World cup qualifiers

[papereyes]

What an utterly tedious 90 minutes though, nothing learnt at all apart from that the Andorran FA don't seem to appreciate that the hordes at Wembley aren't actually coming because it's one of your players' final apparance!

It was his last game. He's played for his country - which is more than pretty much all of us on here and in there (Greavsie excepted) will ever do.

Give him his moment.

The keeper actually got a bit of applause as well.

[Big Foot]

Ecuador 2 - 0 Argentina

Get on youtube to see their first goal, what a banger

[soggy biscuit]

Italy 4-3 New Zealand

NZ were winning until 20 minutes to go.

[Harry Carry]

Good to see Gerrard rested last night.

[Huntley & Palmer]

What an utterly tedious 90 minutes though, nothing learnt at all apart from that the Andorran FA don't seem to appreciate that the hordes at Wembley aren't actually coming because it's one of your players' final apparance!

It was his last game. He's played for his country - which is more than pretty much all of us on here and in there (Greavsie excepted) will ever do.

Give him his moment.

The keeper actually got a bit of applause as well.

How are the crowd meant to know this and why would they give a oxf*rd about a travel agent playing for Andorra?

[cmonurz]

Tbf he got some decent applause once the announcer actually told the fans he was retiring, before which most were probably bemused as to why half the Andorra team, and John Terry, were shagging him before he left the field.

[TBM]

Young was poor

were you watching the same game?.....he looked lively and put in plenty of decent crosses, its just our forwards were not switched on enough to get on the end of them.

Teddy Sheringham also thought he was superb last night and to be honest i would rather trust a former ex-international who knows what he's talking about than somebody on an internet forum.

[Alan Partridge]

The likes of Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Moldova, Wales etc should all be in a group before this starts with the top 2 qualifying for this stage, yesterday was an utterly pointless exercise in all honesty, i do find it hard to understand how the likes of Andorra aren't beaten 9,10's and 11's more regularly though.

England did what they had to do, although their final ball apart from Glen Johnson was terrible. Johnson albeit against sucha feeble side was excellent. Beckham was the class act in the midfield, but the final ball from the wingers was poor throughout. Walcott was alwas a threat but needs more end product. Crouch is,has been and always will be a dire footballer and even against Andorra he looked awful, scored a comedy crap goal to go with his showing. Rooney probably would have scored 5 or 6 had he stayed on, other than that was the easiest game they will ever play.

[rg6royal]

Crouch was pretty awful, tbf

didn't do much did he but at the end of the day he got his goal.

like the look of Defo though he always seems to get into really good positions.

[cmonurz]

That was Andorra's 18th consecutive defeat. How chasing shadows for 90 minutes helps their development as an international side I don't know. Agreed that the minnows should have to pre-qualify, they should be playing sides of similar ability.

A stat in yesterdays Times sums up the pointlessness of these games. England's record against 'minnows' in World Cup qualifying (determined retrospectively as those who finish qualifying groups with 0 wins) is:

P28 W27 D1 L0 F106 A1

One goal (San Marino, 1-7) scored by one of these lesser teams in 28 attempts against England. I expect the results are similar for other leading nations.

[Dirk Gently]

That was Andorra's 18th consecutive defeat. How chasing shadows for 90 minutes helps their development as an international side I don't know. Agreed that the minnows should have to pre-qualify, they should be playing sides of similar ability.

A stat in yesterdays Times sums up the pointlessness of these games. England's record against 'minnows' in World Cup qualifying (determined retrospectively as those who finish qualifying groups with 0 wins) is:

P28 W27 D1 L0 F106 A1

One goal (San Marino, 1-7) scored by one of these lesser teams in 28 attempts against England. I expect the results are similar for other leading nations.

Just how arrogant are we in saying this? The money that the small countries' FAs get from playing more established nations is their best hope of developing the game in their countries . Why deny them this opportunity just because we think we're too important?

[TBM]

That was Andorra's 18th consecutive defeat. How chasing shadows for 90 minutes helps their development as an international side I don't know. Agreed that the minnows should have to pre-qualify, they should be playing sides of similar ability.

