Football 16-17

[TheGayTent]

2 minutes ago, Alan_C said:

There is that. Seen a video going around of them going down on the bus. It seemed like every single person on it had a Scotland top and a kilt on. Lunatics. 

Something has to prop up the Scottish economy 

[LJS]

31 minutes ago, Alan_C said:

There is that. Seen a video going around of them going down on the bus. It seemed like every single person on it had a Scotland top and a kilt on. Lunatics. 

I think there may have been more than one bus. And why woudl wearing a Scotland top & a kilt be  a sign of lunacy?

 

[LJS]

29 minutes ago, TheGayTent said:

Something has to prop up the Scottish economy 

That's what the goalposts are for.

 

3-1 to Scotland 

[TheGayTent]

2-1 England. Strachan gone 

[brandycoke]

Unfortunately,I don't share LJS's enthusiasm, and from past experience, i fear yet again more "Glorious failure"  for Scotland tonight.

w

 

[brandycoke]

..We'll get all the plaudits for our silky free flowing football..and England'll get three points .

[Alan_C]

20 minutes ago, LJS said:

I think there may have been more than one bus. And why woudl wearing a Scotland top & a kilt be  a sign of lunacy?

 

Just more in the way a whole bus of grown blokes want to wear football tops for a match.

[LJS]

11 minutes ago, brandycoke said:

Unfortunately,I don't share LJS's enthusiasm, and from past experience, i fear yet again more "Glorious failure"  for Scotland tonight.

w

 

Don't tell anyone, but just between you & me, I don't believe the 3-1 stuff either. I think Scott Brown's red card will probably end our hopes. 

[brandycoke]

11 minutes ago, LJS said:

Don't tell anyone, but just between you & me, I don't believe the 3-1 stuff either. I think Scott Brown's red card will probably end our hopes. 

Yes, unfortunately something we can both agree on :-)

[brandycoke]

2 hours ago, brandycoke said:

Unfortunately,I don't share LJS's enthusiasm, and from past experience, i fear yet again more "Glorious failure"  for Scotland tonight.

Corrected myself 

 

 

[pink_triangle]

To all my Scottish friends, I see TNS comfortably beat Livingston at the weekend.  This tournament has completely passed me by, what's the background?

[Comfy Bean]

3 hours ago, pink_triangle said:

To all my Scottish friends, I see TNS comfortably beat Livingston at the weekend.  This tournament has completely passed me by, what's the background?

It's an odd set up now. Was basically a cup introduced a while back that didn't include the teams from the top league. My team got to the final the first year and lost. We got knocked out on Sunday at the quarter final stage. It was a bad weekend football wise for me :-(

This year they let the "big"scottish teams enter their under 21 or "colt teams" and also invited a couple of teams from Wales and Ireland but not until the latter stages. They also rigged the draw,  openly, to make sure some of them got a home tie.

There are some cynical views that Neil Doncaster, who it is unanimously agreed is a prick, is laying some ground work for the possibility of colt teams being allowed and cross border competition not being an issue for uefa. 

I've been to our 2 finals which we lost and they are held at one of the smaller grounds. Last year it was at hampden,  I think for the first time, as rangers were in it.

If you get to the final then it's a good day out but it is the ultimate Diddy cup really..... In my opinion. 

[LJS]

35 minutes ago, comfortablynumb1910 said:

It's an odd set up now. Was basically a cup introduced a while back that didn't include the teams from the top league. My team got to the final the first year and lost. We got knocked out on Sunday at the quarter final stage. It was a bad weekend football wise for me :-(

This year they let the "big"scottish teams enter their under 21 or "colt teams" and also invited a couple of teams from Wales and Ireland but not until the latter stages. They also rigged the draw,  openly, to make sure some of them got a home tie.

There are some cynical views that Neil Doncaster, who it is unanimously agreed is a prick, is laying some ground work for the possibility of colt teams being allowed and cross border competition not being an issue for uefa. 

I've been to our 2 finals which we lost and they are held at one of the smaller grounds. Last year it was at hampden,  I think for the first time, as rangers were in it.

If you get to the final then it's a good day out but it is the ultimate Diddy cup really..... In my opinion. 

The good news is that almost all the "colt" teams were dispatched in short order by the real lower league teams. My team got rid of two. Only Celtic got past the 2nd round by trouncing the mighty Cowdenbeath 2-1 only to be beaten 5-1 by the Galacticos of Livingston. Rangers were beaten 3-1 by the ticky tacky football of Stenhousmuir in the 2nd round.

The bizarrest story was the fourth round tie between the aforementioned Livingston who defeated Crusaders of Northern Ireland 2-1 at the Tony Macaroni Arena (I kid you not) & proceeded into the draw for the quarter final where they were drawn against the New Saints of Wales. Which was all fine until someone twigged that they had fielded an ineligible player (he was suspended) in the game against Crusaders. Now, if they were made to forfeit the game then that would leave Crusaders v. New Saints in the quarter final which seems fine except the rules of the competition stated that the non Scottish clubs were to be kept apart until the semi-final stage so the game was ordered to be replayed in Belfast. Fortunately for the organisers Livingston won 3-0 sparing the blushes of the SPFL. Bizarrely the player who was ineligible for the first game was eligible for the second. 

