Football

quindioman says on Oct 12, 2005, 18:19:

carter it's because Colombians are pretty peeved the team has made a hash out of qualification, but there's Colombians like me who are willing to get up at 2am just to hear the match, I'll worry about having to be at work at 7am later........so far so good Colombia are a goal up and Uruguay are drawing against the Argies......

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quindioman says on Oct 12, 2005, 19:29:

condenados a sufrir.....:(
that's another world cup screw up....it's not very nice been a Colombian football supporter
Hopefully we'll make it to South Africa in 2010, hopefully I'll be around too.

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kernow62 says on Oct 12, 2005, 19:31:

I am just glad England qualified, would have been better if we didn't lose to a team that hadn't beat us since 1927, Northern Ireland.

Even if Colombia make it to play Australia, I am afraid my money would be with Australia for the win. They aren't looking bad.

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kernow62 says on Oct 12, 2005, 19:56:

Well a win against Paraguay in Paraguay is no small feat. Congrats to Colombia.

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ElCheAmericano says on Oct 13, 2005, 06:43:

Lo siento I can't believe Argentina lost to Uruguay with a full strength team. Colombia did there part by beating Paraguay but unfortunetly it was too little to late. Hopefully they will get a better start to the next qualifiers then they did this one.

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BlondeJamesBond says on Oct 13, 2005, 07:24:

Speaking as an Everton fan I hope Uruguay beat Austrailia after the rubbish Hiddink spouted about us over Tim Cahill(Everton and Austrailia's best player). I would have much prefered Colombia to take revenge on the whinging, short-sighted Dutch chump, but Uruguay will have to make do.

Hard luck on Colombia, really wanted them to get there.

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spigrimace says on Oct 13, 2005, 07:49:

They are used to it The hinchas knew they were going to be eliminated. It´s the same that happened in 2002. At the bar we only had 50 people where we have capacity for 150+.

They stayed home as they already knew what was going to happen.

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Miguel says on Oct 13, 2005, 10:51:

¿Football? O quizas...nadie aqui le gusta NFL..futból, tal vez...no importa ahora.

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kernow62 says on Oct 13, 2005, 15:12:

BlondeJamesBond I didn't know you were a toffee. Well... I won't hold it against you. At least its a northern team, I can't stand them southern fairies. ;-)

Hope quindioman doesn't read this.

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BlondeJamesBond says on Oct 13, 2005, 16:25:

Kernow
Yep i'm a Toffee all the way.

As it goes I've lived in London all my life so I guess that makes me a 'southern fairy' too ;-D. There is no obvious reason why i've always supported them except to quote our famous saying:

"Evertonians are born not manufactured, we do not choose, we are chosen, those who understand need no explanation, those who don’t, don’t matter."

As it goes i'm going to the match against Tottenham on Saturday, one thing a football loving Brit must miss badly when living abroad is not being able to get to the games of their team - even if they seem to support Manure as in your case Kernow. :-p

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BlondeJamesBond says on Oct 13, 2005, 17:01:

Tinto Yup.

The Manchester Bucanneers

...and it's just polite to call their ground "SOld Trafford" nowadays!

Chanting "U - S - A" "U - S - A" at their fans is also commonplace at matches (to clarify for those unfamiliar, this is not done as rampant anti-americanism, it's just for the pleasure of winding United supporters up over the Glazer situation!)

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kernow62 says on Oct 13, 2005, 19:08:

We will never live that down, curses to the USA I say. We haven't played properly since I might add. I mean letting bloody Fulham score two goals, what the hell is the world coming to. George Bush and Co. have a lot to answer for.

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carter says on Oct 14, 2005, 09:02:

BJB As an Australian and fan of football I think its a disgrace that Everton wouldn't let there player go to a camp which was mainly set up to discuss tactics. Cahill was never going to take part in the match with Jamiaca.

Imagine if Beckham was held back from Englands last training camp before the world cup. If Everton doesn't want players that wish to return to there countries for world cup preperations then don't select Internationals. Cahill has been fighting FIFA for 10 years for the right to play for Australia since he represented Somoa as a kid. Everyone including the Everton team know he is dying to represent his country and should respect that. In the Premiership only English players are respected for putting country before club. You wonder why we call you Whinging POMS.

That was the last opportunity that the Australian team has before the world cup qualifier. Who gives a F$%k about Everton? why should Hiddink? Their seasons over, they´ll get relegated and Cahill being there best player will move on to a decent club.

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carter says on Oct 14, 2005, 09:06:

on another note I would have prefered Australia playing Colombia or even better Chile in the repacharge (how do you spell that word?)

