Parrhesia Posted November 22, 2015 Author Share Posted November 22, 2015 (edited) Calling the referees in 2002 bribed is a big claim, lol. I mean, inept and useless, sure - Ben Williams officiated a World Cup knockout round for fuck's sake, and he wasn't even professional back then. It's important to remember that the depth of talent in referees worldwide, taking no more than one from each country and representing Africa, Asia and CONCACAF is going to lead to some bad, usually semi-professional referees who aren't up to scratch. Prime example was last AFC Champions League final - Al-Ahli were denied two blatant and one probable penalties against Western Sydney. The Japanese referee evidently really fucking hated the home side, but why would bribery be involved there? People can fuck it up at the big stage, and they don't come bigger than the World Cup. Intimidated, probably. Rubbish, yes. But bribed is a big call, and a big accusation against the Korean FA. I'd bet nobody would've complained if bad decisions had gone the way of a European heavyweight, after all... Besides, if matchfixing had been a possibility, surely it'd be Italy who did it best, right? Edited November 22, 2015 by Parrhesia Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynstein Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 Calling the referees in 2002 bribed is a big claim, lol. I mean, inept and useless, sure - Ben Williams officiated a World Cup knockout round for fuck's sake, and he wasn't even professional back then. It's important to remember that the depth of talent in referees worldwide, taking no more than one from each country and representing Africa, Asia and CONCACAF is going to lead to some bad, usually semi-professional referees who aren't up to scratch. Prime example was last AFC Champions League final - Al-Ahli were denied two blatant and one probable penalties against Western Sydney. The Japanese referee evidently really fucking hated the home side, but why would bribery be involved there? People can fuck it up at the big stage, and they don't come bigger than the World Cup. Intimidated, probably. Rubbish, yes. But bribed is a big call, and a big accusation against the Korean FA. I'd bet nobody would've complained if bad decisions had gone the way of a European heavyweight, after all... Besides, if matchfixing had been a possibility, surely it'd be Italy who did it best, right? You're probably not familiar with "Brazilian" culture. Whenever a referee makes a mistake, we say he was bribed by the winning side or the governing body. In 2002 WC case, though, I really believe FIFA was a bit "lenient" with officiating in those matches involving South Korea. Picking inexperienced referees to officiate big matches is a "clean" way of trying to influence match result. Brazil's match against Turkey in group stage was officiated by a South Korean referee who gifted Brazil a penalty kick, for example. I mean, when it comes to FIFA, we can never be surprised. The general public has no idea what FIFA is capable of, with compliance of the countries' FAs, which are corrupt for the most part. This Blatter scandal is only the tip of the iceberg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rei Rei Posted November 25, 2015 Share Posted November 25, 2015 The South Korean route in the 2002WC was really a weird one. They beat the absolute shit of the italian players, some straight red worthy tackles that got scot-free. Spain was even worse, having disallowed goals and such. The fact that they were the home squad, as Japan was already out by that point, only raises suspicions. As for Italy, I only recall them doing really dirty shit in their domestic leagues, as even in that Australian game in 2006 the penalty was actually rightfully awarded. On the subject of the 2014 WC not bringing inovations, I don't think it needed to. Changes in style are not that frequent, even with a 4 year time span. Even then, most games were absolutely entertaining, some even involving unlikely squads like Belgium, Argelia or USA. Every team had something amazing to offer, really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrhesia Posted December 3, 2015 Author Share Posted December 3, 2015 Fuck's sake. Thoughts? I'm against it but it is entirely possible that it could just be because the 32-team system is all I've ever known. Also because it's blatantly political. It won't be a disaster, but I feel personally like it'll dilute the worth from the tournament. Things... really seem fine as they are, to me at least. You get a bucket full of Europeans, you get (assuming the CONMEBOL side wins the playoff which it really always should) half of South America, you get a strong handful from the other confederations and then, well, OFC's fucked and this won't address its problems, the OFC literally just needs to be absorbed into the AFC. But New Zealand has a fair shot as it stands, though they're vastly inferior to most of their potential match-ups. Every significant confederation is represented but the quality is also high. And I just feel like this is going to fuck up that balance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynstein Posted December 3, 2015 Share Posted December 3, 2015 OFC with playoff still has a better chance of qualifying than through AFC qualifiers. New Zealand was unlucky the last time because they had to play Mexico in the playoff after Mexico had their worst campaign in a long time. If they drew a team like Honduras they would stand a much better chance. Personally I'd rather the Euro with 16 teams and the WC with 32 at most. But the FIFA and the UEFA are corrupt and they