[HibeeJibee]

http://www.scottishfa.co.uk/scottish_fa_ne. ..amp;newsID=4563

Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere... Scotland will travel to Japan, to play a friendly on Sat 10th October. (This is the international dates between our group finishing in September, and the play-offs in November). I understand another match in the region may be arranged on Wed 14th.

This post has been edited by HibeeJibee: 12 April 2009 - 17:01

[Mr Mojo Rising]

Why could they not have organised a friendly slightly closer to home?

I tend to feel that friendlies played on the other side of the world should tend to be avoided unless at the end of a season.

If Scotland make the play offs I would assume playing another European side may be more beneficial preperation but then Im not sure if the right teams would have been willing/available

[Fuctifano]

Can you get an easyjet to Tokyo?

I was hoping to go to an away friendly to get on the points ladder, but I think I'll be giving this one a miss unless I happen to come across a spare grand in my account.

[HibeeJibee]

Mr Mojo Rising, on Apr 12 2009, 16:18, said:

Why could they not have organised a friendly slightly closer to home?

I tend to feel that friendlies played on the other side of the world should tend to be avoided unless at the end of a season.

If Scotland make the play offs I would assume playing another European side may be more beneficial preperation but then Im not sure if the right teams would have been willing/available

Apart from teams in our own group, the only European nations without qualifiers on Sat 10th are: Albania, Malta, Northern Ireland, San Marino, Andorra and Croatia. There are none available on Wed 14th. So it wouldn't have been worth playing any of those teams on Sat, then have Wed off.

I believe we were trying to coax South Africa to visit us (they're touring Europe on those 2 dates), but they elected to play Norway and Iceland instead. Some teams are getting in extra friendlies in preperation: France have an 'ad-hoc' game fixed with Tunisia the Wednesday before the play-offs.

There are no Asian qualifiers in October (which is why we can play Japan), with the exception of a 3rd-placed sides play-off. So Japan (11pts, 3 games left) are obviously confident that Qatar (7pts, 2 games left) wont catch them, as the first leg is the day they play us!! It wouldn't at all surprise me if we arrange a Tuesday/Wednesday fixture against a nearby country, perhaps South Korea.

Although a foreign tour in October is not ideal, if we reach the play-offs we need to prepare - and since staying in Europe would mean playing Croatia, Northern Ireland or a minnow / then having the Wednesday off, a foreign trip is the next best option. I would anticipate plenty withdrawls, tbf.

This post has been edited by HibeeJibee: 12 April 2009 - 17:02

[HibeeJibee]

Looking more closely, the only non-European countries of any calibre available on either October dates are South Africa: the World Cup hosts (but turned us down); New Zealand: Oceania; or the Asian nations. So SFA were essentially faced with either (1) playing Northern Ireland or Croatia, if they agreed / then hoping New Zealand would visit; or (2) travelling to Asia. No other options IMO.

[ScottyC]

Great, another chance for George Burley and the SFA to f**k up Scotland.

Take your pick, (or all of them if you wish).

1. Less than 25,000 turn up after they blow the world cup qualifying.

2. Rangers and Celtic have some minor derby planned, meaning a rush of false injuries to the squad.

3. Burley tries out some new questionable players (English connection, old journey men, and a token spl player from one of the minority clubs.)

4. Butcher, having played some sort of game in the 80's against the Japanese assistant decides he's going to involve Scotland in his grudge again. Showing what an arogant egomanaic he is again.

5. After some sort of media love Ferguson, MacGregor and Boyd make a shameless Scotland return, (or not).

6. After recognising Scott Brown's hairdressing talents, Burley gets him to shave the heads of the whole team as a spot of team bonding.

Feel free to add to the list.

The Dream Scenario

After sacking Burley for failing to qualify for the world cup the SFA have appointed a new manager. Craig Levein guides Scotland to a 3-0 victory with Kris Boyd comming of the bench to score a late third goal.

Everything is now good again

This post has been edited by ScottyC: 12 April 2009 - 18:29

[flyingscot]

Fuctifano, on Apr 12 2009, 16:56, said:

Can you get an easyjet to Tokyo?