Uruguay are going to be tough and with Australias injuries it will be a struggle. I think with Hiddinks hopefully sorting out our defense we can walk away from the 1st leg in Uruguay within a goal and should be a good chance.

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carter says on Oct 14, 2005, 09:27:

just having a whinge how much better would it be for Australia if we had one of the other 2 repacharge teams.

Bahrain or Trinidad and Tobago.

I would be packing my bags for Germany now and Cahill could take a vacation.

I blame FIFA for Cahills ridiculous work load there the ones that give Australia the shit deal.

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BlondeJamesBond says on Oct 14, 2005, 13:50:

Carter I know you don't use terms like 'goaltender' so i'm not going to have to nurse you through this ;-)

The Premiership season has just started, we, Everton, are not going to get relegated, and Cahill is not going anywhere, need to get this out of the way first and foremost.

In Cahill's own words he felt "physically sick" after travelling to and from your Solomon Islands match, it was a 40 hour round trip or something like that. The guy has been playing top-flight football non-stop for almost 2 years, he looks knackered and is a comparative shadow of the player he was last season - Trust me I watch him week in, week out, I know this to be the case - It is in Everton's AND Austrailia's best interests that he is given the chance to grab a rest whenever he can, instead of being forced to report for another meaningless friendly, this is where my Hiddink is being short-sighted comment came from.

What really got to us though, and where the resentment comes from, was not the request for TC to report for international duty, even us pommies can't really complain about that, it was Hiddink's unprofessional, sulky, whinging comments about our position in the Premiership afterwards, he should have know alot better than that.

So I personally am hoping Uruguay dump Hiddink out, although it would be nice for England to meet you 'Socceroos' at the WC and thrash you in football as well as the cricket :-)

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Gomezman5 says on Oct 14, 2005, 15:14:

The "Real Numbers" (even though you guys hate FIFA's ratings) FIFA World Rankings September 2005 (end of Sept)

Brazil remain top, followed by the Netherlands and then Argentina in third spot. Sweden move up to 10th.

The USA drop one position to 7th. England slip out of the top 10 after their dismal defeat to Northern Ireland in World Cup qualifying. Korea are in 26th position.

1 Brazil
2 Netherlands
3 Argentina
4 Czech Republic
5 Mexico
6 France
7 USA
8 Spain
9 Portugal
10 Sweden

11 England
12 Turkey
13 Italy
14 Denmark
15 Germany
16 Japan
17 Poland
18 Iran
19 Costa Rica
20 Greece

21 Republic of Ireland
22 Cameroon
23 Tunisia
24 Croatia
25 Uruguay
26 COLOMBIA

The best part about these numbers is that the UK is no longer in the top 10 and the US is # 7. The funny thing is, if anything, the US should be ranked higher. There is an anti US bias by the majority of Europeans that represent FIFA. One more thing, since these rankings, Mexico lost to Trinidad and the US defeated Panama, so, if anything,the US moved up a spot or 2.....hmmm

BTW, congrads to BlondJamesBond in being the first Blond to be the next generation James Bond. Did you know something nobody else knew?

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kernow62 says on Oct 14, 2005, 20:56:

I think you mixed up UK and England.

You are right though, that was a terrible loss to Northern Ireland. What would England's ranking be without that 1-0 loss? They would be in 6th or 7th. I am not too worried about the team, but I am worried about Rooney and Becks tempers costing us dearly. At least we are qualified, perhaps we will meet in the World Cup. Some of the teams ranked higher haven't qualified yet. Israel is leading the group with France in it, yet look where FIFA ranks France. Holland is looking good right now.

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Gomezman5 says on Oct 15, 2005, 00:36:

Kernow....you make a good point You make a good point about the Israel/France point. But keep in mind, I am not sure that FIFA uses the performance in World Cup playoffs/eliminations alone as the standard for ranking the teams.

OK, I am somewhat biased, but I don't think Colombia should rank that low. As I pointed out in my other thread, looking at the Goles Scored and Goals allowed ration, you will find that Colombia was one of the best teams in the Comnebol conference, yet they're history....

Go figure

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kernow62 says on Oct 15, 2005, 06:10:

I know they don't use just World Cup qualifying, but is weighted so that these matches count for more. Also the fact that Northern Ireland is ranked so low also accounted for England's big slide. If they had lost to France for example they might have dropped a single place or not at all.

When all is said and done what does a number 1 FIFA ranking really mean? The World Cup is the center stage. A lot of very good teams won't be there.

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Gomezman5 says on Oct 15, 2005, 06:42:

Same with all sports but..... You have to have some mechanism for determining who is going to go and who is not. Having a playoff/elimination round ia the only fair way to do it. If you let people (the soccer sports writers for example) decide, if you think there is too much in politics in the process now, then you will really see how unfair it would become.

