The England thread

[cmb211087]

I had a 6 team.accumulator of £14 on Spain, Holland, Germany, France, Portugal & England. To say I was fuming was an understatement.

[TCO]

Armenia have been really consistent in the qaulifiers so far, we beat them over there narrowly, IIRC it was a Keith Fahy strike that saved it but combined with them pasting Slovakia recently they've kept up pace.

I don't see a way they're coming to Dublin and taking 3 points, we know what's at stake and what we need to get to go through and Trap with his rigid formation is the master of getting what's required in these situations. Looking at the other 2nd place temas I fancy our chances in the play-offs but I'll be happy just as long as it's not seeded and we're not cheated out by a massive cunt and his cunty left hand.

[IAceI]

Thank God I couldn't get the Armenia game on my phone coz I was gonna put them AND Ireland to win to nil and Armenia conceded. Also my mates phone said Andorra equalised to 1-1 against Ireland. I was fucking howling till I realised.

As for England. Well, scraped a draw in a tough place. But yeah, can't throw away 2-0 leads like that but there ya go. Typical England. Should have just washed my hair or something instead.

[TCO]

We really need to change this to an International football thread.

Anyway looking at the playoff standings now, Denmark/Portugal are going through as the best runners up but I haven't worked out the maths because they're playing each other in a huge game and my best guess at the remaining 8 are

Turkey

Republic of Ireland

Estonia

Bosnia and Herzegovina

Sweden

Croatia

Montenegro

Czech Republic

What pleases me is that there's no real superstar teams this time around, the last time they seeded it so France, Portugal and Russia had a better chance to make the World Cup but thankfully they shouldn't do it this time around. I'm pulling for Estonia anyway should we get our point against Armenia on Tuesday and otherwise hoping Portugal don't get landed in the playoffs and if we can't draw Estonia, Serbia get thieir spot and we get the epic Serbia vs Montengro clash, while we draw Scotland who luck out to get in.

Anything can change though, can't wait for Tuesday's games now.

[IAceI]

I'd absolute love it if we got to see Bosnia, Montenegro, Armenia and Estonia at Euro 2012. I'd probably support all of them over England in the end.

ARMENIA!

[hugobomb]

Armenia have been really consistent in the qaulifiers so far, we beat them over there narrowly, IIRC it was a Keith Fahy strike that saved it but combined with them pasting Slovakia recently they've kept up pace.

I don't see a way they're coming to Dublin and taking 3 points, we know what's at stake and what we need to get to go through and Trap with his rigid formation is the master of getting what's required in these situations. Looking at the other 2nd place temas I fancy our chances in the play-offs but I'll be happy just as long as it's not seeded and we're not cheated out by a massive cunt and his cunty left hand.

It's going to be seeded. The top ranked four sides will play their second leg at home. Shouldn't screw Ireland over too bad this time

[Hobo]

We really need to change this to an International football thread.

Isn't there actually an International Football thread? I think with the board being weighted more to England than anywhere else, it won't make much of a difference.

[TCO]

Armenia have been really consistent in the qaulifiers so far, we beat them over there narrowly, IIRC it was a Keith Fahy strike that saved it but combined with them pasting Slovakia recently they've kept up pace.

I don't see a way they're coming to Dublin and taking 3 points, we know what's at stake and what we need to get to go through and Trap with his rigid formation is the master of getting what's required in these situations. Looking at the other 2nd place temas I fancy our chances in the play-offs but I'll be happy just as long as it's not seeded and we're not cheated out by a massive cunt and his cunty left hand.

It's going to be seeded. The top ranked four sides will play their second leg at home. Shouldn't screw Ireland over too bad this time

Is it the top 4 ranked in the 2nd place table or is it the top 4 in the world rankings? If it's the latter it's still bullshit?

[Grounded Wingman]

Armenia have been really consistent in the qaulifiers so far, we beat them over there narrowly, IIRC it was a Keith Fahy strike that saved it but combined with them pasting Slovakia recently they've kept up pace.

I don't see a way they're coming to Dublin and taking 3 points, we know what's at stake and what we need to get to go through and Trap with his rigid formation is the master of getting what's required in these situations. Looking at the other 2nd place temas I fancy our chances in the play-offs but I'll be happy just as long as it's not seeded and we're not cheated out by a massive cunt and his cunty left hand.

It's going to be seeded. The top ranked four sides will play their second leg at home. Shouldn't screw Ireland over too bad this time

Is it the top 4 ranked in the 2nd place table or is it the top 4 in the world rankings? If it's the latter it's still bullshit?

