Yeah, right. Like an appeal is actually gonna do us any good. They’ll just hand the gold to the Danes and give it to us instead.🙂 The only thing an appeal gets us is making enemies we don't need...
Dammit, the guys said it themselves—we just weren't good enough. Period. If they had been at their best (rested, ready, etc.), the refs wouldn't have stood a chance of stopping them from taking the gold. So just own it. They owned it back on Sunday, so let's move on.😉 All in all, the officiating was pretty much fair across the board. I don't have anything to complain about regarding the refs. They gave a little to the Danes, took a little from Norway, but overall, we broke even somewhere in the middle.😉
Seriously people, how do you not get this?🙂 You honestly think anyone gives a damn about tradition? Or some sacred culture surrounding national football?
The only thing these massive suits care about is the bottom line—pure, unadulterated profit and $$$$... To them, having one Cristiano Ronaldo or Kaká show up for a match against some tiny underdog in a tournament cup is way more important than some meaningful clash between two major national teams. They didn't drop 50+ million Dollars just to have someone like Kaká play out in Belarus, Ukraine, or some place like the US... Not if there's a risk he might god forbid get injured. 😲
And let's be real, the big shots pretty much always get exactly what they want, so I’m fully expecting them to steamroll through here too. You can't fight it; sports turned into nothing but a business a long time ago.🙂
Just look at the expansion of the European Championship—it's basically a done deal at this point. Moving from 16 teams to 24? Someone actually had the guts to point out that's half of Europe right there... So, the number of teams goes up, which means profits skyrocket because the number of stadiums and the tournament length will probably stay the same. We're heading toward a system like handball where there are games every single day, and the actual quality of the championship is going to tank.
The big shots running the show in international soccer started rolling into Washington, D.C. today. They’re all gearing up for this three-day FIFA Congress, and honestly, the whole thing sounds like a total mess waiting to happen. The main drama everyone's buzzing about? They're looking at expanding the format for the European Championship and potentially scrapping the group stage qualifying system entirely. Absolute madness.
So, Michel Platini just touched down at JFK today, and he didn't come alone. He’s got Marios Lefkaritis—that big-money guy from the top of the football world—tagging along with him. They were met on the tarmac by Vlatko Marković and Zorislav Srebrić. As for Platini? Total radio silence. He wouldn't say a single word to the press, just gave us the usual brush-off, saying he won't be making any official statements until after the FIFA Congress. Typical.
Among all the big shots expected to touch down in Washington, D.C. soon, a few names are absolutely stealing the spotlight. We’re talking heavy hitters like FIFA President Sepp Blatter, the legendary Franz Beckenbauer, that Ukrainian oligarch Grigorij Surkis, and former UEFA head Lennart Johansson. It's going to be a massive crowd. The UEFA Executive Committee is getting together this Tuesday at 2:00 PM, and things are about to get real. Everyone is waiting on them to pull the trigger and decide if they’re actually going through with expanding the European Championship to 24 teams instead of sticking with the usual 16. It’s huge.
There’s a real chance that the big-shot clubs in Europe—the ones constantly bleeding players for their national teams—are going to pull some serious strings here. They’re pushing hard to scrap the whole group stage qualifying format entirely. Instead, they want to pivot straight to a knockout tournament style. It's all about their interests, plain and simple. So, if that actually happens, we’re looking at 46 national teams fighting over just 23 spots. It’s absolute madness. We'd basically be deciding who gets to go to the European Championship after only two games—one home match and one away. That's it. Done. The top seeds would just have to play off against the teams ranked 24th through 46th. And don't even get me started on the bottom tier; the 16 lowest-ranked federations would be forced into a pre-qualifying round just to even make it into that group of 46 competing for a seat at the table. It’s a total joke.
That’s not even the only idea floating around for a new qualifying format. People are already buzzing about this other system where they'd basically... So here’s the deal: they’ve set it up with 12 groups, four teams in each, plus one group with five. If we actually go through with that, every single group winner punches their ticket to the European Football Championship, along with the ten best runners-up. Simple as that.
Huh? It’s just the big clubs breathing down everyone's necks, isn't it? I mean, who else is gonna do it?🙄 Look, this first thing they're proposing is basically just a glorified Tournament Cup, which is way too risky and honestly just plays right into the hands of the bottom-tier teams. On top of that, they’re looking to slash the qualifying cycle from nearly a year down to just two measly matches. That means we get way less football, way less time for teams to actually gel, and significantly less exposure for players trying to land big contracts. It's a disaster for the business side of the game. I personally can't stand this idea. It basically boils down to our national team playing maybe five official matches in an entire five-year stretch if you don't count the big ones like the European Championship or the World Cup. And that other proposal? It’s just the same old system we have now with a few tiny tweaks. Total joke.
Jonathan Reed4 said:The difference was that they were +14 over the two games. 😁
Anyway, did we even manage a single fast break today?
How are you supposed to run a counterattack when the refs hold the ball for a few extra seconds every single time they're about to lose it? It happened multiple times in a row during the second half, all thanks to their left winger...
I mean, fair enough... even without that garbage, it’s nearly impossible to outrun the fastest squad in the championship. And it’s freaking impossible when the goalies aren't making any saves. We basically handed them 50% of their fast breaks right after Hvith made his stops...
Major props to Lina for that one🙏 And now look at you guys, whining about every little thing, two minutes here and two minutes there. At this rate, we might as well throw him a parade and build him a freaking monument
The refs totally screwed us🙂 Look, I gotta be fair and admit we weren't exactly playing at an elite level either... The goalie only had 4 or 5 saves, our defense was shaky, and the offense was just nonexistent...
But whatever, the guys kept their heads up and stayed classy🙏
ruggedharbor95 said:So, the coach gets off the court after the game and claims, "The refs wouldn't let us beat the Americans!"🤣 WTF, was I even watching the same game?😕😂
I don't even know where to start with this one. Honestly? It’s just ridiculous. kaže: So, get this: right after the final whistle, the coach stands there and actually says, "The refs wouldn't let us beat the Americans!" Seriously? Give me a break.🤣 WTF, am I the only one who saw that game? Or did we all just watch something completely different?😕😂
French trash. I mean, honestly, what else were we expecting from them?
Give me a break. If we were the ones who lost, we’d be making the exact same noise.😉 The stakes were just too high, and the officiating was straight-up garbage. Especially at the end—dropping yellows in the 45th minute, calling five consecutive fouls in a row, and stalling our offense for three minutes even though we'd already put up three goals... I'm not even saying they were out to get us, they just sucked at refereeing.
Sean Gonzalez95 said:And another thing—why is Nikola such a massive jerk to everyone? Seriously, why does he have to act like such a total loser toward everybody?😕Gille and Dinart are totally screwing us over from the East, and Nikola’s getting blamed for it even though he hasn't done a damn thing wrong!🤣
It's because our fans are just uneducated lowlifes who can't wrap their heads around anything outside their own backyard, let alone understand a word of French!🤣
Maybe I’m off base here, but I honestly think the Danes are low-key terrified of us.😍
It’s either too awkward to go up against us, or even worse, it’s too awkward to face us a second time. We're on a massive roll right now, and (if you ask me) we’ve just gotten way more relaxed and less jittery about everything...