 

edit: this prompted me to have a look at the "highlights" of  Stenhousemuir's demolition of "the rangers" which features some rather splendid goals. Stennny's 2nd is a rather neat free kick from outside the box but their third is the piece de resistance. After deftly elbowing a Rangers player in the face Stenny's answer to Messi strike a cracking shot from distance which rebounds of the woodwork only to hit the goalie & trundle over the line. Beautiful!

 

Edited November 14, 2016 by LJS

[LJS]

Hey Comfy, how was your trip to London?

[Comfy Bean]

14 hours ago, LJS said:

Hey Comfy, how was your trip to London?

A fine trip, outwith the 90 mins at the footy  Story of my life 

Best team won of course and England could of scored more but we created better chances than we did in our 2 previous games. Lithuania at Hampden killed us I think.

Good times, fantastic stadium, met loads of good folks supporting both teams - maybe next time.

[eFestivals]

well, shocking to say, but England looked pretty good last night, better than they have for a while.

More shocking is this from Lineker...

 

[mjsell]

4 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

well, shocking to say, but England looked pretty good last night, better than they have for a while.

More shocking is this from Lineker...

 

Although I agree with you, Spain are currently quite a good team to play to make you look better than you are. People still see Spain to be this all conquering side that won everything for 10 years - but they arent that team anymore and they havent done anything of note since 2012. The last 2 tournaments they have acheived the same as England and there squad nowadays is slipping dramatically, plus many of their better players werent playing anyway.

In saying all that England did look better, moved the ball really well at times and looked quite well balanced.. Rooney missing helped obviously, and the pace we have in that squad is quite frightening at times. I wouldnt go as far as Gary but if certain players develop well over the next few years there are postitive signs.

 

[eFestivals]

3 minutes ago, mjsell said:

Although I agree with you, Spain are currently quite a good team to play to make you look better than you are. People still see Spain to be this all conquering side that won everything for 10 years - but they arent that team anymore and they havent done anything of note since 2012. The last 2 tournaments they have acheived the same as England and there squad nowadays is slipping dramatically, plus many of their better players werent playing anyway.

In saying all that England did look better, moved the ball really well at times and looked quite well balanced.. Rooney missing helped obviously, and the pace we have in that squad is quite frightening at times. I wouldnt go as far as Gary but if certain players develop well over the next few years there are postitive signs.

 

yeah, i'm aware that Spain aren't all they used to be, but we still did better last night than we've been doing recently against worst teams than them.

In going to find that tweet, I also found this one which made me laugh....

... as did this one ....

 

[pink_triangle]

I have to say I don't watch friendlies, but have always been of the view that it's difficult to make any useful analysis. Even at their peak Spain were losing friendlies and I think Germany's record is pretty mixed as well.

[eFestivals]

15 minutes ago, pink_triangle said:

I have to say I don't watch friendlies, but have always been of the view that it's difficult to make any useful analysis. Even at their peak Spain were losing friendlies and I think Germany's record is pretty mixed as well.

In general I agree with you, but there was definitely something more-joined-up about the performance last night, at least until there'd been lots of subs.

It's a shame Lallana went off injured so early, cos he was starting to run the game.

Edited November 16, 2016 by eFestivals

[thetime]

18 minutes ago, eFestivals said:

 

It's a shame Lallana went off injured so early, cos he was starting to run the game.

Is that a gary Lineker tweet?

Edited November 16, 2016 by thetime

[big__phil]

Only watched around around 20 minutes of the first half, so not best to comment on how we played. No way near the strongest Spain lineup though, so don't get too carried away. Also we beat Germany in the run up to the Euros, which shows how much friendly form counts.

Can't wait to get back to club football.

[eFestivals]

3 minutes ago, thetime said:

Is that a gary Lineker tweet?

Nope. 

Lineker's tweet about Lallana said....

 

[eFestivals]

3 minutes ago, big__phil said:

Only watched around around 20 minutes of the first half, so not best to comment on how we played. No way near the strongest Spain lineup though, so don't get too carried away. Also we beat Germany in the run up to the Euros, which shows how much friendly form counts.

Can't wait to get back to club football.

It wasn't the strongest Spain squad but it wasn't a lazy friendly, either.

And yep, it means fuck all. Even the qualie games mean fuck all, cos when we qualify well we invariably do shit in the tournament itself (and vice versa, funnily enough).

All the same it was much better than the dire stuff in the summer and in the games since. It looks like Southgate is starting to have a good effect - tho it might just be a one-off, of course.

I prefer the competition of club football too.

 

[eFestivals]

Really sad story.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/nov/16/andy-woodward