2014 World Cup Qualification Tournaments

Matra2

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He sounds a bit like Barack Obama, who promised to unite the USA, political opponents, the races and cultures.

Uh, under Obama the USA is more divided than at any time since the Civil War which ended in 1865.

As for the comment about most baseball players being white I was watching a game yesterday and most of the players were Hispanics - a lot of them blacks.

After reading more about Klinsmann I'm now hoping the USA does not qualify for Brazil. That would be a fitting legacy for him. BTW most British fans despise Klinsmann. He's mostly known in the UK as a diver. The only people there who like him are Tottenham fans (ie mostly Jews).
 

frederic38

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The following excerpt is from a “SPIEGEL” (German news magazine) article about Klinsmann. I translated some interesting parts:

http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-83774748.html

great job, i also posted an interview of the president of the US soccer federation where he said that he wanted african americans to be more involved in soccer: http://youtu.be/6NRK0h1d-cc?t=1m43s

so that's 2 countries where discrimination against white players are documented (i also posted about how france did it too: http://www.castefootball.us/forums/threads/13607-French-Soccer?p=230956&viewfull=1#post230956 and http://www.castefootball.us/forums/threads/13607-French-Soccer?p=254729&viewfull=1#post254729 )

i wonder if the same can be done for germany and italy, it should be relatively easy (prandelli said that he wanted to change italy's DNA)


i also posted this about netherlands a while ago:
Ten Have alleged that Cruyff said to Davids: "You are only on the supervisory board because you are black."Cruyff has not denied making such a statement, with the 64-year-old former Holland international instead seeking to put his remark in context. "Ajax is a multicultural club and we have found that many talented immigrant players quit when they reach puberty," he said in his weekly Dutch newspaper column.
"So we wanted to tackle this problem with someone from the same background, who had come through it. And that was Edgar Davids. During one of our fights I pointed that out to him. But it had nothing to do with his skin colour."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/nov/22/johan-cruyff-remark-edgar-davids

so they have a racist approach at ajax amsterdam it seems

also in england they wanted to involve asians (there is a thread about it here) and i suspect that there is something going on about blacks too
 

Rebajlo

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United States loses to Jamaica, 2-1, for the first time in 19 matches:

5 White, 6 Non-White Starters

US Starters:
Tim Howard (black)
Jermaine Jones (black)
Maurice Edu (black)
Jozy Altidore (black)
Fabian Johnson (black)

Herculez Gomez (Latino)

Clint Dempsey (White)
Michael Parkhust (White)
Geoff Cameron (White)
Clarence Goodson (White)
Kyle Beckerman (White Rastafarian)

EDIT: Modified team makeup based on frederic38's post.

Jones, Edu Among Biggest Letdowns in Loss
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/avi_creditor/09/07/usa-jamaica-player-ratings/

I suppose all of the omnipresent "sports scientists", "experts" and other knobs shall draw the conslusion that the United States national team requires more blacks. Obviously, the US's five White starters (if one includes the dreadlocked wigger Kyle Beckerman...) must have been the "weak link". After all, the Jamaicans fielded eleven unbeatable supa-affletic N-n-negroes...

:afro: Hell, dey didn' ev'n use Oo-say'n Bolt! Jus' 'magine how good Teem USA be if dey had all 'lev'n blacks, gnomesayin... :afro:
 

Rebajlo

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The lineups from that first batch of European qualifiers reveal just how widespread the non-White presence has become. Sixteen nations played at least one non-White in the 90 minutes, while a staggering 22 nations had a minimum of one non-White in their squad.

This, of course, excludes the non-White states which are allowed to compete under the UEFA banner: Israel, Turkey, Albania, and Kazakhstan. The latter country's teams are mostly composed of ethnic Russians but as Kazakhstan lies in Asia, it should therefore - in my opinion - return to the Asian confederation.

I have never been sure if Maltese striker Andrew Cohen is Jewish so I haven't counted him as such.

The following aren't in numerical order, as I've simply gone through each match starting with Group 1 and finishing with Group 9, noting the relevant teams. As You should doubtlessly know by now, I count all Bosnians as White (just to make things less complicated), while Albanians are obviously non-White.

