Jump to content

FIFA World Cup Qualifying


dinamo

Recommended Posts

After the initial onlaught of games from the European World Cup Qualifiers, the biggest surprise by far is the 2:2 draw between the English and the Austrians, a pleasent surprise indeed :/).

The next scheduled games feature the Dutch against the Czechs, a classic rematch from the '04 Euro competition, one of the best games of the tourney.

The English face Poland and these two always seem to entertain each other in qualifying competion.

Croatia, face the Swedes who destroyed Malta 7:0, should be interesting. The Croatian U-21 team beat Sweden U-21, 2:0 today :D. I can't wait to watch this one tomorrow.

Canada, was robbed on Saturday, if anybody watched that game, all you can say is that the referee blew the game, that pretty much takes away any chance they had to qualify. They defenitely need to win every game in Central America, by a convincing margin which is no easy task.....unfortunately, no chance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It'll be an interesting game tomorrow, no doubt.

I think we almost have to win. The rematch down in Croatia will probably be the most difficult game for Sweden in the whole qualifying round. I think it'll be either Sweden or Croatia who wins the group.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sweden is favoured to win the group, it should however be a tight race all the way through, Hungary was also supposed to contend for the second seed, however, after watching the game on Saturday, they did not do anything to impress me at all. They did play the tactics when an oppponent plays Croatia.......play a little dirty, and get in their faces, it always seems to throw the Croats off their game, but it did not work this game interestingly enough. I'll bet Zlatan knows this and out come the elbows eh? Bulgaria and Iceland are also going to be tough. Croatia always seems to leave it at the end to get through in qualifying so matching up against the Swedes in the second last game of qualifying will be tough enough, even at home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by dinamo

After the initial onlaught of games from the European World Cup Qualifiers, the biggest surprise by far is the 2:2 draw between the English and the Austrians, a pleasent surprise indeed :/).

Absolutely, who thought that we could take a point out of this game?! But honestly, James looked so bad on the equalizer ... I think even my grandma would have saved this ball. :wall::P

"Save us from James" ... that's again the headlines in Great Britain, James makes too many mistakes, hopefully he won't play against Poland. :nono:

Go Austria Go :king:

[Edited on 8-9-04 by habsfannr1]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sweden lost to Croatia. I don't know how much more my blue and yellow heart can take.

And dinamo, what do Croatians think about the "hollywood play" the croatian tried in the end? You know the incident in which he got a yellow card.

Sweden did score a goal, but the referee did a bad call. The Croatian goaltender lost the ball before Zlatan touched him. And he didn't touch him hard, just placed his hands on his chest, but it was clearly a bad call.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Originally posted by ch_nl

Sweden lost to Croatia. I don't know how much more my blue and yellow heart can take.

And dinamo, what do Croatians think about the "hollywood play" the croatian tried in the end? You know the incident in which he got a yellow card.

Sweden did score a goal, but the referee did a bad call. The Croatian goaltender lost the ball before Zlatan touched him. And he didn't touch him hard, just placed his hands on his chest, but it was clearly a bad call.

:guru::guru::guru::clap::clap:;):):/):P:guru::guru:

ok ok ok, unfortunateky I missed 2/3 of the game....I was stuck at work :mad::mad::mad::mad:

I showed up at the bar roughly with 15 mins to play

Josip Šimunic was the player that was cautioned for his "hollywood play". If you recall, he was picking up the ball after the wistle (obvious time wasting). Jonson did place his hans on the head of Šimunic, who in turn dove grabbing his head in excruciating pain. At first the whole bar screemed because it is a serious offence to place your hands on a players head. After further review in slow motion the bar then yelled out in laughter as it was amusing to see, (obvious play acting). It also appeared to get physical at that point with that altercation ending in a scuffle. The bad blood between these two teams have begun. I was told also that Sweden's goal should have counted as well, Butina miscued the ball under pressure from Ibrahimovic. These things do happen to everybody my friend, it has happened to Croatia numerous times before, so having one go our way feels justified, no offence to you though.

By the way, Zlatan Ibrahimovic's mother is of Croatian desent :/). Butina made a great one-handed save to deny Wilhelmsson from an acute angle at the end in injury time.

