World Football thread

[cambgull]

Doom Bar is a superb beer, highly recommend anything by Thornbridge Brewery. Jaipur IPA is an incredible beer and all their others are immense. By far my favourite brewery.

[AustrianAndyGull]

At the risk of this degenerating into some random 'beer' thread i'll finish off by agreeing with Luke about DOOM BAR. I can actually get it up here in Derbyshire, some Morrisons supermarkets sell it and i always stock up. Are there any Torquay / Dartmoor based ales that you know of? Would be good to try and get hold of some. Finally a rant about lagers. Can you sue breweries under the trade descriptions act for saying their beer is Australian when in fact it was brewed in Burton on Trent under licence? It's a feckin joke. Fosters is Australian and in order for it to be Australian it needs to have been brewed IN Australia, using Australian water and ingredients and then exported. Fosters that you buy here was brewed in Burton or somewhere like that SO IT ISN'T AUSTRALIAN!!! Same with Bud. Brewed 'under licence'. It's from Britain then you misleading clits!! There are many other examples, San Miguel etc. What do you alcoholic aficionados think out there? Are you with me or against me?

[Southampton Gull]

Anyone who drinks lager is a girl - FACT !!!

[happytorq]

Anyone who drinks lager is a girl - FACT !!!

Anybody who uses the word 'fact' in all caps to end a discussion is a dolt. Fa - oh.

[cambgull]

At the risk of this degenerating into some random 'beer' thread i'll finish off by agreeing with Luke about DOOM BAR. I can actually get it up here in Derbyshire, some Morrisons supermarkets sell it and i always stock up. Are there any Torquay / Dartmoor based ales that you know of? Would be good to try and get hold of some. Finally a rant about lagers. Can you sue breweries under the trade descriptions act for saying their beer is Australian when in fact it was brewed in Burton on Trent under licence? It's a feckin joke. Fosters is Australian and in order for it to be Australian it needs to have been brewed IN Australia, using Australian water and ingredients and then exported. Fosters that you buy here was brewed in Burton or somewhere like that SO IT ISN'T AUSTRALIAN!!! Same with Bud. Brewed 'under licence'. It's from Britain then you misleading clits!! There are many other examples, San Miguel etc. What do you alcoholic aficionados think out there? Are you with me or against me?

Try Jail Ale from the Dartmoor Brewery. Anything by Otter Brewery is worth a shout. Try finding a copy of the Good Beer Guide and it'll have the best pubs and all the breweries in the whole country.

As for the rest of your post, I think its fine if a drink comes from Australia and still uses the same recipe as they do over there. They just brew it from here to save export costs. The thing is with our favourite Australian lager is that it has nothing to do with Australia. Nobody in Australia has even heard of it.Guinness has a different taste here than in Ireland too.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Cheers Cambgull, i'll have a look at that. As regards the Australia thing i was just being generic. I was just using Fosters as a example but i take your point on the perceptions that Aussies have on it. To be honest if any Aussie DID drink that p*ss then i'd be seriously concerned about the quality of the rest of their beer! I have to disagree with you about the provenance of a beer though, or indeed any product that 'claims' to be from a certain country. For example cheese. I don't care for cheese much but one of the few i DO buy is the Austrian Smoked cheese that comes in a sausgae shaped casing. You can get it in supermarkets. It's from Austria so it's Austrian and i'll buy it, if it was made in Tiverton for example using Austrian ingredients it is an English cheese from Tiverton. Not Austrian. It's just an example Luke but strongly disagree with you on that one my good man.

[cambgull]

So what if a team like Man Utd set up a training camp in China for young players to trial for the youth teams? Is united still an English club? Of course. Are the players still Chinese? Of course.

Just because they might be involved in another country and producing things in that country, it doesn't mean they lose their heritage of being an English football club. The main headquarters are still in England, remember.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Our U21's beat Scotland 3-2 in the Euro Quals! Happy days!

[Gulliball]

Slovakia drew 1-1 away in Lithuania on Friday. Not an awful result but not fantastic, they weren't helped by having a goal disallowed for offside which was a yard onside and then having a man sent off after 55 mins for a foul inside the opposition half. Couldn't believe it when the ref pulled out a straight red - it was fairly cynical to break up a counter attack, but wasn't a bad challenge and was in other other half with about 5 players covering - crazy decision.

Liechtenstein at home today - needs to be 3 points. Slovakia aren't great at taking the game to an opponent (they beat Andorra 1-0 and 1-0 in 2012 qualifying) but should have enough. It's a very open group with Greece, Latvia, Bosnia and Lithuania as the other teams.

[AustrianAndyGull]

We're not great at taking games to opponents either Gulliball, we often beat minnows 1-0. Tonight we've got Germany so i'm hoping for a miracle draw.