I was hoping to go to an away friendly to get on the points ladder, but I think I'll be giving this one a miss unless I happen to come across a spare grand in my account.

The way the yen can jump you might need more than a grand. Japan is a difficult country to visit- my cousin lived their for a while and he found it difficult to get about- not a lot of english lettered stuff.

[doulikefish]

flyingscot, on Apr 12 2009, 19:07, said:

The way the yen can jump you might need more than a grand. Japan is a difficult country to visit- my cousin lived their for a while and he found it difficult to get about- not a lot of english lettered stuff.

pish,i was there the last time scotland played and all the train stations etc had all signs in english aswell,it was a doddle to get around!!!

[Savage Henry]

flyingscot, on Apr 12 2009, 19:07, said:

The way the yen can jump you might need more than a grand. Japan is a difficult country to visit- my cousin lived their for a while and he found it difficult to get about- not a lot of english lettered stuff.

Well firstly, it's Japan. They speak Japanese. Not English. And Japanese includes romanji, which, as the name suggests, is Japanese in the roman alphabet. And as a general rule, the Yen is constantly weak. It most certainly doesn't "jump about", by which you mean, I suspect, fluctuate.

Secondly, I lived there for four years, and if you can't find your way about in Japan then there's something wrong with you. No system of transport in Europe comes close to ease and simplicity of use.

I thoroughly recommend Scotland fans make the journey. A unique country.

[flyingscot]

Jim Pansy, on Apr 12 2009, 19:52, said:

Well firstly, it's Japan. They speak Japanese. Not English. And Japanese includes romanji, which, as the name suggests, is Japanese in the roman alphabet. And as a general rule, the Yen is constantly weak. It most certainly doesn't "jump about", by which you mean, I suspect, fluctuate.

Secondly, I lived there for four years, and if you can't find your way about in Japan then there's something wrong with you. No system of transport in Europe comes close to ease and simplicity of use.

I thoroughly recommend Scotland fans make the journey. A unique country.

Can only say what he told me, he lived there for a couple of years as he was seconded by his employers. As I said he found it difficult to drive about in- and if you got lost really tricky to get on the right track again. His employers also disapproved of him learning Japanese!

People who have been to Suzuka for the F1 say it is easy to get to the track on trains, you get an F1 special train, no doubt ultra reliable- but the buses are confusing and some of the local small towns a bit tricky. Guess it depends where you are-

As for the yen I thought it was generally regarded as volatile against the dollar and traders used to bet on that!

[dogma]

Aye the club teams will be desperate to release players for a friendly on the other side of the world. There will be massive call offs rendering the whole exercise pointless. We would probably better either not playing a game, or playing against someone useless closer to home if only to have all the players together. If we go round the world with guys who wont be in the play offs it wont be a useful preparation. Even if we do play a minnow it might engender some confidence in the players. I honestly dont know why the SFA has waited until now to sort something out given that we were never going to be winning this group. As soon as the draw was made a game should have been arranged.

[Jeff Venom]

Jim Pansy, on Apr 12 2009, 19:52, said:

Well firstly, it's Japan. They speak Japanese. Not English. And Japanese includes romanji, which, as the name suggests, is Japanese in the roman alphabet. And as a general rule, the Yen is constantly weak. It most certainly doesn't "jump about", by which you mean, I suspect, fluctuate.

Secondly, I lived there for four years, and if you can't find your way about in Japan then there's something wrong with you. No system of transport in Europe comes close to ease and simplicity of use.

I thoroughly recommend Scotland fans make the journey. A unique country.

Spot on Mr Pansy. I was there only in October of last year and this may just be the excuse for me to make a fast return. I was blown away by the place and like you would seriously recommend the trip.

[HibeeJibee]

dogma, on Apr 13 2009, 09:14, said:

Aye the club teams will be desperate to release players for a friendly on the other side of the world. There will be massive call offs rendering the whole exercise pointless.

Maybe - but if we're in the play-offs, surely players will be wanting to secure their place? And to pull out with a dubious injury (which Burley etc. would be aware of) could jeopardise that place.

dogma, on Apr 13 2009, 09:14, said:

We would probably better either not playing a game, or playing against someone useless closer to home if only to have all the players together. If we go round the world with guys who wont be in the play offs it wont be a useful preparation. Even if we do play a minnow it might engender some confidence in the players.

