Nations Cup

[ceudmilefailte]

11 minutes ago, Grim Jim said:

Loved the NL.   Something to play for at every level.  

 

 

 

 

Total agreement and I think it will take of big style. Basically a three tier European League with promotion, relegation and play offs.

Every fan in the country want's their club to win promotion avoid relegation at club level, it will end up the same here. Do you think Brechin fans expect to win any major honours,? no, but I bet the fans get more satisfaction out of promotion than Celtic's do winning a treble

[Burj_Alba]

Got to say when i started this topic I was not expecting it to go down the imperialism, GSTQ and marching bands route. 😄

I also think the NL is great for the reasons pointed out by others but it is just this time around. It might be better every four years when there is a much bigger chance of qualification for the 3rd or 4th ranked teams.

Something has to give in the football calendar because of COVID ( leagues starting late, EURO 2020 ) and as a one off thought the NL might be the compromise. Could well still happen if more Czech style things happen.

 

[Malcolm]

15 hours ago, ErsatzThistle said:

So basically if a nation isn't English speaking and doesn't have the Windsor's as their head of state you find it distasteful to play them ?

Even if it did return, it would become redundant when we inevitably become independent and then when six counties inevitably become part of the Republic again.

Thankfully however there is zero demand for the utterly shite BHC to be brought back. 

lol, what utter tosh.   I didn’t say anywhere that I found it distasteful to play non English speaking countries. These are your words not mine.

we play european teams in qualifiers for world cups and euros. 
 

why would I become redundant if we were independent?  I don’t see  Northern Ireland being subsumed in to the republic but I don’t care either way.  I would be happy to play against Ireland if that happened.

i have zero interest in the politics of the situation.... I like playing our local rivals.  Some people on here can’t accept that not everything is political.

and to say there is zero interest is bollock.....

[Bristolhibby]

23 hours ago, PASTA Mick said:

I like it.  

The current situation isn't helping it but all football seems worse without the crowds.  

Is it obviously a farce that we beat Israel last time only to draw them in the play-offs and then again this time.  That shouldn't happen again because I think they have the structure right now, but they might want to consider putting something in place to stop you drawing teams out twice in a row. 

I’m still not even sure how Israel ended up in the same tier as us. We won the group so get promoted. Israel didn’t, so why the promotion. 
 

Hopefully the draw last week means we are not complacent come nexts months proper game v Israel. 
 

J

[Toepoke]

4 minutes ago, Bristolhibby said:

I’m still not even sure how Israel ended up in the same tier as us. We won the group so get promoted. Israel didn’t, so why the promotion. 

The competition was restructured.

 

[Texas Pete]

2 hours ago, Malcolm said:

lol, what utter tosh.   I didn’t say anywhere that I found it distasteful to play non English speaking countries. These are your words not mine.

we play european teams in qualifiers for world cups and euros. 
 

why would I become redundant if we were independent?  I don’t see  Northern Ireland being subsumed in to the republic but I don’t care either way.  I would be happy to play against Ireland if that happened.

i have zero interest in the politics of the situation.... I like playing our local rivals.  Some people on here can’t accept that not everything is political.

and to say there is zero interest is bollock.....

I’m sure that’s what Hitler said when he was told there was no interest in invading Poland. 

[PASTA Mick]

5 hours ago, Bristolhibby said:

I’m still not even sure how Israel ended up in the same tier as us. We won the group so get promoted. Israel didn’t, so why the promotion. 
 

Hopefully the draw last week means we are not complacent come nexts months proper game v Israel. 
 

J

Basically in the first edition of the competition, League A was made up of 4 groups of 3, so that the top tier teams could still have friendlies against the likes of Brazil and Argentina, and each other.  However they seem to realise that it would be better for them to have 4 groups of 4 (probably because Germany got relegated).  

To get the structure as they now wanted, no teams were relegated but everyone that finished 1st in League B was moved to League A, and everyone that finished 1st or 2nd in Leagues C and D were promoted.  It's just a coincidence that we got Israel in the play-offs and then again in the 2020/21 version.  

Edited September 7, 2020 by PASTA Mick

[Grim Jim]

6 hours ago, PASTA Mick said:

Basically in the first edition of the competition, League A was made up of 4 groups of 3, so that the top tier teams could still have friendlies against the likes of Brazil and Argentina, and each other.  However they seem to realise that it would be better for them to have 4 groups of 4 (probably because Germany got relegated).  

To get the structure as they now wanted, no teams were relegated but everyone that finished 1st in League B was moved to League A, and everyone that finished 1st or 2nd in Leagues C and D were promoted.  It's just a coincidence that we got Israel in the play-offs and then again in the 2020/21 version.  

[Grim Jim]

     Restructuring ruining it already.   Something to play for at every level... then they move the goal posts.   (Good metaphor that.)

[Clyde1998]

On 9/6/2020 at 3:23 PM, Taylor1996 said:

I view the Nations league as a friendly competition.

People bitch and moan about friendlies by being, this, that and ths other, but it least it gave teams and managers a chance to experiment. Therefore, we should experiment during the Nations league.

Maybe this isn't the best place to talk about change and experimentation. If it was up to a certain mob in this place, we'd still be hunting animals with rocks and sticks and living the best neanderthal life we could.

The biggest issue with friendlies (imo) was that clubs weren't/aren't required to release players for them, whereas for the Nations League they are. How many friendly matches did we have where we didn't have our strongest XI/squad because the clubs didn't release players? It meant that any experiments couldn't take into account the squad we'd have for a competitive match.

It does mean that we're forced to have our experiments during Nations League matches, but with it being linked to the main qualification competition does make it very difficult and costly to make errors.

We'll see if these are simply experiments come the Israel play-off, but I have doubts this is an experiment given our defensive issues over the past few years.

[Rohan]

We could really do with a few friendly games, or even a B team selection. The last one I think I can remember is under Berti against Germany?! 

[ErsatzThistle]

20 minutes ago, Rohan said:

We could really do with a few friendly games, or even a B team selection. The last one I think I can remember is under Berti against Germany?! 

2009 vs the six counties (we won 3-0) was our last B game to date.

What we should do when the world is back to the way it was again, is to arrange a game against the likes of Catalonia or Galicia or Corsica. An unofficial international. Try out some new players but it doesn't hurt if we lose because the game won't be recognised by UEFA or FIFA.

[Taylor1996]

1 hour ago, Clyde1998 said:

The biggest issue with friendlies (imo) was that clubs weren't/aren't required to release players for them, whereas for the Nations League they are. How many friendly matches did we have where we didn't have our strongest XI/squad because the clubs didn't release players? It meant that any experiments couldn't take into account the squad we'd have for a competitive match.

It does mean that we're forced to have our experiments during Nations League matches, but with it being linked to the main qualification competition does make it very difficult and costly to make errors.

We'll see if these are simply experiments come the Israel play-off, but I have doubts this is an experiment given our defensive issues over the past few years.

That's a fair point.