Off Topic International Break Thread

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The BBC are claiming that Tuchel will have a selection headache due to the Club World Cup:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/ckg2kqvqpe1o

He can just pick other players, FFS.
It's a qualifier against Andorra and a friendly against Senegal.
He should experiment and try to find alternatives to automatic selections.
Working out a left-back solution and a backup for Kane would be a start.
 
Carlo Ancelotti will be the new manager of Brazil.
He was born in 1959, so we all know the kind of teams that he saw from them growing up.
They've still got some extremely talented players, of course, but he's got a big job on his hands.
 
Josh Keeley has been called up to the senior Irish squad.
It's a couple of friendlies against Senegal and Luxembourg and there's a few keepers missing.
Max O'Leary is also in the squad in the absence of Bazunu and Travers.
 
England squad via the BBC:

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), James Trafford (Burnley)

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Dan Burn (Newcastle), Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea), Levi Colwill (Chelsea), Reece James (Chelsea), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal), Kyle Walker (AC Milan, on loan from Manchester City)

Midfielders: Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace), Conor Gallagher (Atletico Madrid), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest), Jordan Henderson (Ajax), Curtis Jones (Liverpool), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle)

Forwards: Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Noni Madueke (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Ivan Toney (Al-Ahli), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa).

A number of notable absentees.
 
England squad via the BBC:

Goalkeepers: Jordan Pickford (Everton), Dean Henderson (Crystal Palace), James Trafford (Burnley)

Defenders: Trent Alexander-Arnold (Liverpool), Dan Burn (Newcastle), Trevoh Chalobah (Chelsea), Levi Colwill (Chelsea), Reece James (Chelsea), Ezri Konsa (Aston Villa), Myles Lewis-Skelly (Arsenal), Kyle Walker (AC Milan, on loan from Manchester City)

Midfielders: Jude Bellingham (Real Madrid), Eberechi Eze (Crystal Palace), Conor Gallagher (Atletico Madrid), Morgan Gibbs-White (Nottingham Forest), Jordan Henderson (Ajax), Curtis Jones (Liverpool), Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Declan Rice (Arsenal), Morgan Rogers (Aston Villa), Anthony Gordon (Newcastle)

Forwards: Harry Kane (Bayern Munich), Noni Madueke (Chelsea), Bukayo Saka (Arsenal), Ivan Toney (Al-Ahli), Ollie Watkins (Aston Villa).

A number of notable absentees.
The number of Chelsea players sticks out for me...
 
England face Andorra today. It's at Espanyol's stadium in Barcelona.
The ground has a capacity of 40,000. Andorra's population is around 87,000.
 
Henderson starts for England - Jordan that is not Dean which I could have understood.

Very attacking line up with no left back and 4 forwards

Madueke ahead of Eze too

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Henderson starts for England - Jordan that is not Dean which I could have understood.

Very attacking line up with no left back and 4 forwards

Madueke ahead of Eze too

You must log in or register to see media
Are England managers not allowed to play people in position or something?
No left-backs allowed! Nein!

I know it's only Andorra but that lineup's both too experimental and not experimental enough.
I'm expecting a boring, comfortable win.
 
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Has the paint dried yet?

Wales weren't great v Liechtenstein but at least scored 3 and their keeper had a very good game.

Liechtenstein had precisely nil shots. They celebrated getting a throw in. Worst international side I have seen since I can't remember when.
 
Has the paint dried yet?

Wales weren't great v Liechtenstein but at least scored 3 and their keeper had a very good game.

Liechtenstein had precisely nil shots. They celebrated getting a throw in. Worst international side I have seen since I can't remember when.
We know teams like San Marino, Liechtenstein or Gibraltar are bad as we see the drubbings they receive

What we don't see is some of the pre-qualifier qualifying rounds in North America, Africa, Asia or Oceania, which for the last World Cup gave us some maulings barely anybody even knew about such as...
Japan 14 *****lia 0
Iran 14 Cambodia 0
Panama 13 Anguilla 0
Canada 11 Cayman Islands 0
Haiti 10 Turks and Caicos 0
Iran 10 Cambodia 0
Japan 10 Myanmar 0
Curacao 8 British Virgin Islands 0
South Korea 8 Sri Lanka 0
Algeria 8 Djibouti 0
El Salvador 7 US Virgin Islands 0
Puerto Rico 7 Bahamas 0
China 7 Guam 0
Kuwait 7 Nepal 0
Kuwait 7 Chinese Taipei 0
Kyrgyzstan 7 Myanmar 0
Rwanda 7 Seychelles 0
Kyrgyzstan 8 Myanmar 1
Malaysia 7 East Timor 1
New Zealand 7 New Caledonia 1
Australia 7 Chinese Taipei 1
Qatar 6 Afghanistan 0

Turns out a Holiday in Cambodia is losing 24-0 on aggregate to Iran. Who knew?
 
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Yog Shoggoth on a bike, I just realised how absurdly drawn-out the World Cup qualification process is

Case in point, here is the qualification process for the nine slots allocated to Asian teams
Round 1: dross fight it out among themselves over two legs (particular highlight, Indonesia beating Brunei 6-0 home and away)
Round 2: eight groups of 4, where good teams kerb stomp the dross (Singapore, Myanmar, Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh all shipped 20+ goals in six games)
Round 3: three groups of 6, where the top two teams all qualify for the WC...while the third and fourth teams go into another round
Round 4: two groups of 3, winners go into World Cup, runners up go into yet another ****ing round
Round 5: playoff between the two runners-up

It gets even more absurd when you look at the dates
Round 1: 12th-17th October 2023
Round 2: 16th November 2023-11th June 2024
Round 3: 5th September 2024-10th June 2025
Round 4: 8th-14th October
Round 5: 13th-18th November 2025