General Soccer Discussion

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#476      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Mexico will have their first two home World Cup qualifier matches (September 2nd vs. Jamaica, October 7th vs. Canada) played behind closed doors due to a recurrence of an anti-gay chant by Mexico fans during the CONCACAF pre-Olympic qualifying tournament. FIFA also fined them 60,000 Swiss francs (roughly $65,000 US) and also threatened further sanctions including a points reduction. The points reduction would be in official tournaments, including World Cup qualifiers, and FIFA could even go so far as to ban them from any tournament under FIFA's purview, including the World Cup.

The FIFA disciplinary committee has already opened a separate case regarding the same chant being used in a friendly against Iceland at the end of May. No investigation has begun as of yet regarding similar behavior that was engaged in by the El Tri fans during the Nations League semifinals and final.
 
#478      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Heading into the beginning of the final group stage matches that start tomorrow, North Macedonia is the only side at this point that has been officially eliminated as the first points tiebreaker in group stage is higher number of points obtained in matches played between teams and they've already lost to both Austria and Ukraine and cannot catch Netherlands on points.

The Italy-Wales match tomorrow in Rome will decide who wins Group A. Italy is already through to the Round of 16 and Wales likely needs just a point to go through. Switzerland-Turkey needs a winner for either side to have a chance to go through as a one of four best 3rd place teams though Switzerland's goal differential could cause them issues.
 
#479      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Italy and Wales are officially through after Italy's 1:0 win. Italy will play either Ukraine or Austria at Wembley on Saturday. Wales will face whoever comes out of Group B as the runner-up on Saturday in Amsterdam.

Switzerland now has to wait until Wednesday to see if they'll make it through as one of the top 3rd place teams. Having a -1 GD should make them feel a little better than where they were at before but there's still no guarantee they'll go through.
 
#480      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
With today's results, we're now up to 11 teams qualified for the Round of 16.

Netherlands is the Group C winner and will face the 3rd place team from either Group D, E, or F on Sunday in Budapest. Austria is the Group C runner-up and will face Italy on Saturday at Wembley.

Belgium go through as group winners in Group B and will face either the 3rd place team out of Group A, Group E, or Group F in Seville on Sunday. Denmark is the runner-up in Group B and will face Wales in Amsterdam in the first game of the day on Saturday.

Switzerland has now clinched a spot as one of the top 4 3rd place teams as they have 4 points and both Ukraine and Finland will finish behind them at 3 points. At worst, the Swiss would be the 4th best 3rd place team.

In addition, the Czech Republic, England, Sweden, and France are all now qualified for the Round of 16 as well as each of them have 4 points thus far, guaranteeing them a top 3 finish in their groups.

With the way things are with Denmark right now, Wales have to be considered a bit of an underdog in that match on Saturday.
 
#481      

KBLEE

KBLEE
Montgomery, IL
KBLEE
IlliniFaninHoosierLand said:
With the way things are with Denmark right now, Wales have to be considered a bit of an underdog in that match on Saturday.
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I'm not sure I'd agree with that. I call this a fairly even matchup and would probably give the nod to the Welsh team. Wales had a win and a draw in their group, and only lost to a very good Italy team 1-0 despite a BS red card early in the 2nd half that completely changed the match. Denmark had one good game yesterday and advanced based on goal differential. Playing without their best player, it will continue to be an uphill battle for them.
 
#482      

wettsten

wettsten
Chicago
wettsten
KBLEE said:
I'm not sure I'd agree with that. I call this a fairly even matchup and would probably give the nod to the Welsh team. Wales had a win and a draw in their group, and only lost to a very good Italy team 1-0 despite a BS red card early in the 2nd half that completely changed the match. Denmark had one good game yesterday and advanced based on goal differential. Playing without their best player, it will continue to be an uphill battle for them.
Click to expand...

i think this is pretty accurate.
 
#483      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
KBLEE said:
I'm not sure I'd agree with that. I call this a fairly even matchup and would probably give the nod to the Welsh team. Wales had a win and a draw in their group, and only lost to a very good Italy team 1-0 despite a BS red card early in the 2nd half that completely changed the match. Denmark had one good game yesterday and advanced based on goal differential. Playing without their best player, it will continue to be an uphill battle for them.
Click to expand...

I was looking at it more from the viewpoint of emotion with the Danes.
 
#484      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
After today's matches, Sweden and Spain go through from Group E. France, Germany, and Portugal go through from Group F.

Portugal, Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Ukraine qualify for knockout round as the 4 best third place teams.

Round of 16 matchups:

Belgium v. Portugal (Seville)
Italy v. Austria (London)
France v. Switzerland (Bucharest)
Croatia v. Spain (Copenhagen)
Sweden v. Ukraine (Glasgow)
England v. Germany (London)
Netherlands v. Czech Republic (Budapest)
Wales v. Denmark (Amsterdam)

Couple days off for the tournament before it resumes on Saturday with Wales-Denmark and Italy-Austria.
 
#485      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Here's a bit of an odd story. A group of French fans missed the France-Hungary match over the weekend because they not only traveled to the wrong stadium, they were in the wrong country entirely: https://www.espn.com/soccer/blog-th...udapest-by-travelling-to-bucharest-by-mistake

As the story goes, a group of work friends boarded a flight Saturday morning that they thought would be taking them to Budapest. It instead ended up in Bucharest, more than 500 miles away.
 
#487      

KBLEE

KBLEE
Montgomery, IL
KBLEE
Assuming Denmark holds on to win, they really need to add this ref to their Christmas card list. 2 undeserved yellow cards for Welsh players in the first half and a goal stemming from a blatant foul in the second leave Wales with an enormous hill to climb.
 
#488      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Denmark are through to the quarterfinals with a 0:4 victory over Wales. First time the Danes have been to the quarterfinals since Euro 2004, when they lost to the Czech Republic. First time Denmark has won a knockout stage round match since Euro 92 when they won the tournament.
 
#489      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Denmark are through to the quarterfinals with a 0:4 victory over Wales. First time the Danes have been to the quarterfinals since Euro 2004, when they lost to the Czech Republic. First time Denmark has won a knockout stage round match since Euro 92 when they won the tournament.

Denmark will face either the Netherlands or the Czech Republic in Baku next Saturday.
 
#490      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Austria was impressive today taking Italy to extra time.

Will be interesting to see if this can be a springboard to them qualifying for the World Cup. They're currently in 4th in Group F in World Cup qualifying out of UEFA in a group that includes Denmark, Scotland, Israel, the Faroe Islands, and Moldova.
 
#496      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
That France-Switzerland game may have been one of the crazier ones I've seen in a Euro. This is definitely a different Swiss side than the one in the 2006 World Cup whose notable achievement was not allowing a goal the entire tournament.

First time Swiss have won a knockout round match in a major competition since the 1938 World Cup. First time Swiss have ever beaten France in any sort of competitive match (qualification or tournament). First time they've beaten France in any sort of match since May 27, 1992 when Switzerland won 2-1 in a friendly played in Lausanne. Notable names involved in that match included Roy Hodgson as the Switzerland manager and Michel Platini as the France manager. Current France manager Didier Deschamps was a starting midfielder for France in that match.
 
#500      

IlliniFaninHoosierLand

IlliniFaninHoosierLand
IlliniFaninHoosierLand
Copa America knockout round match-ups are set:

Argentina v. Ecuador
Uruguay v. Colombia
Brazil v. Chile
Peru vs. Paraguay

Quarterfinal matchups begin Friday with Peru-Paraguay and Brazil-Chile.
 
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