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Slovakia v Scotland

callum-ayr

By callum-ayr
in Tartan Army Ramblings

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PWL

PWL

Posted
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A failed 5 pointer so booked in section 44 with the rest of the riff raff. Looks like we're filling most of that stand officially and unofficially. Should be a laugh but I remember a similar scenario in Macedonia when 1,500 of us didn't get in.

How good was that ticket system though? Choose your seat, pay and get pdf ticket all within a couple of mins. So much better than SFA.

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Arch Stanton

Arch Stanton

Posted
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A failed 5 pointer so booked in section 44 with the rest of the riff raff. Looks like we're filling most of that stand officially and unofficially. Should be a laugh but I remember a similar scenario in Macedonia when 1,500 of us didn't get in.

How good was that ticket system though? Choose your seat, pay and get pdf ticket all within a couple of mins. So much better than SFA.


I was at the Macedonia game and was the only one of our group of 5 who saw the whole game, I was swept into the Main Stand when their ultras arrived.

Can't see the same thing happening here, the England fans did the same thing and on thenight occupied. Pretty much all of the stand behind the goal.
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Moo

Moo

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It does seem like most of the stand behind that goal will be the Tartan Army. I got a ticket in section 45 quite easily on Monday but could see they were going fast. Should be a good crowd. [emoji4]



Decent that you got a ticket but frustrating knowing that it's not getting you a point. It's not like we can increase our official allocation now due to the sections next to the Scotland fans being sold out.

You'll likely have a better view than me.
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Moo

Moo

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I started the campaign on 0 points and got my first one at Malta, should have my second against England which is alright really. Don't think I'll have any more away games for the rest of the campaign though.



I doubt it but we could possibly have an away friendly before the Slovenia game or England game at home in 2017. I don't know what the gaps in the season are for international friendlies but someone else will know on here.
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forameus

forameus

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22 minutes ago, Moo said:

 


I doubt it but we could possibly have an away friendly before the Slovenia game or England game at home in 2017. I don't know what the gaps in the season are for international friendlies but someone else will know on here.

 

We're in a 6 team group, so no off days during qualifying.  Possibility of one around the England game I believe, but not sure if it'd fall before or after.  I really doubt we'll play any to be honest.

EDIT: Actually, there might be a chance around the March fixture away in Slovenia, as we're only playing the one game.  Something's telling me that that's traditionally just a one fixture window, but could be wrong.  Again, I doubt they're going to schedule anything.

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Moo

Moo

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We're in a 6 team group, so no off days during qualifying.  Possibility of one around the England game I believe, but not sure if it'd fall before or after.  I really doubt we'll play any to be honest.

EDIT: Actually, there might be a chance around the March fixture away in Slovenia, as we're only playing the one game.  Something's telling me that that's traditionally just a one fixture window, but could be wrong.  Again, I doubt they're going to schedule anything.



Had a quick look online for the international gaps for official and friendly fixtures and they are

20-28th March
5-13th June.
28-5th September
2nd-10th October
6-14th November

So only March and June for a friendly fixture home or away. Potentially November but we could be in the play offs or we could have a free week due to automatic qualification or not progressing at all.
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forameus

forameus

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We play England on the 10th, so really can't see us playing one in June.  Unless the match means pretty much nothing, we can't afford to risk people getting injured just to get a friendly in.  For March, I'd be more inclined.  We play Slovenia away on the 26th - perhaps an away friendly around that area to acclimatise earlier in the week?

I think we should be playing in every available window we have, providing it isn't going to screw with the games that matter.  Not playing friendlies has been something we've done historically, and it's partly to blame for our poor seedings at times.

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Moo

Moo

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We play England on the 10th, so really can't see us playing one in June.  Unless the match means pretty much nothing, we can't afford to risk people getting injured just to get a friendly in.  For March, I'd be more inclined.  We play Slovenia away on the 26th - perhaps an away friendly around that area to acclimatise earlier in the week?

I think we should be playing in every available window we have, providing it isn't going to screw with the games that matter.  Not playing friendlies has been something we've done historically, and it's partly to blame for our poor seedings at times.



I highly doubt the game in June will mean nothing. We've got two home games before then which we should be looking to take 6 points from. Only Slovakia and England away are the games we're expected to drop points but then again who knows. Realistically the game in June should be us looking to narrow the gap unless it's us pulling away which is obviously highly unlikely.
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lubo_blaha

lubo_blaha

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Not playing friendlies has been something we've done historically, and it's partly to blame for our poor seedings at times.



You couldn't be more wrong I'm afraid. Not playing friendlies is a great tactic for climbing the rankings. You get far fewer ranking points for playing friendlies compared to competitive games, even if you win, and since the rankings are based on an average of your most recent games it can have a major effect.

