Euro 2016 qualifying

DJnVa

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Harry Kane scorers on his first touch for England, 80 seconds after entering game.
 

SocrManiac

Tommy Seebach’s mustache
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Sterling doing "Why can't he do that for LFC" things for England. Maybe it's playing in his natural position that's the key?
 
Also... Kane... 1:19 into your first appearance? What's the rush? You look pushy.
 

Titans Bastard

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Video of Akinfeev:
 
 
https://twitter.com/8by8mag/status/581547260019785729
 

OCST

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Go strakatnir okkar!

Iceland pockets a 3-0 road win in Kazakhstan. Saw a little of it and they (ISL) looked pretty frisky.
 

McBride11

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Portugal with a fantastic cross and header to finish to take a 1-0 lead over Serbia. And it wasn't CR7 w the finish but he still looked somewhat happy.
 

McBride11

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Apropos of nothing, despite his histrionics (which have been minimal) CR7 is always amazing to watch. His touch, his shot, his speed is just in another class that few players ever reach.
 

Cellar-Door

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In good news for the watchability of the Euros Greece and Hungary with a scoreless draw keeping Greece dead last in group F and unlikely to make the euros.
 

cjdmadcow

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ConigliarosPotential said:
I'm looking forward to seeing England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all get drawn together in the same group in 2016.
 
Scotland would ask for a vote to decide if they should leave.
 

soxfan121

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Israel holding on for dear life, 0-1, against a frisky (and profligate) Belgium team (55th minute). The goal hit Fellani in the nads and bounced in during the first ten minutes and while they've kept up the pressure, the Israelis know how to play defense. 
 
ETA: Belgium's fullbacks are club-centerbacks and it's totally obvious, as they have zero width in the attacking area, as they seem to hang deeper than players with a more attacking mindset and pinch too far in on D, leaving space wide. I'm far from a tactical genius, but even I can tell that this is sub-optimal. Can one of you smart guys talk about why/what they hope to accomplish?
 

soxfan121

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Kompany, on a yellow, put an Israeli in a running headlock (who was grabbing his shirt, but still) and has been sent off in the 64th. Clattenburg is the ref...you know, just in case teddykgb wants to lodge a formal protest. ;-)
 

Schnerres

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soxfan121 said:
ETA: Belgium's fullbacks are club-centerbacks and it's totally obvious, as they have zero width in the attacking area, as they seem to hang deeper than players with a more attacking mindset and pinch too far in on D, leaving space wide. I'm far from a tactical genius, but even I can tell that this is sub-optimal. Can one of you smart guys talk about why/what they hope to accomplish?
 
I don´t know if that is the masterplan of Marc Wilmots or due to the lack of a RB/LB who is a small, fast-paced, technical-able player a la Philipp Lahm or a Marcelo, a Ricardo Rodriguez, guys who march forward and bring in crosses and run long sprints the entire match. But when you check the matches of Belgium at the WC 14, he also used such lineups with four CBs in defense. I guess, he just has better CBs than he has FBs. Just my guess, i don´t follow the belgian national team, didn´t see qualifiers or friendlies, so no idea of the squad depth behind the obvious starters.
 
 

soxfan121

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Serving them well now, as the four CB are necessary to defend the 10 man bunker. This tilt with Israel has been terrific. Intense.
 

SocrManiac

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Far be it for me to defend Kompany, but I think I'd probably react poorly to having my package squeezed, too.
 

Dummy Hoy

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Belgium doesn't really have any FB that can really move up the pitch. Vertoghen and Alderwiereld are probably the best at it, which says a lot. What they do have is a tremendous amount of mid-field and attacking depth, which they can use to attack the flanks (see how well Mertens and Hazzard and Defour use speed outside before cutting in). I think the 4 CB set-up is less an intentional strategy and more of playing to your strengths...they have a ton of CB depth. From what I've seen, they're content to give teams more attacking space on the outside, trusting their big men to clog up the middle and clear out the ball that is fired in from the outside.
 
They have a ton of talent, but don't quite seem to be able to fit it all together. I'd say their best set up is something like:
 
                           Courtois
Alderwiereld-Kompany-Lombaerts-Vertonghen
                         Fellaini-Witsel
             Mertens-DeBruyne-Hazzard
                             Lukaku
 
But you also have guys like Dembele and Chadli and Origi and Defour and Zanujaz and Miralles and I'm sure I'm forgetting people. A good manger could mix and match them until he finds partnerships that work, but as you saw a the WC, they still struggle to break down top teams. Wilmots is a hero in Belgium, but I'm a bit skeptical sometimes.
 

soxfan121

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Terrific post, thanks! Makes a ton of sense, and after Kompany's dismissal yesterday, it was easier to see the benefit of the 4-CB backline. 
 

teddykgb

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I think they'd play FBs if they had FBs who they felt were better than those two.   It's an obvious weakness in their squad, which is too bad because it's a great generation of players they've developed, but they managed to miss in one specific position on both sides of the pitch.
 
If real life were FIFA, Belgium would be an excellent candidate for the 3-5-2.  They have so many midfielders and wide players that they'd be able to get more talent on the pitch while sacrificing an area where they are weak anyway.  While 3-5-2 often isn't really more attacking than a 4-x-x (FBs bomb forward, usually leaving 2 defenders to defend a lone or two strikers while 3-5-2 leaves 3 back to outnumber the same) I think it would likely make Belgium more attacking.  Their CBs basically sit back anyway, which means they're defending 1 or 2 with 4.  An extra attacker who is more of an attacker might help them in trickier contests.
 