CROATIA:

Started: 10 Whites, 1 black
Finished: 11 Whites

MACEDONIA:

Started: 9 Whites, 2 Albanians
Finished: Unchanged ratio

Given that Albanians constitute about 25% of Macedonia's population, their presence is hardly surprising. Funnily enough, more Albanians turn out for Switzerland than Macedonia...

WALES:

Started: 10 Whites, 1 black
Finished: 8 Whites*, 2 blacks *James Collins sent off after 26'

BELGIUM:

Started: 7 Whites, 3 blacks, 1 Arab
Finished: Unchanged ratio

ARMENIA:

The black Henrique da Silva was an unused substitute

ITALY:

Started: 10 Whites, 1 black
Finished: 11 Whites

DENMARK:

The black Jores Okore was an unused substitute

CZECH REPUBLIC:

Started: 10 Whites, 1 black
Finished: Unchanged ratio

GERMANY:

Started: 9 Whites, 1 Turk, 1 half-Tunisian
Finished: Unchanged ratio

In case any of You Germany fans were wondering, the black Jerome Boateng and the Turk Ilkay Gundogan were unused substitutes

ANDORRA:

The Indian Oscar Sonejee was an unused substitute. Here's a bit of trivia with which to impress Your firends: Sonejee is Andorra's most capped player...

NETHERLANDS:

Started: 7 White, 3 blacks, 1 small-part Indonesian
Finished: 6 Whites, 5 blacks

CYPRUS:

Started: 10 Whites, 1 black
Finished: Unchanged ratio

SWITZERLAND:

Started: 4 Whites, 1 black, 2 Turks, 3 Albanians, 1 mestizo
Finished: 3 Whites*, 2 blacks, 2 Turks, 2 Albanians, 1 mestizo *Tranquillo Barnetta sent off after 75'

NORWAY:

Started: 8 Whites, 1 black, 2 Arabs
Finished: 9 Whites, 1 black, 1 Arab

Norway actually used two blacks: Daniel Braaten (started and was substituted in the second half) and Joshua King (second-half substitute)

PORTUGAL:

Started: 8 Whites, 3 blacks
Finished: Unchanged ratio

LIECHTENSTEIN:

The Turk Cengiz Bicer was an unused substitute

SLOVAKIA:

The black Kerim Guede was an unused substitute

GREECE:

Started: 11 Whites
Finished: 10 Whites, 1 mestizo

MONTENEGRO:


The Albanian Fatos Beciraj was an unused substitute

ENGLAND:

Started: 7 Whites, 4 blacks
Finished: Unchanged ratio

FINLAND:

Started: 10 Whites, 1 Albanian
Finished: Unchanged ratio

FRANCE:

Started: 4 Whites*, 5 blacks, 1 Arab, 1 quarter-Vietnamese *Includes Muslim convert Franck Ribery
Finished: 3 Whites, 7 blacks, 1 Arab
 

Liverlips

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I'd be very happy for this racist team to not qualify for the World Cup.

What a racist Klinsmann is. If he really wanted the team to "look like America" he would have only 12% of the team as black.

The U.S. is finding out what France and England learned. That loading a team with blacks is the fastest way to becoming losers and falling to teams that look like Italy and Spain (not to mention Mexico in the case of the U.S.).
 

frederic38

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today i'll watch france vs belarus, rooting for belarus
this is the only team that france never managed to beat (because each time we faced them we had black teams) i hope it will remain this way

then i'll watch peru vs argentina...what a match it will be
the bus in which the argentine players were was attacked by fans and messi was insulted
in this match it wil be an exception because i will not root for the whitest team (argentina) but for peru because i like their players a lot
in their stadium they can beat anybodyargentina won't have trouble to qualify, so a defeat in peru won't be very important for them
 

frederic38

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2 very interesting matches will be england vs ukraine and belgium vs croatia
i'll root against england (for that match at least, because they have a lot of injuried white players) and against belgium
 

Matra2

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Jordan 2 Australia 1!

Paging Rebajlo for an analysis.

