International Football Can Be Quite Good, Sometimes...

[Riou]

Since football has been suspended due to what's happening with the world atm, specifically the Euros getting moved from this summer, I wanted to start a thread (nostalgia driven of course!) discussing how amazing International football can be.

Obviously we all love our club, but there is something truly special about being a kid/teenager, being off from school in the summer and have a glorious World Cup to look forward too...for this thread I want to focus on what is everyone's favourite World Cup (or any international tournament) we will start with one of mine, on what I think is one of the greatest World Cup's ever, the 2006 edition...


I was 14 going into summer 2006, coming off the last season were Arsenal were a real top side, it was just perfect timing for me and I just love this tournament...firstly I will start with squads...

France: Zidane, Henry, Vieira, Ribery, Thuram
Brazil: Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Lucio, Robinho
Spain: Raul, Villa, Fabregas, Xavi, Puyol
Argentina: Messi, Riquelme, Zanetti, Samuel, Crespo
Holland: Van Der Sar, Robben, Van Persie, Sneijder, Van Nistelrooy
Germany: Ballack, Klose, Lehmann, Lahm, Schweinsteiger
England: Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, Ferdinand
Portugal: Figo, Ronaldo, Deco, Pauleta, Carvalho
Italy: Totti, Cannavro, Pirlo, Buffon, Zambrotta

Others included: Nedved, Rosicky, Drogba, Essien, Shevcenko, Ibra, Larsson, Kewell, Viduka,...etc...

Could list even more, but Jesus the ****ing talent at this tournament...what I also liked was it was a wonderful cross over point, where all the amazing players from the two generations met...the ones like Zidane, Ronaldo, Henry, Figo etc...passed the touch to the era of Messi and Cristiano during/after this...so many amazing players.

Next I will move onto some amazing moments from this World Cup...


...a contender for my favourite ever individual performance...a "past his past" Zizou, schooling a star studded Brazil team.


...an absolute slug fest, it was like a fight, an enthralling match.


...dumb-ass


...already posted all the goals, just want to highlight this one...there were some amazing goals this World Cup, but this was beautiful.

Also...in my class at the time, we had a bet on who would win the tournament, winner got £30, I had France...so close!

Think the way Italy won this, after what Materazzi did to get Zidane sent off, it did cast a cloud over the tournament...think if France won, it would be held in higher regard, but even then I think it's still amazing.

Going into it I was at my peak for football love...it had amazing players, from two generations that I grew up on, just an amazing time, when football and life were great.

Share any of your fav moments from this, or any tournament...give us something to do while self isolating!

PS

...Thierry celebrating with Zidane, while he is trying to console a young (but still a ****) Sergio Ramos, love it :rofl:

Forgot to add in how well Arsenal players did at the 2006 World Cup...past, current and future Arsenal players from that period...

Runners-Up: Henry, Vieira, Wiltord and Gallas

3rd place: Lehmann, Mertesacker and Podolski

Quarter-Finalists : Gilberto, Campbell, Cole and Walcott

Last 16: Ljungberg, Fabregas, Reyes, Van Persie, Senderos and Djourou

Group Stage : Toure, Eboue, Rosicky, Cech and Adebayor

(think I got 'em all!)

Lehmann, Vieira and Henry were all named in the team of the tournament...plus, Podolski got best young player!

Jens had the most famous moment from our boys that tournament...

 

[A_G]

Nice thread. This popped up on Twitter recently, so easy to forget how good Arshavin was.

 

[A_G]

Really enjoyed Euro 2004, this match obviously being one of the highlights.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

Since football has been suspended due to what's happening with the world atm, specifically the Euros getting moved from this summer, I wanted to start a thread (nostalgia driven of course!) discussing how amazing International football can be.

Obviously we all love our club, but there is something truly special about being a kid/teenager, being off from school in the summer and have a glorious World Cup to look forward too...for this thread I want to focus on what is everyone's favourite World Cup (or any international tournament) we will start with one of mine, on what I think is one of the greatest World Cup's ever, the 2006 edition...


