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World Cup 23 qualifiers


Lurkst

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1 hour ago, Lurkst said:

Draw made, our group is...

Spain 

Scotland

Ukraine 

Hungary 

Faroe Islands

 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/56945831

 

Could have been worse I suppose, Spain will be favourites but some of the teams in Pot 1 would have been pretty much unbeatable for us. Ukraine looked gash against Northern Ireland in their play-off recently. 

Really deeply incredibly annoying that the BBC's report has a headline about England, mostly talks about England and features a tweet from the FA. Oh, also playing, some other countries around England.

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23 hours ago, KirkieRR said:

Weir and Little in TEAMGEEBEE squad.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/57255330

I'd drop them for taking part in the English FA's vanity project. It won't help our World Cup campaign, though it may help theirs.

I don't blame the players for taking part, it's a great opportunity for them and they don't get enough of those. This goes double this year with our failure to qualify for the Euros. But it does nothing for Scotland and there's always the risk that, if they're successful, our own team's existence is endangered.

Three non-English players in the entire squad - what did anyone think the England manager would do? She knows what side her bread is buttered.

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On 28/05/2021 at 10:59, GordonS said:

I don't blame the players for taking part, it's a great opportunity for them and they don't get enough of those. This goes double this year with our failure to qualify for the Euros. But it does nothing for Scotland and there's always the risk that, if they're successful, our own team's existence is endangered.

Three non-English players in the entire squad - what did anyone think the England manager would do? She knows what side her bread is buttered.

Alan Campbell in the Herald yesterday not mincing his words on the matter...

THE arrogance of the Football Association, as well as the naivete of their Scottish, Welsh and Northern Irish counterparts, was evident on Thursday when the “Team GB” squad for the Tokyo Olympics was announced.

Far from offering concessions to the other three associations to acknowledge their acquiescence in allowing the ill-judged Olympic venture to go ahead, the FA did the opposite. “Team GB” has 19 players (including four reserves) from England – with a token two from Scotland and one from Wales to keep the Olympic authorities happy.

 Baroness Sue Campbell of Loughborough, the director of women's football at the FA, understands what's required for high performance success far better than most. As a former chair of UK Sport she knows the prospects of England winning Euro 2022 on home soil will be greatly enhanced by as many of their players as possible participating in the Olympic tournament.

Returning from Japan with medals, followed by a drinks reception in Downing Street, would be the perfect double for the Baroness. She has already stated that gold would achieve a key FA target – despite this not being a fully English team.

“The Football Association has launched a new national strategy which is very clear that one of the game-changers in the next six years is the men's and women's teams winning a major tournament,” she said in March when talking about the Olympics. “This is a major tournament.”

The Scottish FA and the other two associations have been taken for mugs. They rejected a “Team GB” at the Rio Olympics in 2016 on the grounds that London four years earlier had been clearly designated a one-off – yet illogically acceded this time because they didn't want to deprive their players of an Olympic opportunity.

Having ceded all responsibility for selecting the squad to the FA, it's now a lose-lose with so few of their players chosen.
 

Enabling this charade was also a gross dereliction of their primary duty not to do anything which might jeopardise the privilege of the four home nations competing in their own right at World Cups and European Championships.
 

The danger now is that any “Team GB” success at the Olympics – assuming they happen despite 80 per cent of Japanese people wanting them cancelled – will only encourage other Fifa nations to question why the UK associations are being allowed to enjoy the best of both worlds.

 
 
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There is an ethical argument too.

 

Weir and Little were in the qualifying tournament playing for another team. They were (iirc) both in the Scotland team that England rather jammily beat in the group stage. And now they're resurrected.

 

That's an effective stick to beat Scotland's footballing independence with. I hope no one realises it.

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18 hours ago, Thereisalight.. said:

Really cant believe how much we've regressed since 2019. Another woeful display in the 1st half of this game v NI. Why are we dragging our heels in appointing a new manager? 

It's difficult to believe the SFA are genuinely this thoughtless and incompetent, but it seems to be the obvious explanation at this point.

Northern Ireland aren't rubbish, they qualified for the Euros and we started without a lot of our best players. But I don't know what our performance was all about. It feels like McLaren really is just minding the shop and the game was more about game time than part of development towards the WC qualifiers. They don't know how the next manager wants them to play so they're going through the motions. 

All very strange and disappointing. 

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Agree it’s poor that we still have no manager. The group needs cohesion and consistency especially after everything that has happened.  We’re going to hit the World Cup qualifiers cold which isn’t going to help. Maybe they are waiting for two friendly wins over NI and Wales to just give the current guy the job. Would save them cash. 

Edited by roverthemoon
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4 hours ago, roverthemoon said:

Agree it’s poor that we still have no manager. The group needs cohesion and consistency especially after everything that has happened.  We’re going to hit the World Cup qualifiers cold which isn’t going to help. Maybe they are waiting for two friendly wins over NI and Wales to just give the current guy the job. Would save them cash. 

I bloody hope not, but I fear you're right.

This first half has been another disappointment. Wales obviously want it more, and yet again Cuthbert is playing too deep... as I type that Cuthbert rattles the bar! That's why she needs to be further forward, she plays deeper for Chelsea but that's only because they have world class strikers. She's easily our biggest goal threat.

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Credit to them for spotting that the Welsh keeper tend to dwell in possession so charging her with two players at a time. Certainly paid off.

 

But agreed. Not sure what lessons are being learned here with no new manager even on the horizon.

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