That's actually worse than the US losing to Jamaica. After years of slow progress for Australia and the USA followed by a few years of remaining static, both now appear to be in regression.
 

frederic38

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Albanian player in the Swiss national team purposfully misses a goal opportunity against his "real" country.

"‘I Feel Completely Albanian’ – Switzerland’s Granit Xhaka Admits To Intentionally Botching Goal-Scoring Chance Against Albania"

http://www.whoateallthepies.tv/vide...hing-goal-scoring-chance-against-albania.html

So much for "naturalized" players.

there are these kind of problems in every country...i'm not very patriotic but if someone does such comment he should never be called again for switzerland
even in the african countries they have this problem, some bad arab players or black players from french ligue 1 play internationally for the country of their ancestors just to be more "hyped", to say that they played at international level
in france benzema made it clear that he feels algerian and only plays for france because it's a better team

and how useless are these naturalized players! we can rightfully be annoyed by the brazilian naturalized players, but at least they come from an important country in football, albania is nothing compared with switzerland in football history
tha would be like USA naturalizing mexicans to play in the NFL
 

frederic38

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ukraine did 1-1 against england in england
they are the rising power in europe in my opinion
england scored on a penalty, because of a handball

they need to change the rules regarding the handballs, because currently they say that a handball should be intentional to give a penalty, but this one wasn't
right now many players, while facing defenders in the penalty area, just chip the ball randomly, hoping that a defender will touch the ball with his hand
and it's impossible to defend whithout hands, it's very important for the body balance

ukraine's goal: http://youtu.be/zq7m6CelQus?t=2m2s
then you can see the penalty in this video
lampard might be the best penalty kick scorer in the world
 

backrow

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I didn't even know New Caledonia had their own team. Christian Karembeu was from New Caledonia and he always played for France. Unless NC's constitutional situation changed that seems weird.

i actually just came back from there. NC seems to enjoy a privilege of fielding their own soccer team, rugby team and possibly few others, they are still a part of France (and even with a referendum coming up should remain so) but have a slightly different status when it comes to sports.
 

Porthos

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ukraine did 1-1 against england in england
they are the rising power in europe in my opinion
england scored on a penalty, because of a handball

they need to change the rules regarding the handballs, because currently they say that a handball should be intentional to give a penalty, but this one wasn't
right now many players, while facing defenders in the penalty area, just chip the ball randomly, hoping that a defender will touch the ball with his hand
and it's impossible to defend whithout hands, it's very important for the body balance

ukraine's goal: http://youtu.be/zq7m6CelQus?t=2m2s
then you can see the penalty in this video
lampard might be the best penalty kick scorer in the world

Great game by Ukraine, even though the referee did not concede a regular goal to England IMO.
On the Ukrainian side I was keeping an eye on Yarmolenko who did Ok, but I was particularly impressed by Yevhen Konoplyanka who scored the goal. He has a great touch, is fast and has great ball control. If he can play like that consistently he's going to be a great player.
You are right about penalties. Not only are some of these "handballs" ridiculous (what are the defenders supposed to do, cut their arms off?), but now almost every faul in the penalty box is a penalty *and* a red card. I don't understand... to me it looks like punishing the same team twice. I understand a red card if it's a particularly bad faul (the Schumacher/Battiston incident come to my mind) or a faul done on purpose, but just a regular faul in the penalty area should not be punished so harshly.
 

Europe

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Great game by Ukraine, even though the referee did not concede a regular goal to England IMO.
On the Ukrainian side I was keeping an eye on Yarmolenko who did Ok, but I was particularly impressed by Yevhen Konoplyanka who scored the goal. He has a great touch, is fast and has great ball control. If he can play like that consistently he's going to be a great player.
You are right about penalties. Not only are some of these "handballs" ridiculous (what are the defenders supposed to do, cut their arms off?), but now almost every faul in the penalty box is a penalty *and* a red card. I don't understand... to me it looks like punishing the same team twice. I understand a red card if it's a particularly bad faul (the Schumacher/Battiston incident come to my mind) or a faul done on purpose, but just a regular faul in the penalty area should not be punished so harshly.


