15 replies to this topic

[DMcG]

So who's everyone supporting??
Lisbon, no need for you to answer that one. [Unless you have a surprise change of allegiance?]

Personally, without Ireland involved or Ukraine [girlfriend's heritage] I feel a bit lost.

Not even England for me to support the opposition of!

I'll be kinda following Greece for all my mates & Poland for Celtic's Goalkeeper.

But I honestly think Portugal will win it. They have too many fantastic players, and one phenomenal one [C. Ronaldo]

[Caveman]

Funny how there are no countries involved in it where English is their first language. No England, No Irelands, No Scotland and No Wales!

So from reading what you have just put forward, I take it that your an Ireland man? So whenever Ireland play Scotland you hope that Ireland wins, is that right?

[Lisbon]

I most definitely will not be changing my allegiance :wink:! Actually, I entered the Portuguese Football Federation's ticket lottery and got lucky, which means I'll be travelling to Geneva next week to watch the Portugal - Turkey match. Also, with over 150.000 Portuguese people living in Switzerland and about a million living in neighbouring countries, it'll be like playing at home.
Our performance in the qualifying stages left a lot of people worried, because we dropped a lot of points against weaker teams and failed to beat Poland, Serbia and Finland, the other three teams to finish in the top 4 places of our group. We managed to qualify thanks to a 0-0 home tie against Finland, which would normally be considered a bad result. After that match our coach Scolari became angry with reporters that were questioning the team's performance and stormed out of the press conference.
Still, there's hope. Cristiano Ronaldo had a terrific season and everyone is sort of hoping that he wins games on his own. Our chief worry is the poor quality of our strikers. Only Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen) had a reasonable season. Helder Postiga is usually on the bench at Panatinaikos of Greece and Nuno Gomes of Benfica is known for scoring very few goals.
Other than that, we have some very good players. The Champions League final featured four Portuguese stars (Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani, both former Sporting players, for Manchester, Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira, both former Porto players, for Chelsea). I hope we have enough quality to at least make the semi-finals, but then again, in 1996 we reached the quarter-finals, in 2000 the semi-finals, in 2004 we were losing finalists, so in 2008 we'll win! :wink:

[DMcG]

Ireland v Scotland I usually go for Ireland. Not very passionately though.

[Caveman]

I most definitely will not be changing my allegiance :wink:! Actually, I entered the Portuguese Football Federation's ticket lottery and got lucky, which means I'll be travelling to Geneva next week to watch the Portugal - Turkey match. Also, with over 150.000 Portuguese people living in Switzerland and about a million living in neighbouring countries, it'll be like playing at home.
Our performance in the qualifying stages left a lot of people worried, because we dropped a lot of points against weaker teams and failed to beat Poland, Serbia and Finland, the other three teams to finish in the top 4 places of our group. We managed to qualify thanks to a 0-0 home tie against Finland, which would normally be considered a bad result. After that match our coach Scolari became angry with reporters that were questioning the team's performance and stormed out of the press conference.
Still, there's hope. Cristiano Ronaldo had a terrific season and everyone is sort of hoping that he wins games on his own. Our chief worry is the poor quality of our strikers. Only Hugo Almeida (Werder Bremen) had a reasonable season. Helder Postiga is usually on the bench at Panatinaikos of Greece and Nuno Gomes of Benfica is known for scoring very few goals.
Other than that, we have some very good players. The Champions League final featured four Portuguese stars (Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani, both former Sporting players, for Manchester, Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira, both former Porto players, for Chelsea). I hope we have enough quality to at least make the semi-finals, but then again, in 1996 we reached the quarter-finals, in 2000 the semi-finals, in 2004 we were losing finalists, so in 2008 we'll win! :wink:

I may as well barrack for you blokes then. Holland 1988, Denmark 1992, Germany 1996, France 2000, Greece 2004. Shared around a bit, Yes it's pretty much your turn

[Caveman]

Ireland v Scotland I usually go for Ireland. Not very passionately though.

Would Scotland (their national team) be the worst soccer nation- as in after qualifying for tournaments? Australia got to the second round in 2006, they never have progressed beyond the first round in both Euros and The World Cup. I believe that to be correct?

[Lisbon]

I may as well barrack for you blokes then. Holland 1988, Denmark 1992, Germany 1996, France 2000, Greece 2004. Shared around a bit, Yes it's pretty much your turn

That's the spirit, Caveman! In the game against Turkey we played much better than we did in the qualifying stages, although I still think that a Portuguese triumph is unlikely. I think we had our big chance 4 years ago and we blew it. Still, hope springs eternal...

Being at the game was simply brilliant, even if Switzerland in late spring is remarkably like Portugal in late autumn. A lot of buildings in Geneva were festooned with Portuguese flags and after the game thousands of our emigrants were partying on the streets. Walking back from the stadium to Geneva central station amidst the cheering crowds of Portuguese expats was a moving experience and ended up being almost as exciting as the game itself, and it was a good, entertaining game. Luckily, Portugal even scored both goals in the goal that was directly in front of me. It was a great day, and worth every penny I spent.

