Theres Norway NI will win this.
World Cup Qualifiers | October 2017 | Play off draw on Tuesday
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In the latest episode of the United Hour Podcast, Nik (@Rood) is joined by CEO Duncan Drasdo and Financial Director Andy Green from the Manchester United Supporters Trust for a special episode on all things behind the scenes at Old Trafford including a brief history of MUST and their aims today, views on INEOS and Sir Jim Ratcliffe so far, and the Old Trafford regeneration.
Let's enjoy qualifying for now and we can later think what us and you will do in the tournament. I'm satisfied with anything it's just awesome to support my national team in such a competition.
Søderlund has been robbed of two goals, the second one is shocking.
Nope, Netherlands need to win by 7 because of GF
Feck off you thundercnut of an assistent ref. We should have won 3-0.
Ger-Aze 5-1 at full time.
First one was offside - the second was just a shocking error
Because they all of English descent?
No it wasn't, Reginiussen was level with the defence.
I watched the whole Slovenia-Scotland and well, Scotland deserved to go out. How can you pretend to qualify if you never attack?
Meanwhile, Croatia is pretty fecked. A draw tomorrow is not enough to go through.
Meanwhile, Croatia is pretty fecked. A draw tomorrow is not enough to go through.
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It's not an excuse.... It's a reason.
Your example of a small country doing well (Iceland) works because they love football (and a few things have come together for them that?).
He's right though in that India and China have huge populations but they're not that into football and it can take generations/decades to get good enough to properly challenge internationally.
Same with US, 300+m (?) but they've got three sports which are embedded in their history, culture and pysche AND have massive TV deals. Most Americans simply don't care about football so the international team will always struggle despite their population.
(I know what your original point (Scotland and Iceland) was tho).
Since Scotland last qualified for a major tournament: Mbappé was born, became a professional footballer, called up to the France national team and qualified for a major tournament.
Israel are the only team (who have qualified for a major tournament before) with a longer drought.
Israel are the only team (who have qualified for a major tournament before) with a longer drought.
And they are not gonna qualify anytime soon if they keep playng this outdated style.
And ditto for us....
Still can't work out if a draw does us.... think our GD is poor and a draw might see us win the "Shittest Runner Up" prize (the summer off).
I think a win tomorrow had ye nailed on regardless of the Scotland result? Still think you'll beat us and on the balance of the group, Wales probably deserve to be at a World Cup more than we do. But that result is a big opportunity for us - no better side than Ireland to pinch a jammy 1-0 win in match we're not supposed to.
It's the fecking Georgias and Macedonias of this world we struggle with!
Infrastructure and culture I think play a huge part, which is why USA, China and India are indifferent to football. Here in London I've got about 5 small football cages within 5 minutes walk from me, and throughout the UK you have decent football infrastructure in pitches. Most of all, a lot of people play and watch it, which in turn inspires the next generation to play because their friends/family to do. When you then have sizeable population it's natural that talent emerges. Even from my own secondary school, there were one or two guys who seemed godly and could dribble a whole team, but for some reason or the other they fell out of football (mostly choosing traditional careers). It does make me wonder too just how many potential players didn't really push themselves all the way as well.
It is true that going abroad would help, but it wouldn't be a quick fix. Poland probably has similar street and grass pitch infrastructure to Scotland, which means given their population they have a far higher talent pool to chose from. Scotland and England aren't probably very different in terms of infrastructure, but one is a regular on the international scene purely because they have so many more people. Not many English players go abroad either. I mean Wales and Scotland are also similar in population and Wales are doing fine atm, mostly because they've been blessed with some really good players, most of whom haven't gone abroad.
I do agree that more people should go abroad if they don't get chances here, and some do. Jadon Sancho went to Borussa recently, and the Scottish player Oliver Burke went to Leipzig (but returned this season as he didn't play very regularly). I think what differentiates Scotland and Poland a bit here is that for most Brits the PL and SPL are solid leagues to reach, whereas for Poland the Polish league probably isn't the best, so going to one of the nearby continental leagues makes more sense anyway (Germany, Spain etc). I would like to see it more with Brits though as it would help, but the best Brit players tend to stay in Britain, meaning the ones that usually leave are second tier (or very young), whereas the best Polish players tend to leave.
Sorry i just cant agree. I do wonder if club parochialism kicks in sometimes with players. He really isnt anywhere near as good as some think. There is no way he is our best player. If he is our best player then we will never qualify for another tournament because the bar is set too low. He may score goals in a one horse league in Scotland but he wouldnt make a single EPL side as a starting striker. The hype on Griffiths is quite staggering.
Nice one. It's been weird never seeing Egypt at the WC given their success in AFCON. If we qualify tomorrow I'd love to be grouped with Egypt. Can't remember when Iceland played an African last time or if they even have at all.
The town of Akranes boast a population of 7k but that's a lot more than it was 10 or 20 or 30 years ago. Their infrastructure more than 10 years ago wasn't special and the talent pool wasn't big. Off the top of my head they've produced at least 5 players that have made it to the PL and a manager at Football League level.