I think it's based on the UEFA co-efficient. So it's based on the qualifying and tournaments for Euro 2008, World Cup 2010 and Euro 2012.

[Colly]

Armenia have been really consistent in the qaulifiers so far, we beat them over there narrowly, IIRC it was a Keith Fahy strike that saved it but combined with them pasting Slovakia recently they've kept up pace.

I don't see a way they're coming to Dublin and taking 3 points, we know what's at stake and what we need to get to go through and Trap with his rigid formation is the master of getting what's required in these situations. Looking at the other 2nd place temas I fancy our chances in the play-offs but I'll be happy just as long as it's not seeded and we're not cheated out by a massive cunt and his cunty left hand.

It's going to be seeded. The top ranked four sides will play their second leg at home. Shouldn't screw Ireland over too bad this time

Am I the only one who has no issue with the seeding system? The qualifying groups are seeded, the tournaments themselves are seeded, so why not the playoffs? The moan about Ireland/France last time basically came down to 'why do we have to play a hard team?', and if you aren't prepared to take on hard teams you shouldn't be going to tournaments anyway. I know the problem was it hadn't been mentioned until late on in the process, but it makes sense to me to have the best teams in major tournaments, and it evens out better teams in tough groups.

[Matt]

Armenia have been really consistent in the qaulifiers so far, we beat them over there narrowly, IIRC it was a Keith Fahy strike that saved it but combined with them pasting Slovakia recently they've kept up pace.

I don't see a way they're coming to Dublin and taking 3 points, we know what's at stake and what we need to get to go through and Trap with his rigid formation is the master of getting what's required in these situations. Looking at the other 2nd place temas I fancy our chances in the play-offs but I'll be happy just as long as it's not seeded and we're not cheated out by a massive cunt and his cunty left hand.

It's going to be seeded. The top ranked four sides will play their second leg at home. Shouldn't screw Ireland over too bad this time

Am I the only one who has no issue with the seeding system? The qualifying groups are seeded, the tournaments themselves are seeded, so why not the playoffs? The moan about Ireland/France last time basically came down to 'why do we have to play a hard team?', and if you aren't prepared to take on hard teams you shouldn't be going to tournaments anyway. I know the problem was it hadn't been mentioned until late on in the process, but it makes sense to me to have the best teams in major tournaments, and it evens out better teams in tough groups.

My main problems with it are A) the ranking system is retarded and B) they didn't announce the world cup playoffs were seeded until just before the draw, almost as if they were trying to ensure that all the big teams got through. I've no idea when they announced it this time, but assuming it was towards the start of qualifying, I have no problem with it other than it should be based on their performance in the group rather than the rankings.

[TCO]

Am I the only one who has no issue with the seeding system? The qualifying groups are seeded, the tournaments themselves are seeded, so why not the playoffs? The moan about Ireland/France last time basically came down to 'why do we have to play a hard team?', and if you aren't prepared to take on hard teams you shouldn't be going to tournaments anyway. I know the problem was it hadn't been mentioned until late on in the process, but it makes sense to me to have the best teams in major tournaments, and it evens out better teams in tough groups.

The play-offs shouldn't be seeded because all the teams in the that are equal because they all finished 2nd, why should the "bigger" teams get an advantage when they're equally incapable of winning their group despite getting the earlier advantage of a no.1 seed. Why should we have had to face France and with them getting the home tie in the 2nd leg when we both finished 2nd in our respective groups, us in a group with Italy whilst those cheating cunts couldn't get past Serbia, other than FIFA's retarded ranking system?

The only reason it was seeded was so France and Portugal would qualify, no other reason at all. It's unfair and quite frankly it's bullshit that it's happening again.

[hugobomb]

Armenia have been really consistent in the qaulifiers so far, we beat them over there narrowly, IIRC it was a Keith Fahy strike that saved it but combined with them pasting Slovakia recently they've kept up pace.

I don't see a way they're coming to Dublin and taking 3 points, we know what's at stake and what we need to get to go through and Trap with his rigid formation is the master of getting what's required in these situations. Looking at the other 2nd place temas I fancy our chances in the play-offs but I'll be happy just as long as it's not seeded and we're not cheated out by a massive cunt and his cunty left hand.

It's going to be seeded. The top ranked four sides will play their second leg at home. Shouldn't screw Ireland over too bad this time

Is it the top 4 ranked in the 2nd place table or is it the top 4 in the world rankings? If it's the latter it's still bullshit?