If we'd been able to, for example, host Northern Ireland or Croatia, then South Africa, it would be better to stay home. But I'd expect Croatia will go outside of Europe; and South Africa turned us down (in favour of Norway and Iceland). Plus we could draw one of those sides in the play-offs, in which case you'd have to cancel it... Plus we played Northern Ireland not that long ago, IIRC.

dogma, on Apr 13 2009, 09:14, said:

I honestly dont know why the SFA has waited until now to sort something out given that we were never going to be winning this group. As soon as the draw was made a game should have been arranged.

They could not have done anything earlier. Aside from those handful of European teams, the only free nations of calibre were South Africa and New Zealand. There will be some Asian nations free, but it would have been impossible until recently to know which. As I said above, if Japan have a nightmare in their remaining games, they might finish 3rd and need to cancel our friendly. (Which would be a source of HUGE embarrassment to the SFA...). As soon as South Africa didn't want to play us the only options were (1) going to Asia or (2) just staying at home and playing 1 minnow.

[craigkillie]

ScottyC, on Apr 12 2009, 18:29, said:

Great, another chance for George Burley and the SFA to f**k up Scotland.

Take your pick, (or all of them if you wish).

1. Less than 25,000 turn up after they blow the world cup qualifying.

I'd be bloody impressed if 25,000 Scotland fans made a journey half-way across the world.

Quote

2. Rangers and Celtic have some minor derby planned, meaning a rush of false injuries to the squad.

If we are in the play-offs, players will be very reluctant to pull out because it could jeopardise their place in the team for the upcoming games.

Quote

3. Burley tries out some new questionable players (English connection, old journey men, and a token spl player from one of the minority clubs.)

What's wrong with doing that in a friendly. It's the best place to try out new players. The majority of Scotland players will make their debuts in a friendly.

Quote

4. Butcher, having played some sort of game in the 80's against the Japanese assistant decides he's going to involve Scotland in his grudge again. Showing what an arogant egomanaic he is again.

Butcher is a bit of a tube, but this clearly isn't going to happen.

Quote

5. After some sort of media love Ferguson, MacGregor and Boyd make a shameless Scotland return, (or not).

You're really putting your neck on the line there. They'll either do something or they won't. I think you might be right.

Quote

The Dream Scenario

After sacking Burley for failing to qualify for the world cup the SFA have appointed a new manager. Craig Levein guides Scotland to a 3-0 victory with Kris Boyd comming of the bench to score a late third goal.

Everything is now good again

"The Dream Scenario" involves Scotland failing to qualify for the World Cup?

[Mr Mojo Rising]

HibeeJibee, on Apr 12 2009, 17:09, said:

Looking more closely, the only non-European countries of any calibre available on either October dates are South Africa: the World Cup hosts (but turned us down); New Zealand: Oceania; or the Asian nations. So SFA were essentially faced with either (1) playing Northern Ireland or Croatia, if they agreed / then hoping New Zealand would visit; or (2) travelling to Asia. No other options IMO.

You have a very impressive knowledge when it comes to football!

Looking at what you've said I can see why Japan was picked but for a friendly so far away teams are going to be reluctant to release players so I would expect quite a few dubious injuries to be picked up.

Wouldn't have been the end of the world to have a squad get together instead (which would certainly increase chances of the strongest possible squad all being together) possibly with a closed door match.

[BadgersNadgers]

Its not ideal, but if we are in a play-off the squad will be needing a game. Suppose they'll need to get used to long flights anyway. Given how far away it is and how badly managed the squad accommodation has been (Boozegate) I wouldn't expect us to get anything from the game.

If we aren't in a play-off there will be in excess of 15 call-offs I predict.

[Swarley]

Interesting, it's in my neck of the woods, might look into going! I would guess this is more about providing Japan with some European opposition experience before their World Cup adventure.

Edit to add: flights from Sydney to Tokyo, arrive on the Thu and leave on the Sun/Mon (ie typical tour of duty) would cost about $1000 (about 500 quid). I would guess that accommodation for a couple of nights would cost the same, food & drink plus match ticket, and I'd be looking at about 1500-2000 quid! And that's if the game is in Tokyo. Might give it a miss. Why couldn't they play the Socceroos?!

