International Football

I am endlessly amused by the astonishing success McTominay has had since he was cut loose by ManU. What a goal!

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With the form of both Anthony and Hojland to a certain extent does make me think it’s far from anything resembling a club going places.

Anyhow Curcao, Haiti and Suriname add their names to the World Cup.

Apparently they have Dick Advocaat managing

Wonder what attracted him to a small carribean nation in his twilight years, don’t blame him mind and he’s made history as it’s the smallest nation ever to go to the World Cup and they topped a group with Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in who you would assumed would be sure fire with the friendly circumstances for North American clubs.

Jamaica still make it (nah she went of her own accord).

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Actually, Panama qualified ahead of Suriname. Maybe Suriname have qualified for the play offs, together with Jamaica, but it’s very close between them and Honduras. I think Suriname should qualify on the basis of goals scored.

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Dutch-speaking, comes with a house. Pretty good gig I would think.

CONCACAF qualifying is very odd this time round, because Mexico, Canada, and the US are all not involved - and until very recently, Mexico and the US dominated. Panama at #41 was the highest remaining team. Jamaica won their 2nd Round group, Trinidad placed 2nd in theirs. But for the 3rd round Curacao was the Pot 2 team over Trinidad in Pot 3.

CONCACAF qualifying is complex, largely because it almost as many teams as UEFA but nowhere near as many good ones. But in terms of discovering which teams are better by testing against close comparators, it is a much better system than the UEFA one that leaves Gattuso whining that Italy doesn’t have a world cup berth in hand for beating Israel, Estonia, and Moldova.

edit: @legalalien - yes, Suriname by a nose over Honduras for goals scored. Actually not close on that measure though, 9 to 5 which seems a just reward for generations of violent and cynical defensive play by Honduras.

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22 out of 23 players are born in the Netherlands ! :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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Sunday morning 2am apparently.

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@Magnus Do you remember where you where the last time Norway were in the world cup.

As Scotland were in the opening game against Brazil, we all got the afternoon off work to watch it (because they didn’t want us hanging around drunk in the office).

The second game was Scotland vs Norway, and I went with works colleagues to watch it in Glasgow. The idea was that we would watch it at an Italian restaurant on the west end of Sauchiehall Street, which was a good 20 minutes walk from the train station home.

Even with the 1:1 draw we had a good time and more drinks followed in the evening. I intended to leave and go home in the early evening but kept leaving it too late to get the “next” train. Eventually, I caught the 23:30 train home and arrived back just before midnight. I discovered my wife waiting for me in the station car park. Apparently, she had locked herself out of the house. Christ! She was livid!

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Sooo delighted for Scotland! It’s a great achievement, and a world cup without them is never the same. Also delighted for Robbo, who thoroughly deserves it, and let’s not forget Steve Clarke, who has done some astonishing work with them! :+1: :+1: :+1:

Switzerland get a 1-1 in Pristina, qualifying themselves for a world cup for the sixth time in a row. It’s an amazing achievement for a small country to be fair. Kosovo in the play-offs, I’ll be curious to see if they can qualify themselves too. They have been amazing.

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https://x.com/ScotlandNT/status/1990945107055645024

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Ref robbed us that game! :wink:

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https://x.com/HonestFrank/status/1990904782811246980

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I bet you were popular haha, that happened to me but the other way round I was sitting on the steps on the front door and to add to my misery it rained for two hours until my wife arrived.
Drank a very hot coffee laced with rum like I used to have in a Paris cafe in winter which they called « cafe rose » with the accents on the e’s.

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Excellent I lived in Scotland for thirteen years and I was very happy for them.

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Me too especially when he said he was thinking about him all day before the game! My thoughts went back to when the team didn’t do so well especially the players who were close to Jota and his family.

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I class Championship and domestic european leagues as proper football. So technically its back Thursday, weve not looked like proper football for the most part this season if you set Liverpool games as proper barometer for proper football.

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Ah I wasn’t aware they had a playoff.

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This is the set up for the none European playoffs by the way


Come on Suriname and New Caledonia


Asia will be represented by Iraq, Africa by DR Congo, CONCACAF by Jamaica and Suriname, Oceania by New Caledonia and South America by Bolivia.

The top two seeded teams – Iraq and DR Congo – have earned direct qualification for the two finals, while the other two finalists will be determined via two semifinals played between the four remaining teams.

The schedule for the intercontinental playoffs has not been confirmed.

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Proper football is LFC even if we’re playing shit.

Everything else is a mild imitation.

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Group stage draw is on the 5th of December.

Croatia have unfortunately dropped down to 2nd pot, but who cares, let’s go for another medal!

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