Like said above it's down to the co-efficient, the offical breakdown of how they decide the ranking is thus:

40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the UEFA Euro 2012 qualifying stage.

40% of the average ranking points per game earned in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifying stage and final tournament.

20% of the average ranking points per game earned in the UEFA Euro 2008 qualifying stage and final tournament

So all those draws could rear up and bite you when it comes to seeding.

[Colly]

Am I the only one who has no issue with the seeding system? The qualifying groups are seeded, the tournaments themselves are seeded, so why not the playoffs? The moan about Ireland/France last time basically came down to 'why do we have to play a hard team?', and if you aren't prepared to take on hard teams you shouldn't be going to tournaments anyway. I know the problem was it hadn't been mentioned until late on in the process, but it makes sense to me to have the best teams in major tournaments, and it evens out better teams in tough groups.

The play-offs shouldn't be seeded because all the teams in the that are equal because they all finished 2nd, why should the "bigger" teams get an advantage when they're equally incapable of winning their group despite getting the earlier advantage of a no.1 seed. Why should we have had to face France and with them getting the home tie in the 2nd leg when we both finished 2nd in our respective groups, us in a group with Italy whilst those cheating cunts couldn't get past Serbia, other than FIFA's retarded ranking system?

The only reason it was seeded was so France and Portugal would qualify, no other reason at all. It's unfair and quite frankly it's bullshit that it's happening again.

I get the argument of the seeding system being shit, because it is, but I still don't have a problem with helping the big teams along. They're after the best tournament possible, and if one of those teams is moaning about having to face the standard of team they'll meet in the group stage anyway why bother in the first place? As it stood Ireland very nearly qualified anyway.

I'd much rather have Holland etc than two also rans flukily getting each other in a playoff after finishing second in two weak groups, only to go out in the first round of the tournament.

[Starvinho]

I'd absolute love it if we got to see Bosnia, Montenegro, Armenia and Estonia at Euro 2012. I'd probably support all of them over England in the end.

ARMENIA!

Next time round in 2016 it'll be a 24 team tournament finals instead of 16 so I think then we'll start seeing more of those mentioned teams qualifying more often. Be good to see Wales and Northern Ireland in the finals of a major tournament too if you ask me, hopefully Scotland and Rep Ireland will get there this time round though, Spain might roll over for the Scots you never know!

[Lineker]

We really need to change this to an International football thread.

Isn't there actually an International Football thread? I think with the board being weighted more to England than anywhere else, it won't make much of a difference.

There is one called something like that, but it's mostly where I post "lol, Fifa" stuff.

Either just post in the General Football thread, or have this one renamed to "The UK & Ireland thread" and create a "Non-UK International Football thread"

[Matt]

Or just call this the International football thread, what's the point creating a thread solely for Quasi to talk about Netherlands?

Edit:

I'd absolute love it if we got to see Bosnia, Montenegro, Armenia and Estonia at Euro 2012. I'd probably support all of them over England in the end.

ARMENIA!

Next time round in 2016 it'll be a 24 team tournament finals instead of 16 so I think then we'll start seeing more of those mentioned teams qualifying more often. Be good to see Wales and Northern Ireland in the finals of a major tournament too if you ask me, hopefully Scotland and Rep Ireland will get there this time round though, Spain might roll over for the Scots you never know!

Wait what? How does that work?

[Lineker]

We have a USMNT thread, so why not

[Starvinho]

Or just call this the International football thread, what's the point creating a thread solely for Quasi to talk about Netherlands?

Edit:

I'd absolute love it if we got to see Bosnia, Montenegro, Armenia and Estonia at Euro 2012. I'd probably support all of them over England in the end.

ARMENIA!

Next time round in 2016 it'll be a 24 team tournament finals instead of 16 so I think then we'll start seeing more of those mentioned teams qualifying more often. Be good to see Wales and Northern Ireland in the finals of a major tournament too if you ask me, hopefully Scotland and Rep Ireland will get there this time round though, Spain might roll over for the Scots you never know!

Wait what? How does that work?

From wiki;

The format of the final tournament will consist of six groups of four teams, followed by a round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and final. The top two from each group would qualify in addition to the four best third-ranked sides, the same system as was applied in the World Cups from 1986 to 1994. This format would generate a total of 51 games, compared with 31 now, to be played over a period of 29-31 days.

[Lineker]

UEFA are set to decide on Wayne Rooney's ban length on Thursday.