I think they do a pretty good job of not calling ridiculous handballs. They generally give the defender the benefit of the doubt. I think the one against the Ukraine may have been called because the guy was on the ground and out of position if I remember it right. However, it easily could not have been called.



Alexi Lalas wants every handball called as a penalty whether by accident or not, which is stupid.

"Switzerland
started: 4 Whites, 1 black, 2 Turks, 3 Albanians, 1 mestizo
Finished: 3 Whites*, 2 blacks, 2 Turks, 2 Albanians, 1 mestizo *Tranquillo Barnetta sent off after 75'"

What the hell is going on with Switzerland?
 
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"Switzerland
started: 4 Whites, 1 black, 2 Turks, 3 Albanians, 1 mestizo
Finished: 3 Whites*, 2 blacks, 2 Turks, 2 Albanians, 1 mestizo *Tranquillo Barnetta sent off after 75'"

What the hell is going on with Switzerland?
Your country is going down the drain and the team is just representative of this downfall. Albanians are the least of our concerns even if they are, as many of their Balkan and Slavic cousins, deeply involved in a lot of diverse and varied traffics (they should however be counted as Whites as I already explained it : they are racially white, it doesn't matter if they are Muslims. Race is the only matter, religion and culture can easily be changed. I feel much more connected to a White Muslim than to a Black Christian or Pagan). Geneva and Lausanne as many other big towns are crawling with non-Whites (you can hear every languages of the world and see almost every races or the most strangest hybrids in Switzerland : it's becoming a ****ing Babel tower). I was therefore goodly surprised during my last time at the army to be in a almost full-white and very Swiss unit.

A joke I recurrently heard about the match was "Eeh so Albania won two-zero against Albania").
 

John

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England is in a tough group because I think that Ukraine, Poland, and Montenegro are just as good as they are. England is severely lacking in firepower and has been missing some key players like Wilshere.

The Spain/France games are definitely ones to look forward to.

What the hell is going on with Switzerland?
The Turk Inler has played in Serie A for much of his career, and seems to have been quite successful. The same is true of the Albanians Valon Behrami and Blerim Dzemaili.

Among their other Albanian lads, Shakiri was signed by Bayern, so he must have been impressive; Xhaka is now with M'gladbach. These two are very young and haven't proven anything in a big league yet.

The biggest problem, however, is the presence of that incompetent clown Djourou in central defense. He gets so much flak from Arsenal fans for his pathetic defending. He's below Vermaelen, Koscielny, and Mertesacker in the pecking order, so I don't see how he has an right to play for Switzerland when he hardly plays for his club.
 
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frederic38

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Your country is going down the drain and the team is just representative of this downfall. Albanians are the least of our concerns even if they are, as many of their Balkan and Slavic cousins, deeply involved in a lot of diverse and varied traffics (they should however be counted as Whites as I already explained it : they are racially white, it doesn't matter if they are Muslims. Race is the only matter, religion and culture can easily be changed. I feel much more connected to a White Muslim than to a Black Christian or Pagan). Geneva and Lausanne as many other big towns are crawling with non-Whites (you can hear every languages of the world and see almost every races or the most strangest hybrids in Switzerland : it's becoming a ****ing Babel tower). I was therefore goodly surprised during my last time at the army to be in a almost full-white and very Swiss unit.

A joke I recurrently heard about the match was "Eeh so Albania won two-zero against Albania").

it's great that we even have a swiss to answer about his country :thumbup:
i live close but i couldn't answer about swiizerland because you seem to have inmigrants from different places than us
i never saw an albanian in my life for example
 

Rebajlo

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Jordan 2 Australia 1!

Paging Rebajlo for an analysis.

That's actually worse than the US losing to Jamaica. After years of slow progress for Australia and the USA followed by a few years of remaining static, both now appear to be in regression.

Jordan 2 Australia 1!

Paging Rebajlo for an analysis.

That's actually worse than the US losing to Jamaica. After years of slow progress for Australia and the USA followed by a few years of remaining static, both now appear to be in regression.

Matra2 -

Here is the "nutshell" analysis: Australian football is ****e. For a more detailed study, see below.

