The International Friendlies thread

[Ligue 1 fan]

France u21 4-1 Holland u21

Good result for the Espoirs. Despite 3 French goals were penalties!

 

[thespus]

1-1 between Switzlerand and USA. Altidore sent off (second yellow) for swearing at the ref! There should be several red cards a game if that was always enforced. Another late US defensive implosion cost them a fairly impressive victory.

 

[Libertadores FC]

Our starting lineup is shambles. I would not be surprised if we lost this.

 

[Libertadores FC]

1-0 loss to Venezuela. In a shit mood at the moment. I'll do my match review tomorrow.

 

[Crewelad87]

Portugal lost at home to Cape Verde 2-0 and the Netherlands beat the not so mighty anymore Spain 2-0.

 

[Millersfan]

Ireland booked. No tickets but should be a gooden still.

 

[blademan89]

Ireland booked. No tickets but should be a gooden still.

Booked a while back. Weve got tickets in the irish hospitality bit €150 not sure if any still available have a look on irish ticketmaster.

 

[Millersfan]

Booked a while back. Weve got tickets in the irish hospitality bit €150 not sure if any still available have a look on irish ticketmaster.

Not bothered about paying that much. Know a few who've got tickets in the home end, that'll be fun.

 

[blademan89]

Not bothered about paying that much. Know a few who've got tickets in the home end, that'll be fun.

We get free ale and 3 course meal with that. Its £52 face value for england fans anyway.

 

[CFC91]

The face value is a joke as per for England. Plenty available for home areas on various ticketing sites aorund 50-60 euro.

 

[Libertadores FC]

Peru plays tonight. I may have made us sound like we're a great team, but we're not. Compared to the team from 2013, we're fucking shit, and I fully expect a comfortable victory for Mexico tonight. 3-0. The players are hungover and Mexico's "B" team is actually pretty strong.

 

[Stevencc]

Absolutely beautiful cross from Depay to set up Huntelaar. 1-0 against the USA.

 

[thespus]

Mad game. USA with 2 late goals to win it 4-3. Both sides defended like Liverpool on (insert weather and time of day) at Stoke.

 

[Stevencc]

Yeah, crazy game. Very enjoyable for a friendly.

 

[AFCB_Mark]

Matt Ritchie scores against the mighty Qatar.

 

[mistermagic]

Quite looking forward to hosting the stupid Belgians tomorrow night!

 

[Greenacres]

Not sure if I'm looking forward to the game against Ireland or not, for me it falls into the category of a pointless friendly that stops players from having a well earned break after a long season. My only worry is that our fans will disgrace themselves once again, though I wouldn't expect it to be anywhere near as bad as the last visit to Dublin, which was one of the few times in my life that I have been ashamed to be English. I will be surprised it their national anthem doesn't get booed or there are a few rousing verses of "no surrender", what has that got to do with football, surely we are in the twenty first century. There is so much good about football in England, but sadly the national side still seems to attract a few sad knuckle draggers to support it, mixed in with the genuine fans.

Edit: Just realised that England have a Euro qualification game next weekend against Slovenia, which obviously made this friendly a good idea. Nice to see the fans behaved themselves!

 

[mistermagic]

2-0 to Belgium at half-time. We've been extraordinarily shite. Trémoulinas and Cabaye not sent off because it's a friendly. Fellaini's first goal was offside though. Still we haven't put Courtois to the task once. Dreadful.

 

[Libertadores FC]

I hope Mexico ends up losing 5-0 so that the Mexicans can stop being so arrogant.

I hate the Mexican national team more than I hate the Chilean national team.

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

France 3-4 Belgium.
Poor performance with 2 late goals to spare some embarrassment.

Tremoulinas and Cabaye aren't good enough. Pogba, Matuidi, Kongdogbia midfield with Fekir, Lacazette and Ntep as front 3 would be my bet going forward.
Also get Kurzawa in the selection.

Awaiting for MM to completely disagree with that I said! ;-)

 

[mistermagic]

Belgium won 4-3. Naingollan with a good goal.

Giroud has been shit. It's time we start making him the squad player that he should be. Put Lacazette up top and give him a run of games. See how this works. We certainly can't just field the same World Cup starting eleven and expect to win Euro 2016 just by turning up. I felt we lacked desire or that Belgium where much more up for it.
Game was also soured by a Fellaini offside goal and both pens were jokes tbh.

