Football (real)

[nietzsche]

So, betiko, are you going to buy me premium with your earnings?

I didn t even win 25 dollars with that!
I just went all in with what was left, lost 50 euros last week on a combined bet because of these idiots from Man. City losing home vs norwich. My bankroll is now at 40 €, it just adds a little spice to bet on a game you watch.

Much like fantasy sports. But sometimes you don't enjoy matches as much as if you didn't care who won. In my experience.

[HardAttack]

betiko,
chedjou of lille, i didnt have any opportunity to see his performance, do you have anything to say ? good one ?

[tzor]

So there I was, in Yankee stadium watching a football game ... on the jumbotron ... because I came early and they were showing a "real" match before the game started.

Then I watched the live game. Man City took the lead early, took a two point lead and Chelsea could only get it down to a one point deficit before Man City scored again.

Sad day for Chelsea Fans. But at least I got a free flag and the T-Shirt was only $30. I think we did outnumber the Man City crowd in terms of regional fan club banners.

And I learned that the seats really close to the first base line have wooden arm rests with holes for where the beer cups go.

[nietzsche]

In an Epic Game America (my team) won the final of Mexican football against Cruz Azul.

Down 2-0 and playing with 10 since the minute 14, they scored in the 87, and 90min (by the goalie).

The completed the feat in penalty kicks.



And playing good football nonetheless, I was skeptical because IMO they risk too much in defense.

[nietzsche]

The goals:

[betiko]

So there I was, in Yankee stadium watching a football game ... on the jumbotron ... because I came early and they were showing a "real" match before the game started.

Then I watched the live game. Man City took the lead early, took a two point lead and Chelsea could only get it down to a one point deficit before Man City scored again.

Sad day for Chelsea Fans. But at least I got a free flag and the T-Shirt was only $30. I think we did outnumber the Man City crowd in terms of regional fan club banners.

And I learned that the seats really close to the first base line have wooden arm rests with holes for where the beer cups go.

I think chelsea fans couldn't care less of the result of an exhibition game! If you go to an exhibition game you want to see goals, doesn't matter who wins imo..

[betiko]

In an Epic Game America (my team) won the final of Mexican football against Cruz Azul.

Down 2-0 and playing with 10 since the minute 14, they scored in the 87, and 90min (by the goalie).

The completed the feat in penalty kicks.



And playing good football nonetheless, I was skeptical because IMO they risk too much in defense.

so you already explained but I forgot. In mexico you have some wierd playoffs like in the US right? that's like winning the championship? or winning the cup? or both lol? cool scenario though, you couldn't be happier I guess!

by the way, no one is talking about Monaco... (I speak in euros because football transactions ought to be discussed i euros) 45 millions for the colombian James Rodriguez (porto) 25 millions for the portuguese Moutinho (porto) 60 millions for the columbian Falcao (atletico de madrid), Victor Valdes (barcelona) is about to sign too... wow and they are just back from second division!! lol

[nietzsche]

In an Epic Game America (my team) won the final of Mexican football against Cruz Azul.

Down 2-0 and playing with 10 since the minute 14, they scored in the 87, and 90min (by the goalie).

The completed the feat in penalty kicks.



And playing good football nonetheless, I was skeptical because IMO they risk too much in defense.

so you already explained but I forgot. In mexico you have some wierd playoffs like in the US right? that's like winning the championship? or winning the cup? or both lol? cool scenario though, you couldn't be happier I guess!

by the way, no one is talking about Monaco... (I speak in euros because football transactions ought to be discussed i euros) 45 millions for the colombian James Rodriguez (porto) 25 millions for the portuguese Moutinho (porto) 60 millions for the columbian Falcao (atletico de madrid), Victor Valdes (barcelona) is about to sign too... wow and they are just back from second division!! lol

It's a joke. They play 17 games, only home or away for 6 months. The first 8 advance and play 8vs1, 7vs2, etc.

At least this time the champion was 2nd and not 8th or 7th.

I'm for a tournament like in Europe, and give more importance to the just reborn Cup for those who like direct matchups.

[GreecePwns]

You want one confusing format? How about the Greek European spots playoff?

2nd - 5th play 6 extra games with each other to decide who gets CL and EL spots. The 5th place team starts the playoff with 0 points but 2nd through 4th start with the value of 1/5th the difference between them and the 5th place team (rounded down).

No one shows up or cares, unless there's a big derby involved, but since Panathinaikos Aris and AEK have financial problems (AEK even got relegated and Aris finished just ahead of them) and didn't even finish in the top five, there are none.

[betiko]

You want one confusing format? How about the Greek European spots playoff?