I previously outlined some of the A League's ills in the now-locked "2014 World Cup Qualifying" thread:

http://www.castefootball.us/forums/...Cup-Qualifying?p=253242&viewfull=1#post253242

The Australian media has revelled in lavishing praise upon the Jew Frank Lowy, often labelling him as "the man behind" Australia's 2006 World Cup qualification success. This was largely due to the recruitment of that supposed "genius" Guus Hiddink (yet another overrated, so-called "Dutch master") as Socceroos manager, something which was deemed to have only been made possible by Lowy's "connections" and "influence".

In fact, the Lowy-driven A League has served to initially halt and subsequently reverse the progress of Australian soccer. Despite the serious image problems stemming from unfortunate "ethnic" rivalries which often led to ridiculous exhibitions of crowd violence, the game had slowly developed and evolved since the immediate post-war period.

The one constant was a natural reliance on home-grown players, whose development was a necessity in our indigent amateur and semi-professional settings. The only way Australian clubs could generate substantial revenue was to sell players to European clubs, while the only way Australian players could make a living solely from football was to sign with European clubs. For both clubs and aspiring players this milieu therefore provided plenty of incentive to strive to reach their fullest potentials.

With the advent of professionalism, however, everything began to change. This process culminated in the launch of the A League, which profoundly altered the Australian football landscape on various levels. Such alterations, however, have generally proven to be negative...

The first thing that springs to mind is the increased recruitment of foreign players. Each club is allowed up to five foreigners, including a "marquee" player who is exempt from the salary cap (circa. $A 2.5 million). For example, Alessandro Del Piero has just signed a two year contract with Sydney FC which shall net him a staggering (by Australian standards) $ 2M per year. Now, wouldn't such a sum be better spent on youth development instead of paying a fantasy wage to a fellow who shall turn 38 in November with the hope that his presence will raise the profile of the sport in Australia? Sydney FC apparently sold 2000 memberships in the 10 days after initial rumours about the Italian's potential signing appeared in the media but I'm curious to see just how many matches Del Piero lasts for in the A League environment of ill-timed tackles, where "star" players are afforded far less protection by officials than is the case in Europe...

The second thing that springs to mind is the level of remuneration an A League professional receives. Australian salaries are obviously nowhere near as "attractive" as those in Europe, the Middle East, Japan or South Korea but if a comparatively "competent" player can "earn". lets say, $A 100,000 - $A 125,000 per season (excluding third party agreements and match payments) in the less-than-strenuous A League, the erstwhile urgent financial motivation of securing a contract in Europe has largely evaporated. In short, Australian players are generally quite complacent.

Another thing worth mentioning is that the money offered to players of "sub-European league" calibre by Middle Eastern and East Asian clubs these days means that Australian professionals of relatively mediocre ability often have the option of signing very lucrative contracts to ply their trade in competitions which are only marginally more or no more challenging than the A League.

The (sub) "standard" of the A League - that great cradle of Australian football talent - can be verified by:

(a) putting oneself through the teeth-grinding ordeal of watching a match or, for an even scarier shock

(b) casting an eye over Australian clubs' "performances" in the AFC Champions League.

The statistics pertaining to A League representatives in the AFC Champions League are unequivocally woeful. Australian clubs have only managed to dig themselves out of the group stage on four occasions and possess the unenviable record of losing more games than they have won.

The majority of these victories have come courtesy of Adelaide United, who progressed past the group stage three times (including the current edition, which is at the quarter finals stage), even reaching the final back in 2008. It's just too bad that Japan's Gamba Osaka belted them to the tune of 5-0 over the two leg decider. The only other club to escape the apparent quick-sand of the group stage was Newcastle United in 2009 - and they were demolished 6-0 by the eventual champions, South Korea's Pohang Steelers, in the one-off second round match...

