er yir macaroon Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Iceland have bred a once in a lifetime set of players there. Be interesting to see how they managed it! They did indeed manage it, in the true sense of the word, so no fluke. It was money and effort, and if they keep up the investment it will continue indefinitely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Gas Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Hope Germany do a 'Spain' and flop out in the first round. Surely that's called a "Scotland"? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
badly Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Here's what 5 things we need to do, of the top of my head, if we're to ever develop players good enough... -Install proper winter facilities for kids to play competitive football throughout the year. -Find a way for the old firm to join the English Premiership. -Find a way to bypass EU laws that make it almost impossible for schools and youth organisations to have football games without the parents having to assist in transportation. -Invest in coaching. Pay youth coaches a living wage so that it becomes a viable career path for those talented enough to make a difference. -Teach kids of 15,16 and 17 that to be a top professional footballer they have to make sacrifices and behave like top professional athletes in other sports. 16 strong premier league Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally Bongo Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 Iceland have bred a once in a lifetime set of players there. Be interesting to see how they managed it! https://sports.vice.com/en_us/article/life-as-struggle-how-iceland-became-the-worlds-best-pound-for-pound-soccer-team Today in Iceland, finding a top coach is about as easy as going to the next village. "I don't think anywhere else in the world has as many qualified coaches from UEFA A and UEFA B per player," said coach Heimir. In short, the UEFA A and B licenses are required to work in professional club and youth coaching, respectively, across Europe. The licensing structure has done a great deal to standardize the level of instruction players receive, and in general, the more qualified coaches a country has the better that country is at soccer. An official at the Icelandic Football Association told VICE Sports the country had 563 UEFA B- and 165 UEFA A-licensed coaches "at the end of 2013." That doesn't sound like much, but it's more coaches per capita than either Spain or Germany. "Here it doesn't matter how big or small the village, they have qualified coaches, equally good coaches [as] clubs in the [icelandic] Premier League," said Heimir. "They have the same development no matter where they live. I think that's such a huge benefit for Icelandic football. It's kind of an ambition for every village to have a good coach, to have good facilities for training the kids. So every village is proud to have produced good football players." Coaching is only one aspect of the country's sporting evolution. In the mid-90s, Iceland's soccer facilities were fairly poor. In the winter, playing was difficult if not altogether impossible. "[Today,] the facilities are really much better than they were for instance, when I was playing," said Heimir, who played first-division soccer in the Icelandic league beginning in the late 80s. In the last decade, Iceland has built seven full-sized and four half-sized indoor soccer fields, and "we have 5-a-side artificial pitches on the school premises at every children's school in Iceland. Probably every club in the country has some kind of an artificial pitch, so we can use that 12 months a year." As a result, Iceland has produced a lot more talented young players over the last decade than it ever has before—something that is likely to continue. The infrastructure and coaching boom didn't really take hold until most of the current national team players were teenagers. There are five-year-olds out there making use of it all now. Because the Icelandic Premier League is semi-pro, top Icelandic players are inexpensive for European teams to sign. But it's a two-way street. For a player with ambition, the only way to achieve your dream is to go abroad. The country has 58 senior professionals playing in Europe with another 23 in youth divisions on the continent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jock strap Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Surely that's called a "Scotland"? Surely you need to qualify to go oot in the first round ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally Bongo Posted October 9, 2015 Author Share Posted October 9, 2015 So there it is - and unlikely to be once in a lifetime I believe Scotland has 1 indoor pitch and our SFA has had way more money than Iceland over the years You want to look at mismanagement then look no further And whilst we regularly hear about Largs and the coaches we produce - turns out it's peanuts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz1982 Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 (edited) At last a reasonable response to what happened. That flukey goal doesn't make it over the line in the last second, the Irish stop being a jammy shower of c''nts for once, and we are being lauded as heroes, but essentially nothing about our performance would be different. Fickle doesn't even come close. Supporting Scotland sucks beyond belief and that was only compounded by having to witness my 12 year old son in tears at the end of the game. I feel like telling him right now to give it up as no good can ever come from it. Unless the Government can get involved and strive to make us luckier!There is no doubt that we were in tough group, however if we had qualified from a weaker group surely that would only disguise the problems within. We put ourselves in a great position but when the heat was on and a