Confed Cup Brazil 2013

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fishfly

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So this thing kicked of yesterday, not much has been said about this... gotta hand it to Fifa, this is years cup has way more interesting teams in the fold than 2009 in SA:

Brazil
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Nigeria
Spain
Tahiti
Uruguay

Group A:
Brazil
Mexico
Italy
Japan

Group B:
Spain
Uruguay
Tahiti
Nigeria

Easy cruise for Spain whilst Group A has Italy Mexico, Italy and Japan...
 
Tahiti are going to be get abused. If Nigeria can put 6 past them I'd hate to see what Suarez/Cavani and the Spanish machine will do to them.
 
How did Tahiti qualify for the confed cup.

o/t: I see Brazilians are unhappy with the cost of the confed/worl cup
 
R13... said:
How did Tahiti qualify for the confed cup.

o/t: I see Brazilians are unhappy with the cost of the confed/worl cup
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They're the champions of Oceania. New Caledonia stunned New Zealand in the semis and Tahiti defeated them in the final. First nation other than Australia or New Zealand to be crowned champions. Nice fairytale, but it isn't going to have an happy ending.
 
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thestaggy said:
They're the champions of Oceania. New Caledonia stunned New Zealand in the semis and Tahiti defeated them in the final. First nation other than Australia or New Zealand to be crowned champions. Nice fairytale, but it isn't going to have an happy ending.
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Oh I had forgotten that Australia have left Oceania to join the Asian stream to take advantage of the automatic world cup berth Asia offers instead of the more difficult play off the Oceania winner has to go through to make the world cup.
 
R13... said:
Oh I had forgotten that Australia have left Oceania to join the Asian stream to take advantage of the automatic world cup berth Asia offers instead of the more difficult play off the Oceania winner has to go through to make the world cup.
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To be honest, the AFC qualification process is infinitely harder than the OFC process. In the OFC Australia, outside of them having a bad day against New Zealand, had an unrivalled passage to a playoff spot with the 4th best team from Central & North America, which in itself is hardly a tough prospect. In the AFC not only do they have to deal with Japan and South Korea, who are better sides, but there are a number of tough away games, notably Uzbekistan (who are on the verge of qualifying for Brazil), while the Arab nations are hardly pushovers either.

Just take a look at the current qualification situation. Australia are struggling through the final qualification phase (with one game to go they haven't even guaranteed themselves a playoff spot yet, let alone automatic qualification) while New Zealand has already breezed into their playoff spot with the CONCACAFs as yet unknown 4th-placed team, winning 6 from 6 and averaging just shy of 3 goals a game.
 
Been a spain fan for the better part of 10 years and starting to worry alilte. They not producing the performances they used to and currently do not have a superstar striker anymore. David Villa does not play much, Torres has lost his magic, Soldado/Negredo are good but not superstar. Add to that, Xavi and Iniesta are not getting any younger and they are the core of the team. I would think Thiago and Fabregas would be their natural replacements.

Then look at a team like Brazil - Neymar, Lucas, Pato, Oscar, Hulk , Luiz, Marcelo. All under 25 and all already stars...so the future looks bright.
 
F1 Fan said:
Been a spain fan for the better part of 10 years and starting to worry alilte. They not producing the performances they used to and currently do not have a superstar striker anymore. David Villa does not play much, Torres has lost his magic, Soldado/Negredo are good but not superstar. Add to that, Xavi and Iniesta are not getting any younger and they are the core of the team. I would think Thiago and Fabregas would be their natural replacements.

Then look at a team like Brazil - Neymar, Lucas, Pato, Oscar, Hulk , Luiz, Marcelo. All under 25 and all already stars...so the future looks bright.
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Nations tend to go through their phases. With regards to Brazil, look at how dreadful they were since being crowned champions in 2002. Now they are back. Spain were never going to dominate forever. They've enjoyed a succesful stretch with some of the best players, but once those players start losing that spark, which is only natural, so to will the national side. Spain at least won, while nations like Portugal and England wasted their talented sides.

Other nations currently enjoying a crop of talented players and doing well are Belgium and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Belgium were decent in the 80s and 90s before disappearing. Now they're back with a talented crop. Bosnia-Herzegovina have been irrelevant for most of their history, now they have some great players and could make it to Brazil.
 
thestaggy said:
Nations tend to go through their phases. With regards to Brazil, look at how dreadful they were since being crowned champions in 2002. Now they are back. Spain were never going to dominate forever. They've enjoyed a succesful stretch with some of the best players, but once those players start losing that spark, which is only natural, so to will the national side. Spain at least won, while nations like Portugal and England wasted their talented sides.

