MrFlyingV
Flying V God
Germany are the good guys of 2018. Iceland will be the Cinderella we all love. Fuck Brazil.
Germany is my team but I would be very happy seeing Poland (Lewandowski) and Sweden go far too.
Germany are the good guys of 2018. Iceland will be the Cinderella we all love. Fuck Brazil.
I like polandGermany is my team but I would be very happy seeing Poland (Lewandowski) and Sweden go far too.
Definitely true and the changes will be swifter and more ruthless than here. I heard the coach is already gone and 3 players have decided that is it too.....so far.
Any idea on why the coach never put in Insigne? The guy is a really good striker and obviously, Italy very much needed a goal.
De Rossi thought so too. He was having a spat with Ventura about it. At half time the players should have duct taped Ventura to a toilet stall in the locker and finished the 2nd half on their own.
Yeah, our failure is totally dwarfed by this. Unbelievable that Italy won't be in the World Cup.
For me, happy to see Sweden get in...but it looked like today they had no interest in scoring. Full on defensive shell although they should have had 2 penalty shots for handballs....maybe.
ESPN had an article how Italy screwed up. One was they never played the FIFA rankings game properly and ignored friendlies losing to Haiti and Luxemburg and that affected their FIFA ranking and that put them in with Spain for Group play. Ouch. I never knew the importance of friendlies. They matter at certain times of the calendar. Groups were selected in July 2015 and your FIFA ranking that day is where you are put. That goes on Italian FA and Conte for not taking things seriously earlier. Of course the Italian cronism in their hierarchy for hiring Ventura was the other problem and probably age too...but this team was supposedly better than Conte's Euro '16 team that took Germany to penalties. That part is on Ventura.
And go Ireland! Its the only nationality rooting interest I have left!
After that, probably Belgium... Just familiar with a lot of their players.
and England I suppose. Though their fans are SOOOOO funny when they lose that I kinda secretly root for failure there... LOL!!
Used to live there and still have a lot of friends there. Lately, England fans have actually been realistic. Whereas in the past they thought they would win EVERY tournament they were in, then meltdown when they didn't, now most acknowledge that A) they were in the easiest qualifying group and B) They will most likely either not make it out of the group stage, or will squeak by and get put out in the first knockout game, basically the "same old same old".
True. But The Netherlands missed the last Euros also, so it wasn't a huge surprise. But the Italians are going mental.If you think U.S. fans are upset about missing the WC, take that and multiply it at least 10X and you'll have some idea of how angry Italy and the Netherlands are about missing out.
True. But The Netherlands missed the last Euros also, so it wasn't a huge surprise. But the Italians are going mental.
Yeah, he's going to probably need to get out of Italy for a while.I heard Ventura needed a police escort and had to go out the back door to get to his home yesterday. The risk of taking on the big gig with an international giant like Italy and failing. Arena seems to already been forgiven getting the FOX analysis gig so quickly. That ain't happening for Ventura. Sucks to be him.
Interesting stuff... Didn't know all that. I did wonder how Italy ended up with Spain in their group though. This explains it.
I looked back at July 2015 Fifa rankings. Dregs Romania, Slovakia, Wales, Austria, Croatia were Euro teams ranked higher than Italy then. Wow.
A couple of these teams were put in Pots as number 1 seeds of the 9 Groups but faded in strength as Group play progressed. What happened to Romania ranked #5 in Europe? Poland won that group and is much stronger than Romania now. Denmark in that group too.
Serbia won Group D. Luckiest team of all because 2015 semi-powers Wales and Austria in their group at that time both dropped off. If Italy is in that group, they are in World Cup I believe.
France was actually lower ranked than Italy then but got in a Group with the Netherlands who was the number 1 seed in Pot A. Netherlands faded too.
Poor Italy got in with Spain who has become much stronger now and is now a WC favorite.
Luck of the draw.
Age I think was the biggest factor (also lost LVG to MANu)I just don't understand what went wrong with the Netherlands after they made it to the SF in the 2014 WC