2nd - 5th play 6 extra games with each other to decide who gets CL and EL spots. The 5th place team starts the playoff with 0 points but 2nd through 4th start with the value of 1/5th the difference between them and the 5th place team (rounded down).

No one shows up or cares, unless there's a big derby involved, but since Panathinaikos Aris and AEK have financial problems (AEK even got relegated and Aris finished just ahead of them) and didn't even finish in the top five, there are none.

Lol the swiss league has something like that, the russian too!

Also Argentina gives a stupid apertura and clausura title per season instead of just 1, and the relegation is based on the previous 6 season cumulated results..



By the way, falcao signed for Monaco!

[nietzsche]

Also Argentina gives a stupid apertura and clausura title per season instead of just 1, and the relegation is based on the previous 6 season cumulated results..

We have apertura and clausura as well, and the same system for relegation.

[rishaed]

So anyone see the embarrassing Goal by Germany's keeper from the USvGer match? I must say I think Germany sent their B team. Everyone else was too busy with Champions league or similar tourneys.

[waauw]

So anyone see the embarrassing Goal by Germany's keeper from the USvGer match? I must say I think Germany sent their B team. Everyone else was too busy with Champions league or similar tourneys.

That was their B-team indeed. A lot of their players weren't there Neuer, Lahm, Reus, Podolski, Gomez, Boateng, etc.
Now although I didn't see the game, I'm wondering is the USA even gonna make it to the world cup? I saw the game USA-Belgium and that was just humiliating for team USA in my opinion. And only winning 4-3 against the B-squad of germany isn't too good either.

[GreecePwns]

So anyone see the embarrassing Goal by Germany's keeper from the USvGer match? I must say I think Germany sent their B team. Everyone else was too busy with Champions league or similar tourneys.

That was their B-team indeed. A lot of their players weren't there Neuer, Lahm, Reus, Podolski, Gomez, Boateng, etc.
Now although I didn't see the game, I'm wondering is the USA even gonna make it to the world cup? I saw the game USA-Belgium and that was just humiliating for team USA in my opinion. And only winning 4-3 against the B-squad of germany isn't too good either.

They should qualify with ease. We're talking about a group with 3.5 spots out of these:


Mexico (ranked 16th)
USA (29)
Panama (38)
Costa Rica (48)
Honduras (50)
Jamaica (53)

If the US comes in anything worse than 2nd place in the group it would be a cause for serious concern.

[waauw]

So anyone see the embarrassing Goal by Germany's keeper from the USvGer match? I must say I think Germany sent their B team. Everyone else was too busy with Champions league or similar tourneys.

That was their B-team indeed. A lot of their players weren't there Neuer, Lahm, Reus, Podolski, Gomez, Boateng, etc.
Now although I didn't see the game, I'm wondering is the USA even gonna make it to the world cup? I saw the game USA-Belgium and that was just humiliating for team USA in my opinion. And only winning 4-3 against the B-squad of germany isn't too good either.

They should qualify with ease. We're talking about a group with 3.5 spots out of these:


Mexico (ranked 16th)
USA (29)
Panama (38)
Costa Rica (48)
Honduras (50)
Jamaica (53)

If the US comes in anything worse than 2nd place in the group it would be a cause for serious concern.

Well team USA should be able to do a lot better. Looking at how the tiny country of Macedonia plays for example. They don't have top class stars either, but because of good organization they are very hard to beat. What good is a german coach when he can't bring german organization to the squad?

[betiko]

So anyone see the embarrassing Goal by Germany's keeper from the USvGer match? I must say I think Germany sent their B team. Everyone else was too busy with Champions league or similar tourneys.

That was their B-team indeed. A lot of their players weren't there Neuer, Lahm, Reus, Podolski, Gomez, Boateng, etc.
Now although I didn't see the game, I'm wondering is the USA even gonna make it to the world cup? I saw the game USA-Belgium and that was just humiliating for team USA in my opinion. And only winning 4-3 against the B-squad of germany isn't too good either.

They should qualify with ease. We're talking about a group with 3.5 spots out of these:


Mexico (ranked 16th)
USA (29)
Panama (38)
Costa Rica (48)
Honduras (50)
Jamaica (53)

If the US comes in anything worse than 2nd place in the group it would be a cause for serious concern.

Well team USA should be able to do a lot better. Looking at how the tiny country of Macedonia plays for example. They don't have top class stars either, but because of good organization they are very hard to beat. What good is a german coach when he can't bring german organization to the squad?

they give 3.5 spots to the concacaf now?? that's a huge BS, only oceania is weakest. is the oceanian champion the O,5? I would give concacaf 2,5 spots at the most. USA, Mexico, and half a spot for the third of this, and it's already very well paid.

