Euro Qualifying

[Gurleyman]

Early on in the process, so these results don't mean that much, but a couple interesting finals.

Portugal (sans Ronaldo) lost at home to Albania 1-0. Great strike by the Albanian forward on the goal and Portugal was a bit unlucky clanging the crossbar at one point. Portugal supporters booed (or whistled) the team off the field waving white handkerchiefs.
Northern Ireland with a late goal to surprise Hungary 2-1
Scotland gave Germany a decent game, losing 2-1, but I don't suspect Germany was going full bore. They don't have to worry about qualifying.
Gibraltar - a piece of rock with 30,000 people that is now fielding it's own team made up mostly of travel agents - lost to Poland 7-0. It was only 1-0 at the half. The roof caved in.

 

[SAMCRO]

Romania beating Greece 1-0, at Greece, is an upset. Romania was playing a man down the final 37 minutes too.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Germany was missing about 6 players from the Cup team, not sure if that result shows how deep they are or how weak the Scots are.

 

[Gurleyman]

Romania beating Greece 1-0, at Greece, is an upset. Romania was playing a man down the final 37 minutes too.

I wasn't all that surprised by that score, given Greece's propensity to play 1-0 games and hope they get the 1, but didn't realize Romania was a man down for so long. That's an impressive road result.

I'm of Finnish descent and we've had a rough go of it lately - shut out by USA for a quarter in hoops and then falling behind to some islands in soccer today before coming back. Bring on hockey and ski jumping, quick!

 

[ZooCougar]

Portugal is Clemsoning again.

 

[SAMCRO]

Here's Gibaltar's starting lineup, w/ each players real profession under his name. Good for them.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Here's Gibaltar's starting lineup, w/ each players real profession under his name. Good for them.

Within my lifetime, the same could have been done for the USMNT. Glad things have changed.

 

[SAMCRO]

Welbeck with 2 goals for England's 2-0 win over Switzerland.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Welbeck with 2 goals for England's 2-0 win over Switzerland.

I saw that and may have acted like my 7 month old male puppy that I have at home for a moment hoping that Welbeck's Euro performance could translate into a similar performance for the Gunners.

 

[upstater]

I wasn't all that surprised by that score, given Greece's propensity to play 1-0 games and hope they get the 1, but didn't realize Romania was a man down for so long. That's an impressive road result.

I watche dthe game since I follow Greece. This is one of the most frustrating things about soccer, when the ref calls an early penalty that's iffy but can pass because of contact, but he won't call a more egregious penalty later on the other side.

I feel like once you've given one team a penalty for contact in the penalty area, you have to reciprocate if there's contact the other way.

This Greece team has more talent than I can ever remember since watching them in the 1970s. They have more players at top clubs and top leagues than ever before, with 4 players at good teams in the Bundesliga, 9 players in Serie A including 3 at Roma and 2 at Udinese, 1 at Benfica, 2 in La Liga, 3 in the Premier League, and a raft of them playing for the Greek Champions League club Olympiakos.

Olympiakos actually sold 4 Greek players this year for over 50 million euros.

 

[meyers7]

Here's Gibaltar's starting lineup, w/ each players real profession under his name. Good for them.

hmmm, wonder if I can get a Gibraltar passport?

 

[meyers7]

Welbeck with 2 goals for England's 2-0 win over Switzerland.

Playing like a Gunner.

 

[meyers7]

Germany was missing about 6 players from the Cup team, not sure if that result shows how deep they are or how weak the Scots are.

A little of both. Attacking wise, the Germans are really deep. Ozil, Gomez, Draxler, Kruse, Volland didn't play or weren't even in the squad. Along with Khedira, Schweinsteiger, Bender(s), Hummels. Lots of talent there, and most of it pretty young.

 

[SAMCRO]

Germany will be odds on favorite to win Euro's 2016, as well as 2018 WC in Russia. They are loaded and relatively young. Should be a fun tournament...when it finally arrives. For now i'll enjoy watching the qualifying over the next 12-18 months.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Germany will be odds on favorite to win Euro's 2016, as well as 2018 WC in Russia. They are loaded and relatively young. Should be a fun tournament...when it finally arrives. For now i'll enjoy watching the qualifying over the next 12-18 months.

