Ro Sham Bo Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Shock of the nation's league so far. 4th best side in the world lose to a side who only just scraped through to the last 16. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marten Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 35 minutes ago, accies1874 said: Looking at their recent results, they seem to be a nation on the rise. In the last year, they've drawn with France and beaten Albania, Georgia and Hungary. ETA: Can't find a 4-0 win, but they beat Afghanistan 6-0 in 1948 Olympics Preliminary Round and beat Belgium 4-1 in 1945. Football in Luxembourg is definitely on the rise. F91 Dudelange qualified for the Europa League & the national team improved greatly. Discounting Olympics (as they don't count as full internationals), this has been their biggest ever competitive win. Football in the country is really well organised there now after a restructuring some time back. Youth development is brilliant and they are starting to produce professional players who play for (lower division) full time teams in Belgium, France and Germany. It's still a very small country, but they have a population larger than Iceland, so you'll never know what's possible. They have definitely outgrown the absolute minnows category. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted September 8, 2018 Share Posted September 8, 2018 Surely the Olympics counted as full internationals in 1948? I though the age restrictions were a relatively recent edition? Anyway, yeah, Luxembourg, Andorra and the Faroes all punching above their weight. Not completely impossible that one of them qualifies for Euro 2020. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Marten Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 8 hours ago, Bully Wee Villa said: Surely the Olympics counted as full internationals in 1948? I though the age restrictions were a relatively recent edition? Anyway, yeah, Luxembourg, Andorra and the Faroes all punching above their weight. Not completely impossible that one of them qualifies for Euro 2020. No, Olympics only counted as full internationals pre-1930. After that Olympics became for amateurs only. This rule eventually got changed (I think early 80's) as communist countries had an advantage. Their players were only amateurs in name: they were paid by the government and effectively full time players. That's why the age limit got brought in. Although you could argue that the game in 1948 will have featured the full first teams for Luxembourg & Afghanistan (as neither had professionals at the time), so should count. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 Fair enough. I knew about the whole amateur and Communist domination thing, but didn't realise they weren't full internationals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JTS98 Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 England have only beaten four of their eleven League A rivals competitively this century. Croatia, Switzerland and Poland, as well as Germany back in 2001. There is no chance of them getting to the knock-out stage of this, and there never has been. They don't beat good teams competitively. To do well in this tournament they would have to get the better of Spain and Croatia over a home and away competition. This would represent an unbelievable turnaround in form. England haven't beaten a genuinely excellent team competitively since Argentina in 2002. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7-2 Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 1 hour ago, Marten said: After that Olympics became for amateurs only. This rule eventually got changed (I think early 80's) as communist countries had an advantage. Their players were only amateurs in name: they were paid by the government and effectively full time players. That's why the age limit got brought in. And there, ladies and gentlemen, is the world's biggest hypocritical con. The rule hasn't changed. The Olympics are still amateur. All these highly paid, multi-millionaire, full-time, professional sportspeople can compete because they don't get paid for their appearance and are classed as amateur for the duration. Combined with the raising of entry qualifying standards the Olympics is basically 'an amateur' event that doesn't want amateurs. It should have been killed off when 'the Olympic spirit' still actually meant something than an advertising slogan and replaced by the Mcdonald's World Games which is more or less is now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7-2 Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 14 minutes ago, ali_91 said: I don’t get your point here at all, what are you advocating the Olympics should look like? Without derailing the thread, so in a nutshell...Baron Coubertin's amateur Olympics are dead but still being sold so they should be retired and officially replaced by today's professional junket but it won't happen due to money so the hypocrisy continues. Anyway, back to ra fitba... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bully Wee Villa Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 Amateur sport is shite. The Olympics should be the best of the best. That means, in most cases, paid athletes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latino Lover Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 2 hours ago, JTS98 said: England have only beaten four of their eleven League A rivals competitively this century. Croatia, Switzerland and Poland, as well as Germany back in 2001. There is no chance of them getting to the knock-out stage of this, and there never has been. They don't beat good teams competitively. To do well in this tournament they would have to get the better of Spain and Croatia over a home and away competition. This would represent an unbelievable turnaround in form. England haven't beaten a genuinely excellent team competitively since Argentina in 2002. How many times have they played though? Pretty sure they haven’t played the Dutch or lceland. Hadn’t played Spain until yesterday either, so it’s fairly selective what you’ve said there. Everyone’s aware England’s performances until this inner have been poor for a while however they’ve generally qualified easy and as such haven’t really had to play many of these sides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JTS98 Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 33 minutes ago, Latino Lover said: How many times have they played though? Pretty sure they haven’t played the Dutch or lceland. Hadn’t played Spain until yesterday either, so it’s fairly selective what you’ve said there. Everyone’s aware England’s performances until this inner have been poor for a while however they’ve generally qualified easy and as such haven’t really had to play many of these sides. They've played France at Euro 2004 and Euro 2012, they've played Germany at World Cup 2010, they've played Portugal at Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006, they've played Italy at Euro 2012 and World Cup 2014, they played Belgium twice at World Cup 2018, they played Iceland at Euro 2016. That's no wins in ten games against the other sides they've met from League A. I'd say that's significant. England's performances this summer weren't an improvement. They were exactly in line with England's typical competitive results since they beat Argentina in 2002. They rarely slip up against mediocre sides, but they never beat good sides. Never. That's why the reaction to the 'improvement' from 2014 to 2018 was absurd. In 2014 England opened with two games of the type they haven't won since 2002, Italy and Uruguay. It should come as no surprise that they lost both games narrowly, this is perfectly in line with England's normal performances. They were just unlucky that the draw meant they faced good sides earlier than normal. In 2018 the opposite happened, and they didn't play a genuinely good side in a meaningful game till Croatia. Their form hasn't changed at all. Last night continued that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
