There are no Minnows in World Football

[ewan14]

( part .... )

There might be a decline in the number of players choosing the Republic over us ?!

Edited March 27, 2021 by ewan14

[HuttonDressedAsLahm]

ROI are going through a painful transition period, perhaps three years or so after us.  They’ve never been profilic scorers, but Robbie Keane got them through qualifiers and a few tournaments for almost 2 decades.

They’ve never conceded much, but they’ve lost their steely defence, whilst barely scoring at all.  They’ve scored 7 goals in 14 games, of which 3 of those came in a friendly against New Zealand.

Wales have transitioned better, but you sense that Allen/Ramsey/Bale/Gunter/Hennessey are coming to the end of their effective international careers.  What they have coming through is better than ROI, but none of them are exactly what you’d call key stalwarts of their club sides.

McTominay/Robertson/McGinn/Tierney are all better than what either ROI/Wales have in that age group in their squads.  Arguably Ché Adams would be an immediate starter for both of them as well.

Not sure about the ‘stopping players jumping ship’.  That has always been a problem of our own making, but I’d agree that ROI would be much less attractive in the short-to-medium term.

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by HuttonDressedAsLahm

[ewan14]

Luxembourg got a   0 - 0.  draw with France in 2017 !

 

[DiegoDiego]

There absolutely are minnows in international.

Anyone coming to the opposite conclusion through outdated notions of how good the Republic of Ireland or Luxembourg are is as relevant as a Kilmarnock fan thinking they should beat Livingston because they were in League One a few seasons ago.

That result wasn't even the biggest shock of the qualifiers so far.

[CambieBud]

I give you Moldavia. 8-0 to Denmark!

[ewan14]

Wait until they play us !

 

Edited March 28, 2021 by ewan14

[Stellaboz]

A stupid statement that only stupid people will genuinely come out with.

[Melanius Mullarkey]

Every team bar a couple in CONCACAf or whatever it’s called.
 

Pretty much any team Australia need to play to qualify = Brechin City quality. 

Loads of shite African teams as well.

Probably more minnows than whatever the opposite of a minnow is.

[forameus]

As usual it's people so desperate to be contrary that they jump too far in the other direction.  There's a big difference between accepting that a lot of sides who were diddies are now not, and saying that diddies don't exist anymore.  There are minnows in world football, there's just far less of them than there were, and the gap between said minnows and nations like ourselves (and others) is a lot smaller.

[DiegoDiego]

There are minnows in world football, there's just far less of them than there were, and the gap between said minnows and nations like ourselves (and others) is a lot smaller.

I'm not sure even that's true. For every Luxembourg there's a Latvia.

[forameus]

1 minute ago, DiegoDiego said:

I'm not sure even that's true. For every Luxembourg there's a Latvia.

Which part?  A lot of people seem to be harking back to the days where there were far, far more diddy sides.  The likes of Lithuania and Georgia were pretty much a guaranteed three points.  But a lot of nations now know that they'll likely not have the quality, so they set up in ways that make them harder to beat.  They're also all far better technically than they once were.

That's not to say that they've entirely caught up.  Scotland and other nations like us, should be beating these sides more often than not.  I just wouldn't call a lot of them minnows, in the way the likes of Gibraltar, San Marino, Liechtenstein and the like would be.

[DiegoDiego]

Which part?  A lot of people seem to be harking back to the days where there were far, far more diddy sides.  The likes of Lithuania and Georgia were pretty much a guaranteed three points. 

I don't think that was ever really true though. Lithuania drew with Denmark the year they won the Euros and Georgia smashed Wales 5-0 in their third year of existence, won the return leg too and then beat World Cup semi-finallists Bulgaria.

[DeeTillEhDeh]

With us due to play the Faroe Islands I am not making any gloating posts until that game is over.

[ewan14]

On 28/03/2021 at 13:25, HuttonDressedAsLahm said:

ROI are going through a painful transition period, perhaps three years or so after us.  They’ve never been profilic scorers, but Robbie Keane got them through qualifiers and a few tournaments for almost 2 decades.

They’ve never conceded much, but they’ve lost their steely defence, whilst barely scoring at all.  They’ve scored 7 goals in 14 games, of which 3 of those came in a friendly against New Zealand.

Wales have transitioned better, but you sense that Allen/Ramsey/Bale/Gunter/Hennessey are coming to the end of their effective international careers.  What they have coming through is better than ROI, but none of them are exactly what you’d call key stalwarts of their club sides.

McTominay/Robertson/McGinn/Tierney are all better than what either ROI/Wales have in that age group in their squads.  Arguably Ché Adams would be an immediate starter for both of them as well.

Not sure about the ‘stopping players jumping ship’.  That has always been a problem of our own making, but I’d agree that ROI would be much less attractive in the short-to-medium term.

 

We are going through a painful transition period this week

[ewan14]

6 hours ago, DiegoDiego said:

I don't think that was ever really true though. Lithuania drew with Denmark the year they won the Euros and Georgia smashed Wales 5-0 in their third year of existence, won the return leg too and then beat World Cup semi-finallists Bulgaria.

Georgia was ex - USSR

[DiegoDiego]

Georgia was ex - USSR

So was Lithuania, what's your point?

[ewan14]

It was not an integral part though , and anyway Lithuania's national spirt is basketball (?)

[ewan14]

Surprised he left any actual Lithuanians alive

[Estragon]

On 28/03/2021 at 14:53, DiegoDiego said:

There absolutely are minnows in international.

Anyone coming to the opposite conclusion through outdated notions of how good the Republic of Ireland or Luxembourg are is as relevant as a Kilmarnock fan thinking they should beat Livingston because they were in League One a few seasons ago.

That result wasn't even the biggest shock of the qualifiers so far.
 

Hang on, how the f**k did it take just four posts for us to get a slagging on a totally unrelated forum?

[Forest_Fifer]

Um, yes there are.