The Round Ball Game

[teamsaint]

....same here!!!!

I see what you did there !!
Funny !

England were good in patches. Very small patches.
The Alwyn on youtube was good in much bigger patches .

Edit.....got out of jail there. But we have such ordinary players in the team at present.

[EdgeleyRob]

bobbins

[johncorrigan]

But we have such ordinary players in the team at present.

I wish we had some ordinary players in ours, ts. We need Darren Fletcher back - he's a good leader on the park, and Levein needs to patch up his difference with Stephen Fletcher if we're going to get goals.

[scottycelt]

I wish we had some ordinary players in ours, ts. We need Darren Fletcher back - he's a good leader on the park, and Levein needs to patch up his difference with Stephen Fletcher if we're going to get goals.

And that just about sums up the dearth of genuine football talent available to a once-proud footballing country. It will be a mercy to us all if this apology of a 'professional' national side (most of whom cannot even properly pass a ball five yards) get nowhere near Brazil.

What an utter and shameful shambles when an even smaller and much poorer country like Macedonia can now outclass us in the technical side of the game.

[Resurrection Man]

Last nights' results for all of the Home countries confirms what I have long suspected. That all our professional footballers are overpaid, egocentrics.

I'd advocate a 90% paycut across the board. Nominal bonus payments by result....ie actually win a game or two. Get rid of all the footballers agents and put a cap on inter-club transfer fees of £200K. Then stick a levy on football clubs proportional to the money saved by cutting the bloated salaries and transfer fees and plough the money back into sports facilities across the country for kids.

[johncorrigan]

What an utter and shameful shambles when an even smaller and much poorer country like Macedonia can now outclass us in the technical side of the game.

Come, come Scotty! You're long enough in the tooth to know that size is not directly related to performance.
I think that Scotland, without any big players, need to play like a team, and they didn't do that last night. When I saw this group I was bothered by the former Yugoslav republics in it - we all know they can play footie and I think that there'll be a lot of points dropped by all teams throughout this qualification.( I'm hoping for a Belgium/Croatia draw tonight) But if Scotland are going to be in the mix they're going to have to start to pull together a bit more.

[scottycelt]

Come, come Scotty! You're long enough in the tooth to know that size is not directly related to performance.
I think that Scotland, without any big players, need to play like a team, and they didn't do that last night. When I saw this group I was bothered by the former Yugoslav republics in it - we all know they can play footie and I think that there'll be a lot of points dropped by all teams throughout this qualification.( I'm hoping for a Belgium/Croatia draw tonight) But if Scotland are going to be in the mix they're going to have to start to pull together a bit more.

Stop dreaming, John ... however, maybe I'm biased, but, firstly, I must totally concur with your views regarding size and performance.

Scotland have as much chance of getting to Rio as I have of winning the gold medal in the High Jump there in the 2016 Olympics. To have had any realistic chance we'd have had to win out first two games at home against the 'weaker' opposition. Instead, we managed to scrape two miserable draws.

I don't remember any Scottish national side playing as a team ... it was just that in the old days we managed to qualify because we had quite a few world-class individual players to get us through ... now we don't have a single one. Arguably, we don't even have any particularly good ones, though admittedly one or two youngsters are showing some initial promise.

Currently, we are probably (though by no means certainly) very slightly technically superior to the Faroe Islands ... that, I'm afraid, is our current level and has been for some time. Maybe I'm insulting the Faroe Islands which actually does amazingly well considering its size and population.

IMHO, the current squad is no more likely to qualify for any major tournament ...

[eighthobstruction]

I thought we were supposed to be talking about football on this thread....

....Aah well, they'll probably all be managers in the football league in 10 years time....if that's any revenge....

[johncorrigan]

Stop dreaming, John ...

I don't remember any Scottish national side playing as a team

Stop Dreaming, scotty??? A Jag telling that to a Buddy!!!! I thought we were always dreaming.

They did play as a team when Walter Smith was manager but SFA wouldn't tie him down to the post and he headed to the Gers. I think we'd have qualified for Germany if he'd have stayed. Those results against France were built on a great team mentality - not pretty to watch, even through closed fingers.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/internationals/5397614.stm

Now we're not pretty to watch and don't get results either - maybe eighthobstruction's right and we should talk tennis instead.

[EdgeleyRob]

Good luck to all the messageboard teams today.
Stockport v Woking,I know, you all wish you could be there.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

yep allez les toutes etc [et les bleus]

[cloughie]

Seagulls 3 Owls 0uch!

[teamsaint]

Good luck to all the messageboard teams today.
Stockport v Woking,I know, you all wish you could be there.

It would have been a nice day out if there weather is ok up there.
a ****** sight better than watching Saints get stuffed , and showing zero resistance at arsenal. (watching it on a stream, given up and listening to Lang Lang on my new kitchen cd/radio thing now. )
Good luck to all the board teams.

[antongould]

It would have been a nice day out if there weather is ok up there.
a ****** sight better than watching Saints get stuffed , and showing zero resistance at arsenal. (watching it on a stream, given up and listening to Lang Lang on my new kitchen cd/radio thing now. )
Good luck to all the board teams.

Fear not ts the fight back has begun.........

[antongould]

Fear not ts the fight back has begun.........

Sorry spoke too soon but there's plenty of time......