UEFA European Championship Qualifying

I do. But let's at least wait and see how this new generation perform at the tournament before writing them off eh?

 

V poor game. Watched it at the Hilton after work. Why do we bother? Its like watching the Rangers play without the points.

 

Only in Canada, eh Swords?

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Your summer place on Lake Erie looks quite idyllic Canadahoop - good for you doing all the culinary duties with all that turkey stuffing.

Hope you fared better than Mr. Bean!

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I do not try to compete with my wife in the kitchen, and she prefers it that way too, so I did gardening chores this morning, then watched the England match to join my wife & 4 daughters, in-laws, sister-in-law + nephew for the big feast.

Like the turkey, I'm totally stuffed now, but probably like you, no work tomorrow (public holiday).

 

No one forced you to watch mate.

 

How you getting on out there wubs? Missing Sheffield?

 

Just watching the highlights. Rooney had enough chances to become all time top scorer. He's one goal behind Greaves now, having taken 42 more games to get there, and with a goals per game ratio lower than Peter Crouch's. Still our best player, but we rely on him far too much.

 

Perhaps missing this?

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don't get him started on cheese

 

Three things..............
1) Greaves wasn't asked to play in numerous positions.
2) Greaves, like Lineker was an out and out goal scorer, whereas Rooney can play deeper too with great effect.
3) It's a little unfair to compare Crouch's goal scoring record to Rooney's when Crouch has played so few matches in comparison imo.

 

COL, Keane became the Euro qualifiers all time highest scorer the other day with 21 goals. He has 65 overall now yet when they did a poll on Ireland's best ever starting 11, Keane wasn't even in it. Tony Cascarino was ahead of him!

Can you explain that?

 

Fair enough Col, it is an unfair comparison but its the media going on about it. I just feel a little aggreived for Greaves who was a sensational goalscorer, and played (by and large) against much stronger international competition than the current bunch. Fairer comparison is with Bobby Charlton, also not an out and out striker, who got 49 in 106, so Rooney has to get 7 in 7 games to be top dog.........

Do you agree that England is too dependant on him though?

 

Apparently it took Bobby Charlton 12 years to reach 106 caps, first call up in 1958 and retired from international football after the 1970 world cup aged 32 years. Although Rooney is only 28 he has already been playing internationals for 11 years, first capped at 17 years in 2003.....not sure what this shows except there are more internationals played these days than previously and that a number of them are fairly meaningless friendlies and competitive fixtures are sometimes played against smaller nations, ie San Marino, Andorra, most of whom would not have been around to play against in Charlton's era......

EDIT....Thinking about it there would have been the annual Home Internationals against Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland during the 60's so probably 30 or possibly more of Charltons caps would have been gained against them rather than overseas international opposition......times have changed.

 

No I can't.
He's been a sensational goal scorer for the Republic and should, without doubt, be in their best 11 of all time imo.

I do mate, yes.
But I do think that this latest young crop will slowly take that dependency away from him. He may not even be first choice in a year or so, such is the talent coming through imo.
The future looks good imo, although it is obviously only potential at the moment.

Greaves was every bit as deadly as Lineker imo and was unlucky not to play more, although Ramsey's decision to drop him for Hurst in the '66 WC is hard to argue with.

 

IMO Charlton is England's greatest player of all time.

Clips I've seen of him in his prime were sensational.

 

Greaves got his share of 6 yard box tap ins, but also scored some goals Lineker can only dream of.....

[video=youtube_share;KTtpd07cIA8]http://youtu.be/KTtpd07cIA8[/video]

Whereas Bobby wasn't interested most of the time unless he was whacking the leather off the ball from outside the box. Broken metatarsals all round for the players of today with their papier mache boots and a heavy old style ball. Outstanding.

[video=youtube_share;er_rTB4Q3ys]http://youtu.be/er_rTB4Q3ys[/video]

 

...Rangers get points when they play do they? Looking forward to getting some then!

 

Yes, I would certainly take those 3 England qualifying performances for our club, and the 9 pts!

 

Iceland continuing their good run, 1-0 up against the Netherlands. Leroy Fer on the bench. I wonder if Heidar Helguson is watching the match? Wales 1-0 up against Cyprus.

 

Iceland 2 nil up now just before HT - Gylfi Sigurdsson again. Dutch have 70% possession. Will Leroy Fer come on to save the day for the Dutch in the 2nd half.

Wales 2-1 up.