Wales didn't play a single friendly during their Euro qualifying campaign and it made the difference in them getting into the top 10 in the world and becoming top seeds for WC qualifying, having been bottom seeds just 2 campaigns before. We should be looking to play the bare minimum number of friendlies, the scheduling of friendlies against Italy and France earlier this year was particularly stupid.

I realise it's not ideal for people on 0 points but it makes sense for our ranking.
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forameus

forameus

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3 hours ago, lubo_blaha said:

You couldn't be more wrong I'm afraid. Not playing friendlies is a great tactic for climbing the rankings. You get far fewer ranking points for playing friendlies compared to competitive games, even if you win, and since the rankings are based on an average of your most recent games it can have a major effect.

Wales didn't play a single friendly during their Euro qualifying campaign and it made the difference in them getting into the top 10 in the world and becoming top seeds for WC qualifying, having been bottom seeds just 2 campaigns before. We should be looking to play the bare minimum number of friendlies, the scheduling of friendlies against Italy and France earlier this year was particularly stupid.

I realise it's not ideal for people on 0 points but it makes sense for our ranking.

I'm well aware of how the rankings work.  But you seem to be playing we just shouldn't play friendlies.  Not playing friendlies wasn't why Wales climbed the rankings, it was their results in qualifying.  

The key is to plan the friendlies properly.  I'm not advocating playing matches for the sake of them, I'm advocating playing matches against teams higher than us in the rankings that we should be able to beat.  I'd wager that had the SFA planned some friendlies well, we wouldn't have gone into the Ireland match needing a win to make it in to pot 2.  Especially given we actually do not too bad in friendlies.  They're unlikely to count too much towards our total anyway - we qualify for the World Cup, we'll have a high ranking regardless of friendly results.  We don't qualify, we're likely to be pretty low.

Plus the next time that World Rankings are going to really matter will be prior to the draw for the 2022 qualifying, around Summer 2019.  I'd rather have games than not in the mean time.

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lubo_blaha

lubo_blaha

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I'm well aware of how the rankings work.  But you seem to be playing we just shouldn't play friendlies.  Not playing friendlies wasn't why Wales climbed the rankings, it was their results in qualifying.  

The key is to plan the friendlies properly.  I'm not advocating playing matches for the sake of them, I'm advocating playing matches against teams higher than us in the rankings that we should be able to beat.  I'd wager that had the SFA planned some friendlies well, we wouldn't have gone into the Ireland match needing a win to make it in to pot 2.  Especially given we actually do not too bad in friendlies.  They're unlikely to count too much towards our total anyway - we qualify for the World Cup, we'll have a high ranking regardless of friendly results.  We don't qualify, we're likely to be pretty low.

Plus the next time that World Rankings are going to really matter will be prior to the draw for the 2022 qualifying, around Summer 2019.  I'd rather have games than not in the mean time.



It was a deliberate move by Wales. They fell below Faroe in the rankings my an incredibly small margin and since then they made the conscious decision not to play friendlies in the run up to the next World Cup qualifying draw and it massively paid off (alongside actually winning of course). Qualifiers have a 2.5x points multiplier compared to friendlies so it makes sense. Switzerland got a World Cup top seeding place ahead of Italy doing the same thing.

I know it won't matter for a while and with the Nations League coming in there'll probably be very few friendly dates left anyway but to suggest we've hurt our seeding chances by not playing friendlies is daft.
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forameus

forameus

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4 hours ago, lubo_blaha said:

 


It was a deliberate move by Wales. They fell below Faroe in the rankings my an incredibly small margin and since then they made the conscious decision not to play friendlies in the run up to the next World Cup qualifying draw and it massively paid off (alongside actually winning of course). Qualifiers have a 2.5x points multiplier compared to friendlies so it makes sense. Switzerland got a World Cup top seeding place ahead of Italy doing the same thing.

I know it won't matter for a while and with the Nations League coming in there'll probably be very few friendly dates left anyway but to suggest we've hurt our seeding chances by not playing friendlies is daft.

 

Slightly related, but did the Swiss not grab a World Cup seeding place ahead of the Netherlands because they went away and played some absolute diddies, and subsequently dropped out?

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lubo_blaha

lubo_blaha

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Slightly related, but did the Swiss not grab a World Cup seeding place ahead of the Netherlands because they went away and played some absolute diddies, and subsequently dropped out?



Yes, they arranged a friendly against Indonesia which cost them their seeded place, despite them winning the game 3-0. Similar story with Italy who played San Marino in a friendly shortly before it was decided.

There's a good article on it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25134584
I wonder how the theory of using more than 6 subs to make a friendly "unofficial" would go down in practice.
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