World Cup 2014 Qualification thread

[PeterLe]

Least to most competitive matches this afternoon / evening: -

1.01 - San Marino vs. England
1.07 - Netherlands vs. Estonia
1.08 - Spain vs. Finland
1.09 - Kazakhstan vs. Germany
1.09 - Andorra vs. Turkey
1.13 - Egypt vs. Swaziland
1.14 - Austria vs. Faroe Islands
1.15 - Bulgaria vs. Malta
1.15 - France vs. Georgia
1.25 - Colombia vs. Bolivia
1.47 - Norway vs. Albania
1.48 - Japan vs. Canada
1.54 - Northern Ireland vs. Russia
1.55 - Sweden vs. Rep of Ireland
1.62 - Slovakia vs. Lithuania
1.63 - Uruguay vs. Paraguay
1.64 - Moldova vs. Montenegro
1.7 - FYR Macedonia vs. Belgium
1.75 - Croatia vs. Serbia
1.77 - Liechtenstein vs. Latvia
1.78 - Slovenia vs. Iceland
1.97 - Scotland vs. Wales
2.08 - Bosnia vs. Greece
2.24 - Czech Republic vs. Denmark
2.26 - Lebanon vs. Thailand
2.26 - Poland vs. Ukraine
2.26 - Honduras vs. Mexico
2.32 - Luxembourg vs. Azerbaijan
2.44 - Bahrain vs. Qatar
2.64 - U.A.E. vs. Uzbekistan
2.82 - Hungary vs. Romania

England did well tonight didnt they?
I had a very large lay bet sitting at 1.01...and someone knocked on the front door...as I returned to the living room, I saw the first goal and thought that San Marino had scored!
Anyway as it happened I hadn't got matched anyway!
I laid England after the first goal expecting..but lost that one! 8 - 0 !
I did lay the top 8 least competitive games as you usually get a surprise..so had a very small green thanks to Spain!
Think I'll stick to the horses!

Regards
Peter

[giulio2010]

History repeat it-self. England suck when they managed by a British coach..If I were you, I would start to be worried and wish an exchange of a foreign coach before it's too late..Good luck
Kevin Keegan 2000- British coach
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
Sweden 8 7 1 0 10 1 +9 22
England 8 3 4 1 14 4 +10 13
Poland 8 4 1 3 12 8 +4 13
Bulgaria 8 2 2 4 6 8 −2 8
Luxembourg 8 0 0 8 2 23 −21 0

Sven Goran Eriksson 2002 - Foreign coach
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
England 8 5 2 1 16 6 10 17
Germany 8 5 2 1 14 10 4 17
Finland 8 3 3 2 12 7 5 12
Greece 8 2 1 5 7 17 −10 7
Albania 8 1 0 7 5 14 −9 3

Sven-Göran Eriksson 2004 - Foreign coach
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
England 8 6 2 0 14 5 +9 20
Turkey 8 6 1 1 17 5 +12 19
Slovakia 8 3 1 4 11 9 +2 10
Macedonia 8 1 3 4 11 14 −3 6
Liechtenstein 8 0 1 7 2 22 −20 1

Sven-Göran Eriksson 2006 - Foreign coach
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
England 10 8 1 1 17 5 +12 25
Poland 10 8 0 2 27 9 +18 24
Austria 10 4 3 3 15 12 +3 15
Northern Ireland 10 2 3 5 10 18 −8 9
Wales 10 2 2 6 10 15 −5 8
Azerbaijan 10 0 3 7 1 21 −20 3

Mcclaren 2008 - British coach
Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
Croatia 12 9 2 1 28 8 +20 29
Russia 12 7 3 2 18 7 +11 24
England 12 7 2 3 24 7 +17 23
Israel 12 7 2 3 20 12 +8 23
Macedonia 12 4 2 6 12 12 0 14
Estonia 12 2 1 9 5 21 −16 7
Andorra 12 0 0 12 2 42 −40 0

Capello 2010 - Foreign coach

PLD W D L PT
England 10 9 0 1 34 6 +28 27
Ukraine 10 6 3 1 21 6 +15 21
Croatia 10 6 2 2 19 13 +6 20
Belarus 10 4 1 5 19 14 +5 13
Kazakhstan 10 2 0 8 11 29 −18 6
Andorra 10 0 0 10 3 39 −36 0

Capello 2012 - Foreign coach
Pld W D L PTs
England 8 5 3 0 17 5 +12 18
Montenegro 8 3 3 2 7 7 0 12
Switzerland 8 3 2 3 12 10 +2 11
Wales 8 3 0 5 6 10 −4 9
Bulgaria 8 1 2 5 3 13 −10 5

Roy Hodgson 2013 - British coach
PLD PTs
Montenegro 6 14
England 6 12
Poland 5 8
Ukraine 5 8
Moldova 6 4
San Marino 6 0
Then the last 2 Graphs show Russia with Capello 4 games, 12 points, the qualification is almost certain.
England without Capello 6 games played 12 points with poland and Ukrain at 8 point with 1 game to play.
2 more draws for England and that would be it..NO world cup 2014..

[Euler]

Montenegro to win the group is at good odds.

BTW Rio is a long way to go to watch England lose. I'd rather not go

[giulio2010]

Pubs, flags, pay tv...etc etc
is a 2 billion pounds business...This is the money prospective...The mental prospective is even worse for people who love football so much!!

