Ben Brereton Diaz

[DeeCee]

1 hour ago, oldjamfan1 said:

That quote has been attributed to Gary Player many times, but I'm almost certain he either didn't say it or 'borrowed' it from another golfer. Doesn't alter your point though TS

Thomas Jefferson POTUS

Edited January 28, 2022 by DeeCee

[oldjamfan1]

51 minutes ago, DeeCee said:

Thomas Jefferson POTUS

Even that is disputed apparently (according to my son, who has a PhD in American History)

[matt83]

10 hours ago, RevidgeBlue said:

Terrible goal keeping but another £10m on his transfer value. Happy Days.

Lovely to see how much enthusiasm Ben generates in Chile. I was reading the first few pages of the Sam Gallagher thread and there are  some truly embarrassing comments about Ben on there including one from myself insinuating he may have been a waste of £7m and I always thought I was pretty supportive of him and said I could see a hint of a player trying to get out.

😳

To be fair even going into this season there was far more evidence that he was a total waste of £7 million. With only the merest whiff of a competent championship level professional for a few months around the time of the first covid lockdown. Very much up there with the other £7 million flops like grabbi and Davies.

Whats happened since is one of the most ridiculous stories in football. If read it in Roy of the Rovers you’d roll your eyes about how far fetched it was.  

[LordBaltimore]

The CONMEBOL standings as things....stand.

Top 4 qualify.  5th plays the Asia 5th.

[superniko]

8 hours ago, LordBaltimore said:

The CONMEBOL standings as things....stand.

Top 4 qualify.  5th plays the Asia 5th.

Doesn’t sit right with me that South America only gets 4 automatic slots at a Word Cup. 
It’s not balanced enough with too many European countries qualifying. 

[TheRoversReturn]

To be fair, there's only 10 countries. So, 40% qualify automatically and, most tournaments, half of the countries are at the World Cup. 

I'm not sure exactly how that compares to Europe, but that's a massive percentage compared to the percentage of African and Asian countries who get a chance to reach the finals. Sure, South American teams are better but it's still two decades since any have actually won it.  

[Atko's Engine]

29 minutes ago, superniko said:

Doesn’t sit right with me that South America only gets 4 automatic slots at a Word Cup. 
It’s not balanced enough with too many European countries qualifying. 

Are we talking about football, or Scrabble?!

😁

Assuming it's football, I get what you're saying to a point but there's only 10 countries in the whole confederation, 4 of which definitely qualify, & quite probably a 5th, which is half the continent!!

Edited January 29, 2022 by Atko's Engine
TRR beat me to it...

[rigger]

55 minutes ago, superniko said:

Doesn’t sit right with me that South America only gets 4 automatic slots at a Word Cup. 
It’s not balanced enough with too many European countries qualifying. 

So what are you advocating, more South American teams, or less European teams should qualify ?

[matt83]

For me there’s not enough European nations. Likes of Holland and Czech Republic missing out for the likes of Egypt and Panama. But I appreciate it wouldn’t be representative of the world if went down a quality route 

[LordBaltimore]

You can argue more slots for UEFA or CONMEBOL based on the "quality" of the threshold teams vs africa & especially asia & north américa. 

But it would be unseemly for over 50% of South América to qualify.  I enjoy seeing some of the fringe teams like Panamá or Togo [teams maybe 28-32].  I hope the latest fuckup fifa president doesnt get his way with a 64 nation world cup every 2yrs.  What a joke.  Teams 28-32 are iffy enough without adding 30 more shitty countries.

Ideally, CONCACAF (N Amér &,Carib) would merge with CONMEBOL at least for qualification.  That will never happen since it would mean their cash-cows México (not just a country of 130M but the "foot in the door" to the lucrative US Latino market of 65M) & the USA may miss world cups at the expense of a Paraguay or Chile.  

Edited January 29, 2022 by LordBaltimore

[TheRoversReturn]

20 hours ago, LordBaltimore said:

You can argue more slots for UEFA or CONMEBOL based on the "quality" of the threshold teams vs africa & especially asia & north américa. 

Is the European Championship any easier to win than the World Cup? Not much, if at all. Other than Brazil and Argentina, no non-European side have reached the final in the past 70 years. Last time, Italy and the Netherlands missed out, there's pretty much never been a non-European team of that quality ever missing out on the world cup, surely? That said, it's quite right that if it's to be a world cup then Europe cannot dominate more than it already does.

If FIFA really wanted to promote football further as the world game...they must have considered how they can get the likes of China and India in on wild cards. In 2018, the world's five most populous nations were not represented at the FIFA World Cup (China, India, US, Indonesia, Pakistan) and it's likely they'll try and have some countries qualifying automatically eventually, a bit like happens with the Eurovision Song Contest when the UK doesn't have to qualify but nobody votes for us because nobody in Europe seems to like us much. Oh, and our songs are bloody awful, but aren't they all?

[LordBaltimore]

Ben: the effective one

Chilean news reporting what all the pundits had been saying regarding the game vs Argentina: Ben was the only really effecitve player, the only one who performed well.  He was in good form, was a nuisance the whole game, and almost had the tying goal.

Bréreton has also become the symbol or standard-bearer for the generational change (or "replacement" in Spanish) Chile is undergoing.  He continues to endear himself to the fans.  And his 4th goal for Chile shows "the shirt does not weigh him down" as we say in Spanish.  Ben was even made "the voice of the team" post game.

Ben Brereton: [generational] replacement leader

Chilean news interviewed a football statistician who underscored Chile's slim chances of qualifying.  As things stand, Chile has a 1% chance of qualifying directly for Qatar.  This rises to 3% with a win vs Bolivia on Tuesday.  The team currently has a 13% chance of qualifying for the playoff spot.

¡Keep hope alive!

Edited January 30, 2022 by LordBaltimore

[garnersfags]

Apologies, but when is Ben likely to return from the Americas? 

[G Somerset Rover]

9 minutes ago, garnersfags said:

Apologies, but when is Ben likely to return from the Americas? 

They play tomorrow night so imagine he won’t be back in the UK until late Weds at the earliest. He needs to start on Saturday whatever though.

[slowmo]

Does anyone know a channel showing the Chile match tonight ?  Don't have sky but got VPN 

[duckson]

8 minutes ago, slowmo said:

Does anyone know a channel showing the Chile match tonight ?  Don't have sky but got VPN 

Premier Sport 1 if that helps. 

[Dan]

4 hours ago, duckson said:

Premier Sport 1 if that helps. 

Thanks, I was just about to ask what @slowmo asked. I think I can access that channel through IPTV. 

[Dan]

[Hasta]

Also streamed on Bet365 if you have a funded account.

[slowmo]

Thanks , think it's on YouTube, but don't know if the game will be on . Lots of surface water on pitch 

[HowieFive0]

11 minutes ago, slowmo said:

Thanks , think it's on YouTube, but don't know if the game will be on . Lots of surface water on pitch 

Lets hope,its not postponed for 24 hours ..we want our boy back asap!

[LordBaltimore]

Field looks like shit.  Bolivia has no ocean, but a lot of standing water 

[CD_93]

Sanchez scores from a classic Diaz-won free kick.

[roversfan99]

He will do well to get through this without injury.

[Dan]

Just now, roversfan99 said:

He will do well to get through this without injury.

Bit of a feisty encounter.