Useless bastards.
Nothing more to say.
Who?
Lucky I ate in Lygon St last weekend! ;)
Oh the shame
Welcome to the era of proffesional sports, where all the teams look the same wearing different colours, and anyone can beat anyone on any given day.
this isn't of great surprise to me.
You have to ask what a national team is these days. Many of the players are "global" and play in leagues other than their own national league.
Anyway, the World Cup competition will be the poorer without Italy and I can imagine the organisers would be unhappy with the loss of such a large number of supporters/viewers.
Aussies through...Italy, Netherlands out !
Aussies through...Italy, Netherlands out !
Good to see. May even watch some of it now.
Yes, good to see the Socceroos through. Hope they make the most of their chance.
Yes, good to see the Socceroos through. Hope they make the most of their chance.
Can't see us doing anything, they blamed the pitch for the horrible display in the first leg but the return trip wasn't much better.
I hope Ang does walk because I don't think his style is suited for the national team.
Think we played 22 games, lost just once but because of all the draws we played we had to do it the had way.
Still prefer to be us than Italy,The Netherlands, Chile and USA, who missed out.
How the F did the USA ever finish below Honduras. There are crap.
Think we played 22 games, lost just once but because of all the draws we played we had to do it the had way.
Still prefer to be us than Italy,The Netherlands, Chile and USA, who missed out.
How the F did the USA ever finish below Honduras. There are crap.
A phantom goal from Panama against Costa Rica knocked them out. Honduras should have qualified directly and we should have played the USA.
A phantom goal from Panama against Costa Rica knocked them out. Honduras should have qualified directly and we should have played the USA.
Even so, how do the USA ever finish below Honduras?
Even so, how do the USA ever finish below Honduras?
Probably deliberately.
I imagine a trip to Russia wouldn't exactly be high on the list of the government of USA for their own people.
We are talking about FIFA in the process here.
Not specific to Italy, but there is always that uncomfortable feel about the World Cup.
Too many opportunities exist for countries to deliberately throw a game which eliminates a more favored opponent. Completely unexpectedly a minnow defeats a giant and the giants main opponent gets the chop!
Fans of USA soccer would probably like to comment on that....
Not specific to Italy, but there is always that uncomfortable feel about the World Cup.
Too many opportunities exist for countries to deliberately throw a game which eliminates a more favored opponent. Completely unexpectedly a minnow defeats a giant and the giants main opponent gets the chop!
Really?
I don't think anyone can afford to drop any games in qualifying, because it can often just take 1 or 2 games and the seed falls to a playoff. Remember in Europe, it is only the top team in a division that gets an auto spot, the 2nd placed teams go into knockouts.
There is a lot of corruption in FIFA, particularly around bidding/playoffs etc, but I don't know about the whole throwing games. I really cannot think of an instance. where a giant has dropped a game so unexpectedly and it has seen a team drop in the way you suggest.
In fact recently in the South American playoffs, Argentina was a HUGE chance of being eliminated going into the last round, especially when they went down a goal in the 1st minute. Brazil was playing Chile at the same time and you would think they would much prefer Chile at the World Cup than Argentina (and Brazil was the only qualified team going into the last round from that group, though Uruguay was basically qualified also), yet they beat Chile and knocked them out of the World Cup.
To get a team sitting 1st (I can't see any other way a team not 1st could throw a game without seriously risking elimination) being beaten by a minnow as you call it... It happens so amazingly rarely that I think in those cases it almost certainly has to be a genuine upset that happens in sport.
Lot's of corruption in FIFA, lots of diving on the pitch, but I don't think there are many cases you could find of national teams throwing games in qualification against lower opposition