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That's surprising. I thought Sweden and Finland were supposed to be friends?
It would be nice to see one Nordic country in the WC at least. Since I doubt Iceland will get the job done, I'm counting on Sweden.
Yeah. Reaaally good friends in sports. We often let the other win on purpose, so that nobody gets hard feelings.
No, serves them right to watch the WC on TV, those arrogant Swedes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by LindavG
Don't worry guys, I just found out that UEFA made a huge mistake in determining the teams for the play-offs! These could not possibly be the teams to face potential elimination from the WC. I mean, look at this:
Sweden 2-0 Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands 1-2 Sweden
Greece 2-0 Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein 0-1 Greece
They all have a perfect record against the group minnows and they still haven't qualified? How is that possible? I thought all you had to do is beat the likes of Luxembourg and San Marino in order to qualify from UEFA
Yeah but Faroes are a windy rainy island and Liechtenstein plays in the middle of the Alps in high altitude, so they are really hard to beat! I think UEFA should be allocated more places as these are really tough at home! And think about Kazakhstan! Germany and Sweden lived in CET on their away tour so that they wouldn't be affected by jet lag so much.
You need to stop behaving like a**es, everyone agrees conmebol qualys are hard except you 2. Im not advocating for oceania teams, or asians or whatever, im talking about freaking conmebol and you are acting as im outraged than Tahiti hasnt qualified.
This "conmebol doesnt have enough spots" or "conmebol should merge with concacaf" is a discussion that has been going on for ages in every forum or soccer page since internet exists, and in every newspaper since this system exists, so cut it out.
We get it. You 2 think CONMEBOL is crap and would be asses about it every time you can.
Now, cut it out, cause i havent been an ass to any of you here and you are just behaving like douchebags
Actually, im pretty sure i was super nice to Linda always and in many other forums, talking about how great her country is (i admire the netherlands: politically, socially, their people) and being polite and nice to her. But she is clearly a bully.
You need to stop behaving like a**es, everyone agrees conmebol qualys are hard except you 2. Im not advocating for oceania teams, or asians or whatever, im talking about freaking conmebol and you are acting as im outraged than Tahiti hasnt qualified.
This "conmebol doesnt have enough spots" or "conmebol should merge with concacaf" is a discussion that has been going on for ages in every forum or soccer page since internet exists, and in every newspaper since this system exists, so cut it out.
We get it. You 2 think CONMEBOL is crap and would be asses about it every time you can.
Now, cut it out, cause i havent been an ass to any of you here and you are just behaving like douchebags
Nobody ever claimed that CONMEBOL was crap or that CONMEBOL qualifiers aren't hard. I've repeatedly said that Argentina and Brazil are two of the greatest teams in the history of football and clear favourites to win the WC next year (along with Spain and Germany), that Colombia are a good team and I look forward to playing them, that I've heard a lot of positive things about Chile although I haven't seen them play yet, that CONMEBOL is by far the strongest confederation after UEFA, etc. I understand that your qualifiers are hard and there are teams in CONMEBOL that are more deserving to be at the WC than some of the teams of other confederations, based on quality and potential.
What I disagree with is your (and other posters') dismissal of UEFA and European teams. You are the one who implies that UEFA is crap and our qualifiers consist of beating a bunch of minnows at the level of San Marino and the Faroe Islands. In fact, you said it was "kinda unfair for Europe to get like 15 spots, those easy qualifiers ... In Europe, the good teams get to play against San Marino and Luxembourg, and win like 20-0". That's obviously a total misrepresentation of the UEFA WCQ, considering the fact that good teams like France, Portugal, Sweden, Croatia and Ukraine may all miss out on the WC. Imagine three of the most famous football players in the world (Ronaldo, Ribery and Ibrahimovic) not making it to Brazil. Yet you complain that UEFA has too many spots and we should give some to CONMEBOL so teams like Venezuela and Bolivia have a chance to qualify instead? I'm sure you understand how ridiculous this sounds to us Europeans.
Besides, I still haven't received an answer to this:
Quote:
I don't see on what basis CONMEBOL deserve to have more spots or Europe should have less. In the past 8 WCs, Europe had 25 of a possible 32 semi-finalists while CONMEBOL had 6 (and AFC had the remaining 1). These 25 semi-finalists were represented by 13 different European countries, which demonstrates the enormous depth of UEFA. In contrast, the 6 CONMEBOL semi-finalists consisted of Brazil three times, Argentina twice and Uruguay once (and we all know the questionable circumstances by which Uruguay reached that SF). Basically, the World Cup is Europe + Brazil and Argentina. Why should CONMEBOL get more spots when only Brazil and Argentina are serious contenders for the title? And why should Europe get less when it consistently performs so well at the WC?
Yeah. Reaaally good friends in sports. We often let the other win on purpose, so that nobody gets hard feelings.
No, serves them right to watch the WC on TV, those arrogant Swedes.
So there's a rivalry between Sweden and Finland? Interesting, I didn't know about that. I thought the Nordic countries were all rooting for each other.
