Entertainment For Lively Minds
Football (sorry)
Posted by ranger on 29 June 2011 - 7:54pm.
I know it's not everyone's cup of tea and I apologize for that, but this is hilarious.
In the latest FIFA rankings, England are fourth!!!!!
One semi-final (i.e. last 'four') appearance post '66, and zip, zero and/or zilch semi-finals in Beckham's hapless era......and England are ranked fourth.
Erm, OK.
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And in the...
...Castrol rankings Andrés Iniesta is only the 19th best player in Europe, apparently. And in March he was 32nd. And last November, when Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-0, he was 58th.
,
.
4th?
Obviously, the formula is flawed. No way are England the fourth best international team at the moment.
True.
They're not even the fourth best team in The Beatles.
Isn't an established fact...
that FIFA is a complete joke?
what year is it?
How long have I been asleep?
(B. Glendenning, Twitter)
Ranger
we have disagreed before on the reasons as to why England are so rubbish, you blame the finished articles, the spoilt brats, I blame the coaches who promote the wrong type of youngster but at least we agree England are rubbish and probably not the 14th best in the world never mind 4th. However the saddest thing I've seen for a while was the under 21's against the Czechs, no imagination, no skill, no quick thinking, no speed of movement, no hope. It isn't going to get better any time soon.
England rubbish?
To be fair they're average (sorry we're average), its only the hype that makes us believe the day before the tournament that we are better than that hence we end up looking crap.
As for the under 21's the second our best youg players pull out because they have been promoted to the senior side early.(Wilshere, Carroll)then they are screwed. We have had many talented "youngsters", Rooney, Joe Cole, Walcott who get promoted too quickly, play too many games and get injured repeatedly and never fully develop (well Rooney probably is, somedays). Just imagine getting together a good under 21 squad that then get promoted to the seniors once they play well together and have won some U21 tournaments. That would never work would it. Well apart from Spain.... Germany...anyone else who is better than us.
We're not too far from agreeing Dave
It's just that anyone picked must (a) be fit, (b) have character (including the character to say they're not fit) and (c) regard playing for England as 'the' main job.
70/80/90/100 caps should only be the preserve of winning teams (France in the 1990s, currently Spain) or smaller nations with a smaller player base (e.g. Iceland, Ivory Coast etc.).
For England the ceiling should be two tournaments, roughly 30 caps, as if you haven't done it then you ain't gonna.
In the next 18 months, three players could be getting their 100th cap!
That's nuts.
"the ceiling should be two tournaments, roughly 30 caps"
If you applied that logic to other nations - Spain, say - you'd have removed most of their best players before the team had won anything.
Eh?
So Gerrard, Lampard and Ashley Cole should have been dropped 50 odd games ago? Nuts indeed. Your main gripe with England always seems to be with the better players.
Merit
Well at least we know that they got the position on merit. Nobody in FIFA would ever accept bribes would they?
I really wish
I could press the uppy button more than once!
Oxo cubes
Oxo are bringing out a new cube. Its called England oxo, & it contains extract of the current squad.
Mix it with boiling water... it makes laughing stock.
Ranger,
You seem to start an awful lot of threads on how bad the England national football team is.
However, the real issue here is not how good/bad England are but how flawed the FIFA methodology is for ranking teams.
Firstly, it takes into account friendlies, which England tend to take more seriously than other teams. Secondly, it takes into account the overall strength of the continent the opponent belong to. Thus, Brazil and Argentina are at a disadvantage because they often play South American opponents (deemed a "weak" continent) and England have an advantage, as Europe is classed as the strongest continent. Therefore, England would get more points than Brazil for beating the same-standard opponent in a World Cup qualifier.
But yes, while we're on the subject, England clearly aren't the fourth best team in the world.
would y kick
fifa's arse so hard if they'd given y' that tournament?
as for the ranking..hilarious...and a total waste of someone's time and money...
i'm relieved sometimes to come from a region that neither expects nor qualifies..
The merit of the ranking aside it is good news though.
Imagine the World Cup was being held this month and England were ranked 8th. Then, assuming that the top 7 countries were there and the hosts got their own group, England could end up as the second team in a group involving Brazil or Argentina.
I also think it's a good sign that nobody is taking this news seriously, although I still expect to be deafened by the "Why can't we win it" cries as the next finals commence.
Odd.
Given that England, assuming that we will adopt the English form and refer to England as a plural, are currently personæ non gratæ (do I get maximum Pedant Points for correct dipthongs, form and italics?) from FIFAs perspective, why would FIFA want England to be so elevated?
Radio 5 used the phrase
'England's Golden Generation' this week.
I have sympathy with the journalistic short hand having pursued that profession, but how has England got a golden generation?
The phrase, as far as I can see, came about due to Portugal's GG who won world youth championships in 1989 & 1991.
What have England's GG won at international level?
Yes, some have won European Cups (Rooney, er who else?)
The problem, as myself and Dave Amitri, among others, have noted is systemic. Coaching ball control and retention, decision making and movement is discouraged as youngsters play competitively too young.
Even in girls' leagues I coach in, the problem is the same.
England are the best team in the world
It's just the tiresome formality of scoring goals and winning games that lets us down.
As usual...
The daily mash etc.
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/sport/sport-headlines/fifa-cranks-up-the-p...