[waauw]

So anyone see the embarrassing Goal by Germany's keeper from the USvGer match? I must say I think Germany sent their B team. Everyone else was too busy with Champions league or similar tourneys.

That was their B-team indeed. A lot of their players weren't there Neuer, Lahm, Reus, Podolski, Gomez, Boateng, etc.
Now although I didn't see the game, I'm wondering is the USA even gonna make it to the world cup? I saw the game USA-Belgium and that was just humiliating for team USA in my opinion. And only winning 4-3 against the B-squad of germany isn't too good either.

They should qualify with ease. We're talking about a group with 3.5 spots out of these:


Mexico (ranked 16th)
USA (29)
Panama (38)
Costa Rica (48)
Honduras (50)
Jamaica (53)

If the US comes in anything worse than 2nd place in the group it would be a cause for serious concern.

Well team USA should be able to do a lot better. Looking at how the tiny country of Macedonia plays for example. They don't have top class stars either, but because of good organization they are very hard to beat. What good is a german coach when he can't bring german organization to the squad?

they give 3.5 spots to the concacaf now?? that's a huge BS, only oceania is weakest. is the oceanian champion the O,5? I would give concacaf 2,5 spots at the most. USA, Mexico, and half a spot for the third of this, and it's already very well paid.

Without australia, oceania only has New Zealand as a somewhat decent team. If one would give up one more spot, it should be to South america or Africa imo. Europe has 13 spots and sout america only 4,5 spots + organizer brazil. Africa receives 5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_World_Cup_qualification#Qualification_spots_by_continent

[betiko]

I know that, but i wasn't saying to give one more spot to oceania of course. That federation shouldn't even exist anymore after letting australia going to the AFC, it was just ridiculous.
I think that europe clearly deserves one more spot. You always have big teams that are left out, for what, honduras or costa rica? no disrespect, but you can't possibly imagine 4 decent teams come out of the concacaf.
In Asia, you've got japan+south korea +australia+maybe iran... all the rest is cow dunk so 4,5 is way too much. Anyway, this is just about making the tournament universal, not about having the 32 most competitive teams...

[GreecePwns]

I would take a spot away from Asia before I took one from Concacaf. I would say Asia and Concacaf are around the same level. Mexico is better than any Asian team easily, and I think the US would also be best or 2nd best in Asia behind only Japan, but the rest are basically in the same mediocre-to-shit range. So Asia should be at 3.5 spots just like Concacaf is at now. I also think OFC shouldn't exist, and they should be merged into AFC, meaning they lose their half-spot. Those nations would benefit from getting to play games against higher level competition, particularly New Zealand who would actually still have some chance of qualifying.

Africa has 5 spots, and I think that number is fair. They have so many nations making it hard to qualify, and the countries that do qualify historically have been good enough in the World Cup to merit 5 spots. I'd also say the same thing for South America, even at 10 nations the fifth best nation is good enough to merit inclusion in the World Cup.

This would bring UEFA up to 14.5 spots from 13. In 2010 this would have meant Bosnia (best team in Europe to not make it) would have been in, replacing New Zealand. Ireland (2nd best team to not make it) would have been in a play-off vs. North Korea, which they likely would have won.

[nietzsche]

Everybody in Concacaf knows 3.5 spots is way too much. 2.5 spots would be ok, 2 spots even better IMO. That would make the qualifiers super tense

[betiko]

for me south korea is the best asian team. Regarding new zealand, it's easier for them to qualify this way, they know it only comes down to playoffs! pretty funny cause new caledonia, that is actually france, plays in the OFC and went to the finals vs NZ, would be so funny to see them in a WC
But yeah, wouldn't touch conmebol and african spots they are deserved. Asia and north america are over represented. There are just so many nations in europe that aremore than decent... That's why most people think that winning the eurocup is actually harder than winning the world cup. You just start with 16 teams and the first stage is much harder than a first stage in the world cup.
But it's true that in WCs low level teams often get surprising results, being over motivated and european teams not taking them seriously. Like new zealand italy 1-1 in 2010 lol

[waauw]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! thank you Scotland! thank you scothland!!!! screw Croatia!!!
Belgium will go to the world cup!!

[nietzsche]

YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!! thank you Scotland! thank you scothland!!!! screw Croatia!!!
Belgium will go to the world cup!!

If you play against US, we get to use the black jerseys.

[betiko]

What happened?

[waauw]

What happened?

in group A of the european World cup qualifiers Belgium beat Serbia by 2-1 and Croatia(ranked 4th in the world) lost to scotland(ranked 74th) at home with 0-1

Because of this Belgium now has a lead of 3 points on Croatia. The chances of qualifying are really big now even though we still have to play against Croatia itself.