Subject: World Cup Thread

Just watched the game... awesome result. Thought it was going to be one of those games at 0-1 and nothing going in.

Sending off didnt help the USA much but I think we were getting the better of the game beforehand anyway. Of course whether we'd have won the game without the sending off who knows.

Horrible injury to deezi's guy though. The risk/reward of having a NT player seems unbalanced to me at the moment... but thats for another topic.

Nice win.

I thought 'Field day' was from the military or baseball?

Anyway, A win against either of the other two teams should put us through a difficult group.

guys, check out the World Cup Guide for the low down on all the teams taking part:

World Cup Guide

People haven't really given us much of a chance of a win, let alone qualifying from the group stages, so we sure showed them.

Interestingly it has our 3 stars as:
1) Adam Rodgers
2) Elliot McColligan
3) Marc Craig

what do we all think of that?


And of particular interest to me, they have my lad Tanislovas Varaneckas as the second star player in the Lithuanian side, hope he can live up to the pressure :)

Here's the part most relevant to us

By langhe
THE GROUP
Quite a heavy group we have here. Eesti and Italia as 2 teams that have a strong reputation to defend on the tournaments. Both teams have world class players. USA has also proven they are not to be underestimated. Scotland qualified, but it was a narrow qualification, and they are for sure the underdog of this group.
Final rankings according to me:
1. Eesti
2. USA
3. Italia
4. Scotland

THE TEAMS

Eesti ✪✪✪✪
Currently ranked 6th on the NT ranking, Eesti has theoretically the best chances to proceed to the next level of the World Cup. But can their coach handle the pressure? Following Borkos007 as NT coach surely isn’t a gift! But they have the players, as proved by qualifying with maximum score in a group with Norge and Peru.

Coach: Davy (1 season experience as NT coach)
"”The Draw” was just awful! After our performance in qualifing group we certanly do not deserve to be in the same group with Italia, USA and Scotland . But I can`t say that it`s not going to be interesting. Everybody should win againts Scotland but i`m sure that at least one of us will manage to lose some points to them. Fingers crossed that it wouldnt be Estonia.
There is no point saying that Italia is awfully strong, everybody knows they are the second best country in Sokker , but time has passed and the gap between them and us has narrowed. By the way Estonia managed to beat Italia once when our NT head coach was Sillu and knock them out of WC in the quaterfinals:) Ok moving forward, can`t live in the past glory. Now USA “what the heck” I thought when I saw USA in our group. Now potentially Estonia and Italia are a littlebit stronger than USA but we all know that “a little” doesn`t often capitalyze in Sokker. And USA head coach mr_gibbage has played Sokker f-o-r-e-v-e-r , probably some of Sokker newest managers weren`t even born yet when mister gi(a)bbage was already spamming other respectable managers questbooks with slogans like “kill Vilpu and Tanel, I pay u fifty bucks” and “I pity you fool”. I have to say I`m really worried to play against USA, they really have developed quickly and now is a country which everybody should respect. I`m going to get killed in forums if I lose to them, thats the Estonian way:)
Finally we have Scotland, it`s almost unbeliavable how strong is country who has only 90 managers. But what they lack in quantity they make up with quality and experience:) But they still are group outsiders and I`m pretty sure they dont finish higher than 4th place in our group, but they are definately a handful. I hope it`s nice to beat them twice because in real life they have depressed our football fans too many times:) Oh almost forgot, Estonia actually managed a draw against Scotland in IRL once. Guess the score? Yeah 0:0 :)"
World Cup top 4 according to Davy:
1. Polska
2. Italia
3. Espana
4. Nederland

Qualifications
30/30 in group J

Players to look out for:
★★★ Mart Saviauk
★★ Virgo Miil
★ Uku Mäeorg

History in the World Cup:
WC1: Group stage
WC2: Semi final
WC3: 1/8 final


USA ✪✪✪✪
Maybe a little surprise to some of you. I suppose many of you supposed I’d take Italia as favourite to USA. Yet I believe the tactical visions of mr_gibbage will prevale over the player quality of Italia. During WCQ they lost twice from Nederland, and drew against Portugal. Even though this country isn’t ranked in top10, they have very good players and for sure they will become a top country of Sokker.

Coach: mr_gibbage (4 seasons experience as NT coach)
"I think the results have spoken for themselves - the USA are no pushovers and will be looking to catch the "bigger" teams by surprise over the course of the next WC."
World Cup top 4 according to mr_gibbage:
1. Polska
2. USA
3. England
4. Belgie

Qualifications
22/30 in group F

Players to look out for:
★★★ Jamal Patterson
★★ Winston Cummins
★ Joe Bosh

History in the World Cup:
WC1: 1/8 final
WC2: Quarter final
WC3: Group stage


Italia ✪✪✪✪
Italia, currently ranked on 2nd spot of the NT ranking. Their players are beyond imagination (except for polish managers). Yet, during WCQ they showed that players aren’t everything (which in fact, we all knew already). We all remember the fuss after the result against New Zealand: 0-2 loss. Can Amido teach the criticasters to shut up and unfold himself as tactical genius? No doubt that this NT should proceed if they relied less on their players, and spent more time on their tactical problems.

