Can anyone name any tournament ever that has had four quarter finals as one sided as this one?
Such a disapointment after four very competitive groups.
Such a disapointment after four very competitive groups.
One-sided games
- Thread starter Allezfan
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A two tier international standard has opened and England are, indeed, the Liverpool.
There's a big gap between the elite European teams and everyone else. I've been saying it for two years now but the standard of the mediocre european teams is as low as it's ever been. The Euros used to be the World Cup without Brazil but now you could put Egypt, Ivory Coast, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, the Yanks or pretty much anyone from south america in the Euros and they'd reach the quarters easily.
The only teams who can give Spain or Germany a game is each other.
EFC Si
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I think the 4 left in it now are a similar standard to each other. I think Ronaldo will beat Spain
Yeah maybe but the four who just lost the quarters weren't even close to any of them.
Spot on beardo and it's to the detriment of the game sadly mate.
Rook
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Think those matches at Andorra, San Marino, Faroe Is and hell maybe Scotland aren't helping. You can't get better playing teams like that. There is just too much crap that decent-good teams play in UEFA qualifying and you pick up bad habits that you can get away with against crap teams. That sorry French team should in no way have been unbeaten in 23? matches. In all the other confederations yes there are some medicore teams but at least the good-best teams all play each other. Its time to get rid of the minnows and have like 4-5 groups of 7 with the 3 best teams going.
England has got what Ukraine as the best team they'll face in qualifying? No they aren't getting better anytime soon. A team like Urugray went far because they found out what they do best in qualifying against the likes of Argentina and Brasil. Holland didn't realize that their defense was worse than Blackpool until it was too late. France's manager never knew what his best lineup was against a good team because France never played anyone.
Papa Shango
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And how do the minnows get better?
Small nations have got every right to play football as much as the big nations. And in some cases a visit of one of the big boys is enough to get a federation by for another 4 years.
Elong
The fire rises
There's a reason it's called the World Cup to be fair mate. Nobody said it had to the best competition.
In North America, Asia and Africa, the minnows all play each other first and only the best out of that lot get put in with the big boys. Which means the likes of the cayman islands have to win twice as many games as mexico to reach the World Cup but mexico face a higher standard of opposition, while st lucia gets to play games where they're not thrashed 18-0.
It's worth considering, but the basic fairness of the UEFA system is one that appeals to me. Andorra and Spain start out having to win the same amount of game to progress.
Axe Murderer
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I think Portugal minus Ronaldo are extremely average bordering on poor even.
Rook
Player Valuation: £80m
I'm not saying they don't deserve to be in but even in CONCACAF we get rid of our San Marino's early in the process so in the final qualifying stage the last 6 play decent teams. You can have a short qualifying stage or a play in for some of the teams. Italy v. Andorra isn't making either team better. Pit San Marino/Andorra etal in a few matches/tourney of the bottom 8-10 or so teams with the top 2 going. Its not like they are doing anything in the Euros anyway. Andorra gets to play someone they could beat and who knows they may discover that they have a player or 2 that can actually play in something other than a 10-0-0 in an international match for a change.
You say that Rook, but the south american minnows (Ecuador, Venezuela etc) only started doing anything once the South American qualifying became a full league where everyone played everyone else. Games solely against each other with the reward being to get hammered in one game by a big boy doesn't help anyone improve.
See also New Zealand and Australia's struggle to win the play off after only playing the likes of samoa and fiji.
It seems like a bit of a perfect storm. Two excellent sides in Germany and Spain mixed in with unbalanced groups (A was a joke and D not much better). I wonder if the third-place teams in B and C would have fared better.
The fact that both teams from both A and D put up such little resistance does show how much UEFA fixed the draw so Poland and Ukraine might progress.
Not that it helped.
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