[DMcG]

Are Scotland the worst performing nation?? I'm not sure, I'll have to ask some actually Scottish people.

I'm really annoyed about the lack of coverage of Euro 08. I was in a hotel room all last week with Foxtel but because there was no Setanta I got no Euro!

I had to sit through a lot NRL though, oh and repeats of Scrubs.

[Lisbon]

Is Scotland the worst performance nation in the World Cup? Here's their record (Scotland were always eliminated in the first round):

1954- lost 0-1 against Austria, lost 0-7 against Uruguay (Uruguay were the reigning world champions);
1958- drew 1-1 with Yugoslavia, lost 2-3 against Paraguay, lost 1-2 against France;
1974- beat Zaire 2-0, drew 1-1 with Brazil, drew 0-0 with Yugoslavia;
1978- lost 1-3 against Peru, drew 1-1 with Iran, beat the Netherlands 3-2 (this was the "Ally's Army" world cup, when Scotland coach Ally McLeod boldly predicted that the Scots would win; Gemmill's great goal against the Netherlands in Scotland's only win appears in the "Trainspotting" movie, when a porn videotape is mixed up with a soccer one);
1982- beat New Zealand 5-2, lost 1-4 against Brazil, drew 2-2 with the USSR;
1986- lost 0-1 against Denmark, lost 1-2 against West Germany, drew 0-0 with Uruguay;
1990- lost 0-1 against Costa Rica, beat Sweden 2-1, lost 0-1 against Brazil;
1998- lost 1-2 against Brazil, drew 1-1 with Norway, lost 0-3 against Morocco.

And there you go. Scotland were desperately unlucky not to qualify in 1978 (they went home undefeated), 1978 and 1982, going out on goal difference on all three occasions. They also specialise in getting good results against good teams (including their 3-2 win against reigning and future runners-up the Netherlands) and performing atrociously against weaker opposition (Paraguay, Iran, Costa Rica, Morocco...). Still, there are teams that performed far worse (Zaire and China, for example).

Still, Scotland are the kings of the "unofficial football world champions". This "UFWC" was started by people (with clearly too much time on their hands, if you ask me) who wondered who the world champions would be if soccer was like boxing and the defending champs only lost their title if they lost a match. Starting with the first ever international game (England, 0 - Scotland, 0 in 1872, maybe they were joint champions), they traced the results of international matches, proclaiming on team to be "unofficial world champions" as long as they avoided defeat. Example: 1873 - England beat Scotland 4-2 and are unofficial world champions; 1874 - Scotland beat England 2-1 and become the unofficial champs; 1875 - Scotland and England draw 2-2, Scotland retain the title, ect. According to these people - check out their blog at
http://ufwc.blogspot.com/, Scotland were unofficial world champions for 86 matches, followed by England with 74 matches and Argentina with 49. Australia became unofficial world champs when they beat the USA 1-0 on June 14, 1992, but lost their title the very next match, when they lost to Argentina 2-0. Earlier that year Portugal were also unofficial world champions, for two matches (beat the Netherlands 2-0, February 13, 1992, drew 0-0 with Italy, May 31, lost 0-1 against the USA, June 4).

So Scotland - oficially the worst, unofficially the best? :wink:

By the way, Portugal will be playing Germany in the Euro 08 quarter-final. We're still in it!

[DMcG]

Sorry bout the quarter final result bro.

[Lisbon]

Thanks! We lost in true Portuguese fashion, we had more corners, more shots, more possession but, alas, less goals. Well, there's always 2012...

[Caveman]

So will you now be supporting your neighbours Spain or in contrast whoever plays them?

[Lisbon]

Haha! Well spotted, Caveman. I'll be supporting whoever plays against them. Not that I don't like the Spanish people, far from it, they're quite nice and their food is very good, but it's a very old rivalry. If you count Spain's predecessor kingdoms of Leon, Castille and Castille-Leon, it's a rivalry that's been going on for nearly 870 years. "Auld enemies" indeed...

[Caveman]

Well they won it- where the rain "Flows mainly down the plain" land.

I don't like mixing sport and politics when it is unnecessary- however it may be good for them as a country. They are still a bit fragmented from the horrific 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War, so hopefully it could be a unifying thing- well it will in the short term I imagine.

[Lisbon]

Yes, one of the weaknesses of the Spanish team are the traditional rivalries between Catalans, Castillians, Basques and so on, but yesterday all divisions were forgotten and they all celebrated together. And fair's fair, they were the best team in the Euros, so their victory is well and truly deserved. Congratulations to Spain, they were a credit to themselves. Iniesta and Xavi were especially good yesterday, Torres scored a true striker's goal, the defense was solid, goalkeeper Casillas was his usual reliable self, basically, all went well.

[Caveman]

Yes I was glad to see them triumph, there have been a few tournaments where they have been knocked out rather unfortunately ie victims of bad decisions etc. ie World Cup 2002

So they had their day at last