It is a strange one alright. The islander mentality there probably isn't a lot different to our own.
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It is a strange one alright. The islander mentality there probably isn't a lot different to our own.
Benno will be gutted by Panama's exit, also a bad result for NZ as Mexico will blow them out of the water.
My NZ spies tell me they have no chance this time.
Chris Killen's no mug, a reasonable SPL player, though no where good enough for the 'Tic. You must have had some mighty talent, to match him, geysir?
Yeah, lucky i didnt lump the few grand i was thinking, n just had a hundred or so on instead -personal circumstances (travelling, etc) saved me a few bob, phew - they drew with jamaica, and that really cost them.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
I did not say Chris was a mug, I referred to him as a modest pro.Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
Where does modest pro = a mug?
He played a bit in the SPL and didn't play that much after leaving the SPL. He could be better or worse than say Daryl Murphy, I don't know, but he's one of the best players New Zealand have in that position and for a player of modest professional talents, now he has an incredible chance to be in the world cup finals for a 2nd time, in his 30's
What teams in the top 40 even the top 50 in Europe would Chris Killen have a sniff of getting into their squad? So fair play to him for what he has achieved with New Zealand.
Much like ourselves, the US is quite aggressive in searching out eligible players and then promising them playing time and the potential of playing in every WC as seen with the number of eligible German born players Klinsmann has found. Johannson is a good player, he's doing will in Holland this year. He wasn't so great last Friday against Jamaica but took his goal well against Panama.Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
As for the US team themselves, Klinsmann has done a good job with them this year. They play a much better possession based game compared with Bradley's team and he's also not afraid to shake things up tactically during the game when he needs to e.g. they had not played so well for the first hour on Friday night so he brings on a couple of subs, makes a few switches in the team and next thing they get the 2 goals.
So England can win the World Cup...
The best part of the lead-in to a World Cup now begins...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/24577584Quote:
Originally Posted by BBC
'mug'= a figure of speech, not necessarily derogatory!Quote:
Originally Posted by geysir
CK is a journeyman, making up the nos' for NZ, good luck to him. That's all!
play off draw...
Portugal v Sweden
Ukraine v France
Greece v Romania
Iceland v Croatia.
Good luck Sweden, Ukraine, Greece & Iceland...
Dont want to see Ronaldo in a final?Quote:
Originally Posted by ArdeeBhoy
We did. In 2002!
;)
I think this is first time there's been an outdoor intl game of any kind, fixed for mid november in Iceland, could be an issue as there's no undersoil heating on the pitch. That might seem a bit weird when the pitch is located right beside an open air thermal heated pool, in a city where even the pavements are heated, but usually football just moves indoor from November onwards.
It'll be a virtually impossible task for Iceland's back 4 to keep a clean sheet at home against a team like Croatia, best chance is with plan B, the old fashioned way, score more goals than the opposition.
There are some similarities with ourselves, but Johansson already had an international career, was wanted by his association and is/was an active Icelander. Anybody we pick up, either declares for us (identity), or is not wanted by anyone.Quote:
Originally Posted by Metrostars
By "aggressive searching", many suspect that includes financial inducements were used to persuade him to declare for the USA.
I suppose this has something to do with the massive commercial potential to sponsors in the event of the USA being certain WC qualifiers.
Somewhere, somebody has worked out to the nth degree, the commercial potential coming from that batch of viewers who casually catch the game on screen for 1 minute before moving on, to the millions who might well be watching another thrilling performance in last 16/qf.
Interesting little story about some Bosnia fans.
As the comments show, Irish have done similar...
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fb...type=1&theater
And something more uplifting?
http://balls.ie/football/kim-kallstrom-and-max/
You're not behind this, are you, geysir?: http://countyiceland.ie/
That would would be well below my level of corniness :)Quote:
Originally Posted by DannyInvincible
It's play-off time for those countries in the UEFA qual zone.
It's come a long way from this, the first game Iceland played as a new republic in 1946 and a similar crowd 10,000 attended.
http://www.mbl.is/tncache/frimg/dimg...7/8/708450.jpg
Looks like the weather will be decent (means barely tolerable) for the game. There's no underground heating on the pitch.
They had imported some special blankets which covered the whole pitch and had been blowing hot air under it to keep the turf defrosted.
http://www.mbl.is/frimg/7/8/708101.jpg
They could have sold 30,000 tickets, that makes it way bigger than Sachin Tendulkar's last game. I'll be there and most every male I know will be there.
It could be a case of what could go wrong, goes wrong, like what happened to Estonia - the ultimate anti climax, or it could be more like Scotland v Netherlands, heroically winning the first leg but getting mercilessly hammered in the 2nd leg. One can dream of a third scenario. Lagerback had said clearly from the outset that the target was to qualify and the squad was good enough. There's some truth in that, there isn't the sense here that he has worked a miracle, it's more that there's a good team there and Lagerback hasn't fcked them up, but gets a lot of credit for astutely organising them tactically.