throw bones to small FAs to get their votes and keep themselves in power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrhesia Posted December 4, 2015 Author Share Posted December 4, 2015 OFC with playoff still has a better chance of qualifying than through AFC qualifiers. New Zealand was unlucky the last time because they had to play Mexico in the playoff after Mexico had their worst campaign in a long time. If they drew a team like Honduras they would stand a much better chance. That's not especially relevant. If New Zealand (and the rest of Oceania) can't play strong opposition, they'll never improve. Recent revamps to AFC qualifying means that the big guns are thrown in earlier, so minnows like Bhutan and Bangladesh are given a chance to try and compete against actual professionals. Sure, New Zealand's chance of getting to the World Cup decreases. But they'd be credible opposition in the (24-team as of next time lmao why) Asian Cup, they could maybe play a bigger part in an expanded A-League (Wellington's presence is, like, barely tolerated at the moment) and they'd certainly be pressing alongside all the mid-range Asian sides, Bahrain and Iraq and the like. Meanwhile, Tahiti/New Caledonia/whoever the fuck else have a healthy mix of nations to face off against. Everyone wins except, well, logistics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynstein Posted December 4, 2015 Share Posted December 4, 2015 (edited) That's not especially relevant. If New Zealand (and the rest of Oceania) can't play strong opposition, they'll never improve. Recent revamps to AFC qualifying means that the big guns are thrown in earlier, so minnows like Bhutan and Bangladesh are given a chance to try and compete against actual professionals. Sure, New Zealand's chance of getting to the World Cup decreases. But they'd be credible opposition in the (24-team as of next time lmao why) Asian Cup, they could maybe play a bigger part in an expanded A-League (Wellington's presence is, like, barely tolerated at the moment) and they'd certainly be pressing alongside all the mid-range Asian sides, Bahrain and Iraq and the like. Meanwhile, Tahiti/New Caledonia/whoever the fuck else have a healthy mix of nations to face off against. Everyone wins except, well, logistics. Good point about competitiveness. But I can't see how small islands in the middle of the Pacific can become at least a nuisance to strong Asian teams. Fiji has a decent rugby team, so it could also work in football. That being said, what improves countries the most is professionalism. San Marino, Liechtenstein, Andorra and others play European competition all the time, but the players aren't professional so they suffer a lot. They have a colossal physical and technical disadvantage. They interviewed a player from San Marino squad who lost to Germany 13-0 in 2006 and he said the Germans moved as if they weren't human compared to San Marino. Edited December 4, 2015 by Cerberus87 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tryhard Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 (edited) http://i.imgur.com/NuQZ4SG.gifv scumbag or genius??? at the very least the preceeding penalty call was a dive from the penalty taker Edited December 7, 2015 by Tryhard Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullwine85 Posted December 7, 2015 Share Posted December 7, 2015 Meanwhile, Portland win the MLS Cup 2-1 over Columbus in one of the most controversial finals ever, as Portland's 2nd goal looked to have crossed the touchline in the build-up to the goal. Of course, Portland's first goal was a result of Columbus GK Steve Clark's controller disconnecting, with Columbus's goal coming on goalkeeping error from Kwarasey. http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2015/12/06/columbus-crew-sc-1-portland-timbers-2-mls-cup-match-recap I love you, MLS, but there are times where you never cease to amaze me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrhesia Posted December 10, 2015 Author Share Posted December 10, 2015 CLUB WORLD CUP approaches does anyone give a shit I want to see the literal semi-pros of New Zealand come third again - however blatantly unlikely. Guangzhou aren't a side to take lightly and I'll freely admit I have no fucking clue about any team besides them, Barcelona or vaguely River Plate/Auckland. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynstein Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 CLUB WORLD CUP approaches does anyone give a shit Brazilians. :P (if there's a Brazilian side) Meh, River Plate will just be a sparring for Barça. A meteor will strike Earth if they win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rei Rei Posted December 10, 2015 Share Posted December 10, 2015 Usually we do, and we have this shitty habit of making fun of teams that lose the Club World Cup even tho they are there because they won the best fucking tournament ever aka Libertadores. Some stuff like Inter losing to Mazembe IS funny though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrhesia Posted December 11, 2015 Author Share Posted December 11, 2015 The Club World Cup is a legit big deal everywhere but Europe, I think. Its abrupt cancellation one year (2001?) was probably the death knell for the NSL, the old semi-professional league in Australia that predated the A-League. Admittedly, last time around it was a shambles. Western Sydney played one of their matches in, essentially, a swamp, during a bonuses dispute. FIFA's official Youtube channel's showing the highlights; https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ivIkWuwm-OAm7QrRcGSwOv Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullwine85 