Now, here's the thing. When Australia was granted AFC (Asian Football Confederation) membership in 2006 people here were under the impression that this was some sort of passport to an "automatic" World Cup finals berth until the end of Time. After all, now that the qualification path was "through Asia", how hard could it possibly be? Being accustomed to the old Oceania routine of regularly thrashing various packs of grinning coconut heads by nine, ten or eleven goals to nil before disposing of New Zealand it was imagined that the new format would be just as easy - but without the inevitable playoff against a South American nation. Remember that in 2006 Australia had just finally qualified for their second World Cup, beating Uruguay on penalties, so the "challenge" of "only" facing Asian opposition seemed awfully easy.

Conveniently "forgetting" that the socceroos had failed to get past Iran in the 1998 AFC-Oceania playoff, the football fraternity rubbed their collective pudgy hands in glee for, according to the "plan", Australia would effortlessly massacre various anonymous lightweights from the length and breadth of the sporting backwater that is Asia before qualifying for the finals alongside "regional powerhouses" Japan and South Korea.

It is important to note that over the past decade or so both Australian and foreign observers have tended to handily overestimate the Socceroos' abilities. Such mysterious misconceptions are beyond me, as Australia's plentiful shortcomings are painfully evident whenever one watches them play, regardless of the level of opposition.

The Socceroos have almost solely relied on the traditional "Australian way" of just getting stuck in, of playing hard but fair and giving it one's all. That's all good and fine but it doesn't cut the mustard at world level.

Australia's deficiencies were clearly visible at the last World Cup but were also present in spades during the 2006 edition, when the team managed to reach the second round despite playing poorly in all three group matches. The Socceroos received an enormous helping of good luck in that second round game against Italy when Marco Materazzi was rather harshly sent off in the 50th minute. Despite enjoying a numerical advantage for virtually the entire second half, Australia was unable to create chances and was knocked out after conceding a penalty in the final minute of injury time following a dive by Fabio Grosso.

Australia enjoys playing the role of the "underdog" and our team always performs best when doggedly defending against a superior opponent. Yet when it comes to actually possessing the tools to win games, Australian sides have always been sorley lacking, particularly in the tactical department, but also in technical ability. Even in the early to mid-2000s, when we had the likes of Mark Viduka, Harry Kewell, Scott Chipperfield, John Aloisi, Lucas Neill, Mark Schwarzer, et cetera in their prime the Socceroos didn't have the collective nous to carve out opportunities and take the game to "serious" opposition.

Solid, yet predictable football was invariably on offer - and as we all know, solid yet predictable football gets you nowhere. The problem is that with the passage of time characterised by a deficiency of young talent, Australia's football has become more predictable and far less solid...

Look at the lineup in that bloody debacle against Jordan and note the players' ages:

Mark Schwarzer (almost 40, Fulham)

Lucas Neill (34, Al-Wasl in the UAE)

Sasa Ognenovski (33, Umm-Salal in Qatar after three years in South Korea)

Luke Wilkshire (almost 31, Dynamo Moscow)

David Carney (almost 29, plays in Uzbekistan after failing miserably in all of his attempts to make a "career" in Europe...)

Tim Cahill (almost 33, stepped away from the English Premier League to play in the MLS)

Brett Holman (28, Aston Villa)

Matt McKay (29, plays in South Korea after spending virtually his entire career in Australia)

Mark Bresciano (32, has played in the UAE and Qatar since August 2011)

Robbie Kruse (almost 24, Fortuna Dusseldorf)

Alex Brosque (almost 29, Shimizu S-Pulse in Japan)

Over half of these blokes play in Asia, five are over the age of 32, so what can one reasonably expect?

By the time of the next World Cup finals the following "stalwarts" shall be so old that they shouldn't be anywhere near international football: Lucas Neill (36 in 2014), Tim Cahill (34), and Mark Bresciano (34). Mark Schwarzer shall be 41 but, being a goalkeeper, he should probably still be available. If Schwarzer is unavailable, the backup options are rather thin and the teams competitiveness will drop drastically.

This, of course, is assuming that Australia manages to qualify - something which is far from certain. But if they do, the abovementioned "stalwarts" shall doubtlessly be in the starting lineup. Let's face it: a team has to be right rubbish if it fails to at least reach the intercontinental playoff stage. But if Australia does not finish its current group in second place behind Japan to claim an automatic finals berth we are doomed, as there is no way that the current crop of players can emerge victorious from a two-legged playoff against a South American side.