big result was required (Georgia away) we simply didn't turn up. When Germany came to town we were too busy falling over ourselves, praising the Germans in every way possible making it seem impossible that we could ever dream of getting any kind of result against them! This inferiority complex pre-match build up was reflected in the performance, on the back foot from the kick off, like rabbits caught in the headlights! Did we ever believe we could actually beat Germany?Of course this has been going on for years now, different managers, players and even fans, but same old end result. Has the confidence and belief of our nation ever been so low? I listened to a phone in earlier today when a caller suggested (I think tongue in cheek) that we are only a region of the UK and that we should compete as the UK in all sports. To be honest it would be hard to argue against this considering what we as a nation voted for last September. I wonder how many of the downtrodden 'scots' who voted this way would be up in arms against such an idea and how many of those would travel to London to watch the home games? It's a sad state of affairs but as a nation we are all too happy just to compete and make up the numbers. There is no real desire and ambition to achieve much more than that, it's deep rooted in our psyche. Until this changes we can only look forward to future failures and hard luck stories. Edited October 9, 2015 by Daz1982 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macy37 Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Ireland have secured at least a play off due to playing to strengths. tough team to beat. 5 goals conceded is it not? What's ours? Without looking it must be what 10/11?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirk Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Here's what 5 things we need to do, of the top of my head, if we're to ever develop players good enough... -Install proper winter facilities for kids to play competitive football throughout the year. -Find a way for the old firm to join the English Premiership. -Find a way to bypass EU laws that make it almost impossible for schools and youth organisations to have football games without the parents having to assist in transportation. -Invest in coaching. Pay youth coaches a living wage so that it becomes a viable career path for those talented enough to make a difference. -Teach kids of 15,16 and 17 that to be a top professional footballer they have to make sacrifices and behave like top professional athletes in other sports. They can hire a bus to take kids to football games. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flynnyboy Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 So there it is - and unlikely to be once in a lifetime I believe Scotland has 1 indoor pitch and our SFA has had way more money than Iceland over the years You want to look at mismanagement then look no further And whilst we regularly hear about Largs and the coaches we produce - turns out it's peanuts There are two full sized indoor pitches within 10 miles of you if live in the town of the team you support mate. However that being said. I still completely agree with everything you have said in respect of our investment in the game and that article relative to the Icelandic revelution is particularly damning when compared to what we have done. Or not done. Ricky scbragia was promoted to u21 gig shortly after admitting picking a side for physicality and running reasons rather than technical ability whilst in charge of the u19s. That mindset may be more of an issue rather than lack of facilities. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
newtownards Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Can't disagree with any of that, thanks to the unionists they made sure that we didn't have a chance at hosting a tournament and all the good stuff that would have come with it. Time people started paying attention, this union is shafting us in more ways than one. Head in the sand ignorance. lol..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
King Of Paisley Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Fear not, everyone. The knight in shining armour that is Sbragia will cure all our ills by producing hand-reared 'runners' with an average height of 6'9 The sooner we empty fuds like this and bring in forward thinking coaches at all who will not prejudice against fleet-footed talents that are 5'5 the better. Don't tell me the talent ain't there, it is how you nurture it. The way things are, we try and coach any individual talent out of young kids and turn them into robots. Something that goes way back to Andy bloody Roxburgh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheesynsicksheep Posted October 9, 2015 Share Posted October 9, 2015 Really got to voice my opinion here. WGS said earlier in the campaign we were searching for our style of football. Last night in the 2nd half we saw it, aggressive closing down of the opposition, fast, high tempo attacking. That's it. When we retreated into our shell we looked like a goal against was inevitable. So that's how we play, weirdly it's how our domestic league is played. Coincidence ? How to become better...well, how about we get kids interested in our game when they are off school in the summer ? It's what most of us loved about watching World Cups as kids, why not give it a go ? In the last 25 years we've had think tanks galore, initiatives, community programmes etc. I haven't seen the next Dalglish, Hansen or Baxter yet, have you ? Instead of complicating it, why not just keep it simple and move the league so it's played in the summer when everybody else is off the telly, there's other stuff about expanding the league etc but summer fitba will do for a start. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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