 

[mistermagic]

France 3-4 Belgium.
Poor performance with 2 late goals to spare some embarrassment.

Tremoulinas and Cabaye aren't good enough. Pogba, Matuidi, Kongdogbia midfield with Fekir, Lacazette and Ntep as front 3 would be my bet going forward.
Also get Kurzawa in the selection.

Awaiting for MM to completely disagree with that I said! ;-)

Trémoulinas doesn't know how to cross a ball and when you're playing with Giroud up front that can't work. I sympathise with Cabaye tbh. He's a world class player used as a sub at PSG. Still I thought he did ok this evening. I'd keep him on but he needs to sort out his club situation asap. Either get a starting berth with PSG (bye bye Motta) or go back to England. Not sure how happy I am to see a player a shoe-in in most squads but doesn't even play regular football!
I don't get the hype surrounding Fekir. He's ok but I need to watch Lyon more closely next season to form a valid opinion of him. To me it's been a lot of people creaming over one or two stepovers. I certainly wouldn't start him over Griezmann who shouldn't have gone off at half-time imo.
Who the fuck is Ntep?

The way the midfield is structured does not exactly suit Valbuena either. I reckon he'd do wonders as an AM/creator. However the trio of Pogba, Cabaye and Matuidi works well. I just feel that we don't have enough decent wingers and that CF slot is rather unclear. Benzema is still the most talented striker despite not playing well for France and Deschamps will have to address the question. Thing is I don't think he wants to but the sooner Lacazette gets a run in the squad as a CF the better.

 

[mistermagic]

Germany are drawing with the US 1-1 at half-time. Germany have been playing well for the first time since Brazil. Still no proper striker but Löw sticking Patrick Hermann (a proper winger) on the right wing has been the creative spark that Germany were missing. He dribbled past a host of players before passing it to Götze who made it 1-0. Same scenario happened later on but Guzan saved well from Götze.
The US are playing a very solid 442 with the two banks of 4 close together so it's difficult to break them down. They haven't gone on the break that often but when they have they scored the equaliser (some dude named Viskerud). Good finish but you feel that Neuer would have saved that (Zieler is in goal for Germany tonight).
Team wise, Rudy still isn't a RB, I have no idea what Mustafi is warranting a call-up every time but he's crap and Rüdiger plays for Stuttgart. Tis a friendly though. Hector is having a good game at LB.

Podolski is bound to come on in the second half/half-time: game is in Cologne.

 

[thespus]

USA minutes away from consecutive victories over the Netherlands and Germany in Europe. Not a full-strength Germany, but neither is the USA. The first half was more snatch-and-grab, but a pretty decent performance for the Yanks in the 2nd half. Really nice turn and finish by Bobby Wood on a good pass from Yedlin, who continues to look a fine player. Michael Bradley is playing as well as he ever has. The defense remains the biggest concern.

 

[mistermagic]

Been watching Bobby Wood on and off for 1860 and he never comes up with this kind of strikes! Much deserved win for the US. Germany continue to look below par whoever they play.

 

[mistermagic]

We lost in Albania. Great.

 

[Ligue 1 fan]

We lost in Albania. Great.

Disgraceful. I'm beginning to think Deschamps is right; the players care more about their hair than football.

 

[Libertadores FC]

3 South American teams take on North Americans, 2 of them didn't qualify for the World Cup.

I'm expecting 2 teams to win tonight. Uruguay will get an easy win over Panama and Venezuela will walk past Honduras. We(Peru) will probably struggle but I have faith we'll put in a fight.

 

[Libertadores FC]

Right, our match is coming up. Was a bit unsure when I saw the lineup the USA is playing (a B team) but they still have SOME decent players in there and they beat Germany and the Netherlands with their B team.

Also, Venezuela have embarrassed themselves. 3-0 loss to Honduras.

 

[Libertadores FC]

2-1 loss to the USA, and to be honest, I'm not that disappointed because we are finally taking on decent teams rather than the usual Panama, Costa Rica and Mexico, fixtures that we always win.

Completely outplayed them in the first half but we were shit in the second.