2018 UEFA Nations League

I am surprised no one has started a thread about this.

More competitive international soccer. I love it.

 

https://hfboards.mandatory.com/threads/uefa-to-launch-uefa-nations-league-in-2018.2208075/

 

Oops, I didn’t know it existed. Sorry

 

Meh. It was buried behind all the World Cup match threads and probably wouldn’t be bumped for a while anyway.

 

Will this actually challenge the euros as a main competition in Europe?

 

Not even close, given this is going to be used partly as a qualifier for that competition.

 

Slovaks with Ukraine and Czechs, should win group but knowing us we will finish bottom. Or we could reunite with Czechs and be top 10 in world again ahaha

 

This will be a set of glorified exhibition games that as a competition ultimately interest no one.

 

For some lower tier countries, this will be the ultimate event.

 

Until a bigger team loses an early Euro qualifier. Especially if said group has 2-3 quality sides. Holland, for example (Italy too) would’ve immediately taken this seriously after their qualifying group draws/results the last time around.

 

If they were played the same time maybe, but now the first European Championship qualification round takes place in March 2019 when the league phase of the Nations League is already completed.

The Nations League semi-finals will take place after two qualification match days and the final after three, so if some side makes it that far and starts the qualification very badly then such situation might emerge. But even then it would do nothing to the league phase, just winning the final would matter slightly more.

 

Carbou Cup for nations...

 

Still Adil Rami for France, lol, a couple of awful mistakes this weekend. Is Laporte refusing to play for them, even Zouma would be better option.

 

None have refused. DD has simply selected the same players from the WC, with Mandanda injured and Costil acting as 3rd goalie.
But indeed, Rami is a fraud. OK, he's a good lockerroom guy, certainly a good leader, but he has no business being there.

 

Denmarks game against Wales on Sunday, will most probably be played without the regular players and coach - Players on the team will probably be close to amateur level.

The Danish federation and the players have been in conflict for the last 9 months, and now the Danish federation said, alright, F off, we don't want you to play for us.

 

too many tournmanents in soccer. very disruptive.

 

This disrupts nothing.
It's basically a system for high-tier friendlies, and most nations will treat it as such.
A little bit of a competitive edge will make the games more meaningful, but coaches will still use them as friendlies in terms of testing out new players, young players, formations, systems, etc.

From the Croatian POV, Dalic already said he doesn't care about winning or losing in this tournament, all he wants is to use the games to prepare the team for EURO 2020.

 

A lot of the Czech team is injured/can't go for various reasons, so I'm not too optimistic, but at least the players who are there should be excited they're getting a chance

 

So it has now been confimed Denmark will play with a team full of amateurs. A mix of players from the Danish futsal nt, and the Danish 3 tier league.

Also a coach from the Danish 3rd tier league.

Could be Denmarks biggest loss ever.

This will be the case againt both Slovakia tomorrow, and Wales Sunday as it looks.

 

Last time Denmark went unpressured into an international tournament, sure of being asskicked, well they won the whole thing.

 

Hehe, sure.

But this time the players aren't even professionals.

They are amateurs from low tier leagues in Denmark.

They will get beaten severly.. but it doesn't matter. I am with DBU in this case, there needs to be set an example of this.

 

It kinda kills whatever there is in terms of credibility of this competition though if Denmark show up with a San Marino level team rather than a respectable side.

 

Because of a supporter problem, OM once sent its youth team to Paris for a game against PSG.
0-0 draw.