It was rocking last night in Reykjavik, the weather and pitch were perfect. The crowd atmosphere was the incredible force of nature. Usually the anthem is met with an almost mute humm, the tune just goes too low and too high, goes along in a roller coaster, leading to a himalayan peak at the end. You can't just sing it and merrily meander through the lyrics, you have give it welly from every fibre of your body, last night was the first time everybody gave it welly, going from a whisper to a high pitch to a guttural primeval roar at the end, ballboys, security guys, policemen all standing tall and singing.
The support during the game was a nonstop crescendo of noise, everybody on their feet, except for 1 second of the first minute, when time stood still and everybody just stared at an Iceland defender desperately lunging his leg to clear a certain goal bound shot, most every man stroked their chin. 10 seconds later the ball was nearly in the Croats' net. And that was that for a long while re goal chances. The tempo of the game was relentless, the crowd noise was relentless. Iceland played with 2 strikers and their energy closing down kept Modric playing his football in the Croat half. One of the Iceland strikers went off injured at HT and Eidur Gudjonsson came on, and it was just what was needed, a classy veteran who took no shít and started to boss the bullies.That lasted 5 minutes, the RB got sent off for a last man tackle, it looked innocuous, an ankle clip at worst, the Croat probably would have scored. The LM goes in at RB and Eidur has drop out of the hole back into midfield. The classy Modric then can move and play his football in the Iceland half.
Yet each team only had one real chance in the 2nd half. The final result was celebrated as a deserved victory against the odds
To pull off a scoreless draw with 10 men for 40 minute was no mean feat, but to concede only one real chance during that time was astonishing.
Afterwards the Croats were miserly and condescending with their recognition of went down in the game, I think they could be in for another 15 rounder on tuesday night. The Iceland team are quite confident of finishing the job then.
This performance alone puts to bed forever the idea that this team got lucky to get this far out of a weak group.
Great report. I particularly enjoyed how your increasing passion as the telling of the tail developed took you so seamlessly from the past to present tense and back again. Were you singing the anthem yourself? :)
Rakitić certainly made the most of the red-card incident. There was no "tackle". At most, it was a minor-enough holding of the jersey - not even a full-on tug - with the Icelandic keeper possibly well-placed to scoop up the oncoming ball. But as soon as Rakitić went down, the ref didn't really have an option, did he? Jersey-holding is an impediment, after all.
It wasn't totally backs-to-the-wall for Iceland, but Halldórsson did well when called upon. They're are in a good position; nick an away goal and Croatia are in big trouble. Can you see them managing that in Zagreb?
You watched the game or bits of it, Danny?
The anthem is about the 1,000 year old nation. The 'thousand year' (pronounced 'Thusand our') bit keeps repeating and there are only a few other lines.
The trick is not to burst a blood vessels when you sing the last 'thousand year' bit, to save something for the final peak, but that's way above my pitch anyway.
You can get some idea of the last bit here as it was sung last night (after 30 secs at 14.30) Atmosphere at Laugardalsvelli
I haven't seen the red carded tackle yet on tv, the general view at the game was that Croat was through and something brought him down.If he went down on purpose, he was an idiot because there looked to be a clear goal chance.
I can see a lot of different things happening in the return leg, Iceland have had a good away results. The Croats are expecting the return game to be different because they are playing at home, therefore it's automatic that they will win. Though there was one of the Croat journalists who was more restrained and took full account of how little they created against 10 men. The Croat coach's explanation of that difficulty was extracted from the UEFA coaching manual, chapter 5 paragrapgh 1. 'on being reduced in numbers, the home team can find something extra which make them more difficult to break down than if they had 11 players, sometimes it's more difficult to play against ...........
I can judge the optimism of the nation and the attention the game is going to get, by the queues outside the State off licences on match day. Fortunately the one closest to me stacks the beer for the customers, by the pallet load in an open warehouse type space.
I shout over the throngs to the fork lift driver, "hey, where the fcking Grolsch gone to?" "sold out" he says, "Any Gull?" shouts another "just a sec, I'm getting it" as he scoops up a pallet load and swings through the crowd, who part like the red sea to make way.
I just saw highlights, I'm afraid. The sending-off incident occurs after 1:22 in this reel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTQiggEu21o
Just watching it again closely - the quality's not amazing, mind - and I'm not even sure the jersey was being held. There doesn't look to have been much in it from the view behind the goal, but it's difficult to see for sure as the two players involved only come into view as the Croatian takes his tumble. It was actually Ivan Perišić who went down after Rakitić played the ball through. Perišić might well have felt the hand of Skúlason on his arm and decided to hit the deck.
Skúlason once played for Arsenal, of course.
http://www.arsenal.com/assets/_files...8_skulason.jpg
Back in the '70s, by the looks of it.
I really hope Iceland can go on and qualify now. Not that I particularly care for Iceland. Well, I dread to think what the off-licence queues of sorrow might look like, but, mostly, I just look forward to reading more of these stories.