When was it ever based on free kicks???

Unfortunality, yes.

But that was exactly what I wanted to ask you. Talk about this season to support your bias opinion, but if you remember his free kicks from let's say last season... they were awful, plenty were on goal, oh wait, not even that.

His free kicks have been very disappointed for years now, one scoring free kick is not proof that his free kicks were all these years awesome. (lol)

Let's hope he goes magicly to being awesome in free kicks again, like he went magicly to someone who can't shoot properly on goal (free kicks for example).

Well,I don't want to start a debate here.But most of pirlo's free kicks were on goal.They always lacked enough pace and pinpoint accuracy if you ask me,but they did enough to cause problem.I was referring to last season,of course.We didn't get many free kicks to be shot on goal,to start with.Never mind the fact that ronaldinho shot most of those also.You maybe underrating him a bit too much.

Clicky

There is a God.

I was just about to post that story.

That was one of the first football matches I'd ever watched, and even I could tell something was up.

South Korea's run to the SFs was so fixed, shame the refs haven't been found guilty of that yet.

Heskey turned down an England call-up. It's strange, he's usually called up and everyone hates him, now he's one of the most in-form English strikers and he's decided to retire so we can't have him.

Montenegro have had a good start so it will be interesting to see us play them, I don't believe I've ever seen them play before.

All I can think of is 'lol'.

I thought Capello wasn't picking on reputation? Well he is, not only that, he's picking off form and crap players too. His squads just get worse.

Friendlies no? He's trying out tactical stuff I imagine.

What do you think kurt? Age old problem but can Lampard and Stevie G play in the same lineup?

We play 1 friendly and 1 qualifier, so we still need a good squad.

Yes, they can. It's just a load of rubbish and people basically use it as an excuse. We managed to beat Croatia 5-1 with them both in the lineup, they contributed 4 of the goals as well. I don't like them playing together in a 4-4-2, but I don't need to worry about that seeing as Barry's our best CM.

!

Brazil played Iran in a friendly in Abu Dhabi and beat us 3-0. Pato had a couple of opportunities (at least 2 of them were saved very well by the keeper) and finally scored what would be their 2nd goal. first goal was score by Alves on a FK, it was one amazing and unstoppable FK. Robinho was once again disappointing and was subbed in the 2nd half. Silva was solid and Pato was IMO their best player. we also scored a goal in the ~10th minute which the ref ruled out for offside, I need to watch that again but didn't seem like one. thing is, if it was a futsal game we would've given them a run for their money but it wasn't and we're crap at football so 3-0 is not that bad!

Needless to say, I'm really happy Pato scored against us

Good. We need Pato in top form for the next batch of games till December.

That was not offside,referees mistake!

Davies to make his debut, with...33 or what? I hope Capello will give the guy a chance, or else he'd be very very cruel.

Is he a Heskey replacement.

Yeah.

England need to move away from the big target man though, International referees don't allow contact and Davies is a very physical player.

With Milner suspended and Walcott injured, Young, Lennon and Johnson take the wide positions. Who takes the 4th winger spot?

2010/11 season
Shaun Wright Phillips - Starts: 2, Goals: 0, Assists: 0
Stewart Downing - Starts: 7, Goals: 3, Assists: 0
Matthew Etherington - Starts 7, Goals: 0, Assits: 3
Marc Albrighton - Starts: 7, Goals: 1, Assists: 2

All of these players have contributed to more goals this season than SWP has made starts. Yet he still gets chosen, still not picking on reputation, eh Fabio?

Just finished watching Japan hand the Argies a beating

Honda and Kagawa are hot property they pretty double teamed and demolished Argentina's defense which btw is terrible,they will not win any trophies with that Goalkeeper and that defensive lineup.

Ended 1-0 Japan but could have been alot more if their finishing was better.

Milan should have bought Honda instead of Binho ! Probably would have cost more.

Honda for Binho? I don't know. I have a lot of confidence in him. Once he gets in form again, we'll see some amazing stuff.

Honda isn't really compatible to compare with Robinho. I'm not sure.

Anyway, who was the Argie goalie?

Germans won me a fiver today, thankyou very much!

Scotland, Ireland and Wales all losing is quite pleasing. Montenegro beating everyone in front of them is making me a bit more worried for Tuesday night though!

Romero,he pretty much spilled every long ranged shot,which is how the goal came about.

Cyprus 1-2 Norway. So, that's 9 points from 3 games, a good 4 points ahead of Portugal and Denmark... this pleases me.

Brilliant, Locke! Job well done. I've had it with Denmark, they seldom play to their potential after qualifying (at least from what I've seen). It'll be great if Portugal and Norway made the cut.

Did you just say it'd be great if Portugal made the cut? WHAT!?

Denmark and Norway I hope.

I'm actually not too bothered if Portugal does indeed make it, they usually bottle at the first challenge anyway.
Denmark however, have been a bunch of arrogant little twerps since their 1992 EURO victory, and it would be wonderful to rub their faces into this (should everything go according to plan that is, and knowing us, the chances of that are dubious to put it mildly.

Well Portugal are comparatively a big side when it comes to Euros, so I want them in for the sake of the competition. For the sake of England, though, I hope these two don't meet in a match. Secondly, the only time I saw Denmark perform was (if my memory serves me right) USA 94. I think it were them and Saudi Arabia that went through to the quarters. Other than that, they have always performed below potential, even though they had a few good players here and there, Thomasson (JDT) including.

