The Belgians are looking to move into second place as the Italians have won the group. Will they make it?
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Runt
So far, Belgium looks like the Great White Hype. Dynamite on paper, but they just haven’t playedwell together. Watching de Bruyne put one perfect serve after another into the box without any of his teammates getting anything out of it is downright depressing. The Irish would score from opportunities like that.
ThresherK
The very accented commentator mentioned how Belgium and also Man U are called the Red Devils. Odd how the nicknames aren’t a thing in other countries as they are in the USA.
@Runt: Isn’t Belgium continually the team that’s going to “put it all together two years from now”>
Runt
@ThresherK: They’re the Friedman Unit of international football.
ThresherK
@Runt: *We interrupt this post for a Belgium goal*.
ThresherK
@Runt: I was going to say, switching sports, I don’t know much about Belgium’s development, coaching and recruiting.
So I’ll mention Andy Reid, hired to coach the Philadelphia Eagles, who not only did a bad job of winning games and being competitive, but has traded and drafted poorly, while getting rid of good players while overpaying for talent who very few teams were competing for at said prices. And this has had an effect on morale. (It’s almost the bizarro world version of any success enjoyed by Moneyball type managers, and in a sport with a salary cap.)
That’s more of a Friedman Unit in coaching to me: Going in and doing something unneeded and unpromising out of sheer ego and then having it go to ruin, and the only thing to pretend is that it will turn around given enough time.
Runt
@ThresherK: Glad to see they take my criticism on board.
Amir Khalid
Belgium 2-0 Republic of Ireland. I think that’s the to two places in group E decided.
ETA: Belgium 3-0 Republic of Ireland. This match is over.
Wyrm1
The first goal was ridiculous. If you want to ignore the foul in the box, fine. But rather than allowing the Belgians a counter based on kicking a guy in the shoulder, stop play for the potential head injury.
Runt
The individual qualities of the Belgian plagers have never been in doubt, and it turns out that is enough to trounce Ireland. But I’m still not convinced by their teamwork. You see a lot of frustration when players fail to predict what the man with the ball wants them to do. But at least they show they can be deadly on the counterattack.
SRW1
@Runt:
The individual quality and therefore the potential is there, but the whole thing does not gel sufficiently. I think the bottleneck is the Belgian coach.
MobiusKlein
I’m heading off to Iceland, and they’re in the euro cup now.
Any tips on how to sound smart about their team?
humboldtblue
@MobiusKlein:
Here’s a nice primer you can study on the flight over.
humboldtblue
@ThresherK: But we only do that with our international teams, all other athletic teams from pee-wee through the pros have nicknames.
@ThresherK:
Also, I’m not sure what point you were trying to make with Andy Reid as head coach of the Iggles, but he was the most successful coach in franchise history and led the birds to four consecutive NFC championship games and one Super Bowl and went to the playoffs for 10 consecutive seasons with five division titles mixed in including four straight in the early aughts..