You can look at any major sport any you will find situations like that. The Chicago White Sox had one of the best records, if not the best record in baseball this year, (won 99 games) and they have one of the best pitching staffs, yet they almost did not go to the playoffs. So, some times things just go that way.

By the way, I did mean England....instead of the UK. SOmetimes Americans forget about the geographic/poltical stuff.

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kernow62 says on Oct 15, 2005, 09:20:

Yes, Northern Ireland (UK) beat England (UK), so UK beat UK.

I wondered why people in the US were driving around with I Love UK on bumper stickers, it was years before I learned it was the University of Kentucky. ja ja

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quindioman says on Oct 16, 2005, 08:40:

FOOTBALL'S COMING HOME!!
There's norway I'm gunner miss the next world cup so I have started to practise the national anthem.....
God save our gracious Queen,
Long live our noble Queen,
God save the Queen!
Send her victooooooooooooooooooooorious,
Happy and gloooooooooooooooooooooorious,
Long to reign over us;
God save the Queen!
:-p

I'll add my penny farthing's worth:
Everton have had a mare but I still can't see them getting relegated....Moyesy should have got the manager of the season last year: he sold his best 2 players...God and Gravesen and still managed to get to Europe. BTW i personally think Cahill is overrated, however the fans that know him better...Millwall and Everton fans say he's all that.

Back to Colombia...my years as a Quindio fan have stood me in good stead...all those years of dissapointment and seeing your club lose more often than win certainly prepares one for the national team's dissapointments. Quindio's and Colombia's underachievements are the ying to Chelsea's yang. I suffer listening to football in Spanish but here in blighty i follow a team that can't be touched...not even the gooners or manure can do anything about it......and before people start telling me I jumped on some bandwagon I'll let them know I've been following Chelski since the days of Dixon and the old division 2....the only foreigners we had came from Scotland.

Kernow I'm very much looking to November 6th and wrapping up the title before xmas! Best thing is we're gooner do it at SOLD TRAFFORD!
GO USA!!!!! :-P

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BlondeJamesBond says on Oct 16, 2005, 10:02:

... Just to clear things up, France have qualified and Israel are out.

You can check the teams that are guaranteed to be at the WC here:

http://fifaworldcup.yahoo.com/06/en/t/team/qualified.html

Personally, I think it's a bit of a travesty that so many African teams are going while South America in the shape of Colombia look under-represented.

Quindioman - Davey Moyes DID win the 'manager of the year' award last season, ahead of your very own Jose Mourinho. Cahill 'was all that' last season, but as I've said after a summer of non-stop football representing Austrailia he is looking very jaded and was poor again against Tottenham on Saturday. Chelsea are the unstoppable force, although I have no doubt we will somehow pull out a performance and beat you next Sunday!!! Cahill to grab the winner???

GMan - I'm glad the FIFA rankings mean something to you and that you take some satisfaction from USA being ahead of England on it, but i've never discussed FIFA rankings with anybody, except with you on here, since I left school. Come a competetive World Cup match they count for nothing.

LOL, I must admit to feeling quite prophetic with my choice of username, now that they've made Daniel Craig the new Bond (I would suggest you all watch Layer Cake, which he stars in, great film), no inside knowledge though i'm afraid.

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Goodison says on Oct 17, 2005, 04:34:

FAO: BlondeJamesBond Alright la. Just reading this football thread and noticed you were a toffee. Did you get to the Spurs game on Saturday? I'm living down in London as well at the mo, but couldn't get to the game.

Anyway, have faith in Moyes. It will come good in the end.

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carter says on Oct 17, 2005, 12:45:

BJB I was just trying to rev you up with the Everton to get relegated talk.

But if Cahill needs a rest maybe his manager can give him one if its in the club and countries best interests. I think our last training camp is very important before our Uruguay match all players should be released, you have to take into account that our last big hitout otherwise was Solomon Islands.

Most Australian players only get called up for duty around 5 games a year and we have moved our home games to England or Holland to keep club managers happy. I could understand him being pissed if we dragged him to Sydney for a weekend but a couple of days in Amsterdam to talk tactics isn't much to ask of a manager.

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protocol13 says on Oct 17, 2005, 13:22:

The Australian feels that Uruguay is harder team to beat than Colombia. Although the S/A world cup elimination is over and Uruguay is the team that will face Australia, I think that Colombia will have been much harder for Australia. In fact, After Maturana was fired with the national team not winning any of its first four games, the statistics indicate that Colombia was the third best team after Argentina and Brasil, with the third best offense (22 goals for) and the best defense (8 goals allowed)and third best goal differential at +14. Colombia played a great game in tying Brazil in Brazil. The Argentine sports commentator for ESPN in his final comments about the S/A w/c eliminations stated that it was unfortunate that the third best team in South America did not qualify due to Colombia's soccer players not using the "H" factor when it was needed.

