Hertsscot Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Could be worse, I'd hate to be a Greek fan at the moment, finishing below the Faroes! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally Bongo Posted October 14, 2015 Share Posted October 14, 2015 Italy are the perfect example of sticking to what you are good at and not changing For years they have went to World Cups and European Championships with arguably average squads and performed well Yes they had a spell with individual talent like Baggio but that was against the grain & mainly their game has relied upon their defence and catenaccio Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairy de janairy Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Italy are the perfect example of sticking to what you are good at and not changing For years they have went to World Cups and European Championships with arguably average squads and performed well Yes they had a spell with individual talent like Baggio but that was against the grain & mainly their game has relied upon their defence and catenaccio Italy players are above average i would say - the whole squad tend to be technically good, skillfull. would walk into any scotland team apart from that wee radge gattuso but he made up for it with hard graft Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angus_Young Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Italy are the perfect example of sticking to what you are good at and not changing For years they have went to World Cups and European Championships with arguably average squads and performed well Yes they had a spell with individual talent like Baggio but that was against the grain & mainly their game has relied upon their defence and catenaccio I assume you mean average by their standards? Get what you mean though. When they won the WC recently I don't think a lot of people seen it coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz1982 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Unless I'm mistaken, Germany and Italy have never had a barren spell where they have failed to qualify for a tournament. In my memory I only recall Spain missing out on Euro 92. Think France missed out on both Euro 88 and WC 90 so I suppose that constitutes a spell. The Dutch missed out on 3 on the bounce from 82 to 86 inclusive. Italy also missed out on Euro 92, CIS topped their qualifying group. France also missed out on USA 94. Haven't checked the records but I think Portugal went a long time without qualifying for a worls cup, maybe 1986 - 2002? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz1982 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 (edited) I see Urugauy have gotten off to a flyer in the Souh American WC Qualifiers... http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/southamerica/ With a population of only 3.5 million they seem to consistently compete at the highest level, They just thrased Colombia (population 48 million) 3-0. Too many people use the population of our country as an excuse/reason for failure. Craig Brown suggeseted on the radio the other night, that given the populations of our respective group opponents (germany, poland and eire) we should expect/be generally satisfied to finish behind them. This is absolute nonsense in my opinion, football is our national sport and we should not only be looking to compete, we should be aiming to actually WIN a major tournament. Uruguay have won 2 x World Cups and a record 15 Copa Americas, I never hear them playing the 'we're too wee' argument. Edited October 15, 2015 by Daz1982 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iainmac1 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 (edited) That makes no sense if Craig Brown did say that. The population of the Republic of Ireland is smaller than Scotland Edited October 15, 2015 by iainmac1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz1982 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 That makes no sense if Craig Brown did say that. The population of the Republic of Ireland is smaller than Scotland To be fair he did mention that ourselves and the Republic should have been fighting it out for 3rd place due to having similar populations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Gas Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 I watched the second half of the Czech game. Was like watching an Ally McCoist team. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thewelk Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 (edited) Very true they've benefitted nicely from being an ex colonial power, as have Belgium, France and Portugal...We're an ex colonial power and we get fk all benefit! England took all of that for themselves. All our immigrants prefer cricket. Typical. Anya doesn't even count because he's from modern immigration.In all seriousness we do suffer because of that. Belgium are number 1 in the world on the back of their immigration. Edited October 15, 2015 by thewelk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toepoke Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Only Germany have bucked the failure to Qualify trend since 1982 Third Place at World Cup Since 1982 3rd W.C Fail to Qualify for European Championships Poland 1982 1984 France 1986 1988 Italy 1990 1992 Sweden 1994 1996 Croatia 1998 2000 Turkey 2002 2004 Germany 2006 & 2010 Qualified for 2008 and 2012 Holland 2014 2016 Excellent stats! Didn't realise the European stranglehold on World Cup 3rd place! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hertsscot Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 That makes no sense if Craig Brown did say that. The population of the Republic of Ireland is smaller than Scotland Population of Republic may be smaller than Scotland but I'm pretty sure they have a bigger pool of players in that anyone born in N.Ireland is eligible and their 'diaspora' I would imagine is bigger than ours. What's galling is that Wales which has half the population not only have a decent football team but a consistenty excellent rugby team as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz1982 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Population of Republic may be smaller than Scotland but I'm pretty sure they have a bigger pool of players in that anyone born in N.Ireland is eligible and their 'diaspora' I would imagine is bigger than ours. What's galling is that Wales which has half the population not only have a decent football team but a consistenty excellent rugby team as well. New Zealand have a population of 'only' 4.5 million and yet continually produce world class rugby union national teams, this ofcourse is their national sport and they would expect nothing less. Thinking about countries and their corresponding national sports, is there any nation who performs worse than us if you exclude small nations such as San Marino Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scoobydoo Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 India are rubbish at sport, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daz1982 Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 Suppose China too given their population. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ally Bongo Posted October 15, 2015 Share Posted October 15, 2015 You can see the likes of Luxembourg catching up with us - a team we have already been embarrassed by in the past They were able to beat Macedonia at home at the start of the month for example Yes they regularly get beat as they always have but their results have been getting better Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toepoke Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Thinking about countries and their corresponding national sports, is there any nation who performs worse than us if you exclude small nations such as San Marino France are crap at Tour de France... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonnyTJS Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Thinking about countries and their corresponding national sports, is there any nation who performs worse than us if you exclude small nations such as San Marino You're not doing too bad. Scotland have been world champions in the men's game four times in the last 15 years. And curling's nowt to be ashamed of. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DonnyTJS Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 A Japanese-born sumo wrestler hasn't achieved the rank of yokozuna since 1998 - the last four to make yokozuna status have been Mongolians (and the one before that was Hawaiian). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Gas Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 You can see the likes of Luxembourg catching up with us - a team we have already been embarrassed by in the past They were able to beat Macedonia at home at the start of the month for example Yes they regularly get beat as they always have but their results have been getting better The "minnows" are much better now. Even the Faroes these days are getting creditable results. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fringo Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Currently England at rugby and they invented it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
euan2020 Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 I see Urugauy have gotten off to a flyer in the Souh American WC Qualifiers... http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/preliminaries/southamerica/ With a population of only 3.5 million they seem to consistently compete at the highest level, They just thrased Colombia (population 48 million) 3-0. Too many people use the population of our country as an excuse/reason for failure. Craig Brown suggeseted on the radio the other night, that given the populations of our respective group opponents (germany, poland and eire) we should expect/be generally satisfied to finish behind them. This is absolute nonsense in my opinion, football is our national sport and we should not only be looking to compete, we should be aiming to actually WIN a major tournament. Uruguay have won 2 x World Cups and a record 15 Copa Americas, I never hear them playing the 'we're too wee' argument. yes - could you imagine the New Zealanders using that excuse in the Rugby "we've got a smaller population " Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bristolhibby Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Wales and Rugby is another over performer. Chuck football into that category at the moment. I am struggling to think of another underperformer in a football sense as bad as us. And I mean where football is so big, yet the team is so rank. J Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macy37 Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Italy also missed out on Euro 92, CIS topped their qualifying group. France also missed out on USA 94. Haven't checked the records but I think Portugal went a long time without qualifying for a worls cup, maybe 1986 - 2002? Portugal...now there's a thing....they do bloody well for a nation that, I may be wrong but always think, is a little bit 'backwards' as in not awash with much cash. Maybe that's why though? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fringo Posted October 16, 2015 Share Posted October 16, 2015 Wales and Rugby is another over performer. Chuck football into that category at the moment. I am struggling to think of another underperformer in a football sense as bad as us. And I mean where football is so big, yet the team is so rank. J Not sure, but what about countries like Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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