Posted December 11, 2015 Share Posted December 11, 2015 (edited) The Club World Cup is a legit big deal everywhere but Europe, I think. Its abrupt cancellation one year (2001?) was probably the death knell for the NSL, the old semi-professional league in Australia that predated the A-League. Admittedly, last time around it was a shambles. Western Sydney played one of their matches in, essentially, a swamp, during a bonuses dispute. FIFA's official Youtube channel's showing the highlights; https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ivIkWuwm-OAm7QrRcGSwOv Can confirm, at least on the North American side of things. One of the goals of any MLS side is to make it to the Club World Cup, but those pesky Liga MX teams always get in the way (Salt Lake and Montreal came close in 2011 and 2015 respectively). And I assure you, if a Liga MX team ever won the Club World Cup, fans of MLS teams would never hear the end of it from their fans ._. Edited December 11, 2015 by Bullwine85 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bullwine85 Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 The groups for Euro 2016 have been drawn! http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuro/season=2016/standings/index.html * Hosts France get one of the easier groups, drawing Albania, Romania, and Switzerland * Group F is also considerably a group of life with Portugal, Iceland, Austria, and Hungary, at least compared to some other groups. * England draw Wales in Group B. That's gonna be a GOOD one * Groups D and E look to be the toughest on paper. (Spain/Turkey/Czech Republic/Croatia in D, Belgium/Italy/Sweden/Rep. of Ireland in E) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Life Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 AND... we missed the EURO again. We had Belgium and Wales in our qualifying group, no chance we'd have made it. It just gets frustrating year after year to miss both the World Cup (because the Arabs refuse to play us when we're better than 90% of their squads) and the EURO (because we're not good enough to hang with European teams). Especially after that loss to Wales in March (my bar got overrun by about 500 Welshman who flew in for the game). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynstein Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 AND... we missed the EURO again. We had Belgium and Wales in our qualifying group, no chance we'd have made it. It just gets frustrating year after year to miss both the World Cup (because the Arabs refuse to play us when we're better than 90% of their squads) and the EURO (because we're not good enough to hang with European teams). Especially after that loss to Wales in March (my bar got overrun by about 500 Welshman who flew in for the game). If Israel played AFC qualifier the Arabs would be the lesser of your problems. :D Also, Israel has important advantage over all ME Arab countries, because their UEFA affiliation means their clubs play the European tournaments, where the competition is much stronger. It's a double-edged sword because you could aim for higher glory in the AFC Champions League but you also play more competitive tournament in UEFA level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynstein Posted December 13, 2015 Share Posted December 13, 2015 The Club World Cup is a legit big deal everywhere but Europe, I think. Its abrupt cancellation one year (2001?) was probably the death knell for the NSL, the old semi-professional league in Australia that predated the A-League. Admittedly, last time around it was a shambles. Western Sydney played one of their matches in, essentially, a swamp, during a bonuses dispute. FIFA's official Youtube channel's showing the highlights; https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCGIzmTE4d0ivIkWuwm-OAm7QrRcGSwOv The CWC history is an ugly one. ISL, which is one of the businesses mentioned in the FIFA scandal, went bankrupt after the 2000 Cup. Then FIFA just absorbed the Toyota Cup which is what should've done from the beginning and the tournament has taken place on a yearly basis ever since. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrhesia Posted December 14, 2015 Author Share Posted December 14, 2015 Nah, the level of competition is sufficient in the AFC that it'd be worth the chance of increased glory. Admittedly I don't know much about the West Asian sides except that, well, they are by far the weaker side of the draw. But I'd take that over being marooned in Europe with no reasonable expectation of success. Take Australia and Scotland for example - the A-League having recently been stated by one of the MacGowan brothers as stronger than the SPL (presumably excluding Celtic) but still presumably comparable. Would you rather be picked off in the preliminary rounds of a tournament, maybe with your best shot at glory making it as far as CL cannon fodder at best? Or would you take a realistic chance of glory (albeit as underdogs), and a definite chance of competitiveness? Could they win it? My only reference for the strength of Israeli clubs is 'lmao Nikita Rukavytsya has five goals in five?' but I'd have to imagine they'd at least be competitive, especially in West Asia. CWC news seems that Sanfrecce and Guangzhou are both in the semi-finals. If Barcelona don't take this seriously, Guangzhou might just upset the apple cart a little... but 'not taking it seriously' doesn't seem in Barcelona's character. