World Cup Qualifiers

[Canyonero]

Mexico tied with Belgium. Lozano with a brace. If he was Argentine he'd be starting for Bartha instead of having to go thru the Dutch league like every Mexican.

How else are they gonna smuggle coke into Europe if Mexicans leave Netherlands?

[DAF86]

Argentina beating the ty, generic, 2nd tier European teams they have to beat, tbh. Even with Sampabobi's re ed scheme.

[Canyonero]

another insisting on playing with Di María, Banega, Salvio and all that crap.

[Canyonero]

Congrats to Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. The true arab African alpha countries

[spursistan]

Ivory Coast
Hiring Marc Wilmots ..

By far the worst current NT coach, tbh..

[apalisoc_9]

Congrats to Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco. The true arab African alpha countries

[lefty]

We suck

[spursistan]

Switzerland= the ultimate cute little team that keeps finding ways to qualify for WCs only to be shown up by the first great compe ion they face.. The Arsenal of World Cup (or UEFA's Mexico)

It is a shame that bigname NTs like Netherlands and potentially Italy are going to miss the WC while perennial R16 fodder like the Swiss are always getting there somehow ..

[lefty]

northern ireland
toothless

[Canyonero]

Switzfantino qualified with a wrong penaldo fwiw.

[Canyonero]

Damn, the ref and FIFA want Italy in the WC so badly

[spursistan]

Italy has been really average throughout the qualifiers so I think Sweden got a chance to pull off the upset..

Called IT..Me..

Real talk: nothing surprising or bold about this prediction..The World Cup won't miss this Italy really; they have been a total non-factor in the last 2 as a matter of fact..Sometimes you need a shock like this to tackle the issue head on..Italy soccer program needs a root and branch reform just like Germany in early 2000s..

This was long coming-- a combination of poor talent pool and the worst NT coach in Italy history and you get a result like this..

[lefty]

Lolitaly

Good times

[140]

Big loss for the WC, Italy was the only interesting team from europe tbh

[spursistan]

France and England missing WC'94 > Italy and Netherlands missing WC'18 tbh..

Though, '02 Netherlands is probably the best international squad/roster to ever miss the WC..

[apalisoc_9]

Argentina probably wins next year. They have been super impressive in the back.

or Spain maybe

[TheGreatYacht]

Look at these fat pigs trying to get backstage where all the celebrities are at

[apalisoc_9]

Look at these fat pigs trying to get backstage where all the celebrities are at

[140]

Look at these fat pigs trying to get backstage where all the celebrities are at

[DAF86]

Difference is Italy is coming from b2b group stage eliminations and right now thy are even tier. I'm not so sure they even make it to the WC, tbh.

a b2b group stage elimination after a world cup won and the calciopoli .. lol not making the wc

Spain is going to qualify on that group. If Italy gets a semi-decent squad on the playoff they aren't getting in.

When I speak up, you listen son.

Hyping Italy non-stop all these years
Saying Italy >>> Brazil

[DAF86]

italy is a ing nightmare in elimination games, they'll get through son.

So many gems on this thread, tbh.

[DAF86]

if you consider the calciopoli effects (loss of huge amount of revenue and players, heavy destruction of the youth system = long term/generational effect) and that the they were :
- finalists at euro'12
- finalists at u21 euro'13
- winners of wc in '06
- had some tough luck in '14 (vs costa rica, vs uruguay)
- qualified to all tournaments (they didn't pull a netherlands collapse or like how argentina might be doing right now with a ing stacked roster too, 5th spot with a tough schedule is no joke son)
that's actually not a bad catch for the last 10 years, given the dire conditions .. They'll be back to 1st tier, and we all know it and hate it (these s always give us a serious match tbh )

So it's exactly the other way around, italy is maintaining structure for when they'll get some talent when the long term effects of the calciopoli end, they'll continue to produce world class defenders and if they get a generation with 3-4 talented offensive players they'll contend easily ... which brings us to the whole purpose of structure .. you maintain it and train for it as to benefit maximally when you got talent, not to waste talent like messi for example. Argentina would be smart to learn this, but y'all s refuse to learn this basic thing. Let me tell you something tbh, if argentina's federation wasn't a corrupt union of olded sissies you s would have 4-5 rings. It is what it is. Laugh all you want at italy but they got more rings than argentina and they are also the last team to ring, I'm also willing to bet that italy will be the next to reach a world cup final before argentina.

Many more from where this came from.

[DAF86]

son europe has spain/italy/germany/france/belgium/england/netherlands/portugal/croatia who are by far better teams then any non-SA american team. No discussion tbh. That's 9 teams, so putting a cap of 10 on the entire Europe is just dumb. Then you have really strong sides like sweden/denmark/poland/ireland/russia/greece/switzerland/serbia/bosnia/ukraine/turkey who will play on equal terms with any team outside these 9 + argentina/brasil/strong chile. These are mexico level sides whether you like it or not tbh. And then there are the pesky euro defense teams like icyland/hungary/romania/norway/czech republic/slovakia/israel/montenegro/etc who will just drain points from everybody because they have good defenses and play ok football. So just at europe with 10 teams.

It's ok though because everybody is going to make it at the 48 team cup and it gonna be a lot of fun tbh, usa-china, usa-north korea, uruguay-paraguay, serbia-crotiat ... fun times ahead, nothing but a cold beer and some action on tv


they lack a good coach, still the talent is there, they might hit a good patch of games at the right moment and then they can beat anybody.


hazard, lukaku, de bruyne, courtious, dembele, fellaini, nainggolan, kompany, mertens, carrasco, benteke, mertens, witsel, vermalen, batshuayi, mirallas, minolet...
thse s are stacked as , too bad they lack a real coach. They're a top 10 team roster in their sleep and a top 15 team easily, regardless of form.


son icyland sucks tbh, they're a talentless kickball leicester version of NT football ..

[apalisoc_9]

i bet belguim loses to a scrub team like Morocco or Costa Rica, Japan or saudi or some .

[DAF86]

i bet belguim loses to a scrub team like Morocco or Costa Rica, Japan or saudi or some .

Probably. I love how he hypes these teams like Croatia and then they get cucked by the s that he despises so much. how much did Mexico tap that ass in '14? 3-0?

BTW, I had missed the other gem: Netherlands.