First one. Everyone was complaining about the pointlessness of the friendlies so they've come up with this competition to make the games more meaningful.
Is it structured like a traditional cup? It sounds like an improvement on friendlies which did used to annoy me, they just meant a weekend of no club football, injuries and 9 times out of 10 they were boring to watch.
Group stages and knock-outs I think. It could end up being taken very seriously in the future, if not already.
So what is the rule these days regarding slide tackles and fouls, it used to be that as long as you got the ball first it didn't matter if you decapitated them, then it was the same sort of thing but not directly from behind, now it seems like getting the ball first from any angle doesn't matter much because if the ref doesn't like the look of it you're in trouble.
Friendlies have never been pointless, they carry ranking points. Never understood why people claim it. being able to select your own friendly opponent also means you can address your weakness as you can select a team which will be more suited to challenge said weakness. Don't see what positives can come from this personally.
Haven’t they set it up so teams are of a ‘comparable level’ and therefore games are even? It’s sad really as for me it will hamper the lesser nations from improving, as they won’t get to challenge themselves. Last few years some of the lesser teams have really come on. Iceland are the prime example but Faroe Islands are well on the up and Luxembourg are getting more and more competitive, things like this are great to see for me. This stinks of Uefa seeing a few more quid TV money wise in more games between big nations, giving zero ****s about developing the game in other countries. It’s a crock of **** for me they are glamourised friendlies and I couldn’t give 2 ****s about them. As always only the Euros and World Cup matter.
I think it's down to Refs discestion. Chelsea's pen against Newcastle is a good example. When Alonso was pole-axed against the mags, the Mags were claiming their player got the ball first, which he did to be fair, but his touch on the ball didn't knock it out of his path, with the ball still being in play, when his trailing leg went though alonso it was a clear penalty. Had the defender cleared the ball to a safe area, I doubt a penalty could be given. That how I see it anyway but if it is down to ref discretion we can expect no common sense to be used at all.
True dat. They should tweak or revert the rules to how they used to be when it was more black and white about what contstituted a foul because the more you put it in the hands of the ref the more inconsistency you get. Let's say that as long as you get the ball first it's not a foul, as long as you don't use your other foot to kick them in the head or anything else so blatant you couldn't ignore it. I think with that approach and with what I imagine will be an increasing reliance on VAR we'd have more consistency and a bit more of a physical game.
Something has to be done. Players stopping playing to the whistle and instead going to ground to cheat is the worst thing to ever happen to football. The lack off urgency in stamping it out is frightening
Yes something does need to be done about the state of football in general. I can't think of another mainstream sport that has even 10% of the bullshit fakery acting that has sadly become part and parcel of football. The top refs are nearly all egotistical ****ers. It's in a sorry state.
This is what true rivalry looks like: And a red card soon followed, and then a goal. Yedlin played the last 8 minutes and picked up a yellow card half way through.