Coach: Amido (1 season experience as NT coach)
"It`s a very hard group but I think that we can qualify. Italy has got a great team, and with Eesti we are the best team in our group.
My community asks for qualifiation and I think we can do it ;)
Scoltand and USA are too two good teams, but I think that they are a little bit weaker than Italy and Scoltand. It will be hard :)
I think that Italy can win against all teams (but can loose too, it depends :P), the only team unbeatable is Polska. I hope that randomsokker will help us to gain against them but it will be almost impossible for the moment. Italy can arrive to final match if doesn`t meet Polska before."

Qualifications
27/30 in group K

Players to look out for:
★★★ Rino Gioia
★★ Giambattista Demi
★ Geatano Cipriani

History in the World Cup:
WC1: Final
WC2: Quarter final
WC3: Quarter final


Scotland ✪✪
If we believe in logic, Scotland should finish last in its group. But no doubt they are focussed on this WC. Especially the game against USA will be interesting. The last game of their qualifiers showed no NT coach should underestimate this nation. A draw against England is something a smaller sk nation like Scotland can be proud of. Their strongest part is the defence. And with a GK, named after his country, you can bring the crowd to madness.

Coach: Auldreekie1874 (1 season experience as NT coach)
"Scotland couldn`t have had a much tougher group facing nations currently world ranked 12th (USA), 6th (Eesti) and 2nd (Italia)
However what gives me hope is that we came through our qualifying campaign missing two vital players for the vast majority of our matches, one due to injuries and one due to very low form. Both these players are now fit, in form and raring to go and hopefully with them on form we will be able to strike a surprise or two.
Defensively, Scotland are looking in good shape with it being extremely hard to pick a defensive line from 7 or 8 very capable players, although 2 will be automatic first picks, form and injury or suspension dependant."
World Cup top 4 according to Auldreekie1874
1. Polska
2. België
3. Italia
4. Eesti

Qualifications
18/30 in group C

Players to look out for:
★★★ Adam Rodgers
★★ Elliot McColligan
★ Marc Craig

History in the World Cup:
WC1: Group stage
WC2: 1/8 final
WC3: Group stage


The "3 stars" were actually my choice. tbh i wasn't completely truthfull, but why let the opposition know anything ? ;)

I also refrain from posting on such threads, quite happy to let everyone knock us and hopefully prove them wrong on the pitch.

Think were far better than a 2 star team. Were at our best when written off.

Don't think we've done badly in any of the previous World Cups.

I think people are/were making too much of our narrow qualifying. We were in a hard group.

You show em Reekie!

2 stars out of 5 doesnt look like a lot, but only Polska has 5 stars. If we then give stars to other nations participating in WC, I think 2 stars is the right theoretical representation of Scotland's strenght.

Well, I'd be happy to see them qualify, but it would be a big surprise if Sokker doesnt do weird tricks :)

tbh i wasn't completely truthfull

I knew it! :p

I must add this to langhes explanation:
The stars next to the countries name gives a superficial indicator of the teams strenght. The teams with many stars are the favorites to make it pretty far in the tournement, while the teams with 1 or 2 stars generally are the underdogs who can surprise.

No point letting the opposition know about our strengths and weakness's :)

Also, all this talk about stars...am i the only person who doesn't see any?

i see question marks :/

Must be some coding problem.

Have you got exSokker?

no, i dont even know what exsokker is :)

I dont use any programmes, plus does me fine but i have downloaded some tools via the greasemonkey add ons.
(edited)

exSokker is a greasemonkey extension - probably even the best one.

Look it up on international.

Thanks, i will.

Phill O'Neill's injury last week means that he is the only player that we have unavailable this week for our match v Italy.

Form in both of our keepers has been hovering around average/adequate for the past few weeks so nice to see a big rise this week for Sherry up to formidable form.

The match v Italy will be a completely different game to last weeks, although the USA are a decent outfit, i rate the Italians quite a bit higher and they played some nice stuff last week although their forwards didn't seem to be on their best form and missed a few chances, hopefully that will continue this week.

Forza Scotland!

Half hour to KO, there's been a surprise or two already this morning so hopefully there will be at least one more.

Tough game ahead.

good luck :)

good luck :) I hope to see a nice match