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The Evo-Web Football Thoughts Blog

Joga said:
As a neutral it was sad to see Belgium fall short so many times, but I wouldn't lose hope mate :TU:

Remember Spain in the 90's/2000's also had a similar situation where they just couldn't win anything with that amazing line-up (Raul, Hierro, Morientes, etc)
And then they dominated the whole world football for a good 4 years with Euro 2008, WC 2010, etc.

But ofcourse for every Spain, you also have 98-2000 Netherlands that was one my absolute favourite sides & could never win a thing :(
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That was a nice and comforting post. Thank you very much.
About your Spain example. That is a huge country.
We are small country our pool of players is much smaller than the amount of young beginning football players in Spain,France and Germany.
Of course Netherlands is hardly much bigger than Belgium. And Portugal has less inhabitants than Belgium, and yet they won the EC in 2016 and there was also Greece in 2004.

Our golden generation is very talented, but what they lack is a bastard, a Roy Keane or a Sergio Ramos, a Pepe...3 players i absolutely hate, but every team needs one of these. We never had that. A guy like Jan Vertonghen (i abslolutely love him, i even literally cried when he had his 100th cap) is somebody who likes to read books, drives an ordinary car (sometimes his mother or wife drive him to the hotel of the national team), loves to ride a bike and has no tattoos whatsoever, in short not a football player... that is why i love him so much, because he is 'otherwise'...Lukaku is obsessed with football and speaks 42 languages (of course i exagerate) but also lacks a mean streak. Hazard is hyper talented but is not obsessed by football. Alderweireld was home sick when he played for Ajax...they are all next door guys. IMO KDB is for years now by far the best midfielder of the world, but he will never win the Ballon D'Or because he is not a star and doesn't want to be a star... All this makes me very proud of them, because they are not the stereotypical football players, but perhaps that is also the reason why they always seem to come short of winning silverware... well i don'tcare, i've enjoyed most of their matches and they made our small litle country more or less important... and loved. Can one ask more? Perhaps, yes, but for me that is enough...
 
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Stan said:
That was a nice and comforting post. Thank you very much.
About your Spain example. That is a huge country.
We are small country our pool of players is much smaller than the amount of young beginning football players in Spain,France and Germany.
Of course Netherlands is hardly much bigger than Belgium. And Portugal has less inhabitants than Belgium, and yet they won the EC in 2016 and there was also Greece in 2004.

Our golden generation is very talented, but what they lack is a bastard, a Roy Keane or a Sergio Ramos, a Pepe...3 players i absolutely hate, but every team needs one of these. We never had that. A guy like Jan Vertonghen (i abslolutely love him, i even literally cried when he had his 100th cap) is somebody who likes to read books, drives an ordinary car (sometimes his mother or wife drive him to the hotel of the national team), loves to ride a bike and had no tattoos whatsoever, in short not a football player... that is why i love him so much, because he is 'otherwise'...Lukaku is obsessed with football and speaks 42 languages (of course i exagerate) but also lacks a mean streak. Hazard is hyper talented but is not obsessed by football. Alderweireld was home sick when he played for Ajax...they are all next door guys. IMO KDB is for years now by far the best midfielder of the world, but he will never win the Ballon D'Or because he is not a star and doesn't want to be a star... All this makes me very proud of them, because they are not the stereotypical football players, but perhaps that is also the reason why they always seem to come short of winning silverware... well i don'tcare, i've nejoyed most of their matches and they made or small litle country more or less important... and loved. Can one ask more? Perhaps, yes, but for me that is enough...
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No problem mate, I have always liked watching Belgium from back when Enzo Scifo was dominating back in the day :))

And honestly, I also think KDB is the best midfielder currently in the game.
Unfortunately Balon D'or has become more of a trophy count than a real "best" player award. Like no offense to Jorginho, good player, but I hear he is up for it ..really?
I believe we have more to witness yet from De Bruyne, he hasn't hit his peak just yet imho.

P.S I can't be bothered doing the quiz's but I would never hit 20+, some of you guys are proper gurus. :LOL:
 
Brentford vs Chelsea… what a match tonight! Man, I was so with Brentford! it felt to me that they deserved a draw. Quite entertaining that was!! :APPLAUD: What a match by Mendy! :APPLAUD:
and guess what, I’m playing that fixture in FIFA 22 Right now. What other choice do I have?! :LOL:
Brentford still in my heart tonight!
 
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Fantastic goal by Tielemans. Not sure Ronaldo is an asset for United, sure he will score plenty of goals, but it's short term policy and not a football choice (selling shirts?).
 
@rockstrongo Did they get a rich owner at some point because the last couple of years they've taken the Norwegian league by storm haven't they. If not it's a hell of a rise to the top.
 