[freddy]

It's nothing to do with English coaches or Foreign coaches imo, that's taking the easy way out and something the fans / press have done for decades,
We have a good win and then they all say we are going to win the WC, we have a bad game then they all want to sack the manager.
The truth is we are an average team performing averagely.
No manager has managed to change this in recent times, so we need to look at the players and the way the game is played in this country instead.

Technically we are very very poor, light years behind the top teams.

Im sure we will qualify and then maybe get to the QF if we are very lucky, but that's all can be expected really.

no one can fix us in the short term, we are just too far behind, we need to look to the very distant future.

[haichless]

I tend to agree Freddy.
The nationality of the coach/manager is irrelevant its the methods and tactics employed that count.
Also any manager at International level can only work with the players at his disposal, and not buy in quality.
Given the number of foreign players we have in our leagues, although we are a big country in football terms,the number of English players playing at the top level our manager has to pick from is way below some other "lesser" nations.
IMHO until we rectify that and also have a "Brian Clough" style manager whos philosophy is keep the ball, if you have the ball they cant score, we are going nowhere. Allied to the Im the fcking boss (Fergie style) so tow the line or your out, whoever you are, we will get nowhere.
The Italy game in the euros was a classic example, Pirlo never gave the ball away, just like his team mates. We get the ball and its one pass two at most and lost. Joe Hart when he finally got the ball after making a save kicked it straight back to them virtually 90% of the time.
Now thats solvable by any manager..

[Euler]

I think England managers should pick teams and not individuals. If you look at a good team they know where to pass the ball where a player will be etc.

England teams are constructed of quality individuals but they have no feel for how the team plays. They don't play enough or out of position and therefore I think the England manager should pick groups of individual that specifically interact with each other on the same level, irrespective of individual skill. Afterall it is a team game.

Tactis were horrible in the Montenegro match. That's the managers fault, how many of us were sitting there thinking 'This is about to go tit's up'. I'm sure must of us would have changed the formation or put a sub on.

[freddy]

Think the tactics in the first half were ok but then
we lost our way Badly in the second half,
Hodson definitely should have changed things when it was clear to everyone things were going very wrong.
I mean the goal wasn’t exactly a surprise was it .

Saying that England shouldn’t really need a tactical genius to outsmart the likes of Montenegro.
So the players have to take some of the blame.

Agree with Peter about picking a team rather than just players, just look at Man Utd, most people would say certainly at the start of the season that their squad on paper was not the best, but yet they won.

[Euler]

I was thinking of Man Utd when I said that.

I remember watching them a few years ago and it was like they were telepathic when they played well. Everybody knew what to do and they had great shape which was incredibly hard to break down. I think that's the essense of their success, even with individuals who are not world class. They seem to stick rigidly to it as well whether the game is going well or not.

[haichless]

Man u are probably the closest thing in modern day terms to Cloughs Forest, thats why Roy Keane did well at both clubs. The managerial similarity is their in their managers dominance and ethos of how the game should be played.
Fergie, Clough, Alf Ramsey (with his England Teams), Shankley, Moran and many others all included players that raise eyebrows because they performed a specific function that the manager deemed neccesary, better than a big name or so called better player.
all believed the team is greater than the sum of its parts and all were not afraid to act when neccasary.

anyone involved in management in their work,or interested in teams, training and how to motivate,lead and succeed and it willhelp if you are interested in football will find this invaluable.


http://www.amazon.co.uk/90-Minute-Manag ... 0273708309

[Consty1]

I think it could be argued that Milner would fit the "team" element of the side, I certainly hope he's not there for his individual flair.

It seemed to me that England's biggest downfall was not being able to react to Montenegro's 2nd half tactical shift rather than setting up massively wrong. In the 1st half Carrick was able to dictate the tempo of the game against Montenegro's 4-4-2, in the 2nd half he wasn't allowed time on the ball against a improvised 4-3-3. England were getting outnumbered in midfield all of a sudden and never really adapted (that's something I've noticed with Carrick, he can dominate 1st halves for Utd but go missing 2nd half under pressure).

As a side note I think that Leighton Baines is seriously challenging Ashley Cole as first choice left back now. We all know about Cole's dynamism and defensive ability but I'm not sure the attacking quality of Baines can be ignored anymore.

[haichless]

I would pick Baines ahead of Cashley now, he's living on reputation since the euros imho.
Also like many I think Hodgson didnt react to the Montenegro changes of shape and personnel quickly enough or in the right way.
I have seen this before with him, because as a manager I have followed him, he sets his team up often sticks with it unless they are losing. thats why he didnt respond to monte, his ethos in that game like many games, is dont lose, its not win. so at 1-0 and getting battered he saw no reason to change too much, because a win or a draw was what he set up for and wanted,just like at 1-1 late on ish hes still got what he would accept.
Also I really dont see why Cleverley is the first name on the sheet, if sources are to be believed, he is Roys man.

[giulio2010]

World Cup qualifiers: Italy and Netherlands qualify for Brazil 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24041569

[teamlefty]

World Cup qualifiers: Italy and Netherlands qualify for Brazil 2014
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/24041569

Nice! (I loved that Italy vs Czech game, I must say.)

[Euler]

OK wrong thread, but if you are feeling patriotic England Ladies 6-0 up after 39 mins this evening. Something to cheer about.