I will probably be banned for this but... Footie Thread

[Brown, Jon Brow]

The roots of today's team go back to the early naughts. After the utter clobbering we took delivery of at the 2000 Euro with a team full of geriatric players who had all the grace and finesse of a flock of hippo's, the DFB (German FA) decided it was time for a restart. First of all they got rid of arse-backwards coaches like Bertie Voigts and Erich Ribbeck, handing the duty over to the next generation, namely Rudi Völler. When they wanted to rebuild the Nationalelf, they realized that we don't have many emerging talents that can play their way out of a paperbag. The Bundesliga was dominated by foreign players resulting in travesties, like Cottbus fielding a starting team with not a single German on the pitch.
As a result massive efforts were undertaken to build a youth program. Every Bundesliga Club has to have a youth training center. In the process integration of immigrants was pushed as well, leading to the result that with Klose, Podolski, Kedhira, Özil, Boateng, Aogo, Owomoyela, Cacau quite a few foreign born players or children of foreign born parents were in the lineup of the national team in recent years.
Things started to pay off around 2008/2009 and today we have myriads of well-educated young players and teams have the luxury of fielding German players actually. Also due to the young training system, which is by now probably one of the best and most sophisticated in the world, players start to emerge to the top league earlier. Marc-André ter Stegen, goalie of Mönchengladbach has been their undisputed number one since age 19. Schalke's star midfielder Draxler had to get special excemption from school to be able to take part in late-night Europa League games, because he was only 17 at the time. With Thomas Müller, Toni Kroos, Mezut Özil, Ron Robert Zieler, Marco Reus, Mario Götze, Sven Bender, André Schürrle, İlkay Gündoğan, Patrick Hermann half the current squad is under 25 and a direct result of the massive investments into the youth departments all over Germanyland.

As part of this push for new talent, technical ability was pushed as well. In the 90's and early naughts, the style of the German team was often referred to as Rumpelfussball (klutz football), while the new generation is tactically well educated and can handle a ball without falling over it.

Meanwhile in England we are teaching our 11 year olds to play football on full-size pitches that are 10% grass, 90% mud, where the most useful skill is to kick the ball (if you actually get a touch) as hard as you can down the pitch. Technique doesn't really matter, but if you are tall or can run fast you will be spotted.

It's a great system that produces fine players such as this guy:

[donKey jote]

ehhh Macarena !

[donKey jote]

As part of this push for new talent, technical ability was pushed as well. In the 90's and early naughts, the style of the German team was often referred to as Rumpelfussball (klutz football), while the new generation is tactically well educated and can handle a ball without falling over it.

My ex-boss has been telling me (at work I'm "der Spanier" when it comes to football or F1 ) since 2008 to watch out for the new talent in the following WM, then again in last years EM, and finally for next years WM. This time I think he might have a point at last
The last three occasions to fly a massive Spanish flag (bought in 2008 from a turkish neighbour for 1&#8364 around our test tracks the day after were priceless however... was fun while it lasted !

[dj_bytedisaster]

My ex-boss has been telling me (at work I'm "der Spanier" when it comes to football or F1 ) since 2008 to watch out for the new talent in the following WM, then again in last years EM, and finally for next years WM. This time I think he might have a point at last
The last three occasions to fly a massive Spanish flag (bought in 2008 from a turkish neighbour for 1&#8364 around our test tracks the day after were priceless however... was fun while it lasted !

Spain is another European country with a good youth system, at least Barca and Real are pumping out young talent regularily, so it isn't exactly surprising that those two were the major forces in recent years. The big difference however is that the Bundesliga hasn't yet been reduced to two clubs as badly as La Liga. In the last 10 years 5 different Clubs became German Champion as opposed to three in Spain (and only 2 in the last 8 years).
The reasons for that are several things. First, the money in Bundesliga is distributed quite evenly, while in Spain Barca and Real get all the money with some crumbs thrown to the other clubs. On top of that financial rules in German club football are very strict - have too much debt and you're fresh out of license. Both Barca and Real wouldn't get a license in Bundesliga. As a result, no German club can go ahead and buy a Ronaldo for 100 Million, so without the ability to buy foreign superstars for astronomical sums, the clubs have to make their own, which worked rather well over the last decade. Due to the availability of so many well-trained youngsters, most clubs have substantial amounts of German players in their lineups again.
That results in a much broader base to choose from. The Spanish team is currently made up of Barca and Real players and players, who play in England, while the current German squad consists of players from 6 different German clubs and only two players, who play abroad. Germany has the bigger potential to choose from, but Spain has the advantage of players from few clubs, so most of them play together in the clubs anyway, so they know each other's game better. Spain is more cohesive.

I think Spain will stay strong, but the next title for ze Fatherland is coming in this decade

BTW: Did you know that Ronaldo is actually 'owned' by the European Union? When they bought him for 97.000.000 Real took out a load from some Spanish bank, which later pledged that very loan as a collateral to the EU, when the bank had to be bailed out during the financial crisis.

[donKey jote]

Athletic 2 - Barca 2... Athletic equalised in the last minute

Atlético 2 - Real 0 after 12 minutes

pity the second was an own goal...

[donKey jote]

Balls
Atlético dominate but then di Maria comes out of nowhere for 1-2

[race aficionado]

Messi's gol . . . . . Priceless!!!

[Rollo]

Newcastle United 0 - Liverpool 6

I don't understand how Liverpool can play utter rubbish some weeks and then bag a half dozen like this. It's bonkers.

[A FONDO]

Newcastle United 0 - Liverpool 6

I don't understand how Liverpool can play utter rubbish some weeks and then bag a half dozen like this. It's bonkers.

That's the magic of football, every match is unique, you can't see two equal matches even if played by the same players. (except the fixed ones)

[ford power]

some result for us villa fans last night
aston villa 6-1 sunderland