Listened to a podcast on spurs -91 season.
Where they almost went bankrupt ,had gazza out binge drinking so much he hardly was fit for games and got injured constantly because of it.
But the fun part of that pod was Terry Venables.
The guy coached Barca late 80s and was famous for? (with some adjustments to the story/transfer)
Selling Maradonna and buying Steve Archibald instead!
Wtf...

Didn't he move on to the NT after that? (Barca-spurs-England)
And was one of the worst ever?
 
rockstrongo said:
Listened to a podcast on spurs -91 season.
Where they almost went bankrupt ,had gazza out binge drinking so much he hardly was fit for games and got injured constantly because of it.
But the fun part of that pod was Terry Venables.
The guy coached Barca late 80s and was famous for? (with some adjustments to the story/transfer)
Selling Maradonna and buying Steve Archibald instead!
Wtf...

Didn't he move on to the NT after that? (Barca-spurs-England)
And was one of the worst ever?
Click to expand...

I think Venables did pretty well wherever he went. Apart from the thankless jobs he had at Leeds and Crystal Palace. Not sure whether he overachieved or underachieved with England. Euro 96.was winnable.

No Maradona obviously but Archibald did pretty well at Barca and is still regarded well there. Mad to think that he played at Aberdeen just a few years before he moved. Different times.
 
Flipper the Priest said:
I think Venables did pretty well wherever he went. Apart from the thankless jobs he had at Leeds and Crystal Palace. Not sure whether he overachieved or underachieved with England. Euro 96.was winnable.

No Maradona obviously but Archibald did pretty well at Barca and is still regarded well there. Mad to think that he played at Aberdeen just a few years before he moved. Different times.
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It was just the "Maradonna for Archibald" that caught my ear.
I actually mistook Venables with his predecessor ,he was shite for sure.

Yes different times ,another podcast was IFK Göteborg ,and they had winning the CL in -95 as a goal ,was knocked out in the semis the year/years prior.
Won the group ahead of Barca/United/Galatasaray ,and became the favourite to win it when the playoff started.
Very very different times
 
rockstrongo said:
It was just the "Maradonna for Archibald" that caught my ear.
I actually mistook Venables with his predecessor ,he was shite for sure.

Yes different times ,another podcast was IFK Göteborg ,and they had winning the CL in -95 as a goal ,was knocked out in the semis the year/years prior.
Won the group ahead of Barca/United/Galatasaray ,and became the favourite to win it when the playoff started.
Very very different times
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I remember them being in CL every year, often shocking the big names like Milan, Barcelona, United and Bayern. Wasn't it Ravelli's team? When I hear his name his celebration during a game in 1994 World Cup comes to my mind, when another attempt of Brazil to score just failed... Found this video, around 3:20 there is the scene that I mean. Watching the whole thing is worth it, some great saves:



Different, in my opinion better times when there was not such a huge gap in quality between the teams and leagues. CL quarterfinals Bayern vs IFK Göteborg was 0-0, 2-2 back then and I remember Bayern players celebrated in the bus singing their coach Giovanni Trappatoni's name to the melody of "Vamos a la playa" as they made it to the semis thanks to the away goal rule... and then the young Ajax of van Gaal demolished them 5-2. Tell that to young fans and they will probably not believe you. Luckily they can google it :P
At least we see a strong Ajax again these days, but of course not the same level as in 95 (or the 70s I guess, wasn't born back then).
 
Fenomeno9 said:
I remember them being in CL every year, often shocking the big names like Milan, Barcelona, United and Bayern. Wasn't it Ravelli's team? When I hear his name his celebration during a game in 1994 World Cup comes to my mind, when another attempt of Brazil to score just failed... Found this video, around 3:20 there is the scene that I mean. Watching the whole thing is worth it, some great saves:



Different, in my opinion better times when there was not such a huge gap in quality between the teams and leagues. CL quarterfinals Bayern vs IFK Göteborg was 0-0, 2-2 back then and I remember Bayern players celebrated in the bus singing their coach Giovanni Trappatoni's name to the melody of "Vamos a la playa" as they made it to the semis thanks to the away goal rule... and then the young Ajax of van Gaal demolished them 5-2. Tell that to young fans and they will probably not believe you. Luckily they can google it :P
At least we see a strong Ajax again these days, but of course not the same level as in 95 (or the 70s I guess, wasn't born back then).
Click to expand...

Much more fun back when football clubs were just football and not multi billion corporation with all sorts of stuff in their portfolio.

Impressed by Ajax always (or since Cruyff came in) a very good side ,great vision for the club etc.
Very early with what Barcelona did later on (Cruyff again) and role models on how to run a club
 
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