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carter says on Oct 18, 2005, 09:46:

I believe Uruguay has a few more big occasion players. Plus Australias past history against them isn't great.

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Gomezman5 says on Oct 18, 2005, 11:44:

BJB to you FIFA counts for nothing However, interestingly enough, since they are the only rebutable authority that ranks, and if I may add, is so often cited by other leading world wide football publications, it must count for something.

It always amazes me how the US in such a short period of time managed to clearly make their national team a world class team by anyones standard, and yet still not command the respect they deserve.

Nobody ever seems to come up with a logical argument agains my assertion. The fact that a many of the players play for some of the best teams in Europe, only proves my point all the more. They not only play there, but they play with distinction.

Do I think they are as good as Brazil or Argentina? No. Are they better than Colombia at this stage of the game? Probably. I only say probably even taking into account for the fact that COMNEBOL is better overall than CONCACAF. And if you don't believe me, I'll return to my original contention---just check with FIFA

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Rikito says on Oct 18, 2005, 12:15:

What it was was football First, I enjoy watching football as I do most other sports. But I have a question and maybe a condundrum. I was watching TV Colombia this weekend and all they showed was football, football, football and...football. No T&A Cheerleaders either...boring! During the evening news some baldheaded twit who thinks a jock is a sexual device comes on the TV to report the sports news of the day and it's all football...nothin else but! Are there no other sports in South America or Europe? ...And the announcer sounds like he is getting his rocks off everytime a goal is scored.

There are many other spectator sports in Colombia and SA besides seeing some guy get bitched slapped in the chest and then falling down on the ground whrithering (did I spell that right?)in pain as though he were just shot in the chest by a cannon. Then after they carry him off the pitch (field) on a stretcher and put him on his death bed he is up and around in 60 seconds ready to go back in and save the day....what's this about anyway?

Is there a season lenght for football like from September to January like U.S football? Or is it played all year round cause the players have nothing else to do in thier lives? It just goes on forever and becomes so tiring to watch...yawn! Just like this message!

My father-in-law loves this stuff and I enjoy some of it especially the world cup...there is no greater sensual feeling to modern man or woman than seeing the French get the snot knock out of them...for any reason...whatever the time of day.

Here's an idea...why don't they have a tournament with the Colombian army in a league consisting of the FARC, ELN, the NRACOs, and the politicians who take money from all of them which is about 95% of the Colombian congress. The winner gets Colombia and the looser gets France. Sounds dooable to me.

It is not life that matters, but the journey.

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carter says on Oct 19, 2005, 16:50:

G5 I thought I answered your question last time about why US gets no respect by other countries. But you never followed up with a reply Its because they have only beaten 1 (none CONCACAF) Top 20 team since the turn of the century.

The fact is that Australia has a better record than USA against top 20 teams but is ranked 54. If USA want respect in Europe they need to beat European teams.

If rankings were only based on results against top 20 teams USA would be lower than Australia and nearly every team in Europe there record is a disgrace.

want respect win games against opposition.

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BlondeJamesBond says on Oct 19, 2005, 17:23:

Carter No complaints whatsoever from any Everton fan about TC representing his country, to be expected of a player of his class and you will need him to rediscover top form if you are going to have a chance against Uruguay, just like us against Chelsea on Sunday, feels like mission impossible!!! . Just advise Hiddink to keep his trap shut in the future - you know how tribal us footy fans can get ;-)

Gomezman5

Aaaaaaaaaaaaarghh! Fifa rankings may be used to fill up some column inches when there is bugger all else to talk about, but let me assure you that I, and I would guess 99% of football fans on the street, couldn't give a monkeys.

I find Fifa rankings as interesting and relevant as I would a daily report on what Tim Cahill had for breakfast, all i'm interested in, and all that matters, is how he performs on the pitch.

All that matters for international teams is how they perform in competetive qualifying matches and even more crucially in World Cups, that is it! - if you cannot acknowledge this simple to grasp fact then it is clear your interest in football is passive not passionate and you may therefore continue to use terms like ‘goaltender‘ and ‘soccer‘, so that we know where we stand.

As far as whose footballing association is better?!?! Who really cares? UEFA is blah blah blah against CONCACAF blah blah blah, As long as England are good, again, this is all I care about, I'm sure Carter is only interested in the performance of Austrailia, you Gman in the USA, and perhaps all of us share a little side interest in the fortunes of Colombia...the rest is just hot air and conjecture.

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