Out of interest, Australia's goal against Jordan was scored by...the almost 34 year old New Guinea-New Zealand hybrid black Archie Thompson.

Just writing this has depressed the tar out of me. I'm off...
 

Matra2

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Rebajlo

Some of what you wrote reminded me of when I followed the development of the Canadian national team*. That said, I'm surprised by how much money is available in Australian soccer, not just for guys like Del Piero. Even the salary cap seems relatively high for a country with such a small population where soccer is not all that big.

Anyway, thanks for the analysis.

* I remember when living in Canada in 1993 staying up all night to see Australia defeat Canada in penalties and in doing so qualifying for the play-off against the South American qualifier. Unfortunately for Australia that turned out to be Argentina that year.
 
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Europe

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Don't worry Rebajlo. I am sure shortly Australia will have 5 or 6 naturalized Brazilians on the national team.
 

Rebajlo

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Rebajlo

Some of what you wrote reminded me of when I followed the development of the Canadian national team*. That said, I'm surprised by how much money is available in Australian soccer, not just for guys like Del Piero. Even the salary cap seems relatively high for a country with such a small population where soccer is not all that big.

Anyway, thanks for the analysis.

* I remember when living in Canada in 1993 staying up all night to see Australia defeat Canada in penalties and in doing so qualifying for the play-off against the South American qualifier. Unfortunately for Australia that turned out to be Argentina that year.

Matra2 -

Yeah, I also watched those matches. It was an awfully long time ago, eh...

Looking back almost twenty years is rather frightening, especially when one sees just how much the game has changed. At the same time, I am veritably cringing as I recall some of the Australian players that took part in those playoffs.

The lumbering Robert Zabica, who exemplified the old, pre-1990s NSL's embarrassingly sub-standard amateurism, was first-choice goalkeeper (Rebajlo shakes his head and smiles wryly...). Zabica was sent off in the first leg after something like fifteen minutes, with Mark Schwarzer being subbed on for his debut. Schwarzer, of course, made the crucial saves in the penalty shootout at the end of the second leg.

Then there was Alex Tobin at centre-back, a fellow who spent his entire career in Australia, yet managed to rack up 87 caps and captained (!) the side when we were infamously eliminated by Iran in 1998 (after watching that match on TV, I damaged my hands as a result of running straight to the garage to furiously hit the punching bag until I literally dropped from exhaustion - no hooligan's mentality here... :icon_wink:).

One of the "strikers" (that's a laugh) was Graham Arnold, a man (for want of a better word...) who has probably been the beneficiary of more luck than any other White footballer in history. Why? Because such a pitifully unskilled plonker could actually be a footballer, let alone play professionally for several seasons in the Netherlands and Belgium, plus a stint in Japan.

Even by the grunting, low-brow standards of footballers Graham Arnold is an intellectual midget, and a particularly stunted one at that. His village idiot speech matches his village idiot mug and he's the kind of half-baked oaf who'd enter a bathroom, eat the toilet paper, hang a crap on the floor, then wipe his arse with the curtains (provided he is even familiar with the latter "refinement"...). Quite naturally, such a prize-winning cerebral specimen went into football management, even acting as the Australian caretaker coach.

Arnold is currently the manager of A League club Central Coast Mariners and the fact that he has led them to successive top two placements in the regular season table (including last season's minor premiership) is a sad indictment of the competition's standards. The following story featuring Arnold illustrates some of the attitudes which have effectively sunk Australian football over the past decade:

http://www.smh.com.au/sport/football/mariners-look-to-new-caledonia-for-talent-20120824-24rst.html

The A League salary cap is surprisingly high for a country in which soccer is practically a "persecuted" sport - and that's the problem. The Australian domestic rugby league and Australian Rules competitions are obviously the best in the world (not that anyone else in the world really gives a toss about these sports...) while the A League simply provides a grotesque parody of professional football.