A stat in yesterdays Times sums up the pointlessness of these games. England's record against 'minnows' in World Cup qualifying (determined retrospectively as those who finish qualifying groups with 0 wins) is:

P28 W27 D1 L0 F106 A1

One goal (San Marino, 1-7) scored by one of these lesser teams in 28 attempts against England. I expect the results are similar for other leading nations.

Just how arrogant are we in saying this? The money that the small countries' FAs get from playing more established nations is their best hope of developing the game in their countries . Why deny them this opportunity just because we think we're too important?

Agreed

For the minor teams, its not about the result, its about the chance to play in some of the great stadiums and against some of the worlds best players - which generates thousands of pounds for them to help bring younger talent through.

[cmonurz]

So where are the examples of this money making a real difference to the performances of the teams, over a number of years?

And I think that's patronising, TBM. 'Aww shucks, you lost AGAIN, but at least you got Glen Johnson's shirt'.

[dean horrix legend]

So where are the examples of this money making a real difference to the performances of the teams, over a number of years?

And I think that's patronising, TBM. 'Aww shucks, you lost AGAIN, but at least you got Glen Johnson's shirt'.

In amongst those 28 games, against the no hopers, will be a few against Turkey,they don't seem to be too bad at the moment.

[Alan Partridge]

That was Andorra's 18th consecutive defeat. How chasing shadows for 90 minutes helps their development as an international side I don't know. Agreed that the minnows should have to pre-qualify, they should be playing sides of similar ability.

A stat in yesterdays Times sums up the pointlessness of these games. England's record against 'minnows' in World Cup qualifying (determined retrospectively as those who finish qualifying groups with 0 wins) is:

P28 W27 D1 L0 F106 A1

One goal (San Marino, 1-7) scored by one of these lesser teams in 28 attempts against England. I expect the results are similar for other leading nations.

Just how arrogant are we in saying this? The money that the small countries' FAs get from playing more established nations is their best hope of developing the game in their countries . Why deny them this opportunity just because we think we're too important?

Nothing to stop them arranging friendly matches here and there but the likes of San Marino or Andorra are totally different to a nation like Turkey in terms of resource, the club sides structure, the support, in absolutely everything, so the comparison is zero. Playing against similar standard of opposition and giving them a chance of winning a game here and there would be infinitely better for the development of footballers in their countries rather than 11-0 away in Germany.

Be quite an interesting group actually if you had all the minnows in there together, games like yesterday make the competition a joke in all honesty.

[TBM]

So where are the examples of this money making a real difference to the performances of the teams, over a number of years?

Wales have a load of talented youngsters coming through and have come along way in recent years - also look back 10+ years and see who the "lesser nations" were then, the likes of Bosina, Belarus, Ukraine, Northern Ireland etc - they've all jumped considerable places in the world rankings.

[cmonurz]

We are talking about the real minnows here, not the likes of Northern Ireland or Wales, who have always won the odd game here or there, and pushed some of the bigger sides - similarly Ukraine, who iirc have generally been competitive right from the break up of USSR.

Look back 10 years, and yep, San Marino, Andorra, Faroe Islands, they are all still there, getting thumped.

[papereyes]

Crouch was pretty awful, tbf

didn't do much did he but at the end of the day he got his goal.

Basley Savage could have got his goal against that lot.

[papereyes]

So where are the examples of this money making a real difference to the performances of the teams, over a number of years?

Wales have a load of talented youngsters coming through and have come along way in recent years - also look back 10+ years and see who the "lesser nations" were then, the likes of Bosina, Belarus, Ukraine, Northern Ireland etc - they've all jumped considerable places in the world rankings.

There's a real gap in there, TBM - have a look at my post on Page 4.

The minnows are all countries with tiny populations, all less than a million.

Further to that - how many new countries of any reasonable size is Europe going to produce for a few years. Possible Gibraltar team (population the size of Reading ), the Spanish regions at a push. Look back 10 years and Bosnia, Belarus and Ukraine were all barely 3 or 4 years old.

[Thaumagurist*]

Crouch was pretty awful, tbf

didn't do much did he but at the end of the day he got his goal.

Basley Savage could have got his goal against that lot.

Crouch had so many chances that he fluffed them all. It was only when two defenders f**ked up to allow him to sneak in a tap in the goal. But I'm not worried, because we won 6-0. Having said that, I'd rather Heskey than Crouch.