I was 14 going into summer 2006, coming off the last real season were Arsenal were a real top side, it was just perfect timing for me and I just love this tournament...firstly I will start with squads...

France: Zidane, Henry, Vieira, Ribery, Thuram
Brazil: Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka, Lucio, Robinho
Spain: Raul, Villa, Fabregas, Xavi, Puyol
Argentina: Messi, Riquelme, Zanetti, Tevez, Crespo
Holland: Van Der Sar, Robben, Van Persie, Sneijder, Van Nistelrooy
Germany: Ballack, Klose, Lehmann, Lahm, Schweinsteiger
England: Ashley Cole, Lampard, Gerrard, Rooney, Ferdinand
Portugal: Figo, Ronaldo, Deco, Pauleta, Carvalho
Italy: Totti, Cannavro, Pirlo, Buffon, Zambrotta

Others included: Nedved, Essien, Rosicky, Drogba, Shevcenko, Ibra, Larsson, Ljungberg, Kewell, Viduka, Cahill, Nakata...etc...

Could list even more, but Jesus the ****ing talent at this tournament...what I also liked was it was a wonderful cross over point, where all the amazing players from the two generations met...the ones like Zidane, Ronaldo, Henry, Figo etc...passed the touch to the era of Messi and Cristiano during/after this...it was perfect, so many amazing players.

Next I will move onto some amazing moments from this World Cup...


...a contender for my favourite ever individual performance...a "past his past" Zizou, schooling a star studded Brazil team.


...an absolute slug fest, it was like a fight, an enthralling match.


...dumb-ass


...already posted all the goals, just want to highlight this one...there were some amazing goals this World Cup, but this was beautiful.

Also...in my class at the time, we had a bet on who would win the tournament, winner got £30, I had France...so close!

Think the way Italy won this, after what Materazzi did to get Zidane sent off, it did cast a cloud over the tournament...think if France won, it would be held in higher regard, but even then I think it's still amazing.

Going into it I was at my peak for football love...it had amazing players, from two generations that I grew up on, just an amazing time, when football and life were great.

Share any of your fav moments from this, or any tournament...give us something to do while self isolating!

PS

...Thierry celebrating with Zidane, while he is trying to console a young (but still a ****) Sergio Ramos, love it :rofl:

Zizou's performance against Brazil.

Great world cup one of the rare good international tournaments.

 

[Tir Na Nog]

2002 world cup is a mixed one for me. Obviously that great Brazil side. Ireland did quite well, still maintain we should have beaten Spain, absolutely battered them and Harte missed a penalty. Heck who knows what would have happened if Roy Keane was there. But then I also think of the farce of Korea vs Italy and even against Spain and it dampens my memory of it.

 

[Riou]

2002 world cup is a mixed one for me. Obviously that great Brazil side. Ireland did quite well, still maintain we should have beaten Spain, absolutely battered them and Harte missed a penalty. Heck who knows what would have happened if Roy Keane was there. But then I also think of the farce of Korea vs Italy and even against Spain and it dampens my memory of it.

2002 was a vintage period of football, but not a vintage World Cup...France going out at the group stage took a lot out of it for me, and as you say those South Korea matches are dodgy as ****...even when Korea got past Portugal in the group stage, I remember it not being a clean win either.

Brazil in 2002 were special though, their attack was perfection...Turkey were pretty good too back then, but it should have been so much better really...some amazing looking stadiums though.

Ireland were quality back then, could have even been dark horses if Roy hadn't told Mick McCarthy to stick his training ground up his bollocks

 

[A_G]

Rivaldo's play-acting against Turkey was poor as well, feel like a Brazilian great should be above that sort of nonsense.

 

[GDeep™]

Never rated Arshavin.

 

[L3T5 PL4Y]

@Riou That Zidane performance against Brazil and through out the tournament is one of the greatest individual performances I've seen. He is for me the most aesthetic football player ever. Simply art.

 

[Riou]

@Riou That Zidane performance against Brazil and through out the tournament is one of the greatest individual performances I've seen. He is for me the most aesthetic football player ever. Simply art.

...this is probably my favourite ever football match...and although Ronaldo stole the headlines with a brilliant hattrick, Zizou was magnificent in midfield...he is the most elegant player I had the fortune to watch.