[AustrianAndyGull]

A thoroughly respectable 2-1 home defeat to arguably the best country in Europe. In addition we scored AND took the game to them, a real confidence that our national team, like Belgium, may be on the up after years in the brown stuff. Meanwhile Englands £100,000 a week stars need a late penalty to draw AT HOME against Ukraine that after they mullered the Moldovan equivalent of the Dog and Duck last friday which had England fans thinking there are real grounds for optimism. The only grounds for optimism is that you always get piss easy qualifying groups so you always qualify, and even then you always struggle. You're shit and you know you are is apt i believe this evening.

[AustrianAndyGull]

What i don't understand is why all the home nations are so much more appalling than other similar sized countries. I'm not having a pop here but take Wales, they have got some decent players, most of them play in the PL and earn upwards of £20k a week. Countries like Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, and others don't have that many players on that amount and playing in the supposed best league in the world so why are they so crap? Scotland also have got players earning tens of thousands in the prem but they can't beat other countries of similar standing like Serbia and Macedonia. England are the same but compare them to other countries of like in Europe such as Germany, Italy and Spain they are light years away yet most of them earn more than many players in these countries. Why are the home nations so shocking at football in comparison to other similar countries in Europe? I'd be interested to hear anyones views as i have three theoris which i shall reveal later if anyone bothers to reply to this.

[Plymouth Gull]

I don't think playing for your country has the same pull nowadays. Also I'd say that because the PL is basically an all-star league, our promising youngsters never get a real chance. For example, Welbeck. Good striker, but he's what, 3rd/4th in the pecking order at United now. He'll either be happy to sit on the bench and pick up his wages or move in a year to try and improve more. He's a good player, but he wouldn't be near the Spain starting XI, for example.

Until their is some ruling that states their must be at least 5 home grown players in your starting XI every week, we'll continue to be miles behind the rest. The percentage of English players in the PL is ridiculously low, in comparison to the other leading countries.

As for Scotland/Wales and that, they have one or two good players but thats it. Wales have Bale/Ramsey really who are top level, the rest aren't.

[gullintwoplaces]

What i don't understand is why all the home nations are so much more appalling than other similar sized countries. I'm not having a pop here but take Wales, they have got some decent players, most of them play in the PL and earn upwards of £20k a week. Countries like Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland, and others don't have that many players on that amount and playing in the supposed best league in the world so why are they so crap? Scotland also have got players earning tens of thousands in the prem but they can't beat other countries of similar standing like Serbia and Macedonia. England are the same but compare them to other countries of like in Europe such as Germany, Italy and Spain they are light years away yet most of them earn more than many players in these countries. Why are the home nations so shocking at football in comparison to other similar countries in Europe? I'd be interested to hear anyones views as i have three theoris which i shall reveal later if anyone bothers to reply to this.

I think you have answered the question in what you say. You refer to many of the home nation players playing in the Premiership earning megabucks, and that is the problem. Too many overseas players crowding out homegrown players in the Premiership, excessively high salaries for the players that do make it to the Premiership (making them arrogant, lazy, contemptuous of the fans, and basically shite). I would pick the national teams largely from the Football League, f**k the Premiership. Players for countries like Macedonia and Serbia still have a hunger to do well, whereas many of our Premiership players have lost that hunger.

I also think that the sale of school playing fields has made a contribution, along with the fact that too many British kids spend too long on their appalling Gameboys and Nintendos, overeating and getting fat and lazy. I despair for my country when I see all the fatty lardasses walking about.

[Dave]

I read and hear across different forms of media, also read across many different football forums, and I see and hear it over and over again, no boby has the same desire to play international football, players are being paid to much, to be honest thats is the biggest load of rubbish going under the sun, and those who repeat such garbage are simply lead by what they hear and read.

A player like David Beckham for instance has enough money and general assets not just to retire from football but public life all together, is anyone really going to tell me now, that if Roy was to give him ring and invite him back into the England squad, he wouldn't be proud and honoured enough to jump on the next plane over, of course he would.

And how does how much money they earn have any bearing on their ability to play football, players like Messi, Xabi, Pirlo etc wouldn't put their boots on for much less than £100,000 a week doesn't stop them from being serious quailty footballers for both club and country.

The problem is a simple one and has been for years, sadly only now being addressed, that problem is how we handle and treat our young footballers, over the years I have spent time as a coach manager, and football scout, and watched acadmey level football, one problem I have seen so many times it bugs me, 11 year old players playing on full sized pitchs in full sized goals, with a 4ft nothing goalkeeper, and the manager on the sidelines shouting " bang it over his head" every time they are 30 yrds out, how on earth is that teaching young players to play football, and we wonder why we can't produce players who can control pass and move the football.

Thats just one instance could write ten pages on this subject, the main difference is in countries like Spain, Germany, Holland their young players play 9 v 9 on half size pitchs something just being introduced in many local leagues here, less space space, less time, will only encourage players to develop instance control and bring them up passing moving into space quicker/sharper.

In my view from 7 to 9 years old football should only be 5 a side.