Population size does indeed matter but first and foremost you need genuine interest in the sport. Even though China are about 1,4 billion I'm willing to be that the talent pool in Brazil is actually bigger because everyone there cares about football in Brazil but relatively few do care in China.
There are two things that pushed Iceland to the next level. Infrastructure and coaching. We now have excellent indoor facilities and some of the NT members were the last people to grow up playing on frozen gravel pitches in the winter. That means we're not on par with the best countries but before it was hard to develop a proper passing game when it bounced too much for majority of the year. You also need to be able to teach the youth properly and that's where the badges come in. We have a lot of qualified coaches and I'm pretty sure we ecplise England in our numbers when you consider the relative numbers.
They've made it so fecking complicated, I doubt myself all the time.
Basically, winner takes all. I just hope Coleman doesn't over think it.... we've got decent players, use them. If we do that and lose, so be it..... if we piss about, play cautious and end up losing a scrappy 1-0, I'd be pissed.
May the best team win.... and go on to represent the British Isles properly.
Fair point, I forgot about that eejit
The most impressive thing from Slovenia : Scotland was the sheer energy of visiting Tartan army (they outperformed us on by a big margin). The pink paper airplanes flying into the goal were hilarious.
Match itself was the perfect example why neither team is going to Russia - both are capable of playing nice football only 20-30 min / match. Our manager again picked very weird defensive formation (he put two more attack oriented players after the break) against a team where we should really take advantage our technical ability and retain possession.
And again one god-awful referee. Every time a player went to take a throw-in he intervened, even if the player only took the throw in an inch from the place where the ball went off the field.
Match itself was the perfect example why neither team is going to Russia - both are capable of playing nice football only 20-30 min / match. Our manager again picked very weird defensive formation (he put two more attack oriented players after the break) against a team where we should really take advantage our technical ability and retain possession.
And again one god-awful referee. Every time a player went to take a throw-in he intervened, even if the player only took the throw in an inch from the place where the ball went off the field.
Right are these things over now. Can we get back to the real football.
Nope, more games today and tomorrow.
In the highly unlikely event of Giggs being made manager, I would ideally like to see him given the job up to and including the next European Championships.
Southgate just seems to stand there like a rabbit in the headlamps, looking clueless and seemingly crapping himself until England score.
Ireland is gonna park the bus. You have to attack.
Yes finally we did it mate.
Is Bale fit for Wales?
Yes here is oneAlways nice to meet another Egyptian here.
.He did well very well, hope he dosen't do it again on Saturday though.Salah's the best
For fecks sake. Lets see how many more of our team get injured.
I think 3 are involved. De Gea, Matic, Darmian. We are fecked if De Gea or Matic gets injured..
There is a very real possibility that one of Wales and Croatia will be the 9th-best 2nd-place team by the end of tonight, and not by points, goal difference or goals scored, but by 'fair play points'! 
For that to happen, Wales need to draw 0-0 with Ireland and Croatia need to draw 1-1 wth Ukraine. Both results are extremely possible. If that happens, they'll both have 12 points in the 2nd-place table, they'll both have +2 goal difference and they'll both have 7 goals scored (against all teams in their groups minus the last-placed team).
Tasty.
For that to happen, Wales need to draw 0-0 with Ireland and Croatia need to draw 1-1 wth Ukraine. Both results are extremely possible. If that happens, they'll both have 12 points in the 2nd-place table, they'll both have +2 goal difference and they'll both have 7 goals scored (against all teams in their groups minus the last-placed team).
Tasty.
It's a weird anomaly how you guys dominate in the AFCON and the CAF Champions League/Confederations Cup, but couldn't clear the WC qualifying hurdle until yesterday. Also speaks to how difficult the African qualifying process was in previous years, where you could do everything right, and miss out because of the final 2 matches. Up there with South America in terms of difficulty of qualifying, even if the latter has better teams at the top.
There is a very real possibility that one of Wales and Croatia will be the 9th-best 2nd-place team by the end of tonight, and not by points, goal difference or goals scored, but by 'fair play points'!
For that to happen, Wales need to draw 0-0 with Ireland and Croatia need to draw 1-1 wth Ukraine. Both results are extremely possible. If that happens, they'll both have 12 points in the 2nd-place table, they'll both have +2 goal difference and they'll both have 7 goals scored (against all teams in their groups minus the last-placed team).
Tasty.
My bet would be on Croatia getting the most yellow cards. Or do you know who is on top of that?
It was a curse, I don't think there was any other reason for it.
we always came very near to qualifying and screw it up in the last match in a very strange way. Hopefully this qualifying will give our players more confidence in these qualifiers matches next times.Just realised that Switzerland could end up second today with 27 points
Imagine winning 9 out of 10 games and still having to play that playoffs.
Imagine winning 9 out of 10 games and still having to play that playoffs.
If my memory serves me well, Zidane said Bale was gonna miss 6 games.
I am so excited for tonight. Can´t believe Iceland are a win away from the World Cup. It will be a tough match since Kosovo have been playing quite well lately and the Iceland players probably are a little nervous.
I'm bricking it.
Too bad Russia will be one hell of a commute if we manage to clinch the World Cup spot