England v Andorra

[Yellow Wal 314]

56 minutes ago, Rock The Boat said:

The problem with your suggestion, Lakey, is that there would be more international breaks for smaller countries to pre-qualify or you have no breaks for those matches.  And if it is the latter then any club that has a player from, say Luxembourg or Cuba, will lose those players for domestic games.  Now If you make the bar around level 64 that could really punish a club like Norwich as we are highly likely to be recruiting from those markets. 

You seem to be forgetting the many qualifying rounds of the FA Cup. I've yet to see Wroxham play Liverpool due to the qualifying rounds. Also please remember that the majority of internationals always used to be played midweek, without an international break. This would not be possible now because of the demands of club football in Europe. But remember clubs sides from San Marino, Andorra and the like have little commitment to European competition and most, if not all, their players would be available for midweek qualifying internationals. Obviously if one of the 'minor' teams achieved a higher standing they would be exempt from the qualifying rounds.
Are you really enjoying England v Andorra?

 

[Capt. Pants 4,234]

Not a bad performance from the 2nd string against agricultural opposition, although the objective seems to be not to pass to Bamford.

Nice to see Saka getting warmed up for the Norwich game.

[KeiranShikari 1,410]

1 hour ago, TheGunnShow said:

What other reason would people usually know about the Faroes or San Marino here in the UK if not for sport?

San Marino is known for being tiny and a tax haven and I've always associated the Faroes with Vikings. Surely people think that over 'a team that England put out forced performances against every few years'.

[Ken Hairy 3,772]

Get Bamford off 

[East Rider 551]

Just over an hour and we are already 1 up!

Lee Dixon is absolutely drooling over our superb performance.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

This very similar to Handball. One side to the other then back again.

What is this proving? That we can pass it to each other? One shot by James is the only thing different.

[FenwayFrank 2,459]

Sam Matterface “ that second goal should settle England down “ 🙄

[canarydan23 4,060]

This is dreadful, diving to win a penalty v Andorra is pretty embarrassing too.

[KeiranShikari 1,410]

Handing out caps older players that are no way near first team level and no way when he could be blooding youngsters. I guess we can leave that for the summers right Gareth.

Also why not have Saka take pens like this that are a little bit less important before giving him the biggest in his countries history?

Edited September 5, 2021 by KeiranShikari

[Ken Hairy 3,772]

Is that Joel Dummett in goal again? 

[Capt. Pants 4,234]

Andorra bring on a 41 year old.

 

[Ken Hairy 3,772]

Tactical booking by Mings...... 

[Ken Hairy 3,772]

Damn you Gomes turning into Manuel Neuer there 😂

[KeiranShikari 1,410]

Not watching it but a glance at twitter tells me that the Saka JLingz link up link up is looking 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Exciting stuff.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,717]

1 minute ago, KeiranShikari said:

Not watching it but a glance at twitter tells me that the Saka JLingz link up link up is looking 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Exciting stuff.

Mate it's Andorra

[Yellow Wal 314]

That was ......... um .............. what's the word?

[hogesar 9,671]

Comfortable solid win, minutes for the second string. All good.

[Capt. Pants 4,234]

Shame Lingard didn't leave Man Utd really as he's going to get little game time there. A decent player on his day, but there's no substitute for actually playing. Not saying he'll be in an England squad for a major tournament, but it's a bit of a waste.

[KeiranShikari 1,410]

He's got what he cares about though. Money and his fashion line/social media celebrity.

[Ward 3 372]

38 minutes ago, Ken Hairy said:

Damn you Gomes turning into Manuel Neuer there 😂

Albania was a bold one. You would've expect England to have scored more. Unlucky 

[KeiranShikari 1,410]

the annihilator of Andorra

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

1 hour ago, KeiranShikari said:

San Marino is known for being tiny and a tax haven and I've always associated the Faroes with Vikings. Surely people think that over 'a team that England put out forced performances against every few years'.

