[Jazz 16]

The problem is too many average players and a few injuries dont help either.
Scotland are high enough in the rankings but I think Ireland are a better team
than them, and Im not being biased here ;-)

[Jazz 16]

Ok whats wrong with the Welsh and taking penalties?
3 games- 3 peno's- 3 misses- by 3 different players.

[manutd004]

Originally Posted by Jazz 16

The problem is too many average players and a few injuries dont help either.

Scotland have good players, but we don't have the strength and depth.

The main problems are that the wrong decisions and team selections are made, and the typical Old Firm bias.

For a country to once boast Danny McGrain, who was one of the best full-backs in the World in his day, to now play a shockingly crap player like Kirk Broadfoot is an absolute joke. He is not good enough to get into the Scotland B team, never mind the full national team. There are 4 or 5 better Scottish full-backs going around, most of them not playing for the Old Firm, so they have little chance of playing.

Another show of the Old Firm bias is in defence. We've got 2 good young centre-backs, Darren Barr and Christophe Berra, but they aren't getting the chance. With McManus suspended (and I actually think possibly permanently) one of them should have been given the chance to partner Caldwell in defence. Instead, we play a 70 year old CB who isn't good enough to play in international football anymore.

The formation was wrong today as well. Although it went under a 4-3-3, it was a 4-5-1. When George Burley took over, he promised us more attacking football. Well, we haven't been given it, and today we should have played more attackingly than we did.

James McFadden is a great player, but he is not a lone striker. We had 3 strikers on the bench who could have played up front with McFadden in behind, which is what we should have played. We had Steven Fletcher, who is a very good striker, Kris Boyd, who even though hes a crap player is a good goalscorer and lives on crosses into the box, and Chris Iwelumo, who I believe should have started up front with McFadden. Even though he missed that simple chance, he played well apart from that when he came on. He offered us strength and a threat in the air, and if he had started he would have been a goal-threat.

I think James Morrison should be dropped, but time will tell obviously. Hes played 3 or 4 games, and he hasn't shown anything that merits a place in the starting 11.

Also, it would be a bit worrying for a fan of any team, a national team or a club team, if your team took until the last quarter of the game to actually look as though they were really trying.

[RedForceRising]

Germany won 2-1 against Russia.

In the end it was not a convincing win, but Germany outplayed Russia in the first half with Russia storming back after some tea and jaffa cakes.

I was highly impressed by Rene Adler the German goal-keeper. He made maybe one mistake and otherwise had a very solid match.

Can anybody pass this information along to the scouts at Old Trafford please?

He is great and would be better than VDS.

Hugo Lloris and Rene Adler are now my fave keepers.

[manutd004]

Originally Posted by RedForceRising

Germany won 2-1 against Russia.

In the end it was not a convincing win, but Germany outplayed Russia in the first half with Russia storming back after some tea and jaffa cakes.

I was highly impressed by Rene Adler the German goal-keeper. He made maybe one mistake and otherwise had a very solid match.

Can anybody pass this information along to the scouts at Old Trafford please?

He is great and would be better than VDS.

Hugo Lloris and Rene Adler are now my fave keepers.

Some information on Rene Adler please?

Perhaps in the Scouting thread.

[piazza]

USA 6-1 Cuba

USA – DaMarcus Beasley (Sacha Kljestan) 10th minute
USA – DaMarcus Beasley (Landon Donovan) 30.
CUB – Jenzy Muñoz (unassisted) 32.
USA – Landon Donovan (Heath Pearce) 48.
USA – Brian Ching (Sacha Kljestan) 63.
USA – Jozy Altidore (Clint Dempsey) 87.
USA – Oguchi Onyewu (Freddy Adu) 90.

The Cuban goal, was against the run of play, but an absolute screamer!

Not to mention, with Jose Torres getting a cap last night, we locked him up forever and to take away a player like that from Mexico is especially good in order to maintain our dominance of CONCACAAF. Born in Texas, he's a tremendous attacking midfielder with a peach of a left foot too. He's only 18 and he's been making big waves at Pachuca with more then a few European teams knocking.