How rubbish are international breaks?

[Mike N]

Rugby on the radio! How rubbish is that?

 

[MCFC1993]

I want to watch good and interesting games, after all it is supposed to be entertainment.
And Thursday was the furthest from entertainment one could get.

Completely agree, the countries know the system is shit preparation, that's why England are playing Brazil and Germany next month.

For Europe: Make the weaker nations enter some kind of pre-qualification and then narrow it down to 4 groups of 6. Top 16 nations automatically in the groups, other 8 places decided by pre-qualification. Top 3 from each group qualify for the World Cup and the 4th place teams enter a knockout for the final spot.

Wouldn't need these bloody friendlies in November and next March because we'd be facing decent teams in qualifying!

 

[NorCalBlue]

Disagree

Sometimes it’s nice to watch your team give someone a good thrashing! Like saying a Minnow shouldn’t be allowed to play a Premiership team in the cup, smaller clubs thrive on playing glamorous big clubs and every now and then you will get a shock result.

If the minnows had their own qualifying round first, the best of them would still get to play the big boys and you'd still have a few thrashings, just not as many. The FA Cup's great because the smaller clubs get a chance in the later stages, but the current set-up is like having the Prem teams playing in the FA Cup from round 1 (or even earlier), or putting half a dozen amateur teams in the Prem.

 

[SWP's back]

You can’t have international football with England Spain Germany continually playing against each other through qualifying and the main stage. That would be even more boring.

Well actually you can because it’s changing to that next year.

 

[SWP's back]

Completely agree, the countries know the system is shit preparation, that's why England are playing Brazil and Germany next month.

For Europe: Make the weaker nations enter some kind of pre-qualification and then narrow it down to 4 groups of 6. Top 16 nations automatically in the groups, other 8 places decided by pre-qualification. Top 3 from each group qualify for the World Cup and the 4th place teams enter a knockout for the final spot.

Wouldn't need these bloody friendlies in November and next March because we'd be facing decent teams in qualifying!

Something similar to what you suggest comes in from next season.

 

[manchester blue]

Went on a big ten mile walk with the good lady yesterday. Went in a pub and England were on TV. I did not know they were playing. Not one single person was watching it.

That about sums it up.

 

[fulabeer]

Do you think our expectations for England getting to a final have lowered? (therefore what's the point of watching)
Or is it our judgement on quality football has shifted since City are now playing some of the best football around?

With myself, things have changed dramatically when it comes to England. It used to be my only hope of winning something, therefore i really enjoyed the excitement of any England tournament. Now i can see how disjointed the England team play, and the obvious bias towards picking players from "certain" teams regardless if they are the best available or at least in form.

 

[davymcfc]

Do you think our expectations for England getting to a final have lowered? (therefore what's the point of watching)
Or is it our judgement on quality football has shifted since City are now playing some of the best football around?

With myself, things have changed dramatically when it comes to England. It used to be my only hope of winning something, therefore i really enjoyed the excitement of any England tournament. Now i can see how disjointed the England team play, and the obvious bias towards picking players from "certain" teams regardless if they are the best available or at least inform.

I think it's a mixture of both. I remember watching in awe at some of the international teams in the 98 World Cup like Brazil, France, holland and even England to some degree. City were absolutely shit back then though. I don't look at any international team with awe now because I think the best club teams are better. Spain were the best international team for about 6 years but they were just like Barca without Messi.

 

[aguerrrroooooooooooo]

I'd probably be more interested in them if I was German

 

[che_don_john]

I see these as a weekend break from football. I used to watch England back when City were shit, as it was the only way I could support a team with decent players, but now I can't even muster the enthusiasm to watch tournament football.

It's not just the lack of quality that turns me off; it's the fact that there are so many odious individuals in that team. I just can't bring myself to cheer and get behind idiots like Lingard and Henderson.

I especially despise the latter, a player whose main role as a footballer appears to be screaming at and berating officials until he is blue in the face. He is a proper jobsworth, the teacher's-pet type who old-school managers love because they say "Yes, boss" a lot. I imagine playing football with him would suck all the joy out of the game.