Would they be otherwise exposed to the countries first? That's really the question. I certainly remember as a kid that it was the first time I'd heard of some of the smallest ones. (And the Faroe Islands are gorgeous, I am hoping to revisit them next year after being there in 2018).

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

1 hour ago, Yellow Wal said:

You seem to be forgetting the many qualifying rounds of the FA Cup. I've yet to see Wroxham play Liverpool due to the qualifying rounds. Also please remember that the majority of internationals always used to be played midweek, without an international break. This would not be possible now because of the demands of club football in Europe. But remember clubs sides from San Marino, Andorra and the like have little commitment to European competition and most, if not all, their players would be available for midweek qualifying internationals. Obviously if one of the 'minor' teams achieved a higher standing they would be exempt from the qualifying rounds.
Are you really enjoying England v Andorra?

 

Except club sides from San Marino, Andorra and the like are part-timers so they have full-time jobs along with their football, so in all likelihood they'd probably have to forfeit their holiday to represent their country as they would have work demands to get around. Easier for the professionals to expect another game (and let's face it, England could put their third team out at home and comfortably beat a side like Andorra).

On top of that, most of the out-and-out minnows aren't even FIFA / UEFA members. They'll play in events such as the Island Games. If you use population as a guide then Iceland would be a real minnow, but they famously stumped England in Euro 2016 - and the only active UEFA members with a population below that of Iceland are Andorra, San Marino, Liechtenstein, Gibraltar and the Faroe Islands.

This notion of pre-qualification is arrogant beyond belief. If it's so awkward to face a minnow, put your reserves out.

List of European countries by population - Wikipedia

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

Pope could qualify for the Vatican City

 

[Yellow Wal 314]

13 hours ago, TheGunnShow said:

This notion of pre-qualification is arrogant beyond belief. If it's so awkward to face a minnow, put your reserves out.

 

Perhaps you should put that notion to the FA so that they open up the FA Cup to all-comers in the first round. 

[canarydan23 4,060]

13 hours ago, TheGunnShow said:

If you use population as a guide

No one has suggested that though, have they?

[AJ 1,219]

I think people aren't giving Andorra enough credit, I thought for the first half especially they defended incredibly well! England weren't great and very wasteful, the only real standout for me was how good Bellingham was in a more combative midfield, he was more than happy to throw himself about to win the ball which was good to see. Bamford was absolutely dire, if he is the best option we have behind Kane and DCL then let's hope neither of those have to miss a major tournament! 

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

1 hour ago, Yellow Wal said:

Perhaps you should put that notion to the FA so that they open up the FA Cup to all-comers in the first round. 

Not remotely equivalent. 55 countries in UEFA (of which double figures qualify for the final competition), thousands upon thousands in the FA Cup for one single winner.

By definition, these are the qualifiers.

[TheGunnShow 5,940]

1 hour ago, canarydan23 said:

No one has suggested that though, have they?

That was why I said 'if'. Fifa rankings are known for being shaky, not to mention that if you tried setting it on a global level even the likes of Luxembourg or Azerbaijan would still be better than close to half the world - in fact, even the Faroe Islands are 114th. You'd literally take out only the absolute minnows like San Marino, Andorra, Liechtenstein.

Pre-qualifying for minnows in UEFA/FIFA competitions is looking for problems where none exist. The easiest solution is for the ostensibly bigger country, if they're so worried about player load, to simply put the reserves in. Easy.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

Some nations do have generations that perform well for a generation. Iceland have had their Andy Warhol moment recently and many of their players do play professional football around Europe.

I guess the main problem as always is greed. Lets have 32 teams at the finals. TV will love a month long tournament. 16 is enough

Never mind the close season or huge amount of qualifiers. Groups of six or seven is too many. Groups of four with one qualifier. Who then go into playoffs for however many Europe gets out of the sixteen.

The maths may not be precise but the intention is to play less.

Club football is now far more important than International and should be the priority.