7-2 Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 26 minutes ago, JTS98 said: They've played France at Euro 2004 and Euro 2012, they've played Germany at World Cup 2010, they've played Portugal at Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006, they've played Italy at Euro 2012 and World Cup 2014, they played Belgium twice at World Cup 2018, they played Iceland at Euro 2016. That's no wins in ten games against the other sides they've met from League A. I'd say that's significant. England's performances this summer weren't an improvement. They were exactly in line with England's typical competitive results since they beat Argentina in 2002. They rarely slip up against mediocre sides, but they never beat good sides. Never. That's why the reaction to the 'improvement' from 2014 to 2018 was absurd. In 2014 England opened with two games of the type they haven't won since 2002, Italy and Uruguay. It should come as no surprise that they lost both games narrowly, this is perfectly in line with England's normal performances. They were just unlucky that the draw meant they faced good sides earlier than normal. In 2018 the opposite happened, and they didn't play a genuinely good side in a meaningful game till Croatia. Their form hasn't changed at all. Last night continued that. Spot on. The problem though isn't the English building themselves up and getting caught in a wave of self-belief. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that imho. The problem is a shared, basically English media that rams it down the throat of three other much smaller countries that basically don't want to know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GordonS Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 England are going to get relegated, we're going to get promoted, and we'll be in the same group next time.I'm not sure there will be a next time though, at least not in this format: FIFA are talking about a world nations league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest JTS98 Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 1 minute ago, GordonS said: England are going to get relegated, we're going to get promoted, and we'll be in the same group next time. I'm not sure there will be a next time though, at least not in this format: FIFA are talking about a world nations league. That would be a shame. I think this format is good. I'd also imagine the big clubs would have something to say about players flying to South America, eastern Asia or southern Africa during the European season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Naitch Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 Ukraine vs Slovakia just started. Being played in an empty stadium due to the Ukranians being a bunch of racists or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaspianChris Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 12 minutes ago, The Naitch said: Ukraine vs Slovakia just started. Being played in an empty stadium due to the Ukranians being a bunch of racists or something. I was wondering why the stadium was empty, I had assumed a stadium ban but was not fully sure if that was the case. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HibeeJibee Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 Some countries regard Olympic matches, at least from earlier times, as 'full' internationals... in the way Scotland 'caps' certain games, that FIFA doesn't (e.g. Hong Kong League XI; abandoned game v Spain; etc.). FIFA also prepared a list of full internationals for statistical purposes some years ago which is used as a benchmark; again there are controversies though as it included the Ibrox disaster match in 1902, the King George V Jubilee international, Victory internationals, etc. It would appear that Luxembourg 6-0 Afghanistan is so regarded and so it remains Luxembourg's biggest victory. Interestingly they recorded a number of strong results back in the day... they beat France 5-4 in 1914; beat Germany 2-1 in 1939; won 5-4 away to the Netherlands in 1940; beat Belgium 4-1 in 1945; beat Norway 3-2 in 1946. Through the 1960s + 1970s they also beat Portugal, the Netherlands, Mexico, Turkey, Norway again, and South Korea. Only in recent decades have they truly ranked with the microstates; although they did beat the Czech Republic in 1995, Belarus in 2007, Switzerland in 2008 then started picking-up regular wins recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Latino Lover Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 2 hours ago, JTS98 said: They've played France at Euro 2004 and Euro 2012, they've played Germany at World Cup 2010, they've played Portugal at Euro 2004 and World Cup 2006, they've played Italy at Euro 2012 and World Cup 2014, they played Belgium twice at World Cup 2018, they played Iceland at Euro 2016. That's no wins in ten games against the other sides they've met from League A. I'd say that's significant. England's performances this summer weren't an improvement. They were exactly in line with England's typical competitive results since they beat Argentina in 2002. They rarely slip up against mediocre sides, but they never beat good sides. Never. That's why the reaction to the 'improvement' from 2014 to 2018 was absurd. In 2014 England opened with two games of the type they haven't won since 2002, Italy and Uruguay. It should come as no surprise that they lost both games narrowly, this is perfectly in line with England's normal performances. They were just unlucky that the draw meant they faced good sides earlier than normal. In 2018 the opposite happened, and they didn't play a genuinely good side in a meaningful game till Croatia. Their form hasn't changed at all. Last night continued that. How did I forget about Iceland. Tbf england beat Germany in euro 2000 and 2001 so they are even for this century, in fact possibly ahead on gd. I still think there’s a really unhealthy obsession with england on here and selective choosing of who is an elite side, it’s certainly changed in the past 18 years which is normal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Naitch Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 Not bad at all from Eriksen there. 1-0 Denmark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JustOneCornetto Posted September 9, 2018 Share Posted September 9, 2018 Christian Eriksen has a superb scoring record for Denmark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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