 

[Riou]

A recent tournament that I thought was pretty good, was Euro 2016...


...obviously the team I wanted to win it, was France...think Arsenal fans have always had a soft spot for France since the late 1990s, due to the players we had and Arsène of course, and with Kos, Giroud and of course Sagna all key players, I just had to vote for Les Bleus...thought France actually played better in this tournament than at the World Cup in 2018.


...my second team for the tournament was Wales though, mainly for Ramsey but everyone loves an underdog story, imagine @Rex Banter was loving this...nearly got in a punch up with my dad during the Wales v Northern Ireland match...I am Northern Irish, but I don't really care, I am a more we are all born on the same planet rather than different countries kinda guy...the only team I really support is Arsenal, then I like various teams that have players in them that I enjoy watching...so when Wales scored/beat them, it got quite heated between me and him...before my mum came in and slapped us both up


...fairplay to Aaron though, one of the best international tournament performances from an Arsenal player.

 

[krengon]

2002 world cup the timezone was messed up (for Europe), feel like I was in school for most of the interesting matches.. Good memories though, remember rushing home to watch Ronaldinho's goal against England after every kid in the school ground was hyping it up(even those who hadn't seen it yet )

 

[Rex Stone]

2006 was the pinnacle for me, what felt like the highest collection of world class players at one tournament and all of the final four belonged there.

Worst was 2010, dreadful games and those f*cking vuzuelas. Euro 2004 was pretty solid although Greece were the worst kind of underdogs.

 

[Notorious Big]

2006 was the pinnacle for me, what felt like the highest collection of world class players at one tournament and all of the final four belonged there.

Worst was 2010, dreadful games and those f*cking vuzuelas. Euro 2004 was pretty solid although Greece were the worst kind of underdogs.

Think that WC 2018 was even worse than 2010.Spain played kinda boring football in 2010 and didn't look convincing at all.They played like Barcelona at that time and had world class players in every position.

Yeah,2006 was very good.Shame that France didn't win it with Henry and Zidane at the end.They had great tournament beating Spain,Brazil etc.Materazzi was big ****** in that final.

 

[Rex Stone]

Think that WC 2018 was even worse than 2010.Spain played kinda boring football in 2010 and didn't look convincing at all.They played like Barcelona at that time and had world class players in every position.

Yeah,2006 was very good.Shame that France didn't win it with Henry and Zidane at the end.They had great tournament beating Spain,Brazil etc.Materazzi was big ****** in that final.

2018 was ok, lot of high scoring games and a few genuine shocks.

Might just be me but 2010 felt like snore fests or thrashings. Was obviously happy to see Spain win but Christ was that final dull.

 

[A_G]

Worst was 2010, dreadful games and those f*cking vuzuelas.

If not for that fantastic German side, there would have been next to no entertainment.

 

[Notorious Big]

2018 was ok, lot of high scoring games and a few genuine shocks.

Might just be me but 2010 felt like snore fests or thrashings. Was obviously happy to see Spain win but Christ was that final dull.

Yeah,maybe there wasn't exciting games,but WC 2018 was kinda uncompetitive and "big " nations in football dropped off.There was no Italy and Nederlands.Germany got out of group.Brazil was also soft.

 

[Notorious Big]

If not for that fantastic German side, there would have been next to no entertainment.

Yeah,i think they were better in 2010 than in 2014 when they won WC.In terms of quality of game and how they beat opponents.Spain was just too good in that times.

They played with much more possession in WC 2014 and with slower pace,but got what they wanted at the end.

 

[Notorious Big]

@Riou ,which team was better in your opinion ? Spain 2010 or Germany 2014 ?

 

[Riou]

@Riou ,which team was better in your opinion ? Spain 2010 or Germany 2014 ?

You trying to start ANOTHER Cesc v Mesut debate

Spain 2010 was better, but I preferred watching the Germany 2014 team more...actually preferred Spain in 2008 and Germany in 2010 if I'm honest, that Spain Euro 2008 winning team is one of the best teams I have seen.