Liechtenstein 2-2 Portugal FYR Macedonia 2-2 Holland Luxembourg 0-4 Liechtenstein Andorra 1-0 FYR Macedonia It really is great to see some of the lesser nations of European football starting to put up a fight. Is it no longer the case that a trip to Liechtenstein, San Marino, the Faroe Islands or Andorra is seen as a sure 3 points?
Yes it is good for European football to see these minnow nations improving. Only away matches at the likes of Malta, Luxemborg and of course Scotland are seen as an easy three points.
That is very true! I think Scotland may end up in the bottom pot for the Euro 2008 qualifiers if Vogts doesn't go soon.
Word is, he'll be gone for the Sweden game. If that's true I'll be ecstatic, but I don't want to get my hopes up, only to see them crushed.
Small teams aren't small anymore..the way soccer is today...any small team can give a big team trouble.
Liechtenstein 2-2 Portugal FYR Macedonia 2-2 Holland Luxembourg 0-4 Liechtenstein Andorra 1-0 FYR Macedonia just to put a bit of perspective on this Liechtenstein pop. 33,000 Andorra pop. 68,000 Luxembourg pop. 449,000 Macedonia pop. 2,055,000 Holland pop. 16,318,000 Portugal pop. 10,084,000
Case in point: WC02! In the first round was disposed of supposed big teams like France and Argentino. Only several bigger nations survived to the knockout stages together with several of the so-called lesser nations like USA, Korea, and Senegal. Germany only made it through to the final because it had an easy draw and England was succesful because France was eliminated before the next phase. Overall this heralds a shift in power in global football were the typical teams that dominate can no longer dominate like theyb used to do. Check out the results from the last WC: http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/02/en/t/s/g.html
Vogts is the problem? The issues of the squad go far beyond that. I'm not sure God could get results much better than Vogts from that squad. I'm not trying to be rude. The current squad doesn't seem very strong. It definitely doesn't have the depth needed to overcome some of the injuries and suspension that have occured.
I agree. The big teams should still be expected to win the big tournaments. But any given game, anything can happen.
This same argument has been done to death in Scotland for a couple of years now. The current squad we have is not as good as the groups of players we've had for the past few years but it's not that bad. The issue is, how well can these players perform? Is Vogts getting anything like the best from these players? I don't think he is. He has embarassed us in friendlies trying out almost 100 players, we are routinely beaten by all and sundry. A lot of people wanted him gone because of this but Vogts said, "Judge me on competitive results". This was an acceptable propsition for most people but look at the start to the qualifying campign we have made. 1 point from home games against Slovenia and Norway and held to a draw in Moldova. The players we have are better than that! He has acheived a couple of good results, I would say that the win over Holland, and the draw against Germany at Hampden and probably the win in Iceland were very credibkle results, the rest were either no great shakes or a downright disgrace. Vogts seems to alienate some players (Daive Weir), he cannot communicate with the players during the games, (Barry Ferguson had to organise the team against Hungary, I think), there seems to be no plan and no organisation. We have the backbone of a decent team but a manager's job is sometimes to make ordinary players come together tom make a good team. Look at Greece, they do have a couple of very good players but most are, indivisually, unremarkable. Yet they won EC04, all we're asking for is qualification at the moment and we need a manager who can deliver that. Yes, there are problems at all levels of the game in this country, which need adressing but, whilst we're doing that, we need a natioanl manger who can restore stability and respectibility to our national team. I don't think that's too much to ask.
Squad? That's crap. You are amking the excuses. In Euro2004 Greece is winning the whole competition with a squad full of average, or garbage players. They won by sitting it out and playing for a nil-nil while hoping to nick a goal when the opponent is bored asnd lose concentration. I am not condoning this tactic. But hey if it works for Greece then Scotland can have not complaints about the condition of their squad. There is no excuse to be so amazingly garbage as poor little Scotland is right now, right?
I don't even know why I'm responding to someone who claims to support Juve and Bayern but I'll give it a go. How am I making excuses? The point I am making is that Scotland are rubbish at the moment but we could be a lot better if we got in a decent manager who got the best from the players. Someone made the claim that God could not get good results with the squad that Scotland have, I am disagreeing, like Greece, we have a squad filled with players who are average, at best. There is a manager out there who can get good results with this squad and it is the SFA's responsibilty to get rid of Vogts and find someone who can do the job properly. You're right about Greece. They have a very ordinary squad in international terms, if you look at it player by player. So if they were to go into a game against France or portugal with the same tactics as these sides, they would lose as the players could not perform as well. their manager acheived an amazing victory by playing to the strength that they do have and geting the best from each player, that is the job I expect from a national team manager and that is what Berti Vogts is not doing.
For Conmebol all I can say is that after ten games Argentina and Brazil have a small but comfortable lead while all other countries have six points difference from top to bottom. But this is nothing new, qualification has been tight for some time now.
Germany had an easy draw? They were dominated everywhere by the Americans, except of course on the score board :-(
G - Saudi Arabia G - Cameroon G - Republic of Ireland R16 - Paraguay QF - USA SF - South Korea WCF - Brazil As far as runs to a final go this has to be one of the easier ones on paper. To be fair though Japorea was about favourites being beaten and to Germany's credit they managed to overcome the "minnows" who were beating everyone else.