Other nations currently enjoying a crop of talented players and doing well are Belgium and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Belgium were decent in the 80s and 90s before disappearing. Now they're back with a talented crop. Bosnia-Herzegovina have been irrelevant for most of their history, now they have some great players and could make it to Brazil.
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Portugal's talented side? Hard to say since the current crop of players only have 3 decent forward players: Ronaldo, Moutinho and Postiga
2/3 decent defenders: Coentrão, Alves, Pepe

compared to the likes of Argentina:
Mascherano, di María, Messi, Agüero, Higuaín, Gaitán, Álvarez
 
fishfly said:
Portugal's talented side? Hard to say since the current crop of players only have 3 decent forward players: Ronaldo, Moutinho and Postiga
2/3 decent defenders: Coentrão, Alves, Pepe

compared to the likes of Argentina:
Mascherano, di María, Messi, Agüero, Higuaín, Gaitán, Álvarez
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Portugal won two successive World Youth Championships in '89 and '91 with the likes of Luis Figo, Joao Pinto and Rui Costa. Everybody expected them to succeed at the senior level, and while most of them had successful club careers, Portugal routinely fell flat on their faces when it counted. Likewise England has wasted Gerrard, Lampard, Scholes, Owen, Fowler, Beckham, McManaman, Adams, Keown, etc.
 
thestaggy said:
Nations tend to go through their phases. With regards to Brazil, look at how dreadful they were since being crowned champions in 2002. Now they are back. Spain were never going to dominate forever. They've enjoyed a succesful stretch with some of the best players, but once those players start losing that spark, which is only natural, so to will the national side. Spain at least won, while nations like Portugal and England wasted their talented sides.

Other nations currently enjoying a crop of talented players and doing well are Belgium and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Belgium were decent in the 80s and 90s before disappearing. Now they're back with a talented crop. Bosnia-Herzegovina have been irrelevant for most of their history, now they have some great players and could make it to Brazil.
Click to expand...

Agree, Belgium are looking good with the young players coming through. England are done for now, no real up and coming talent and no real stars in the national team. Then there's Germany, huge amount of potential given that almost all their players are young.

But yes, sad to see Spain declining..
 
thestaggy said:
Nations tend to go through their phases. With regards to Brazil, look at how dreadful they were since being crowned champions in 2002. Now they are back.
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Brazil has promising young players, but haven't done anything to show they are back.
 
Germany has the most potential for the next 3 world cups... if they don't choke :)

Spain is on a decline
Italy has great potential with the current crop of players coming through the ranks - if only they stop focusing on the old guard...
Netherlands also has a great team, but just can't seem to get anywhere when it counts
Argentina on paper has one of the best teams out there...
 
thestaggy said:
To be honest, the AFC qualification process is infinitely harder than the OFC process. In the OFC Australia, outside of them having a bad day against New Zealand, had an unrivalled passage to a playoff spot with the 4th best team from Central & North America, which in itself is hardly a tough prospect. In the AFC not only do they have to deal with Japan and South Korea, who are better sides, but there are a number of tough away games, notably Uzbekistan (who are on the verge of qualifying for Brazil), while the Arab nations are hardly pushovers either.

Just take a look at the current qualification situation. Australia are struggling through the final qualification phase (with one game to go they haven't even guaranteed themselves a playoff spot yet, let alone automatic qualification) while New Zealand has already breezed into their playoff spot with the CONCACAFs as yet unknown 4th-placed team, winning 6 from 6 and averaging just shy of 3 goals a game.
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Australia have now qualified for WC'14, so their move to Asia is paying off as they got the other automatic qualy spot behind Japan.
 
R13... said:
Australia have now qualified for WC'14, so their move to Asia is paying off as they got the other automatic qualy spot behind Japan.
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They had to win their very last game to get there, so it wasn't a cake walk. It may be automatic but it is not easy.

As of right now, New Zealand & New Caledonia are the only OFC teams ranked inside the top-100 while the AFC has 9, of which Australia is only the 3rd highest. And of those 9, 7 were/are in the final round of qualifying. It must also be pointed out that New Zealand's current position of 57th is inflated by their successful qualifying campaign (against inferior opposition), as before the draw for the qualifiers they were 130th, ranked lower than the weakest team in the final round of the AFC process (Lebanon, 124th). If Australia were still there they'd likely be close to a top-20 ranking.

Australia may get a shot at an automatic spot but it is most certainly not easy. They are exposed to vastly superior opposition. The old analogy of being a big fish in a large pond instead of a being a big fish in a small pond fits quite nicely here.
 
Neymar! Can't wait to see him taking on opponents in the champions league. :D
 
Wow what dubious referring in the Brazil vs Mexico and Italy vs Japan matches...

Buffon card for a good tackle, but penalty given. Now Haseda gets a yellow and penalty for a shot deflected off the his butt onto his arm.
 
Must say I've always had my doubts about Neymar's maturity for the big time but those two volleys in the Japan and last night's game shows he can do more than show boat. Hope Barca can develop him into a more complete player.
 
R13... said:
Must say I've always had my doubts about Neymar's maturity for the big time but those two volleys in the Japan and last night's game shows he can do more than show boat. Hope Barca can develop him into a more complete player.
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I also doubted Neymar, but the skills and performance he has shown last night. He is a good player, but still lying on the ground way too much
 
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