Image of the tournament. How do they say "souvlaki" in, er, North Macedonian, anyway? Too bad we don't still have that Greek guy who used to post here. Zeus?
Rebajlo -
zwycieski remis (victorious draw)
I'll have to remember that one. It reminds of the condescending "plucky loser" & "friendliest fans" stuff the English media always push on Rep of Ireland & Northern Ireland, and which, almost unbelievably to me, is actually embraced by the Irish on both sides of the border. Guess we're not that different after all. Thinking right now of how Irish supporters danced joyously having the time of their lives in Poznan or Gdansk or somewhere in 2012 as their team - the tournament's worst - was practically r*ped on the pitch by Spain. But they were plucky and had the most likeable fans, so that's something, apparently.
Matra2 -
That photo could have been taken in Wollongong. The two blokes at the left of the shot and the two in the doorway are representative of the kind of Macedonian types one encounters around here all of the time. Although, to be honest, they look far less annoying than our local specimens…
As Poland required an actual win instead of hanging on for a “winning draw”, they were naturally doomed to fail. Maintaining the time-honoured national tradition of conceding early goals in must-win matches, the Polish “defence” gave up a simple goal after 82 ******* seconds.
Despite being accustomed to the sight of panicked, hopelessly positioned, non-League level Polish backs since 1986 and having minimal enthusiasm for the sport these days, I literally almost vomited as I watched the parody of football that led to the goal. The lumbering 33-year old Kamil Glik (whose “expertise” helped Benevento get relegated from Serie A this season) sent Alexander Isak spinning in the air as he brutally bulldozed the Negro just outside the centre of the box in a textbook display of elegant, technical Polish defending. The ball broke to Emil Forsberg, who failed to control it but midfielder Kamil Jozwiak (who plies his “trade” with Derby County, a club that narrowly avoided relegation to League One after finishing a point above Wycombe Wanderers in the Championship - how’s that for unimpeachable international pedigree…) produced a piece of truly mesmerising skill: he missed the ball completely with a clumsy, U-10’s style attempt to hack it away. Forsberg probably couldn’t believe his luck as he was presented with the chance to lash the ball past Wojciech “Pack A Day” Szczesny, who’s about as solid as a newborn’s stool.
Dejan Kulusevski (who, despite being born in Stockholm, played a few games for Macedonia at U-17 level before doubtlessly reaching the patriotic conclusion that his international prospects were far better if he chose to “represent” Sweden) was allowed to run the length of the Polish half and - to top it off - remained unchallenged in the box as he teed up Forsberg for his second. As I said in my earlier post: Poland is the worst per capita footballing nation in Europe by a long stretch…
Lewandowski’s first goal was superb. One has to feel sorry for the bloke, as he plays in a miserably sub-standard national team of perennial losers whose “midfields” have provided him scant service even in games against below average opposition. He has now scored 69 goals in 122 international appearances but imagine how much higher both numbers would be had Lewandowski played for a competent footballing nation that regularly reaches the knockout stages of tournaments instead of routinely folding in its opening matches and subsequently being eliminated after three embarrassing outings.
I’m sure that if any of the brainless, blindly “patriotic” fat boy fans who perhaps constitute the greatest ill of Polish football happened to read this they’d instantly label me a liar and a “traitor” and would bluster and brag about their national team heroically reaching the quarterfinals of Euro 2016. But, being the brainless, blindly “patriotic” fat boys that they are, they’d be too stupid to realise that this single occasion on which Poland has managed to dig itself out of the first round of a tournament since 1986 was simply down to pure serendipity. Having squeezed past Northern Ireland (population circa. 1.9 million) by a score of 1-0 in the opening game, Poland played out one of their celebrated “winning draws” by holding on for 0-0 against a German team that was already clearly in decline yet still comfortably enjoyed 63% of possession and wasn’t troubled by a single shot on their goal. Poland completed this “historic”, first-ever advance past the first round at a European Championship (remember, we are talking about a nation with a population of almost 40 million…) with another 1-0 victory, this time over Ukraine - who had already lost their first two games in which they hadn’t scored a single goal. ******* Homeric stuff…
Hopefully, Wales can get past Denmark. England may be too heavily black for me to “support” but, as always, I wish to see Wales (and Scotland) do well. At least their squads and starting lineups aren’t overloaded with Negroes (although even one Negro is one Negro too many…). Despite playing two of their games at Hampden Park, Scotland predictably lost both and thereby maintained that unenviable record of never having progressed past the group stage of a finals tournament.
Unfortunately, I’ve just learned that Wales striker Kieffer Moore’s maternal great-grandfather was bloody Chinese so that’s one less White. As things go, Moore “qualifies” for Wales through his paternal grandfather...
Seven of Wales’ White players are only part Welsh and were born in England.
Sean89 said:
I personally have low interest in Ireland football because of the use of English rejects and now the African brigade are on the way.
Sean89 -
I have always vehemently disapproved of the Irish, Scottish, and Welsh practice of selecting English-born players of mixed ancestry who supposedly “qualify” to represent those nations via the so-called “grandparent rule”. The same goes for other nations who recruit players in a similar manner. I can understand if an English-born player whose parents are both Irish unequivocally declares his wish to represent Ireland from childhood, pointedly declines to appear for England at youth level and is subsequently selected for the Republic, but all of this bollocks about “qualifying” through the likes of a single Irish grandparent is an insult to the very concept of both international football and - more importantly - national identity. Mind you, if a player did decide to embark upon such a course, the English fans would naturally have every right to perceive him as a traitor and hurl abuse at him at every opportunity.
Of course, this may all sound rather pedantic and hypocritical coming from an Australian of Anglo-Celtic-Slavic extraction who, according to the rules governing selection for international football, would himself have “qualified” to play for either Australia, England, or Poland...