Plus as Locke said, their attitude is a totally arrogant when they do qualify. Let Norway come forward on the world stage and show what they are made of. And not just that, they have been performing quite well as a team. If Denmark makes through instead of them, I won't be a happy man.

Denmark were pretty good at th 98 and 2002 WCs I thought.

Decent and lucky, I can agree with, but the only good run that I saw from them was USA '94. I just think they got lucky groups both time after that, and failed to qualify after that. In the 98 world cup they barely qualified with four points (Saudi Arabia and South Africa were in their group). In 2002, again they had a crap team in France (who did not win a match and got out without scoring a goal, that's rich), Uruguay who were just wandering about and Senegal. To top it off they got cleaned inside out 3-0 against England at the first hurdle of the knockout stages.

In these four world cups they should have at least improved on their quarterfinal run (though admittedly they had to face a very hot Brazil in 98 quarters). My opinion of course, but with them playing in Europe, having a good league system, and facilities, they should have been at least at the level of the likes of USA (current) South Korea, Ukraine, Turkey, etc. Consistent. They are just one notch below that, I feel (and occasionally very lucky), though they had a few good players over the ages.

Like I said, it would be great if they improve and showcase themselves on world stage again, but I've seen a couple of matches of both Denmark and Norway, and if I had to choose between them, it'll be the later. Even if it is for the Euros and not the World Cup. Maybe we'll see something different. Just like Serbia stunned Germany this June.

According to ESPN Soccernet, the U.S.' Charlie Davies was caught speeding over 125 miles (that's miles, folks) an hour in France last weekend.

Link

Jesus. And don't forget that he almost died in a car accident last year. I guess he didn't quite get the message.

I wouldn't worry about it Kurt. You see, Montenegro is just like Croatia but a bit weaker. And my experience tells me that no mather how good such teams are, they always find it hard to play or beat England. McLaren era asside, when did your team last lost to Yugoslavia, Serbia, Croatia?


Gee, we totally disagree then. Denmark in 98' had it in it, they had so much talent and they did show it. Brazil won with much luck. And 2002 Denmark performed also very good, they advanced from a very difficult group and got knocked out by England. From all the Scandinavic teams, Denmark show the best football in 98'.

A few talents? What about the Laudrups, Schmeichel, Helveg, Laursen,...

Ironic thing is, Denmark were eliminated by Brazil in '98, a team we actually beat in the group stages (to this day I'm pretty sure we are the only NT not to have ever lost a match against Brazil), but we were then eliminated by an Italy side that used essentially the same tactics as us.

With the one, small exception that they had Vieri as their target player, while we had Tore Andre Flo...

Well, Flo wasn't that bad after all. I don't think Norway nowdays would mind a striker his caliber.

Sigh.

I don't know, maybe it's me then, but I watched them keenly both in 98 and 2002, and the bunch never seemed to give me the same feeling as watching other smaller teams (out of the European giants) like Croatia, Czech Republic, Ukraine (whom I followed very closely in qualifying and the finals of 06). That they have been the standout Scandinavian team, I can't doubt one bit, but I never thought they did justice to their talents after 94', sort of like another version of Portugal at competitions.

I remember seeing the 2002 World Cup groups, and saying to myself, no way the Danes are gonna get out from here. They drew against Senegal and if I recall correctly, France and Uruguay drew too later that day. Granted they won (and deservedly) against a disjointed French side. That group was strong, but only on paper. The performances the French team gave opened up the group wide for the other three sides.

And oh, I was being conservative when saying they had talent, they had some very good players. And internationally renowned. And personally I was surprised to see them not making the cuts for the last two World Cups, and Turkey was another that had me shocked when they missed the boat this year. But like I said above, maybe it's just me. I started liking them after 94', I was quite a small kid then. Had them as my favorite B team from Europe, but ultimately that distinction then went to Croatia. Still is.

Actually, I'd say Carew is about on par with him, and both Huseklepp and Moa have the potential to outdo him.

How's Carew been playing for you in this qualifying campaign? He's been poor for us so far this season, despite being one of the better strikers in the league last season.

Sweden got 6 points and Next up is Netherland about three days and they got 6 points too.
Sweden +8 - 0
Netherland +7 -1
AWESOME !!

Did Ibra play for Sweden? I'm not really keeping up to date with the internationals

Sweden didn't play last night.

oops

Emphasises the not really paying attention to NT news

Well, I for one went surprised the international matches were played mostly on Friday. Wasn't Sathurday the usual day for such fixtures?

Now it's Fridays and Tuesday, so the players can have more time to prepare for the weekend games with their respective clubs. Smart move, it should have happened sooner.

Yep, agree.

It's strange really, last year he was awesome for you and completely useless for the NT, this season I've hardly seen him do a thing in the league (except missing that penalty against Newcastle), but he's been terrific for the NT, created a goal out of nothing against Portugal by charging the keeper and scoring a beautiful solo goal against Cyprus.

I disagree. Midweek fxtures are crap as it is, but now you have 2 fixtures during the week and 0 during the weekend. Further moving the sport away from the fans.

I don't give a crap about the NT break, and most people don't. Whether it's played on midweek or weekend is of minor importance. I can't wait till it's over so we can get back to some real football.

Agreed!!!

Well, maybe, but there are some people who like watching their national teams play some real football as well.

Well, sure there are. That's why I said 'most' people and not 'all' people. But do you really care whether they play on Friday or Saturday?