Don't worry guys, I just found out that UEFA made a huge mistake in determining the teams for the play-offs! These could not possibly be the teams to face potential elimination from the WC. I mean, look at this:
Ukraine 9-0 San Marino
San Marino 0-8 Ukraine
Sweden 2-0 Faroe Islands
Faroe Islands 1-2 Sweden
Romania 4-0 Andorra
Andorra 0-4 Romania
Portugal 3-0 Luxembourg
Luxembourg 1-2 Portugal
Greece 2-0 Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein 0-1 Greece
They all have a perfect record against the group minnows and they still haven't qualified? How is that possible? I thought all you had to do is beat the likes of Luxembourg and San Marino in order to qualify from UEFA
hahaha very funny. I never said european qualifiers are easy that was sophiell. what I said was that they weren't AS difficult as south american qualifiers(that is of course subject to the draw as there were cakewalk groups like switzerland's and then there are groups of death like germany's). If world cup qualifying were to be based soly on quality of the teams Europe would get 16 spots south america 8.5 spots, Africa 3.5 spots, Concacaf 2.5 spots Asia and OFC 1.5 with the host takeing 1 of the confeds berths. however knowing that this is a WORLD cup I've come up with a compromise that deals with the insufficient number of berths in Europe and south america while still preserving the diversity of the tournament. Europe 14 berths, SA 6.5 berths, Africa 4 berths , Asia 3.5 berths, NA 3 berths with the host qualifying without taking one of the confeds spots.
So there's a rivalry between Sweden and Finland? Interesting, I didn't know about that. I thought the Nordic countries were all rooting for each other.
was that suppose to be sarcasm? but yeah all the nords apparently hate each other. I found this out during the winter olympics with apparently the finland sweden rivalry being epitomized in ice hockey.
I always encourage return of "golden-past" teams like Romania and Hungary, I heard that politicians
passively affected Romania team after George Hagi's era; what do you think?
Do you agree that Romania's current squad lacks experience? Aren't Mutu, Chivu and Pancu
essential?
P.S. I was really eager to see Norway and Hungary qualifying to regain the good past; Every real soccer fan wanna see
Puscas and Tore Andre Flo reborn again, all the world remembers the 50s Hungary and 93-98 Norway.
There are so many things that affected the team after Hagi's era; I wouldn't even know where to begin.
But yes, a bunch of scandals associated with corrupt politicians who are also involved in sports, also affected the overall performances of the national team.
But, in my opinion, the players are most at fault - they are just not serious enough, when they get to play abroad most of them get lost (the money, the night life), ca't rise up to the challenge.
Mutu and Chivu haven't played for the team in a long while, they didn't contribue to this play- off win in any way.
Chivu is one of the few serious players of his generation, but several injuries suffered over the last several years and all the bad-mouthing the team got after so many fails, got him to retire.
Mutu was a true talent, but he wasted his career on drugs. Sure, he still plays, but he's the shadow of what he almost was once.
And we never considered Pancu that great to begin with.
I don't think the new team lacks experience, I think it lacks talent. There are some new players in it, too, but plenty of experienced ones to give an example, too.
They are all mediocre players, some maybe better than others, but nothing special. Some of the young ones show some promise, provided they don't get lost like so many before them did.
PS: I'm glad your wish to see Hungary at the WC didn't come true, they were one of our main competitors
So there's a rivalry between Sweden and Finland? Interesting, I didn't know about that. I thought the Nordic countries were all rooting for each other.
You didn't know? Oh. Yes, we get along very well in normal situations, but in sports it's a war. I think some players of the Swedish team rather get cancer than lose to Finland. Even Zlatan exercised some of his Albanian skills to a Finnish/Kosovar player named Hetemaj, and apparently he didn't say anything nice.
The most heated rivalry today is in ice hockey where the nations are at a similar level, but very heatened in football as well, though Sweden is better. The nations met each other in the basketball Euro ch'ships, and was quite humiliating when Sweden was absolutely trashed by Finland (F won 81-60). When it comes to winter sports like skiing, Norway is included in the rivalry. And in Denmark losing to Sweden in football is of course the worst thing possible.
And if you lose in for example ice hockey, the fooball team is "supposed" to win to level the score, though the sports have nothing in common.
But even if the events, boasting and media aren't always that civilized, there's no rioting or hooliganism, and people just suck it up if they lose.
So yeah, it's quite difficult to root for Sweden as in sports they are our worst enemies. And I guess the Danish will support some other team than Sweden in the WC as well.
Yet you complain that UEFA has too many spots and we should give some to CONMEBOL so teams like Venezuela and Bolivia have a chance to qualify instead? I'm sure you understand how ridiculous this sounds to us Europeans.
Besides, I still haven't received an answer to this:
No! You didnt read me with enough attention apparently! I repeteadly said CAF, CONCACAF or ASIA, should give spots to conmebol. I actually said that maybe they should give spots to UEFA, too. Im vouching for concacaf and conmebol merge, NOT uefa losing spots!! This is what i ve been repeating in this thread non-stop. I ve only said UEFA qulays are easier than conmebol, but UEFA is clearly the confederation with the best quality of soccer cause you have the MOST nations with good/great soccer teams (and also nations with really really awful soccer teams), while CONMEBOL have less great nations, but all of the nations are more similar in level, thus making qualys harder.
Other than that, i ve been defending from you and arietes claims underestimating and mocking conmebol.
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