The Soccer Thread (IV)

And Heskey starts, with Defoe on the bench.

 

Ukraine and Belarus finish 0-0, so a draw enough for England tonight. Not that Capello will tolerate backing in like that; I'd doubt England's players will even be made aware of the result elsewhere.

 

Faroe Islands beat Lithuania 2-1 to earn its first WCQ win since 2001.

 

Was Belgium that good to begin with? I remember them being distinctly unimpressive during Euro 2000 and the 2002 World Cup.

In any case, maybe it has something to do with the Jupiler League not having restrictions on foreigners, allowing clubs to load up on cheap African and/or Eastern European talent instead of Belgians.

 

Finland finally gets a goal in Liechtenstein on a question PK in the 74th, give it right back a minute later.

 

Weren't Scotland in sixth place of the nine second-place teams headed into today? Because the groups have different numbers of teams, the larger groups' second-place teams have their results dropped from the playoff determination. Or am I confusing my teams?

 

Only team ever to qualify for six straight World Cup finals without being either a host or a defending champion. With the exception of 1986, they were never great, but they were consistent.

Aaron Lennon wins a penalty and Lampard scores it. 1-0 to England. Clear-cut penalty. No controversy about it.

 

They just seemed to qualify for the WC more often than not and now are buried deep in their group.

 

Exactly. Now they aren't a shell of it.

 

The results that are dropped are the ones against sixth-place teams. So until those teams are known, and in most groups they're not, it's hard to know. So yes, Scotland are in the playoff places right now, but the three teams chasing them all have played fewer games.

(For a clear-cut example of what I mentioned: Luxembourg (4 points) play Moldova (1) tonight. Switzerland bafflingly lost to Luxembourg early on, but have swept Moldova. So if Moldova win, they'll go up to fifth place (on goal difference), and Switzerland would all of a sudden have six more points in the second-place table. Although Switzerland lead their group, so that point is moot right now.)

I'm an idiot. They already played, and drew 0-0. So it's irrelevant. But it still shows what COULD have happened.

 

Just noticed that KC and DC United play tonight at around the same time as the MNT match.

I could understand the need to schedule this if it were a Saturday, but it's a fucking Wednesday.

 

Gerrard with an easy, easy headed goal. 2-0.

My God, that was horrendous defending. Lennon given acres of space for the cross, and Gerrard left all alone in the box.