General Football - Weird Results And Other Things Worth Sharing

[TRVMP]

7 hours ago, Hej said:

2nd half we played really well.

5 atb looked an omnishambles for the first Israel game, but we're definitely growing into it. McTominay also really growing into that RCB role, thought he was outstanding on Thursday and last night

 

O'Donnell is a strange player. He looks absolutely fucking guff and a total bombscare anytime the ball is near him, but I'm still struggling to think of a single terrible mistake he's made in any of his 15 caps. Makes the most of his extremely limited ability to put in solid performances most matches. A poor man's Branislav Ivanovic circa 2015.

McTominay was very solid, and of course Considine had a dream debut. Clarke's plans are really starting to come together. Trying not to be too overenthusiastic, as the quality of the opposition hasn't been great, but we're looking pretty solid these days and we're nicking the odd goal.

I have nothing against O'Donnell at all, but you're right, his limitations are extremely clear - yet somehow he doesn't sell the jerseys. Fair to say that we all hoped guys like Palmer would have come along better, but if O'Donnell is picked and keeps on giving 100%, we can't ask for much more.

[hayfever]

We've been crying out for Scotland to be hard-to-beat and better at grinding out results, and this triple header might be the turning point. Serbia are the favourites but their home form has been sketchy recently. 

All of a sudden i'm reasonably confident we can go there and match them.

Ironically, perhaps nobody in the ground to get nervous or annoyed has helped the team find their groove (he says, assuming we aren't about to get a shoeing from the Czechs)

Edited October 13, 2020 by hayfever

[TONofmemories]

FWIW, i thought we were excellent on Thursday, second half especially. 

Whole back-line was superb and i'm extremely chuffed for Big Andy - I can boogie - Consodine. Guys a gent and a model pro. 

McTominay really growing into that role and i thought his distribution was excellent on Thursday. 

Ryan Fraser must start for Scotland whenever he's fit. 

Lydon Dykes btw; what a pler. Worked his arse off all night. 

Loved the absolute shitehousery from McBurnie. He gets a hard time, but he's got ability. 

There's the basis of a plan starting to formulate and if that's what it takes to get us to a finals, then so be it. 

Our best performance under SC. Absolutely. 

[GiGi]

Also worth noting that Israel look better than Slovakia in most respects based on this week. Slovakia are pretty shite other than the flagging, half retired Hamsik (who is absolutely still a pler).

Not taking anything away from Clarke though. Thursday was a boring watch but our defence have been untroubled in both games. Can  definitely build from that.

[Hej]

7 minutes ago, GiGi said:

Also worth noting that Israel look better than Slovakia in most respects based on this week. Slovakia are pretty shite other than the flagging, half retired Hamsik (who is absolutely still a pler).

Not taking anything away from Clarke though. Thursday was a boring watch but our defence have been untroubled in both games. Can  definitely build from that.

 

I think Israel are pretty underrated tbh. Don't think they're anywhere near as bad as people in Scotland have been making out. People looking way too much into the world rankings. 4 or 5 of their players would comfortably make our first XI.

[GiGi]

24 minutes ago, Hej said:

I think Israel are pretty underrated tbh. Don't think they're anywhere near as bad as people in Scotland have been making out. People looking way too much into the world rankings. 4 or 5 of their players would comfortably make our first XI.

I reckon so as well. Their squad are much better technicians than Slovakia anyway. We couldn't get the ball off Israel at times on Thursday then we did more or less the same thing to Slovakia. Don't think there's much between them and the Czechs.

[Hej]

John McGinn has looked genuinely world class tonight. The Czechs can't get anywhere near him when he's had the ball. 

[TRVMP]

Just now, Hej said:

John McGinn has looked genuinely world class tonight. The Czechs can't get anywhere near him when he's had the ball. 

I said after the last game, he's inches away from being a genuine top-class player. His positioning is absolutely top-notch. He's active all over the pitch. His long passing is superb. He really has almost everything in his toolbox. 

[Hej]

7 minutes ago, TRVMP said:

I said after the last game, he's inches away from being a genuine top-class player. His positioning is absolutely top-notch. He's active all over the pitch. His long passing is superb. He really has almost everything in his toolbox. 

It's the wee turns and flicks he's been doing just as it looks like he's about to get dispossessed for me that's been particularly impressive. He's had the Czech midfield on strings. Very intelligent player. 

 

I used to slate him in his early Scotland days too. He's come a long way. 

Edited October 14, 2020 by Hej

[TRVMP]

1 minute ago, Hej said:

It's the wee turns and flicks he's been doing just as it looks like he's about to get dispossessed for me that's been particularly impressive. He's had the Czech midfield on strings. Very intelligent player. 

Even that block on our goalline shows his innate ability. That wasn't his man to mark, but there he was.

[TRVMP]

Soucek's miss 

[TRVMP]

That'll ding dang do.

Clarke, what a manager.

