How about a thread for our opponents in the World Cup? This thread will be stickied, probably until the roster announcements. The UEFA teams will be playing Nations League in June and September. Cameroon will probably play friendlies (TBD). Serbia, Nations League group B3 vs. Norway Jun 2, vs. Slovenia Jun 5, @ Sweden Jun 9, @ Slovenia Jun 12 vs. Sweden Sep 24, @ Norway Sep 27 Switzerland, Nations League group A2 @Czech Rep Jun 2, @portugal Jun 5, vs. Spain June 9, vs. Portugal June 12 @spain Sep 24, vs. Czech Rep Sep 27 Cameroon, TBD
It’s a shame we have no competitive matches until the WC, as does Serbia and Switzerland. These two will be fine tuned by November. Really hoping we can get some good friendlies booked. But will definately be following our competitors progress.
Switzerland is in group A2 of the UEFA Nations League with Spain, Portugal and Czech Republic. They will play 4 competitive matches in June: Jun 2 @ Czech Rep Jun 5 @ Portugal Jun 9 vs. Spain Jun 12 vs. Portugal Serbia is in group B4 with Sweden, Norway and Slovenia. A pretty solid group, maybe the toughest-looking one in the second division. They also have 4 matches: Jun 2 vs. Norway Jun 5 vs. Slovenia Jun 9 @ Sweden Jun 12 @ Slovenia Both of them should be releasing their rosters for these matches soon. The other two games for each national team will be in September.
Cameroon is in Group C of the AFCON qualifiers for 2023 and should be favorites in this group. They have 2 competitive matches in June: Jun 4 vs. Kenya Jun 8 @ Burundi Before the WC they will have 2 more matches in September.
Here's the Swiss call-up for Nations League: Aufgebot / Sélection / Convocazione🇨🇿 🆚🇨🇭 2.6, 20:45, Prague🇵🇹 🆚🇨🇭 5.6, 20:45, Lisbon🇨🇭🆚 🇪🇸 9.6, 20:45🇨🇭🆚 🇵🇹 12.6, 20:45🏟️ Stade de Genève🎟️ https://t.co/LvDlnGCgvt💻 Live PK/Conférence de presse/Conferenza stampa 👉 https://t.co/zz3xUAgowx pic.twitter.com/xMpQPrJHS3— 🇨🇭 Nati (@nati_sfv_asf) May 24, 2022 If you live in the US, UEFA Nations League games are generally on ESPN and Univision (TV and streaming).
Cameroon squad for the June matches. Their match with Kenya is canceled (Kenya is suspended) so they will play one AFCON match and one match against league all-stars. https://fecafoot-officiel.com/2022/...ur-le-debut-des-eliminatoires-de-la-can-2023/
Serbian squad: https://fss.rs/liga-nacij-siri-spisak-selektora-dragana-stojkovica/ That's in Serbian, so, here's the list: Predrag Rajković Marko Dmitrović Vanja Milinković-Savić Marko Ilić Matija Nastasić Nikola Milenković Stefan Mitrović (vice-captain) Filip Mladenović Strahinja Pavlović Miloš Veljković Mihailo Ristić Aleksa Terzić Erhan Mašović Strahinja Eraković Dušan Tadić (captain) Nemanja Gudelj Filip Kostić Nemanja Maksimović Filip Đuričić Nemanja Radonjić Sergej Milinković-Savić Saša Lukić Andrija Živković Darko Lazović Marko Grujić Uroš Račić Ivan Ilić Aleksandar Mitrović Luka Jović Đorđe Jovanović
And the far more exciting news: Serbia and Switzerland new jersey released! https://www.footyheadlines.com/2022/05/puma-world-cup-2022-kits-to-be-released.html
In their first matches for this Nations League Serbia and Switzerland both lost. Serbia 0x1 Norway Czech Republic 2x1 Switzerland
I will post favorites/possible KO round news here for now since having a different thread seems like overkill for the amount of traffic we get here. Feel free to move it to another thread (gringos or make a new thread) if you guys want @Ombak @Mengão86 France just lost today to Denmark in the UEFA NL (de virada) 1 x 2. Benzema had a great goal but Denmark turned it around. Not sure how serious they were taking this game. Honestly I'd like France to go into the WC on a high being over confident rather than having some wake up calls. Argentina soundly beat Italy 3 x 0 in the "Finalissima" *cough* glorified friendly "cough" ... but they looked pretty good and are showing grit. A lot of people praising Messi's performance but he was given a lot of space. Dude was even stealing balls. I don't expect him to get that much freedom in a WC KO match though.
Mbappe injured his knee in France's match vs. Denmark today. How long might he be out for, how serious - all pending as of now.
And today they thrashed Estonia. Easy match, and Messi with all 5 goals. Even when he tried to assist his teammates the ball wouldn't go in and somehow came back to him for him to score. Sure, it was a friendly, but it was good for CONMEBOL. Yes, UEFA qualifying is tough, but that's by virtue of the number of spots and the way they distribute groups. There are just a ton of weak opponents for the top teams to pad their stats against in qualifying. Of course, that's a big reason why the Nations League exists - it keeps the top teams in the top division to play each other, instead of giving them more easy matches which they already get every qualifying cycle.
I went ahead and renamed the thread since I think this is a good idea. Also moved CBs latest post about Mbappé/France to here. There next match is tomorrow and I haven't seen an injury update. I believe it wasn't anything serious. Tomorrow is a rematch of the WC final, in Croatia.
Swiss losing 4 x 0 is a big result. Just not sure how much players are taking UEFA NL. Players and coaches were complaining about having to play 4 games in 10 days right after the club season is over. But it looks like they may be long on the tooth and Serbia will indeed be our toughest opposition in group stage.
They, like some of their posters on their forums, have this peculiar (to be polite) obsession with Brazil. We're not the ones mocking them at every turn or alluding to them in matches which don't even involve them. Yet they just *have* to mention Brazil. Some may say it's just ribbing from a friendly rivalry. I say it's their obsession to overcome the team who is the best and which has been the best in CONMEBOL for a very long time. They ended a nearly 3-decade title drought and are overcompensating for years - if not decades - of disappointment. And who knows - they may actually have solid grounds for trash talk after the September WCQ match. But if Brazil wins that game, it'll just be another win for us. That's the difference in mentality between a team which won several titles, including two World Cups, during that time period, and a team for which being a titleholder is a novel experience. In any case, I do wish the World Cup were about to start, but ulterior interests placed this year's tournament in a very curious host nation. Give me Korea/Japan 2002's time zone differential anytime over a December World Cup.
Italy and Germany drew 1-1. Does anyone know whether Germany deployed a full-strength squad? It's strange that a match-up which has been the World Cup final and which made for a legendary World Cup semifinal back in 2006 now involves a team in such dire straits that it not only failed to qualify for the World Cup but is in drastic need of rebuilding.
If Argentina do not win in Qatar 2022 in 2026, it will be 40 years since Maradona lifted and kissed the World Cup trophy in Mexico 1986.
Also, we (and they) do not know the fate of a post-Messi Argentina. For me it could go either way: Renaissance or decline. I mean, could we see half a century (or more) of Argentina not winning the World Cup?
France not even using many starters for this nations league game. Many teams only seem to care if they make it to the SF and then they play for it. Calendar does not support this as a serious competition. Period.