This post has been edited by Swarley: 14 April 2009 - 09:41

[FC_1919]

Fuctifano, on Apr 12 2009, 16:56, said:

Can you get an easyjet to Tokyo?

I was hoping to go to an away friendly to get on the points ladder, but I think I'll be giving this one a miss unless I happen to come across a spare grand in my account.

Similar, want to go to an away friendly. Hoped we would get Croatia or someone away in May. Sadly doesn't seem to be the case.

[HibeeJibee]

Swarley, on Apr 14 2009, 09:18, said:

Might give it a miss. Why couldn't they play the Socceroos?!

Still quite possible we will... If the purpose of travelling to the other side of the world is to get games, the SFA (provided they get the finger out...) will presumably want a game on Tuesday or Wednesday as well. Quite conceivable that could be against Australia/South Korea/New Zealand.

[dogma]

HibeeJibee, on Apr 13 2009, 15:06, said:

Maybe - but if we're in the play-offs, surely players will be wanting to secure their place? And to pull out with a dubious injury (which Burley etc. would be aware of) could jeopardise that place.

If we'd been able to, for example, host Northern Ireland or Croatia, then South Africa, it would be better to stay home. But I'd expect Croatia will go outside of Europe; and South Africa turned us down (in favour of Norway and Iceland). Plus we could draw one of those sides in the play-offs, in which case you'd have to cancel it... Plus we played Northern Ireland not that long ago, IIRC.


They could not have done anything earlier. Aside from those handful of European teams, the only free nations of calibre were South Africa and New Zealand. There will be some Asian nations free, but it would have been impossible until recently to know which. As I said above, if Japan have a nightmare in their remaining games, they might finish 3rd and need to cancel our friendly. (Which would be a source of HUGE embarrassment to the SFA...). As soon as South Africa didn't want to play us the only options were (1) going to Asia or (2) just staying at home and playing 1 minnow.

Thats assuming the players have any respect for Burley. He wouldnt even get rid of players who were so drunk that they couldnt train for the most important match of his reign and went on to seriously verbally abuse a member of his coaching team. He has not even ratified their ban for the V signs ffs. I doubt anyone in the squad will fear for their place by missing a pointless game on the other side of the world

This post has been edited by dogma: 14 April 2009 - 19:35

[craigkillie]

dogma, on Apr 14 2009, 19:34, said:

He wouldnt even get rid of players who were so drunk that they couldnt train for the most important match of his reign

Sunday was a day off, was it not?

Quote

and went on to seriously verbally abuse a member of his coaching team.

Has this ever been proved? I could believe it, but I haven't heard any official mention of this.

[dogma]

craigkillie, on Apr 15 2009, 00:59, said:

Sunday was a day off, was it not?




Has this ever been proved? I could believe it, but I haven't heard any official mention of this.

They were due to start light training at 2pm when Pressley found them in the bar after complaints from other customers. The Scotsman ran the story about them abusing Pressley and whilst its a newspaper, I would regard it as a decent source and there certainly has not been any denial from either the players or the SFA.

[craigkillie]

dogma, on Apr 15 2009, 08:12, said:

They were due to start light training at 2pm when Pressley found them in the bar after complaints from other customers. The Scotsman ran the story about them abusing Pressley and whilst its a newspaper, I would regard it as a decent source and there certainly has not been any denial from either the players or the SFA.

Fair enough.

I hadn't read anything on the BBC or in the Herald about Pressley being abused.

[dogma]

tbf i was surprised it wasnt more of an issue with the media - after all I would have thought a member of the coaching team being abused by the players was far worse than the V signs, but thats only my opinon.

[HibeeJibee]

dogma, on Apr 15 2009, 16:27, said:

tbf i was surprised it wasnt more of an issue with the media - after all I would have thought a member of the coaching team being abused by the players was far worse than the V signs, but thats only my opinon.

Herald and Scotsman made quite a thing of it (headline story of 2 consecutive days in Scotsman) but the tabloids preferred to concentrate on pictures of them giving the Vs. Enough said, IMO...