I'd probably sit Witsel in front of the back 3 and play Fellaini and De Bruyne in front of him flanked by wingers of manager's choice and I think in this formation I'd play Hazard up top in a free role with Lukaku because the wingers will need to track back in this formation and even though Hazard is a well rounded enough player that he probably could, Belgium needs him in forward positions. 
 

Cellar-Door

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Some interesting results today:
Wales beats Belgium on a Bale goal off a truly terrible defensive giveaway.
Iceland beats the Czechs.
Croatia holds on for a draw against Italy.
 
Edit- added bonus. The Croatia game was already being played in an empty stadium because of previous racist/Nazi issues with the Croatian fans. The Croatian FA just had to apologize as someone mowed/cut a swastika into the grass before the match.
 

dirtynine

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The crowd at the Wales game was, as far as it sounded on TV, incredible. By virtue of the win, it sounds like Wales might be seeded for European 2018 World Cup qualifying.  That's pretty astounding. 
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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Does anyone know whether the (Republic of) Ireland versus Scotland game can be seen anywhere in the USA on tv?  It's about as big as it gets this early in qualification.
 

swiftaw

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DennyDoyle'sBoil said:
Does anyone know whether the (Republic of) Ireland versus Scotland game can be seen anywhere in the USA on tv?  It's about as big as it gets this early in qualification.
Fox Sports 2
 

JCizzle

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Holy shit what a goal from Armenia. They should have 2-3 by now, really out playing Portugal.

Granted only 15m
 

Cellar-Door

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will likely not qualify, but they did just beat Greece for the second time.
 
Northern Ireland on the other hand, drew with Romania to stay in the 2nd spot in the group.
 

Skip

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Jul 19, 2012
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DennyDoyle'sBoil said:
The lads in green are on the outside looking in for one of the playoff spots.
Wouldn't give us much of a prayer now to be honest. Got to get results against Germany and Poland to stand a chance. We just aren't good enough. 
 

Schnerres

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Does someone have a link where tables are showing who is the best 3rd place team (and exclude the results vs. 6th place teams to balance the groups towards the 5-team-group)?
 
Some teams look very good, but if you drop 6 points (out of 12), this goes downhill very fast.
 
M

MentalDisabldLst

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The outro music for England-Slovenia was "Bittersweet Symphony".  If that doesn't sum up the English attitude towards their own national team, I don't know what does.
 

ator603

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England is actually starting to look dangerous, especially after the comeback win today. As of now they've got a perfect record, and aside from Portugal they're the only major power leading their group.
 

sachmoney

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ator603 said:
England is actually starting to look dangerous, especially after the comeback win today. As of now they've got a perfect record, and aside from Portugal they're the only major power leading their group.
How are they looking dangerous? They did not play well and the first two goals were a couple of terrific strikes from Wilshere. The performance was rather plodding and the midfield was unimaginative. I didn't see anything to suggest that they can challenge the likes of Germany, Spain, and the other European elites (are there any other elite European teams?). 
 

Dummy Hoy

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I think there are certainly positives for England to take out of the qualifying, but I'd like to see them face a legit football squad before we start calling them dangerous.
 

Schnerres

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England should be considered as a top8 team in the Euros, but a lot depends on the draw (group and then the knockout as well). Several teams have disappointed (like Germany), but i wouldn´t draw too many conclusions from these qualifiers. The season was very very long for some teams, they had a few days of a break now, then play some friendlies and Euro qualifiers after guys laid on the beach to have their season break. This gets out of hand somehow for several players. Germany rested some guys (Kroos, Neuer, Müller), because they played too many matches this season and of course could afford it vs. Gibraltar. I bet other teams do this as well.
About England: They can play as good as they want, nobody thinks they are dangerous as long as they don´t win anything or at least reach the semis. When you see starting XI with only 1-2 british players, something is wrong. Not that foreign players wouldn´t be good, but maybe the youth stables aren´t good enough to bring the players into the starting XI of their top teams. In Germany, it´s possible, too. And in the Premier League, teams earn way more money from TV, so the clubs could spend more on youths, i think.
 
About the national team and Euros:
They aren´t on the same level as the top teams: Belgium, Spain, Germany, Italy, France.
The next tier teams would include England, Netherlands, Switzerland, Portugal and Croatia.
Possible surprising teams could be Austria, Poland, Iceland, Denmark, Czech Republic, Slowakia, Russia, Ukraine, Bosnia or Romania.
 
Outsiders: Israel, Wales, Scotland, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, Hungary, Norway, Albania, Cyprus.
 
(Italic: Currently not qualified in Top3 of each group)
 

candylandriots

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Does anyone have any idea on how to get tickets for Scotland-Poland on October 8 in Glasgow?
 
I'm planning to be in the area for a couple days for the Rugby World Cup that week. I'm disappointed that it's an international break for the Premier League while I'm planning to be over there, but wouldn't mind seeing some international soccer, and that's the nearest game (and should be a good one).
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

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jkempa said:
Does anyone have any idea on how to get tickets for Scotland-Poland on October 8 in Glasgow?
 
I'm planning to be in the area for a couple days for the Rugby World Cup that week. I'm disappointed that it's an international break for the Premier League while I'm planning to be over there, but wouldn't mind seeing some international soccer, and that's the nearest game (and should be a good one).
 
I may also be trying to go to that game -- either that one or the Germany Ireland game on the same day.  The Scottish FA is selling tickets now to paid supporters (it's too late to subscribe) and it looks like sales are going pretty well.  After that, Scotland season ticket holders get the chance, and that sale is scheduled for July 12 or so.  If there are any left -- which may be a stretch -- there may be a public sale.  It's going to be a hard ticket.
 
Maybe Fletch can get us in.  0:)