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skynstein Posted December 14, 2015 Share Posted December 14, 2015 The SPL has always been about the Old Firm with the rare upset (Aberdeen from Sir Alex Ferguson), but most of Europe is like that, especially the smaller leagues. A region where the separation of leagues really hurt the strength of the teams was the Balkans. If you told someone born in 2000 that Crvena Zvezda once won the Champions League, they'd be baffled. Club football in the Balkans has been ruined by the war. The old USSR suffered less from it because the moguls kept injecting money into the clubs, so much that new clubs joined the forefront (Shakhtar Donetsk being the most famous example). Still, they were even stronger back in the Soviet days. You can bet Celtic and Rangers would love to leave the SPL and play in the EPL. They'd have access to millionaire contracts and far more exposure than they do up north. Just look at how Swansea is doing. And there's precedent, as there is a Welsh league but the stronger Welsh teams play under the English tier system. Furthermore, if Catalonia ever seceded from Spain, Barça and Espanyol would do everything to stay in La Liga. There was talk of Barça joining Ligue 1 to create a challenge to PSG, which would be interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrhesia Posted December 16, 2015 Author Share Posted December 16, 2015 i'm just gonna vent here for a second about how fucked the Australian national team has been this year Mat Ryan First-choice goalkeeper. Moved for eight million Euro to Valencia in the offseason. Legitimately world-class potential. Immediately suffered the first long-term injury of his career. Valencia's backup, Jaume Domenech, turned out to be the form keeper of the entire fucking world. Currently warming the bench. Mitch Langerak Second-choice goalkeeper. Moved from Dortmund to Stuttgart in the offseason. Legitimately pretty good. Immediately suffered the first long-term injury of his career. Currently warming the bench. Adam Federici Third-choice goalkeeper. Moved from Reading to be Bournemouth's backup in the offseason. Subversively, Boruc turned out to be incompetent, Federici stepped up... and immediately suffered the first long-term injury of his career. Currently either warming the bench or still being treated. I Forgot Josh Brillante Existed For A Second Moved to Fiorentina a couple of years ago. His debut was so incredibly bad that he was substituted off in the 35th minute, immediately loaned to Empoli (who never played him). Currently loaned to second-tier Como, who are playing him but are also going to be relegated. I worry for his mental state. Jason Davidson First-choice leftback. Signed for West Bromwich last season. Early change of manager to a new person who never played him. Signed for Huddersfield this season. A first-team regular. Manager sacked. New manager hasn't even included him in any of the matchday squads. Currently looking enviously from the stands. Mile Jedinak Captain, automatic starter, one of the two best players. Pretty much unanimously regarded as one of the Premiership's best midfielders (outside of the CL teams) for the past couple seasons. Has barely started this season. Luke Brattan Viable alternative holding midfielder. Inexplicably bought by Manchester City. Now playing for Bolton U21s. Massimo Luongo Best player of the Asian Cup, first-choice central midfielder. Signed for QPR this season. A first-team regular. Manager sacked. New manager hasn't even included him in any of the matchday squads. Currently looking enviously from the stands. Tom Rogic Plays for Celtic. Let's be real, he hasn't had a competitive fixture in a while. Robbie Kruse First-choice winger. Moved from Leverkusen to Stuttgart in the offseason. Legitimately pretty good. Immediately suffered the thousandth long-term injury of his career. Currently warming the bench. Tim Cahill Is seventy years old. James Troisi Somethingth-choice winger. Scored the winning goal in the Asian Cup final. Juventus bought out his contract, never played him, eventually released. Currently in West Asia, along with Mark Milligan a backup midfielder. Adam Taggart Played against Spain in the World Cup. Moved to Fulham. Immediately suffered the first and second serious injuries of his career. Currently on loan at Dundee United's bench, the worst team in the Scottish first tier. Terry Antonis Backup midfielder. Marked out for praise by Jose Mourinho and then moved from Sydney to PAOK in Greece. Is yet to play a league match for them. fuck everything Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tryhard Posted December 16, 2015 Share Posted December 16, 2015 Tom Rogic Plays for Celtic. Let's be real, he hasn't had a competitive fixture in a while. can confirm Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rei Rei Posted December 20, 2015 Share Posted December 20, 2015 fucking barcelona thrashing the competition at the club world cup suarez what a man Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Parrhesia Posted December 21, 2015 Author Share Posted December 21, 2015 CWC news seems that Sanfrecce and Guangzhou are both in the semi-finals. If Barcelona don't take this seriously, Guangzhou might just upset the apple cart a little... but 'not taking it seriously' doesn't seem in Barcelona's character. update they took it seriously lmao Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Passionfruit Cappuccino Posted December 22, 2015 Share Posted December 22, 2015 Tim Cahill Is a legend and can still play better than the rest of the team. Fixed Also, what happened to Matthew Leckie? He's a decent winger for Aus iirc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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