1:0 to Croatia and 3 poitns taken to stand atop Group 8.

I was told that this was an outstanding game to watch, especially to a person that does not watch the game. Still upset that I missed it.

October 9th is the next set of matches for the world cup q's.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You lose some and you win some, but I hate when things like that happens.

We did score and the referee missed it. But the linesmen didn't.

Well, next time maybe a incident like that will be to our favour.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Holland won 2-0 from the Czech. Been a while since we beat them. We only won once since the split from Slowakia. A very young team played, we were not unfortunate, but you need some luck. I think Marco van Basten did a good job. Also playing with 3 defenders instead of 4. You only need 3 when you play against 2 strikers. I have faith in our team!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 defender is enough against 2 striker?

I don't get that. What if Nedved had been playing. Is not a striker but still a threath.

Anyways, I assume that I should be quiet about this since Croatia did manage to stop Ljungberg, Zlatan and Larsson from scoring. On the other head Sweden owned the middfield even Croatia had 5 players there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

You have 2 defenders @ the 2 strikers, and 1 man for securance. If 1 brakes through. And the Midfielders have to defend with an attack. You have a defending mdivielder that can take car of that. And that guy can also attack when you have the ball, for the extra pressure! Ik think 3-4-3 is on of the best systems!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The new Croatian coach, Zlatko Kranjcar, is also playing the "attacking style" of the game, 3-5-2 (attack minded midfielders), as opposed to the traditional 4-4-2, or the Euro 2004 Greek team that played a 10-1....."run away, run away ", Mony Python's the Holy Grail. :lol::lol::lol:

"Midfield mastery

It was Kranjcar's team selection and tactics over the course of the two games that really gave Croatia hope. The new coach has finally found the men to fill the big gaps in midfield left by the retirement of Zvonimir Boban, Robert Prosinecki and Aljoša Asanovic."

"Boban approval

Hungary may have been reduced to ten men within 13 minutes of kick-off in Croatia's first game, but it was still clear that wingers Marko Babic and Srna had given the team an extra dimension. "Croatia played much faster than before, with more battling and creativity," said Boban." as reported in uefa.com.

This is so true, we were in such a slump regarding creativity, but were almost always able to qualify for major events. We also have a tall defence, very reliable as well, so the team is comfortable with this new style of play.

BTW, I am so glad for Marco Van Basten coaching the national team....was truly one of my favorites, best game I remember was the Euro 88, Marco van Basten's breathtaking volley from a seemingly impossible angle for the Netherlands against the Soviet Union in the final.

[Edited on 2004/9/10 by dinamo]

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What a goal that was. Before Euro '04 started, they showed everything again on tv. Just 2 remember, and hope it happened again(sadly it didn't:p). But they also had interviews with the golden crew. Also woth Marco, he said, you can only score a goal like that, with a bad Enkle i have :D. Sadly they guy had 2 stop his carreer at such a young age. He was on of the best stikers ever. He was my youth idol!

He once scored a goal in the dutch competition, maybe more beautifull than the one against the USSR. It was a assist from the right side of the field, and he shoots it in the crossing with the most beautifull bicylekick i've ever seen!!

(i'll try if i can find the goal online)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that link Dutch, what a great goal by Van Basten......those are goals I can only dream about scorring.

Chris Kirkland should be the first choice English goalkeeper, the only problem is that Rafael Benitez is giving Jerzy Dudek an opprotunity to prove himself as Liverpools first choice. So Kirkland sits on the bench and waits his time, and refuses to leave Liverpool. :/)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As I said: "Save us from James!" ... :P

This guy is such an idiot, you know what he once said? "My reflexes slowed a bit down, because I play too much FIFA with my Playstation."

We all see that every night Mr. James ... :wall::D

BTW: For me the best game last week was absolutely Wales vs. North Ireland. NI won 2-1 but it was such a hard fought game ... so much hate between these 2 british teams, after only 10 minutes 2 players were ejected from the game. Both teams really played the typical British soccer, it was simply great! :king:

Ah and Austria won 2-0, now we are first ... :clap:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...