Plus, the US will be in the Group of Death (again) while Russia will have the easiest road to the semi-finals absolutely possible.

 

[SAMCRO]

Czech Republic upset the Netherlands 2-1. The Oranje were playing their A team w/ RVP, Shneider, Depay, De Jong, Cleissen to name a few. Good win for the CR.

Iceland throttled Turkey 3-0, Sigurdson's red-hot play carrying over w/ his country, nets a goal.

Cyprus upsets Bosnia, in Bosnia.

 

[Gurleyman]

Czech Republic upset the Netherlands 2-1. The Oranje were playing their A team w/ RVP, Shneider, Depay, De Jong, Cleissen to name a few. Good win for the CR. Iceland throttled Turkey 3-0, Sigurdson's red-hot play carrying over w/ his country, nets a goal. Cyprus upsets Bosnia, in Bosnia.

What an awful mistake by NED on the game winner in stoppage time. Tried to head it back to their own GK and damn near lost on an own goal. Instead it hit the post and came back into play to give the Czechs a sitter. Great strike by Sigurdson - almost saved, but the ball trickled over. Iceland would have buried the rebound if it didn't cross.

Bale had some kind of free kick for Wales to beat Andorra. Just over the heads of the jumping wall and dipping down. Hard kick to execute. You have to go to around 4:50 of these highlights to see it.

 

[ZooCougar]

What an awful mistake by NED on the game winner in stoppage time. Tried to head it back to their own GK and damn near lost on an own goal. Instead it hit the post and came back into play to give the Czechs a sitter. Great strike by Sigurdson - almost saved, but the ball trickled over. Iceland would have buried the rebound if it didn't cross.

Bale had some kind of free kick for Wales to beat Andorra. Just over the heads of the jumping wall and dipping down. Hard kick to execute. You have to go to around 4:50 of these highlights to see it.

Andorra's keeper absolutely should have made that save, but still it's Gareth Bale. And he scored both goals for Wales.

 

[progrocks]

remember, the euro is expanding to 24, so a loss does not matter that much. all the good teams will make it in the end

 

[meyers7]

remember, the euro is expanding to 24, so a loss does not matter that much. all the good teams will make it in the end

And some not so good.

 

[SAMCRO]

remember, the euro is expanding to 24, so a loss does not matter that much. all the good teams will make it in the end

How are they going to work 24 teams? Assuming it is 6 groups of 4, and the top 2 teams advancing along with the 4 best 3rd place teams in terms of points, goal diff, then goals scored to get them to a 16 team knockout round. Only other alternative is a 4 groups of 6 (playing 5 group stage games, which is a lot) with the top 2 teams from the 4 groups advancing to the quarters.

 

[ZooCougar]

remember, the euro is expanding to 24, so a loss does not matter that much. all the good teams will make it in the end

This. It's crazy, the number of international games will keep growing. I think the idea is to let some of these smaller countries have more of a chance to qualify for a big tournament. And I think the sport will be better if a Scotland or a Wales can get into Euro 2016.

I watched the second half of that Wales-Andorra game. Andorra almost looked like an Alumni team lol. Wales will be interesting to watch because Gareth Bale is going to try and pick up that team on his back and carry them into the tournament. That dude is a total freak. If he were an American, he would be catching passes from Peyton or Tom on Sundays. Damn, we need to get just a few more of our really elite athletes to play soccer we could have 5-6 Gareth Bales if tiny Wales can pump out one. Thank God he is not English.

 

[SAMCRO]

2nd and 3rd matches of Euro Qualifying resume tomorrow thru Tuesday. There's really no "marquis" matchups, but I'd guess the bigger named pairings would be. .
Russia @ Sweden on Thursday
Germany @ Poland on Saturday
Ireland @ Germany on Tuesday

Wales has two big matches to position themselves as a qualifier hosting Bosnia and @ Andorra. Belgium is a shoe-in to win the group, and after that you have Wales, Bosnia, Israel and Cyprus to battle it out for the the all important 2nd and 3rd place spots (2nd place qualifies for the tournament and 3rd place does a "play-in" home and home with another 3rd place team).