Talking of a country that has produced top coaches for many a year. Argentina!! Helenio Herrera, Simeone, Poch, the former Athletic coach whose name escapes me.
The Azzurri manager in 1982 in Spain World Cup. Who can forget that Marco Tardelli celebration...Pele modelled his on it
I remember. That team was based on an excellent sextet of Juve players. Bettaga, Scriea, Zoff, Gentile, Capello, and Cuccuredu if I can recall. The first four in that list were world class. Tonight only Buffon, but he can't do much in the goalscoring department. Could have been 7 Juve players in that team, Tardelli?
Between Italy and Netherlands they have made 9 of the 20 World Cup Finals (7 of the last twelve). We will also be missing Ghana, Chile and most shockingly USA who should have at least made the play-offs considering their hexagonal.
Tardelli was a Juve player till 1984 or 1985 I believe from the late 70s? EDIT: Wiki confirms 1975-1985. I have a good memory for pointless things
From the internet: 1 GK Dino Zoff (c) 40 28 Feb 1942 Juventus 3 DF Giuseppe Bergomi 18 22 Dec 1963 Internazionale 4 DF Antonio Cabrini 24 08 Oct 1957 Juventus 5 DF Fulvio Collovati 25 09 May 1957 AC Milan 6 DF Claudio Gentile 28 27 Sep 1953 Juventus 7 DF Gaetano Scirea 29 25 May 1953 Juventus 13 MD Gabriele Oriali 29 25 Nov 1952 Internazionale 14 MD Marco Tardelli 27 24 Sep 1954 Juventus 16 MD Bruno Conti 27 13 Mar 1955 AS Roma 19 FW Francesco Graziani (-7) 29 12 Dec 1952 AC Fiorentina 20 FW Paolo Rossi 25 23 Sep 1956 Juventus Substitutes 15 MD Franco Causio (+89) 33 01 Feb 1949 Udinese 18 FW Alessandro Altobelli (-89)(+7) 26 28 Nov 1955 Internazionale The interesting thing is that all the Italians played in Italy and all the Germans except for Stielike (Real Madrid) played in Germany. Edit: Interesting fact number 2 - excluding the goalkeepers, the squad was numbered alphabetically within their respective positions - Defenders, Midfielders, Wingers and Forwards #YouNeedNo7OnAPubQuiz
We can add to that illustrious list India, Pakistan, China, the Czech Republic, South Africa, Israel, Turkey. Maybe they could organise their own tournament.
Will be interesting to see where England are going to play. Wouldn't it just be lovely to be involved with Croatia, Serbia, and Poland??? It would be good for England to be in the same group as Germany for example, and then have two relatively weak teams to make up the numbers. Kane is going to be a huge success this coming summer. I just feel there is a growing togetherness there under Southgate, that was absent under the older guys like Hodgson, so despite some weaknesses I feel it will be a good WC for the Trois Leones.
Many a fine nation with a good footballing pedigree has missed out on previous finals. I think only Brazil and Germany are ever presents.
Are people being serious about Pelle? He’s been absolute ****e in China. Five years ago sign him, yes. Now, no. It’s like saying re-sign Le Tissier.
Don't think Uruguay are ranked very highly are they? We could well sneak in, might have to check the rankings.
We should re-sign Le Tissier On a serious note I agree, we could do with a striker in a similar mould to Pelle, but not actually him.
Ah. Thought I'd be missing someone. I'd take Russia out of that lot... Though I'm not sure that as the opening game would be a good idea
Russia are very beatable but like you say it'd be a tough opening game. Imagine the chaos if we were to actually beat them too I'd take Belgium out of the other teams too. Great going forward but defensively they're poor, which is surprising seeing as they have some decent defenders...
Everyone hypes about Belgium but they never do **** all. They're basically us of the early-mid 2000s. Looking at it we'll almost certainly be in pot 2. Peru and Swiss above us too.
