hply sjot

[rone]

Liechtenstein managed to tie Portugal 2-2 at Vaduz in a World Cup qualifier match on Oct 9.  Even though it's noted chokers Portugal, it's still a stunning result.  Couple that with Andorra's first ever victory in qualifiers versus Macedonia, and it's been a good week for minnows.

In the CONMEBOL zone, Ecuador is tied for fourth place, amidst a clump of 8 countries who have between 16 and 10 points; put simply, nobody's out of it (the top four teams qualify and #5 plays a home-and-away with the Oceania leader) and there's still 8 games to go.  So, even after their Copa América debacle, Ecuador has as good a chance as any country, besides Brazil and Argentina, to go to Germany `06.  Go Ecuador!

Comments

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

"sjot" is my new favorite typo.

"You're full of sjot!"

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

"hply sjot" © waider

[solipsistnation.livejournal.com]

ah ha. Well, I will be sure to appropriately attribute it in the future.

[waider.livejournal.com]

hply sjot, my meme is spreading. go me, etc.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

It's not the first time that Liechtenstein have caused upsets of this type. They seem to be in that strange category of "occasionally dangerous minnow", along with the Faroe Islands and maybe Cyprus. They won their other game of the week, against Luxembourg, 4-0, which is better than a lot of higher-ranking nations have secured against Luxembourg in recent years. The really scary result in that group, IMO, was Portugal's 7-1 dismantling of Russia, which came after the draw with Liechtenstein.

Go Ecuador indeed. Don't you wish they had qualified back in the days when there was a chance of playing the Finals at altitude (1970 and '86 spring to mind)?

I notice you had the deceny to say nothing about Scotland's miserable showings. *grin*

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

I didn't even notice. How the heck did you poor suckers end up with Berti Vogts? Still, the results thus far aren't horrible, and trying to get at least 2nd place over either Italy or Norway will be tricky.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Aren't horrible? One point from our two home games against the main rivals for second, and a draw against the weakest team in the group, who were stuffed 4-0 (I think) by Belarus? How bad do they need to be? When I saw the draw for this qualifying tournament I predicted that Scotland would finish 4th of 6 inthat group. Now, even that is starting to look optimistic.

As for Berti, I think someone must have remembered him managing Germany to victory in the '96 European Championships, because he's done bugger-all since. IIRC he was fired by Kuwait, among other places, before we got him. I'll cheerfully admit (OK, maybe not cheerfully, but I'll still admit it) that Scotland isn't exactly blessed with top-quality players at the moment, but it should still be possible to get them to play like a team, instead of some eejits who met each other 15 minutes before kick-off.