Edited October 14, 2020 by TRVMP

[hayfever]

2 hours ago, TRVMP said:

I said after the last game, he's inches away from being a genuine top-class player. His positioning is absolutely top-notch. He's active all over the pitch. His long passing is superb. He really has almost everything in his toolbox. 

I used to work with a Villa fan and he absolutely adores him, great wee player. We've been crying out for Scotland to be hard to beat and able to grind out results, long may this continue. Tonight a decent dress rehearsal for playing Serbia where we're bound to be penned in at times.

[TRVMP]

For those awake, the Apertura Final in Nicaragua is online for free viewing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nICGoNb8gmw

I've been watching a few games from this league (as they tend to be the only games on at this time of night and they're all free in high quality) and... well, put it this way: fans of the Scottish Championship won't feel too far from home.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

Despite being a pretty keen football fan in general, I only have a passing interest in the major European leagues. For some reason I watch far more games from the likes of the Norwegian Eliteserien (watching Stabaek hump Aalesund 4-0 as I type, although my 'team' is Bodo/Glimt who surprisingly are romping the league, although they lost their first game of the season away at Molde yesterday) and the Danish Superliga, than I do La Liga, the Bundesliga, Ligue 1 and English Premiership. Don't know why really, possibly because being a Ton fan I can relate more to the teams in these leagues than I can to the likes of Bayern Munich, Real Madrid, PSG or Manchester City. Anyone else have an unfathomable affiliation to wee diddy teams or leagues outside Scotland? 

[TRVMP]

I keep track of the diddy European leagues but I tend not to watch them live, mostly due to timezone issues. I enjoy the leagues of Latin America hugely, even the smaller ones.

[hayfever]

Being based in Australia again I try to keep up with the A-League, but it's a hard watch at times. Badly run and takes place during summer when it's far too hot for the game to be played at a decent tempo. Moving to winter is the solution but not sure they will get same TV time (and stadium availability) when the Aussie rules is on...

[Toby]

Our old friends MyPa 47, the club we of course signed Janne Lindberg and Marko Rajamaki from, have already been relegated from the second tier of Finnish football this season and today lost 10-2 at AC Kajaani, having been 5-1 down at half time.

They do however have two games remaining of their season, but I’m sure I remember living out a similar scenario at some point in the past.

I always thought of them as one of the big clubs in Finland, and it seems like quite a fall they’ve had. Anyone know the circumstances around this?

[TRVMP]

1 hour ago, Toby said:

Our old friends MyPa 47, the club we of course signed Janne Lindberg and Marko Rajamaki from, have already been relegated from the second tier of Finnish football this season and today lost 10-2 at AC Kajaani, having been 5-1 down at half time.

They do however have two games remaining of their season, but I’m sure I remember living out a similar scenario at some point in the past.

I always thought of them as one of the big clubs in Finland, and it seems like quite a fall they’ve had. Anyone know the circumstances around this?

Behind the scenes they were bankrolled by a local industry in their small town - the paper mill. When the paper mill got bought out and then closed down by a conglomerate, they lost the bulk of their sponsorship, and eventually went bust. They continued as a community club, away from professional football. This was 2015.

A couple of years later they got back into the pyramid, replacing a dropout club, and then last season they got another administrative promotion when a team from the second tier dropped out. They stayed up by the skin of their teeth last season but this year they went back down.

They're basically a local/community club now. Without the paper mill's backing, and given that Kouvola is a mid-sized down, they're unlikely to ever be a major club again. This is part of a pattern with some of these small town "industrial" clubs. See Atvidaberg in Sweden for another example - a famous old mining club and former national champions, but now they're just a village team in division 3. Clubs that manage to transition from industrial-backed are few and far between. Genk in Belgium did so but that was because the two mining teams (Winterslag and Waterschei) merged into one. Erzgebirge Aue in Germany also continue to punch above their weight due to a traditionally strong fanbase. But MyPa, Metalist Kharkiv - teams like that just collapse when the industrial support does.

Then there are new-style clubs that follow the same model. Sheriff Tiraspol is a prime example. The Sheriff corporation owns half of Moldova (or so it seems) and they keep the money flowing to the club. Over in Asia, Dordoi Bishkek are the biggest club in the country and owned by a retail/wholesale company.

[Cet Homme Charmant]

2 hours ago, TRVMP said:

Clubs that manage to transition from industrial-backed are few and far between. Genk in Belgium did so but that was because the two mining teams (Winterslag and Waterschei) merged into one.

Waterschei (full name Koninkrijk Waterschei Sportvereniging Thor Genk, believe it or not) amazingly reached the semi-final of the European Cup Winners Cup in season 82-83, only to be pumped 5-2 on aggregate by eventual winners Aberdeen.    

FUN FACT! The bloke Clijsters in the Waterschei team in this game is tennis star Kim Clijster's auld fella.

Edited October 21, 2020 by Cet Homme Charmant