getting a tad bit more respect than they deserve (Maradona effect ?) . Yes this is one of the power-houses in football, I'd hate to see them in Sweden's group for 2010 if we qualify but it seems to be 70% skill and history and 30% name and image. Their "recent" WC history isn't all that great. Though they now have the IMO greatest player in the world, Messi. So for 2010, Messi will be a scare for anyone. Btw, where is ZeekLTK, still no response on Africa and how they would dominate Europe if they got the chance.