The football thread!

Considering alot of Liverpool players played in the england squad for the Euro's I've decided that this is a good foundation to rib the hell out of my gf's dad that england are now out of the cup too.
 
MaxonTreik said:
It baffles me that England are still ranked in the world top 10. FIFA's ranking system is broken.
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No kidding, there's a lot that's broken with FIFA. They'll never lose the ranking though, because the fact they've already got it means they'll get drawn with teams they can/should easily beat in the qualifiers. I don't think England's ranking even changed that much, if at all, when they failed to make it to Euro 08. Still I'll even admit that England probably is at least a top 15 side, always likely to make it knock out stages/quarter finals at competitions.
 
Neither Italy or France could beat us in 90 minutes and we recently (but horribly) beat Spain in a friendly. I think we are top 10, just NOWHERE NEAR top 4. We just never seem to bring it to the big tourneys. Really other than Germany and Spain there aren't that many great international sides around at all. The big South American teams aren't what they were and neither are Italy or the Netherlands.

FIFA ranking system is crazy though, aren't Uruguay number 2 right now? Good team, but maybe not number 2...
 
devilrules666 said:
So does anyone exactly know how FIFA decides how teams should be ranked?
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Yeah, it's a bit like how league rankings work (3 points for a win, 1 for a draw 0 for a loss kind of thing) but then the score gets modified for importance of match, how long ago the match was and strength of opponent. I think only matches

For example I think a mathch played at the world cup finals is worth 4x as much as a friendly in terms of your ranking.

The controversial one for me is that there's also a 'regional strength' multiplier, which means your score si also effected not only by your opponent's strength but the strength of your region. This means for the same result a European team will always get a better boost to their rankings than say a team from Oceania (although I guess this stops New Zeland ending up int he top 5 when they inevitably win all their matches).

I think it explains it all in the wiki page.

It'a fairly sensible ranking system overall, but at the end of the day it's just a guideline.
 
devilrules666 said:
So does anyone exactly know how FIFA decides how teams should be ranked?
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It's on their website but it's stupidly complicated since it doesn't take performance into account. Just results.
 
FourthLion said:
Neither Italy or France could beat us in 90 minutes and we recently (but horribly) beat Spain in a friendly. I think we are top 10, just NOWHERE NEAR top 4. We just never seem to bring it to the big tourneys. Really other than Germany and Spain there aren't that many great international sides around at all. The big South American teams aren't what they were and neither are Italy or the Netherlands.

FIFA ranking system is crazy though, aren't Uruguay number 2 right now? Good team, but maybe not number 2...
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Well, we can only say that on the Netherlands now, up until their first kick of the tournament people were still tipping them up as finally going to be able to do it after their run at the World Cup. Agree that the S. American sides have fallen a long way, Brazil in particular. Think you're being harsh on Uruguay though, they deserved that kind of spot, a top 5 place anyway. Got to 4th at the World Cup and won the Copa America, think they kept a good set of results in friendlies around the time too.


mangaman74 said:
devilrules666 said:
So does anyone exactly know how FIFA decides how teams should be ranked?
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Pick names out of a hat?
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Or dependant on the amount of money handed over to Mr. Blatter by countries FA's?
 
I agree Uruguay are a good side, but better than Germany? Plus they only got as far as they did in the World Cup by cheating :p Not that the rankings take that into account of course.
 
I've went with Ronaldo and Portugal 2-1 tonight, but in the event he doesn't turn up I've also went Negredo and Spain 2-1. Think a lot rests on Ronaldo for Portugal. Good to see Spain actually playing a striker, but surprised Lorente has never been given a chance after such a great domestic season.
 
Bit like a boxing match that first semi: Portugal came out swinging catching Spain a bit off guard, but Spain eventually got back in with the old rope-a-dope trying to knock out their tired opponent. Ultimately it came down to the judges (penalties).

Don't think anything went the way Spain planned it, other than the end result. Portugal were excellent early on and that first half was possibly the most exciting of the tournament so far. Spain looked bereft of ideas, think the Germans (providing they win) can really take them to town in the final. Even if Italy get to the final I'd fancy them to beat Spain, albeit on penalties.

Also, Bruno Alves :lol: (1,2...4!)
 
Why do players blast the ball? All they need to do is use the side of their foot to slot it in the bottom corner. I could take better penalties than these guys that hit the crossbar.
 
MaxonTreik said:
Why do players blast the ball? All they need to do is use the side of their foot to slot it in the bottom corner. I could take better penalties than these guys that hit the crossbar.
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These players have played 90 minutes plus another 30 minutes of extra time. To then have to take penalties takes effort as these players will be tired, both mentally and physically, which is probably why teams (like England) can practice taking penalties in training and still lose in a shoot out.

My fav memory of the match is the look on a cetain Ronaldo's face as Fabregas scored his penalty. Either he didn't fancy taking a penalty or he expected to be scoring the winning 5th penalty.
 
mangaman74 said:
These players have played 90 minutes plus another 30 minutes of extra time. To then have to take penalties takes effort as these olayers will be tired, both mentally and physically.
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Thanks for stating the obvious. However, tiredness is not an excuse for forgetting the simplest rule of taking penalties: don't ******* blast the ball at the bar.
 
Italy played like they did against England only this time they scored. Germany's first real test of the competition and they come up short. Maybe Joachim Low shouldn't have praised England - prior to the match against Italy he was saying that England have improved lately.
 
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