The NRL (i.e., rugby league) salary cap equates to something in the vicinity of $A 4.4 million, while the AFL (Australian Rules) cap is about $A 8.78 million. When comparing these figures, one must remember that the NRL money is spread across a squad of 25 players, while the AFL squads are much larger, consisting of about 40 players. Nevertheless, the AFL has the best deal by far, with the average player receiving the heftiest basic salary of the three codes, while the stars are on well over $A 500,000 per year.

A League squads are smaller - between 20 and 23 players - but each club can have one international marquee player plus one Australian marquee player, both of whose wages are exempt from the salary cap. If that wasn't enough, each club is also permitted one junior (i.e., under-23) Australian marquee player, who can technically be paid up to a whopping $A 150,000, although, given the paucity of young talent, the practice is rare.

The A League circus is continuing apace, with the Newcastle Jets signing Emile "Goal Machine" Heskey on a one year "marquee player" deal. Hell knows how much they are going to pay him. Put it this way - after scoring a gargantuan nine Premier League goals in three and a half seasons at Aston Villa, I'm sure it shall be money well spent, especially as Heskey shall be 35 in January.

Finally, just to disprove the popular mainstream opinion that the A League is a joke competition whose "stars" are scandalously overpaid has-beens or, mostly, never-beens, the 36-year old Michael Ballack is rumoured to be joining the newest "expansion" club, the Western Sydney Wanderers. At this rate, I wouldn't be at all surprised if David Beckham "finishes his career" in Australia...
 
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Rebajlo

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Don't worry Rebajlo. I am sure shortly Australia will have 5 or 6 naturalized Brazilians on the national team.

Europe -

Ha, ha! Yes, that could happen - if the twenty-fifth rate Brazilians who play in Australia weren't already in their late twenties or early thirties when they arrive. This means that if they manage to last here for the five years required to become eligible for citizenship (most simply hang around for a couple of seasons when they are quickly proven to be the flops that they are...) they would be in their mid to late thirties and therefore ready to retire. Mind You, with the average age of our team, such arthritic pensioners would fit in seamlessly. They could receive a complementary colostomy bag with their citizenship certificate...
 

frederic38

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Jun 22, 2011
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for the next qualifying matches, belgium called the black thug - litterally - mboyo:

624_341_28dbaf88fe804a52c39f5470ca11aa60-1323694947.jpg


mboyo, nicknamed "little pelé" :icon_confused:, has been called to replace the "new drogba", lukaku
mboyo was condemned to 7 years in jail for rape, and aggression
he was part of a "gang" named "african mafia"
ofcourse he was born in africa (congo)

http://www.7sur7.be/7s7/fr/1509/Foo...242/2012/10/10/Le-passe-charge-de-Mboyo.dhtml
 

Porthos

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Croatia has a second black in the national team. After the Brazilian Edoardo Da Silva, it is another Brazilian - Sammir who plays for Dinamo Zagreb.
The decision was controversial and deserves some background information.
Croatial football is "owned" by the Dinamo Zagreb boss Zdravko Mamic, who transformed his team into an import-export agency for players and earned a lot of money in the process. Dinamo Zagreb fans (the BBB - bad blue boys) are boycotting him and the games. In the last Champion's League game against Porto they had only 4000 spectators, one of the lowest attendance numbers in the CL history. However, it seems impossible to get rid of him. Indirectly he controls the Croatian Soccer Federation and even the referee organization through a complex web of nepotism and corruption. Dinamo Zagreb won the last 7 championships in a row, however the average attendance is around 2500 people. The new national team coach, Igor Stimac, used to be a big enemy of Mamic. However it seems that they joined forces and are more and more and more using the Croatian National Team as a way of raising player's prices in the expectation of selling these players to big European clubs.

In the last game Stimac played the 18 year old Josip Radošević from Hajduk Split in order to pump up his price. Now they are playing Sammir for the same reason. Croatian fans seem to be fed up and a lot of them are plain giving up on the national team and are hoping for a disastrous WC qualifying campaign to oust the current football power structure. Their main motto is "Samir nije Damir" ("Sammir is not Damir" - Damir being a traditional Croatian name, i.e. he's not one of us). A group of them even set up a facebook site against playing foreigners (and especially blacks) in the national team:
http://croatiantimes.com/?id=14041-newentry
 
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